Back on the 'In Character' Job

Hi, all. So it's been quiet around here the last few days. 'Course by "here" I mean on the blog, because it certainly hasn't been quiet at NPR. I've been a little busy with Oscars ('cause, among other things, I handle most of the movies pages you see on NPR.org). But we're all done with that, and I've even had a day off to recharge, so we're back in the game.

We're looking at Hester Prynne and Harriet the Spy -- both defiant individualists, those two, though in rather different ways -- this coming weekend. Looking forward to what NPR's Andrea Seabrook (Hester) and Neva Grant (Harriet) have to say about them. And to your feedback, naturally.

As for what we'll do with those stories on the Web, who knows? It's early yet. [ducking, because Elizabeth is probably going to take a swing now]

Actually it's looking like I'll have a few nice extras for you on the Hester Prynne, at a minimum. Andrea's producer, Tina Tennesen, tells me they were able to get John Updike on the phone to talk about Hester, and I'm hoping we'll have some extended excerpts from that conversation. Plus maybe some scenes from various film and TV versions of the story ...

Meanwhile: Never mind that the lowest-ranked Oscar ceremony in history has confirmed what we suspected, which was that Americans who haven't' seen the nominated movies certainly aren't' going to think of the Oscars as appointment TV. I suspect NPR's audience might be outliers in that crowd, so maybe it's worth asking how many of you did catch the Best Picture candidates, and whether any of their characters lit a fire in your imaginations.

So c'mon, send in those In the Wake of Oscar nominations!

-- Trey Graham

2:15 PM ET | 02-27-2008 | permalink

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'In Character' Everywhere

That's right. We're a podcast now.

So click through, sign up, and take Cookie and the gang with you on your daily jog.

With the In Character podcast, you'll always have the latest radio story in your pocket. (For the Web extras, though, you'll have to click back to the series page at NPR.org.)

Thanks to Mike Katzif, Robert Spier, the NPR Digital Media tech team, and anybody we're overlooking. (Sorry, guys.)

--Trey Graham

12:57 PM ET | 02-11-2008 | permalink

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Our Cast of Characters

Thus far many of the characters we've heard about in the series are, well, not all that serious -- Bugs, Mudbone, Lassie! There's nothing wrong with that. We often say we need to have more fun on NPR.

And each segment has pointed out the cultural significance of the character in question: How Mudbone's travels are resonant of the Great Migration; Bugs Bunny's role in WWII; the Lone Ranger to the rescue during the Depression.

Still, as the series goes on, we'll also look at characters who speak to more complex aspects of American history or human behavior or both. For example, Farai Chideya will discuss Huck Finn's Jim and his impact on both white and African-American literature; Scott Simon will examine the delusional Willy Loman; and Larry Abramson will look at the hubris of Captain Ahab.

Of course, underneath all great characters -- even the funny ones -- you often find something pretty profound. Even Cookie Monster has been called "the icon of the id."

-- Elizabeth Blair

11:06 AM ET | 01-15-2008 | permalink

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Unmask that Man

On this evening's All Things Considered, Robert Siegel focuses his lens on the Lone Ranger. What a backstory! I had no idea. Now I understand why every boy I knew growing up was a fan.

We've received well over a hundred essays from listeners. Perusing the entries I can tell you we've got lots of fans of Forrest Gump and Cinderella. (She's not American so we won't be putting her on the couch. But Gump is a strong possibility.)

Just a reminder to essay writers: Be sure to tell us why this character is important to you on a personal level.

-- Elizabeth Blair

3:57 PM ET | 01-14-2008 | permalink

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Ask and Ye Shall Receive: 'In Character' on the Web

Writes commenter Je Mo:

"Please add a link from the In Character blog to a page about the actual show. Or make the link more obvious, if it's there — I can't find the show."

And Mike echoes that plaintive cry:

I give up! What time of day is the "In Character" segment being broadcast. I cannot find any time listed on my local NPR station nor on the NPR web site. Can you help us out? I am particularly interested in the Lone Ranger segment, when it comes day & time for it to be broadcast.

I answered Mike in the comments the other day; basically the way NPR and NPR member stations work together means that there's not one answer to that question:

Over the next six months, In Character segments will be airing on almost all of the NPR News shows. ... Because those shows are broadcast (and re-broadcast) at different times in different [cities], it's impossible for us to tell you with any certainty when you might hear a segment. And the fact is that we don't know for certain: We've got a rough schedule, but these things are subject to fine-tuning.

The good news is that if you're reading this, you're now just one click away from every last radio story in the In Character series. As of today, there's a brand-spankin'-new page where all four of the stories that have already aired are collected for your listening pleasure.

And as our hosts and reporters serve up new on-air installments, they'll pop up on that page as well. Coming up next: Andrea Seabrook on Holden Caulfield and Robert Siegel on the Lone Ranger.

-- Trey Graham

p.s.: I've added a permanent link to that series page in the blog header, on the words 'In Character.' And there's another permalink, on the same two words, in the "What is 'In Character'?" box over there in the right-hand sidebar.

8:20 PM ET | 01- 9-2008 | permalink

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Things We Like (Or: The More Personal, the Better)

As we cull the best essays to post on this here blog, we've noticed that the strongest ones are those that are highly personal. A prime example is Evy from Minnesota's reflection on Pecola Breedlove from The Bluest Eye.

Another example is Clifton Tipon's essay on Lloyd Dobler, the John Cusack character from the film Say Anything. Lloyd's not an especially famous character, but Tipon's description evokes his own personal connection. And that's what makes his essay a good read.

You'll notice, as the series goes on, that some of our radio choices will work that way, too. We'll profile characters you may not have heard of. They're characters who aren't so much iconic as indelible, for one reason or another, to some of us.

We hope you'll enjoy being introduced to them. If not: This here blog is your invitation to disagree.

-- Elizabeth Blair

5:27 PM ET | 01- 9-2008 | permalink

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Your Turn: Mr. Spock

From Star Trek, created by Gene Roddenberry
Nominated by Hazelyn Patterson

Ah, the pointy-eared one: More than one of you nominated him. And you'll be glad to know we're on your frequency. Stay tuned to In Character in the coming weeks for a radio profile by NPR's Neda Ulaby.

"Fascinating" creature: Hazelyn Patterson says Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) was smart, sexy and sometimes psychic.

Photo: Paramount Pictures/Getty Images

He is the perfect icon of nerds (and the not-so-nerdy) across earth and the final frontier. When I was 5, I would sneak out of bed and hide behind the couch at night just to hear him intone "fascinating," a word he made into an icon itself.

Mr. Spock was the '60s representation of what mankind was and what it strove to be. He merged the ethereal, elfin — some say devilish — appearance of a mythological character and the brains of a supercomputer with the human ideals of diversity, loyalty, truth and logic.

And hey, he was just plain sexy, without even trying. Sex symbol, savant and occasional psychic: Spock is an icon for all times.

Like we said: More than one of you thought so. And to help keep things organized, we thought we'd set a new guideline: From now on, we'll post new essays about characters who've already been nominated in the comments on that initial nomination. That way it'll be easy to scroll through and get a sense of just how many different lenses one character can be seen through.

Tags: Sidekicks | Superheroes | TV

5:04 PM ET | 01- 8-2008 | permalink

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On Air: Lassie

» Hear the 'Morning Edition' radio commentary

So, In Character is in full swing now. JJ Sutherland's piece on Bugs Bunny has gotten plenty of attention here on the blog already. But did you all catch Ketzel Levine's Morning Edition story about Lassie on Monday?

-- Elizabeth Blair

Tags: Sidekicks | Superheroes | TV

4:02 PM ET | 01- 8-2008 | permalink

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Hey, We Got a Graphic

Nothing like a pretty picture to help liven things up. Thanks to NPR Digital Media designer Lindsay Mangum for the composite header atop the blog.

More housekeeping: A small flood of nominations this morning, from Superman to Mary Tyler Moore to Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Eeyore. (Who's not, gloomy as we are to point it out, a product of American pop culture.) Elizabeth Blair and I are reading your essays now, and we'll try to get one of 'em up on the blog later today.

And yes — you knew it was only a matter of time — the dread name of Joseph Campbell has been invoked. (And not for the last time, I imagine.)

-- Trey Graham

12:10 PM ET | 01- 7-2008 | permalink

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Of Cookie Monster and Other Bad Guys

Well that didn't take long. What are we, three days into this, and we've already got a little backlash? Commenter Steve Petersen writes:

"Cookie Monster unfortunately represents too many Americans, both the obese and [the] deeply indebted ... "

Now, I'm not sure I know how the C-Monster got himself in hock, or what evidence there is to suggest that he's living beyond his means. (Come to think of it, how many Muppets have a visible source of income? I seem to recall Kermit anchoring a newscast, but aside from that ...)

Still, Steve's comment raises a question: Need an intriguing character be a good role model?

Continue reading "Of Cookie Monster and Other Bad Guys" »

2:17 PM ET | 01- 3-2008 | permalink

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New Year's Greetings (Plus an Introduction)

Alrighty then. Back from the New Year's holiday. (And man, talk about your characters — there were NPR folks singing karaoke at one party I went to, is all I'm sayin'.)

I'm Trey Graham, from NPR Digital Media, and I'll be co-hosting this In Character blog with Elizabeth Blair.

Y'Are Blanche: Tennessee Williams' Blanche DuBois, played by Patricia Clarkson in a 2004 Kennedy Center staging. Like many of us, she's needy and ruthless and fiercely alive.

Photo: Joan Marcus/The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

And since Elizabeth led off the other day with the notion of introduction-by-way-of- favorite-character, I guess I'd better go ahead and confess it: I've got a thing for Tennessee Williams' voracious women.

Gallant, foolish, frantic Amanda Wingfield, destabilizing her family in the name of preserving it; greedy, canny Maggie the Cat; Blanche DuBois, that black widow disguised as a butterfly (about whom you'll hear more later in the series, from NPR's Lynn Neary).

Torrid Torrance: Lady Torrance (Chandler Vinton), awakening to longing in a smoldering production of Orpheus Descending at Washington, D.C.'s Arena Stage.

Photo: Scott Suchman/Arena Stage

And then there's my very favorite — proud, doomed Lady Torrance, the hungry hothouse flower growing in the bitter small-town earth of Orpheus Descending. (She, of all of them, comes closest to knowing happiness, which is maybe why I fall hardest for her.)

Inevitable, maybe, my attraction to these women: I grew up in the South. And in my other life, I'm a theater critic, so I've spent plenty of time in their company.

I like 'em because — never mind the manners and the moonlight-and-magnolias language — they're such fierce creatures. They're so determined, never mind what fate throws at them; they cling so desperately to their dreams, their desires.

("Desire is the opposite of death," says Blanche, in one of Williams' humid passages, and I've seen enough Blanches by now to know that when she says "desire" she means "ravening hunger for life.")

In that voraciousness, Williams' women are these monumental feminine personifications of the id — like Cookie Monster, they don't always see much beyond the next appetite, the next manipulation, the next immediate gratification.

And in that, too, they're quintessentially American: The long view isn't always our national long suit. Williams' women, with their surfaces and their schemes and their sad, sordid endings, may just have something to teach us about how to treat — or how not to treat — our neighbors. And ourselves.

--Trey Graham

Tags: Theater

3:29 PM ET | 01- 2-2008 | permalink

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