On Killing

So, yesterday I had a meeting with a really cool management firm and I think I’m going to broaden my horizons and hire a manager.  The guy I met with seems like the answer to my prayers.  He’s all about me writing original material and getting it out there, developing things together tailored for the directors they represent and the actors my agency represents.  All of a sudden, I was getting into that real, exciting world I’ve been working for so long. 

 I knew I needed someone else when my agents sighed, “Well, if you’re going to keep writing pilots…” as if it were a bad thing that I gave them new material every three to four months.   I’ve finally found my advocate who actually wants that.  We already started talking about writing things with the current business needs of the industry in mind, what we would start to develop next.  On the cusp of being a real, working writer.  Even closer, anyway. 

 So for all you aspiring TV writers, let your agents deal with staffing you and get a manager if you want to go out with pilots and get into features.  Says the girl who has had one meeting.  It sounds like the way to go, anyway.  I’m happy.

 Anyway, to the title of this post.  I’m reading this great book called “On Killing” by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman (love that Lt. Col. is there, but he decided to go for “Dave” instead of “David”) and it’s all about how human beings try really, really hard NOT to kill each other.  Especially in wars.  Most people intentionally miss, or never fired their guns at all.  In a lot of wars, it was the two sides aiming too high, aiming right, left.  Making it look like they were shooting at the enemy, but when they could get away with it, falling back on “incompetence.”

Turns out species are hard wired not to kill each other.  A rattlesnake or pirhana will bite pretty much anything that’s aggressive towards it, but among each other, a pirhana will slap tails with the other pirhana and the rattlesnakes wrestle.  They don’t use their lethal tools when it comes to one of their own.  It’s all about posturing until one of them goes, “Yeah, okay, you probably could kill me, you win,” and then that’s it.  Which, ironically, is what UFC is all about.  It’s about two guys in a ring trying to find out which of them could probably kill the other.  They tap out and then the fuckers hug each other.  You’ve never seen two guys more in love and full of respect for each other than the guys on that Ultimate Fighter show right after they’ve fought.  I’m sure that’s not universally true, you hear about true hatreds, but mostly these guys are crying and shaking hands and blubbering about how the other guy was just better and, “you did it, dude, you were great.”  “No, you really fought hard, you got me, you were so awesome.”  “No, you were.”

You watch it and can’t help but think, there’s something cathartic happening here.  These guys are finding out who they really are, they’re being pushed to the limits and finding out their deepest secrets they can’t discover on their own.  And after, they’re grateful to the other guy who got them there.  It seems weird and a little new-agy, I’m definitely not going to get excited about Ultimate Fighting as therapy, but when you see an outpouring of love from two guys who just moments before were trying to bust heads open and push noses through skulls…  It’s something to think about.

Tags: agents vs. managers, lt. col. dave grossman, on killing, pirahnas, rattlesnakes, TV agents, TV managers, UFC, ultimate fighter