Every January for several years running, Steven Soderbergh posts a list of everything he’s watched and read in the prior year. This year’s edition went up last week, I’ve just gotten around to it now. I’m a Soderbergh fan (Out of Sight if you’re asking, but there are a lot tied for #2).
His 2022 list was full of the reality show Below Deck (which is impossible to turn off), which triggered some questions in this great interview in Rolling Stone.
It’s about work. It’s about problem-solving at work when you’ve got huge personality clashes, class issues, and talk about intimate! The way that these people live on these boats, even these big boats, is crazy! If you designed a psychological experiment like this you would, like Stanley Milgram, be thrown out of academia. It’s crazy what a pressure cooker these trips are for everyone involved. I like the work aspect of it. These people work hard.
That whole interview is worth a read.
This year’s list had me thinking how much fun it would be to talk books with him. We’ve got a few books in common – All Fours, James, Banal Nightmare, Catalina, Question 7 and a few more – but he’s got a lot on there that I hadn’t even heard of. I’ve added Charlie Hustle, Lowdown Road and several others to my list.
I know this is a fairly common thing to do now, and I thought about doing one here, but (a) it’s too much work and (b) I don’t think anyone wants to know that much about me (including me). I wish he’d do recommendations, but I understand why he doesn’t.
