I just watched the three hour miniseries for this. I have SUCH a complicated relationship with this show! We’ll get into it, don’t worry.

I’m interested in what worked so well in this miniseries and what drove such obsession with the show in general. I was truly obsessed and it changed the course of my life for the better all kinds of ways. I had so many cool experiences that I never would have had without this show. Amazing.

I’m also interested in the nature of obsession with fiction and how that affects us, not just for the purposes of writing this book (though that’s huge) but also in terms of what we learn and gain from that kind of deep study. All of literary academia is exactly this way. Going deep with a text lets you learn a tremendous amount about it.

Part of the brilliance of the show was that it set up a lot of characters and stories without following through on them, which can make you kind of crazed but also leaves endless open doors for you to go through on your own. It’s such fertile ground for storytelling. I couldn’t not do it.

Loving something this way is always a good thing, no matter whether you almost die of respiratory nonsense or don’t get your dream job that almost nobody ever gets or whatever else. It’s all good material, right? And oh it was SO MUCH FUN. Always chase awesomeness. Always. The pursuit itself is a wonderful thing.

Sacred cheese of life!