The White Lotus: That's Amore

If you're following "The White Lotus," here are a few thoughts:

*The Ringer has made an extended comparison between Portia and the Helena Bonham Carter character in "A Room with a View." In the Merchant Ivory film, HBC travels to Italy and then must choose between a gentleman and a tough, swarthy dude; she really wants the tough, swarthy dude. It seems plausible that Mike White, an LGBT writer, would deliberately borrow from E.M. Forster, the godfather of all LGBT writers.

*Another influence seems to be "The Portrait of a Lady" (from another OG gay novelist, Henry James). In "Portrait," a naive American woman finds herself in Europe; she is soon under the spell of the worldly European Gilbert Osmond, who is not the person he seems to be. Famously, James's heroine loses her innocence when she spies on Gilbert; she detects something carnal between Gilbert and his "friend," Madame Merle. Mike White takes the idea far, far off into left field. He has an innocent American--Tanya--and he has a sinister European (Quentin). The European quietly makes fun of his daffy American friend. ("Yes, that's the Queen of Sicily.") Later, Tanya has her loss-of-innocence moment: She spots Quentin with his young nephew, and the two are loudly butt-fucking. (Using an opera house for an important scene also seems to be a tip of the hat to Henry James.)

*Finally, the decaying marriage of Cameron and Daphne makes me think of "Amour Fou," from "The Sopranos." "When someone hurts you, you just do what you can to feel good again. Whatever it takes. Have I told you about my personal trainer?"

I look forward to Episode 2.6.

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