Liars and Saints

 Thinking about Apu, I'm led to recall Charles Dickens. Dickens invented Fagin, a famously antisemitic caricature in "Oliver Twist." Then, confronted with the truth of what he had made, Dickens did a 180. It's widely believed that Riah--the saintly Jewish character in Dickens's final novel--is a kind of "apology" for Fagin. We can still read "Oliver Twist" while wishing that a bit more thought had gone into the recipe. The story of Apu is complicated and lengthy. Writers of "The Simpsons" have been weirdly defensive about their error. One notably said, "This is an era in which people like to pretend to be offended." Another described Hari Kondabolu's work as vicious and small-minded. It does not seem difficult to concede, "Times change. There is a world of difference between 1990 and 2015. We're flawed, we've tried to grow up. End of story." From what I've read, it's Hank Azaria, the actor, who ...

 This week, “The New Yorker” has a long interview with the semi-reclusive John Swartzwelder, who wrote some of the greatest “Simpsons” episodes before retreating into obscurity many years ago: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-interview/john-swartzwelder-sage-of-the-simpsons The piece is terrific, and full of gems. “If you’re writing Homer, just imagine he is a large dog. Everything grows of out of that.” “Write a really bad first draft, and then the re-writing process is such a pleasure.” “Season Three was the best, because we had learned how to tell a strong story, and we hadn’t yet exhausted our material.” Swartzwelder’s remarks led my family to “Homer’s Enemy”--a classic episode from Season Eight. In this one, Homer meets a man called Grimes (a reference to Grimes from “The Easter Parade”--?) -- and Grimes just really wants to work hard. After once passing an exploding silo, Grimes lost several limbs, but intensive surgery means that Grimes can “breathe once more...