Literary cameos in HBO’s “la noche de”
“survival here is all about your alliances… those husky dogs knew it.” – freddy from the new popular hbo series “the night of” in reference to the call of the wild by jack london
You are reading: Books mentioned in the night of
I get very excited when I see references to literature (or intertextuality) usefully inserted into an already excellent story; It makes me pause, rewind, quote and blog. so here goes:
if you’re not watching the new hbo drama, “the night of”, I highly recommend it (no serious spoilers here).
i want to reflect on a scene from episode 4 that offers some fascinating literary cameos when naz, a soft-spoken college student in prison awaiting trial for murder, meets freddy, a quiet, intelligent, and powerful man from a long time ago. a long time. inmate who essentially runs the prison.
first, freddie “educates” naz on the “two most popular books in the prison library”.
they are (according to freddy):
The Art Of War
“for obvious reasons,” he says.
and
The Other Side of Midnight
. Also “for obvious reasons.”
but then freddie preaches:
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“Do you want to learn what it takes to survive here? read this.”
Freddie then produces The Call of the Wild
!
“The man could write about dogs and teach you everything you need to know,” says Freddie.
dramatic pause… then
“Thanks, but I read it,” Naz says.
And that’s when I loved the show so much more than I already did.
Let’s break it down.
The Art of War is an ancient philosophical book on warfare written by Sun Tzu.
here is an excerpt from chapter 1:
“every war is based on deception. therefore, when we are able to attack, we must appear unable; in using our forces, we must appear inactive; when we are close, we must make the enemy believe that we are far away; when we are far away, we must make him believe that we are near.”
From what we’ve seen so far, surviving in this prison is like going into battle every day, so the usefulness of this book seems “obvious” as Freddy says.
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the reference to the other side of midnight is a bit more confusing to me. this sidney sheldon thriller was a bestseller in the early 70’s. i admit i haven’t read this but my first thought was that some of the covers look kind of erotic so that would be the “obvious reason” . Further investigation tells me that the themes include sexuality, power and murder. The short summary on goodreads reads: “An innocent American girl becomes a bewildered pawn in a game of revenge and betrayal.”
I can’t find anything about it being erotic, so I’m sticking with the theory that it would be popular here solely for entertainment and escapism from the current reality of a prisoner; receives rave reviews for being a compelling read.
finally and most interestingly, freddy says that call of the wild by jack london is actually the book that naz should read to survive in prison.
that freddy would look deeper into this book, a novel about sled dogs, to see an allegory of prison survival makes him an even more fascinating character. and at first he was thinking that maybe naz he should reread this book now, considering its new context. It actually makes me want to reread this book in this context. thanks freddie for adding to my tbr list!
related: my post on call of the wild
it’s important to note that the episode (the fourth of 8 in the series) is actually titled “the art of war”, so after reading these literary references (perhaps too many?), I still don’t i can tell if naz should go back to reading call of the wild (focusing on alliances) or go against freddy’s recommendations and read art of war (to learn how to use, and recognize, deception)!
Unfortunately, I don’t think naz has time to waste reading the other side of midnight!
if you love intertextuality like me, what do you think about all this?
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