[R Map] The Big Lebowski

[James_Nostack]

I am working my way through Sorcerer's Soul, but since I seldom read mystery novels I thought I would use The Big Lebowski instead.  It's a "detective story" though certainly an off-beat one.  I'm breaking this down slightly differently, because my HTML skills don't permit me to draw little lines of connection in this window.

The Dude Abides
The assumption here is that the Dude is a sorcerer, and Walter is a Passing demon with a Need to win idiotic arguments.  Donny is their friend, whom Walter likes to boss around.

The Lebowski Family
We'll begin with the Big Lebowski: he's a crippled Korean War veteran who married into money, and like a lot of people who get rich overnight he insists that he earned it through hardwork.  He's a blowhard.

Mrs. Lebowski had a lot of money--her father must have started a number of companies.  She probably got suckered into the Big Lebowski's bluster and married him.  She died sometime later, presumably of natural causes.

Maude Lebowski is the daughter of the prior two characters.  She's in her prime, was brought up in a fancy Swiss finishing school, and now is an avant-garde feminist artist.  She's frank, intelligent, lusty, determined, and efficient--and can come across as either queenly or terrifying depending on your level of self-confidence.  When she's not hobnobbing with social elites or creating aggressively vaginal artwork, Maude has more than enough brains to manage her mother's estate, and makes sure her father, whom she regards as a self-important buffoon, doesn't muck anything up.

Bunny Lebowski--a/k/a Bunny LaJoya, a/k/a Fawn Knudson--grew up on a North Dakota farm, but ran away from home last year to Hollywood, where she hoped to become, like, an actress.  Bunny is sexpot in her late teens or early 20's, and ended up in pornographic movies produced by Jackie Treehorn.  Somehow she hooked up with the Big Lebowski and they got married.  This incensed Maude, and probably complicated Brandt's life as well.  Bunny is vulgar, thoughtless, irresponsible, and believes she can vamp her way out of any trouble.  But she owes lots of money to Jackie Treehorn.

Brandt is Mr. Lebowski's assistant/major domo, and has been for at least 5-10 years.  He comes across as an anally retentive sycophant, but he's got enough smarts to play games with the family fortune.

The Gangsters
The chief of this bunch is Jackie Treehorn, who produces smutty movies and magazines; in 1991 he's aiming to get into Internet porn too.  He throws swingin' beach parties, keeps the Malibu police chief in his pocket, and might run some casinos; he might have some indirect ties to narcotics as well.  Jackie is a clever guy, and a ruthless man of business with an entourage of leg-breakers.  He affects to regard pornography as an artform in sad decline: whatever sleazy stuff goes on in the background, he makes an effort to come across as a suave Hugh Hefner type.  Jackie got Bunny her first job in the porn industry; she owes him a lot of money.

Karl Hungus--possibly a/k/a Ulli, I have a hard time figuring out the deal with this character--is a German nihilist weirdo who recorded some "techno-pop" album a decade ago, but wound up working in the porn industry where he met Jackie and Bunny, whom he sponges off of.  His former bandmates are some kind of philosophico-terror-crime group.

======
Sorcerer-izing and Humanity discussions later, I hope.  Am I doing anything wrong so far?

[James_Nostack]

Oh, incidentally I'm working this through as an example and self-test, rather than for play.

[Ron Edwards]

Hiya,

Well, are we discussing the map technique or the film/story itself? If it's the former, you're spending too much time paraphrasing/summarizing the latter. If it's the latter, then you're butchering it slightly.

Let's do the film/story first. One key feature of the detective stories I use in Soul is that the real crime and the legal crime are rarely the same thing. In this film, the real crime has nothing to do with kidnapping. That's a fake crime.

Karl Hungus, Jackie Treehorn, and Bunny are all part of the fake crime. Never mind any details about them or any of the smoke-screen they set up on purpose or by accident. A real crime is that Lebowski (not the Dude) is trying to milk the kidnapping for everything it's worth. However, it's a very piddly crime. He's not a killer or a psycho or anything like that, just a very pathetic man who likes to browbeat others and is terrified of not being thought of as a big rich guy.

There's your situation for the movie - a very incompetent pseudo-crime (the "nihilists" did not kidnap Bunny) which plays into a rather lame and small chicanery, which will implode on its own because it requires the pseudo-crime to be a real one. I do think the movie ends up having a moral heart, but it's not to be found in the back-story at all, unlike most stories of this kind. It's only found among the friendship of the three guys, which is why I think your assessment of Walter as demonic is 180 degrees wrong in an important way.

To discuss the specific protagonist and his various running-around that make up the plot of the film is not to the point of the exercise, so let's not get distracted by it.

Anyway, so now what? The relationship map is very, very simple - Lebowski (not the dude) + wife (dead) make a line to Maude. Lebowski also has a line to Bunny, who is herself then connected to Jackie Treehorn and, without being too difficult about it, Karl Hungus/Ulli.

I will resist the temptation to be completely vulgar and instead suggest that Karl Hungus and Maude are not connected by a line. Everyone else in the story is a "twig" off a box.

Best,
Ron

[James_Nostack]

Let's do the film/story first. One key feature of the detective stories I use in Soul is that the real crime and the legal crime are rarely the same thing. In this film, the real crime has nothing to do with kidnapping. That's a fake crime...A real crime is that Lebowski (not the Dude) is trying to milk the kidnapping for everything it's worth. However, it's a very piddly crime. He's not a killer or a psycho or anything like that, just a very pathetic man who likes to browbeat others and is terrified of not being thought of as a big rich guy.

Thank you for clarifying that distinction; I didn't keep an eagle eye on the moral crimes involved.  And you're right: The Big Lebowski is not as morally harrowing as, say, The Plague, but it's not trying to be, so I'm kinda taking it on its own terms.  It's a fairly gentle movie, so the crimes are gentle, at least in the context of modern Los Angeles.

At first glance, Humanity is something akin to Respectability Among the Squares.  The Big Lebowski has it in spades; so does Brandt.  Maude has it too, because she's rich, but she's also kind of weird--she definitely would have a Lore score.  Jackie Treehorn has very little, though he aspires to more, and keeps the Chief of Police under his thumb just in case things get too weird.  Karl Hungus and the Nihilists have virtually no Humanity: they're walking punchlines, even though they take themselves very seriously. 

There are a couple moral "crimes" involved:
* Fawn Knudson runs away from home, which brings shame and worry to her family
* Jackie Treehorn corrupts Fawn into becoming Bunny LaJoya
* The Lebowski patriarch marries a porn star
* Bunny's life of sin drives the respectable Lebowski name into debt to a pornographer
* The Big Lebowski seizes the opportunity to embezzle from needy orphans
* He also consigns Bunny to death at the hands of her supposed kidnappers

The movie doesn't take these crimes too seriously because it was made in 1990's America, but it would have seemed like a big deal in England during the early 1800's--if Jane Austen wrote crime novels, they would look something like this. 

PS.  The Knudsons should be added to the R-Map as Bunny's parents, even though they are an afterthought in the film.  Bunny really has kidnapped herself from their home, and her carousal would bring enormous shame to them if they knew its full extent.  They have hired a Gumshoe to reverse-kidnap her from the Lebowski's.

[Ron Edwards]

Hello,

That's my jaw, dropping.

The only characters in the film I'd put at high Humanity (indicating a history of Humanity-positive action) are the Dude and Maude. Maude's father is quite likely at 0.

The Dude abides because his Humanity is at such a safe level and he never behaves in a way that forces a Humanity check.

One of his primary features is the ability to sympathize with anyone, even someone who's driving his or her own Humanity down through the floor.

Best,
Ron

[James_Nostack]

The only characters in the film I'd put at high Humanity (indicating a history of Humanity-positive action) are the Dude and Maude. Maude's father is quite likely at 0.

Really?  Hmm!  Okay--here is a theoretical question about Humanity, one that Sorcerer's Soul hasn't answered for me yet: granted that Humanity's definition is very important to the story and game mechanics, is it necessary for players to buy into that morality on the OOC level?

Obviously if players really sink their teeth into the Humanity definition you get a powerful, emotionally gripping story.  But if you have a Humanity definition that puts people at some ironic distance--"Respectability among the Squares," for example--I can see that leading to some good comedic effects, because you'd still care about your character even though his highest values are a little bit askew.

[Ron Edwards]

Hiya,

That's all what-if-what-if, James. Much like "if you held a rock in the air and then let go, what it didn't fall?"

The Humanity definition has to be sincere. That does not mean it has to map directly to the actual values of the actual people - I see no point at all to asking everyone, "So, you agree with this?" as a starting point for play. Nor does it have to be preachy and strident and Sunday-school. It has to be sincere in the sense that a good piece of fictional art, of any kind, must be sincere - its value must be found, isolated, and expressed through the fictional events (including consequences).

Artists talk in these terms and occasionally are not full of shit about it. The best reference I can give you on this topic is the story Talisman, one of the trade paperbacks from the comic Finder, by Alison Speed MacNeil.

So what about "funny"? I think you have it all backwards. I submit to you that The Big Lebowski would be emphatically unfunny, even perceived as highly vicious, by people who sincerely place high value on things like "respectability among the squares." I think that it gains both its strength as a story per se, and its humor, from an audience/author understanding that such respect is (or can be) of little value. The drive for such respect damages Humanity in the story.

I mean, do you see Mr. Lebowski (not the Dude) as a good person? Do you want to play in a game of Sorcerer in which anyone sees him as a good person? And I don't mean "well, he's not actually evil."

Best,
Ron

[Larry L.]

I'll be looking forward to R-maps for such hard-boiled thrillers as Fargo and Raising Arizona.

[Sean]

The Dude abides because his Humanity is at such a safe level and he never behaves in a way that forces a Humanity check.

Agreed, but making a White Russian with non-dairy creamer has got to force a Stamina check.

Ron's comments on the humanity definitions in the film resonate with me. The Dude doesn't seem to me to have a Demon; he might have been a Sorcerer once, when he was working on the original Port Huron statement and with the Seattle Seven, but those days are gone. If you had to have a demon in the story, I guess maybe it could be Bunny, but the demon element doesn't seem very strong.

Walter's oscillation between Humanity 0 and 1 and the way that relates to his friendship with the Dude is what drives a lot of the story, I think. Which is again to ditto Ron's remarks.

Oh crap, what am I doing goofing off on the internet? I forgot, the bums lost, I need to go out and get a job like my parents did.

[Sean]

(Edit: about the Dude, I guess I should say he might have had a demon once. If you're thinking of this story in terms of sorcery, the Dude could have a decently high Lore score, I think.)

[James_Nostack]

Wow, this is one of those moments when I get angry at the University of Illinois English department for giving me a degree without conferring a technical vocabulary to address these topics.

The Dude, Who Is Actually Pretty Incidental
So, the Dude has become sort of a side-issue; I mentioned him initially to show how I think a sorcerer might work.  Sorcerer's Soul implies that though detective fiction is useful for setting up a backstory, the detective himself is seldom an integral part of that story--he gets swapped out.  There's no need to focus on his stats, etc.

Walter, and Why I Say He's a Demon (Also Incidental)
I'll be the first to admit that Walter is a loveable character, but that doesn't mean he can't be demonic in a plot sense.  Every time he shows up, he does one of three things: (a) gives the Dude bad advice, (b) tries to "protect" the Dude but goes too far and makes things worse, or (c) goes apeshit over seemingly random stuff.  If he ain't a demon he ought to be.

Regardless of how he and the Dude met in the first place, their relationship now is founded on two things--Walter protecting the Dude from physical harm (and intellectual error), and the Dude managing Walter's excesses; the currency of exchange is ridiculous arguments that nobody else would have time for.  At the same time, the Dude is flattered that there's a friend who will go to the wall for him, and Walter is glad to have someone to safeguard.  A demon isn't always reliable, but who says you can't be friends?

Humanity is What's Valued -- by Us or Them?

I submit to you that The Big Lebowski would be emphatically unfunny, even perceived as highly vicious, by people who sincerely place high value on things like "respectability among the squares." I think that it gains both its strength as a story per se, and its humor, from an audience/author understanding that such respect is (or can be) of little value

I thought I was making this same point in my last post, so now I'm wondering if I miscommunicated.  Certainly there are people out there who value Respectability, but they're probably not in the audience: the rest of us think the movie is funny in part because we have enough sense to reject those values and sympathize with the Dude.  So I'm wondering if a slightly askew Humanity definition has an effect on audience reaction.

Let me take this from a specific case to a generalized question: do the values cherished by a fictionalized society have anything to do with Humanity?

Possible Revised Humanity
One concept for Humanity might be Achievement, or being a Winner.  This helps explain Karl's eagerness to get the money: he can be a Real Person again.  And also the bowling tournament sub-plot.

[Ron Edwards]

Hello,

do the values cherished by a fictionalized society have anything to do with Humanity?

No, not at all. Humanity is a metagame concept, not an in-game, even when you roll it when the character tries to do something. It plays exactly the same role as theme music in most movies.

In fact, it is very likely that Humanity will not map to any particular values-set as perceived or articulated by anyone in the story. It's very likely instead that people will speak of something that "cannot be put in words," or stay meaningfully silent when someone asks. Like "manly stuff" in Howard Hawks movies, or the way "love" can't be clearly articulated in romances. Or, for that matter, "justice" in more sophisticated, less cliche-preachy movies like most John Sayles films.

Best,
Ron

[Ron Edwards]

Ah. To continue, "the Dude abides" is such a statement. It doesn't say why or how the Dude might abide (i.e make it through the day with a whole skin despite all evidence that he won't). It doesn't say why the Dude is right and nearly everyone else in the film is wrong.

But a moment's reflection explains it, easily. The Dude thinks people should be decent to each other. You don't piss on another guy's rug, and if your existence got another guy's rug pissed on, then you oughtta reach out a little and help. You don't play music someone else hates. You don't spill others' drinks, man! He's willing to offer a little lesson to people who have trouble with this concept, but he feels it so strongly that he never manages to go into "beat down teaching mode" long enough.

That's all. It is a simple. light movie because of the simplicity of that message. Note that only one guy in the movie gets laid, and note who.

Although ... do note as well, that the Dude and Walter manage to get their friend - the only guy who totally agrees with the Dude and would never hurt a fly - killed. The world can be hard, even (or especially) when absurd, and meeting it with hardness (like biting off its ear) has repercussions. Donny's death really isn't very funny.

Best,
Ron

P.S. Your argument for Walter-the-demon is sound. I think it might even be a matter of protecting the world from Walter, as the reason the Dude would stay Bound to him.

[Yokiboy]

Very nice thread James, it is so easy to simply watch the movie again and be able to follow along in the discussion, as opposed to catching up with some book you've never read.

Ron, your ability to break down and discuss the basics of a story are quite impressive, and I agree with Larry that we should continue with dissecting other movies and turning them into R Maps with good backstories. I'll see if I can give Rounders a go...

Back on topic, I think you've nailed Humanity, and I certainly buy Walter as being the demon in a Sorcerized version of the story.

TTFN,

Yoki

[Sean]

Of course, it's a film, not a Sorcerer game. So Walter could function both as a demon and as a human in story terms.