Mike White, a talented writer, director, and actor known for his work on The White Lotus and Enlightened, shares his inspiring journey. He discusses growing up in Pasadena with a gay evangelical father, navigating the complexities of identity and acceptance. White reflects on the influence of literature and art on his creative expression, while also examining the cultural impact of reality TV. He candidly opens up about a personal crisis that led to his spiritual awakening, blending humor and depth in his storytelling.
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question_answer ANECDOTE
Mel White's Double Life
Mike White's father, Mel, was a ghostwriter for prominent televangelists while closeted.
After Mike and his sibling finished college, Mel became a gay activist, founding Soul Force.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Early Exposure to Class Differences
Despite growing up in a religious household, Mike White never truly connected with religion.
He attended a secular private school where he became aware of class differences.
insights INSIGHT
Liberation in Outsider Status
Observing class differences and his father's double life gave Mike White a unique perspective.
This outsider status fostered a sense of liberation and shaped his writing.
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Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century
John Boswell
A historical analysis of Christianity's relationship with homosexuality, challenging traditional interpretations and highlighting instances of acceptance.
Sexual Personae
Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson
Camille Paglia
In this book, Paglia explores the duality of Western culture through the lens of Apollonian and Dionysian forces. She argues that human nature has an inherently dangerous Dionysian or chthonic aspect, especially in regard to sexuality, and that culture and civilization are attempts to contain this force. The book spans from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson, analyzing various historical and literary figures and their contributions to the development of sexual personae.
Mike White is a writer, director, and actor. Among his many films, he wrote and starred in Chuck & Buck and wrote the screenplay for School of Rock. In television, he co-created and starred in Enlightened, and he’s the brilliant auteur of The White Lotus, currently in its third season. In reality TV, he competed on Survivor: David vs. Goliath and two seasons of The Amazing Race, alongside his gay evangelical father, Mel White, whom I knew well before I came to admire his son’s work.
For three clips of our convo — on the humanism of The White Lotus, Mike finding Buddhism, and his courageous gay dad — pop over to our YouTube page.
Other topics: growing up in the boring suburbs of Pasadena; attending a private school of rich kids; his mom a teacher and homemaker; Mel the minister and ghostwriter for famous televangelists; the productive pain of adolescence; Mike studying postmodernists like Judith Butler at Wesleyan; Mel coming out of the closet right after his kids left college; Soul Force; Mike’s power of observation; his love of Camille Paglia; Sexual Personae; the subtle psychological warfare in White Lotus; how its characters aren’t didactic; how identity politics is bad for art; the golden age of reality TV; Mel joining Falwell’s church with his partner; the pressure to be the model gay; the gay characters of South Park; Mike’s nervous breakdown; the humor and lightness in Buddhism; meditation; Oakeshott and the ordeal of consciousness; Orwell and the clarity of nonfiction; Jennifer Coolidge and the evil gays; Parker Posey; Sam Rockwell’s autogynephilic role; bro-cest; the mysteries of desire; Freud; how iPhones kill imagination; Mike’s veganism; how class gets eclipsed in wokeness; and the redeemable qualities in all the White Lotus characters.
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