WEBVTT - Did You Know You Were a Writer? 0:00:08.600 --> 0:00:10.800 Rolled Dall. He's twenty three years old. 0:00:10.800 --> 0:00:13.600 As he soars through the sky, the cockpit of the 0:00:13.680 --> 0:00:16.960 RAF fighter he's sitting in has no roof. He's six 0:00:17.000 --> 0:00:20.720 foot six, so his head juts well up above the windshield, 0:00:21.040 --> 0:00:24.880 completely exposed. His goggles offer zero protection at this speed. 0:00:25.440 --> 0:00:29.080 Wind and sand and debris wire just assaulting his face. 0:00:30.200 --> 0:00:34.400 He's basically blind, and every single breath is a battle. 0:00:36.240 --> 0:00:38.360 He thinks he may have veered off course, has no 0:00:38.440 --> 0:00:42.320 idea where he is, somewhere over the Libyan desert. Maybe 0:00:43.000 --> 0:00:46.320 he can't get his bearings. Blind and a chaos, just 0:00:46.520 --> 0:00:49.120 desperately trying to navigate while enemy fire. 0:00:49.200 --> 0:00:50.680 Tears through the air around him. 0:00:51.320 --> 0:00:55.560 He can feel the vibrations of bullets wheezing past his head. Oh, 0:00:55.640 --> 0:00:57.840 and Doll got inside a plane for the very first 0:00:57.880 --> 0:01:03.320 time less than six months earlier. Writer Matthew Denison tells 0:01:03.400 --> 0:01:05.679 us the Doll had taken off from northern Egypt this 0:01:05.760 --> 0:01:10.920 evening in his pocket, classified documents pinpointing his entire squadron's location. 0:01:12.080 --> 0:01:15.160 Within the hour, the desert sunset gives way the absolute 0:01:15.240 --> 0:01:19.560 darkness his fuel gauge dropping, Doll realizes with growing dread 0:01:19.920 --> 0:01:25.720 that he has strayed hopelessly off course, then catastrophe. The 0:01:25.840 --> 0:01:29.000 underbelly of his aircraft catches a boulder hiding in the darkness. 0:01:29.840 --> 0:01:33.000 Metal shrieks as the plane's nose pitches forward and crashes 0:01:33.040 --> 0:01:38.880 to the ground. Crumpling like paper, Doll is catapulted against 0:01:38.920 --> 0:01:42.639 the instrument panel. The impact drives his nose backward through 0:01:42.720 --> 0:01:47.640 his face, His skull fractures, blood runs hot and. 0:01:47.640 --> 0:01:48.600 Thick down his skin. 0:01:49.720 --> 0:01:52.040 Denison writes, the doll can no longer feel where his 0:01:52.120 --> 0:01:56.200 teeth should be. Disoriented, he does feel the approaching heat 0:01:56.200 --> 0:01:59.280 of flames that threaten to consume both him and his aircraft. 0:02:00.520 --> 0:02:03.880 His overall's already burning. Doll drags himself away from the 0:02:03.920 --> 0:02:07.800 twisted wreckage as fast as he can. Each inch across 0:02:07.800 --> 0:02:12.520 the sand is agony behind him. The inferno reaches the planes' ammunition. 0:02:13.240 --> 0:02:16.800 Its machine guns begin firing wildly, bullets kicking up sands 0:02:16.840 --> 0:02:17.640 in all directions. 0:02:18.560 --> 0:02:21.560 By some miracle of chance or fate, Doll. 0:02:21.440 --> 0:02:26.640 Has crawled just far enough the bullets don't find him. 0:02:26.800 --> 0:02:37.320 As shock overtakes his battered body, sleep finally claims him. 0:02:37.560 --> 0:02:41.000 Let's now travel back to a year before that devastating crash. 0:02:41.360 --> 0:02:43.920 This is before Doll was sent to Washington, before he 0:02:44.000 --> 0:02:47.160 was recruited into the Irregulars, before he spent weekends mixing 0:02:47.200 --> 0:02:50.040 Martiniz with the President. Doll's just a guy in a 0:02:50.120 --> 0:02:52.440 room in his early twenties, trying to figure out what 0:02:52.560 --> 0:02:55.680 to do with his life. All Doll knows for sure 0:02:55.880 --> 0:02:58.000 is that right now he needs to escape his family's 0:02:58.040 --> 0:03:01.200 home in Buckinghamshire, which feels like a damn prison. He's 0:03:01.280 --> 0:03:06.200 desperate for some adventure. Dall is someone who's always always 0:03:06.320 --> 0:03:09.640 looking for adventure. It's impossible to say for certain where 0:03:09.639 --> 0:03:12.080 this spirit comes from, but the tragedy of his youth 0:03:12.160 --> 0:03:16.800 offers a pretty good clue. When Dall was three, his 0:03:16.840 --> 0:03:20.480 seven year old sister, Astrey, died of appendicitis. The family 0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:23.440 had barely processed this loss when just three weeks later, 0:03:23.639 --> 0:03:28.200 Dall's father died. Technically, Doll's father died of pneumonia, but 0:03:28.240 --> 0:03:30.760 he basically chose not to fight the illness because of 0:03:30.800 --> 0:03:34.920 his depression over Astrey. The two deaths in a row 0:03:35.000 --> 0:03:39.440 like that were an earthquake for young Doll. Buckingham Shure, 0:03:39.600 --> 0:03:44.480 despite its beauty, is stained by these memories for him. 0:03:44.560 --> 0:03:46.800 If you can remember the forbidden forest scenes in the 0:03:46.800 --> 0:03:47.720 Harry Potter movies. 0:03:47.840 --> 0:03:50.200 You've glimpsed these woods, but. 0:03:50.160 --> 0:03:53.960 What appears magical on screen is suffocating to Doll. He 0:03:54.000 --> 0:03:56.360 understood that if he didn't break free soon, he'd be trapped, 0:03:56.680 --> 0:03:59.880 bogged down here, forced into the tedious business that his father, 0:04:00.200 --> 0:04:07.680 a shipbroker, have been so successful in. Dall's desire for 0:04:07.720 --> 0:04:09.960 adventure is something he shares in common with a lot 0:04:10.000 --> 0:04:13.320 of great writers, desperate to experience everything in order to 0:04:13.320 --> 0:04:16.800 have something to write about a plot, a character, a situation, 0:04:16.960 --> 0:04:20.240 and emotion. Writers in Dolls era are expected to be 0:04:20.320 --> 0:04:24.720 deeply physically engaged with the world, not just observers but participants, 0:04:24.920 --> 0:04:29.000 which feels different from today right Today's writers often prioritize 0:04:29.000 --> 0:04:32.839 things like activism and family and intellectual engagement over physical 0:04:32.920 --> 0:04:37.440 risk taking. But physicality aside, there's no substitute for adventure 0:04:37.600 --> 0:04:41.680 and new experiences in a writer's life. My creative writing 0:04:41.680 --> 0:04:43.760 students at Yale always asks me how to make it 0:04:43.800 --> 0:04:46.679 as screenwriters. I encourage them to go live their lives 0:04:46.720 --> 0:04:49.120 a little get engaged with the world in some fashion. 0:04:49.360 --> 0:04:51.560 Because young writers who just move right to la after 0:04:51.600 --> 0:04:54.640 graduation and start work in an agency's mailroom all end 0:04:54.720 --> 0:04:57.039 up writing scripts that feel less like real life and 0:04:57.120 --> 0:05:01.800 more like echoes of TV shows they've seen. When Dahl 0:05:01.920 --> 0:05:04.839 graduates school, he sets out on his first grade adventure 0:05:04.920 --> 0:05:08.320 and applies to Shell Oil. I know, I know, becoming 0:05:08.360 --> 0:05:10.719 a trainee at an oil company does not sound like 0:05:10.760 --> 0:05:14.640 a cutting edge prospect, but back in the late thirties, 0:05:14.720 --> 0:05:17.560 it is as exciting as it gets. Shell Oil is 0:05:17.600 --> 0:05:20.080 one of the hottest companies in the world. Here's Tony 0:05:20.120 --> 0:05:22.640 Curtis trying to woo Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It 0:05:22.720 --> 0:05:26.360 Hot by masquerading as the heir to guess what company 0:05:27.160 --> 0:05:29.800 I want you. Yes, so did my father and my grandfather. 0:05:29.880 --> 0:05:32.159 You might say we had a passion for shows. That's 0:05:32.160 --> 0:05:35.599 why we name the oil company after it. Here are you. 0:05:36.760 --> 0:05:40.080 There's massive demand for oil, for butting car companies and aviation. 0:05:40.640 --> 0:05:43.479 Joining Shells like joining an AI company today. And the 0:05:43.480 --> 0:05:46.240 most attractive part for Doll is that you're guaranteed to 0:05:46.240 --> 0:05:50.000 be said somewhere across the globe. Adventure served up in 0:05:50.040 --> 0:05:54.279 a silver platter. Doll gets posted in East Africa, fully 0:05:54.279 --> 0:05:56.920 aware what a commitment this is, As he points out 0:05:56.960 --> 0:05:59.720 in an interview by Peter Wallace and thrill Maker from 0:05:59.800 --> 0:06:00.640 Night five. 0:06:00.960 --> 0:06:03.080 You see, in those days they didn't have airplanes, so 0:06:03.160 --> 0:06:07.880 we're talking about nineteen thirty five. To go to someone 0:06:08.000 --> 0:06:10.159 like Africa, it was a long way. It was a 0:06:10.360 --> 0:06:13.479 two and a half week trip in the boat. When 0:06:13.480 --> 0:06:15.880 you went, you went for three years. 0:06:18.320 --> 0:06:19.679 But it's all totally thrilling. 0:06:20.000 --> 0:06:23.200 Doll immerses himself in the local culture, learning Swahili and 0:06:23.320 --> 0:06:25.680 enjoying the adventure of it all. He doesn't realize it, 0:06:25.720 --> 0:06:27.719 but he's setting himself up for a lifetime's worth of 0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:31.760 characters too. When Daal invents Charlie Bucket of chocolate factory fame, 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:34.160 he actually models him on one of the young African 0:06:34.200 --> 0:06:37.279 boys he befriends in Tanzania. It's only on later drafts, 0:06:37.360 --> 0:06:40.760 under pressure from his British publishers, that Charlie becomes white. 0:06:40.960 --> 0:06:43.640 But it's fascinating to think how groundbreaking the book might 0:06:43.640 --> 0:06:47.599 have been. Charlie's family represents extreme poverty. Remember those four 0:06:47.640 --> 0:06:50.960 grandparents all sharing that one giant bed. Making them black 0:06:51.080 --> 0:06:53.640 would have transformed the story into a powerful statement about 0:06:53.720 --> 0:06:56.920 racial inequality, and when Charlie has his triumph at the end, 0:06:57.200 --> 0:06:59.960 it could have served as a broader metaphor for overcomings 0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:04.360 the stomach prejudice. Anyway, Doll's work for Shell eventually. 0:07:03.960 --> 0:07:05.039 Grows tedious for him. 0:07:05.480 --> 0:07:09.159 He's basically selling oil to farmers across the vastness of Tanzania. 0:07:09.640 --> 0:07:12.480 Not a great deal of intelligence or imagination was required. 0:07:12.680 --> 0:07:16.320 He later admits the idea of rising through the ranks 0:07:16.360 --> 0:07:19.560 to become an executive someday sounds like death to him. 0:07:19.880 --> 0:07:23.320 He feels the itch to keep moving. But here's what 0:07:23.400 --> 0:07:25.880 I think is really driving Doll. He's trying to figure 0:07:25.880 --> 0:07:28.000 out not only what kind of man he is, but 0:07:28.040 --> 0:07:31.400 what it means to be a man. After Dall lost 0:07:31.440 --> 0:07:33.520 his father, he was brought up by his mother and 0:07:33.600 --> 0:07:36.440 his many many sisters. There were never any adult men 0:07:36.480 --> 0:07:39.400 in his life. Why this is so relevant is that 0:07:39.440 --> 0:07:41.960 the different worlds Doll goes into in his twenties are 0:07:42.080 --> 0:07:44.600 like the most basic fantasies of what a child thinks 0:07:44.640 --> 0:07:47.200 it means to be a man in the mid twentieth century. 0:07:47.920 --> 0:07:50.640 First he'll tried business with Shell oil, then head to 0:07:50.720 --> 0:07:53.280 war to become a fighter pilot. Then he becomes a spy, 0:07:53.640 --> 0:07:56.640 a serial playboy, and seducer of women. He's trying on 0:07:56.720 --> 0:08:00.600 all these different macho exteriors, seeing what fits, and I mean, 0:08:01.200 --> 0:08:03.840 I get it, though we're living in very different times. 0:08:04.000 --> 0:08:07.000 I struggle with this too. Am I a man not 0:08:07.080 --> 0:08:09.720 in the way my grandfather would recognize? I have a 0:08:09.760 --> 0:08:12.120 wife and kids and a career. But with a gun 0:08:12.160 --> 0:08:14.320 to my head, I could maybe tell you what pliers 0:08:14.320 --> 0:08:20.120 are for. Maybe for Dahl in the late nineteen thirties, 0:08:20.320 --> 0:08:23.280 World War Two is knocking some of his heroes, like 0:08:23.360 --> 0:08:26.680 Hemingway and Tolkien fought in the First World War. Now 0:08:26.760 --> 0:08:30.400 history is offering his chance. He hears about British forces 0:08:30.440 --> 0:08:33.440 and Tanzania needing help, and he jumps at it. He 0:08:33.480 --> 0:08:37.080 abandoned shell oil and enlists as a Special Constable with 0:08:37.160 --> 0:08:40.880 the King's African Rifles. His assignment is to arrest any 0:08:40.880 --> 0:08:44.280 German attempting to escape across the border into neutral East Africa. 0:08:45.040 --> 0:08:48.520 Dahl helps detain a couple hundred Germans whose only crime 0:08:48.920 --> 0:08:52.040 is being German. He moves these innocent people into a 0:08:52.080 --> 0:08:54.600 camp of barbed wire to be held for who knows 0:08:54.640 --> 0:08:58.520 how long. It Shakestall's conscience. This may not be the 0:08:58.559 --> 0:09:03.880 adventure he's after. During the long days patrolling the border 0:09:03.880 --> 0:09:07.640 and the vicious sun. Dall watches warplanes fly overhead. Now 0:09:07.720 --> 0:09:10.080 that looks like freedom to him. He gets an idea. 0:09:11.360 --> 0:09:13.920 He'll volunteer for the Royal Air Force, though he's never 0:09:13.960 --> 0:09:15.480 even been inside a plane before. 0:09:16.360 --> 0:09:18.320 He buys a car and drives six. 0:09:18.200 --> 0:09:21.360 Hundred miles to Nairobi to enroll in flight training school. 0:09:21.800 --> 0:09:26.160 He quickly realizes he's not a great fit. Literally, Doll 0:09:26.360 --> 0:09:31.239 crams himself into Gloucester Gladiators, Tiger Boths and Hawker Hurricanes. 0:09:31.720 --> 0:09:34.320 Picture the plane from Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade 0:09:34.440 --> 0:09:37.240 when Harrison Ford and Sean Connery escape from German fighters. 0:09:37.760 --> 0:09:40.800 These are open air cockpits designed for pilots who are 0:09:40.840 --> 0:09:42.240 five foot seven to five ten. 0:09:42.720 --> 0:09:45.640 At six six, Doll's head sticks way up. 0:09:45.559 --> 0:09:48.240 Above the windshield like an NBA player squeezed into a 0:09:48.280 --> 0:09:51.560 tiny convertible with the top down, his knees pulled up 0:09:51.600 --> 0:09:54.640 to his chest, and his face constantly battered by rushing wind. 0:09:55.440 --> 0:10:00.000 Despite all that, soaring up in the air, something magical happens. 0:10:00.160 --> 0:10:03.440 Falls in love with flying. This passion will re emerge 0:10:03.520 --> 0:10:07.560 later in his writing. Several of his young characters escape 0:10:07.600 --> 0:10:10.360 their earth bound troubles by literally flying away. 0:10:10.720 --> 0:10:12.960 Most famously in James and the Giant Peach. 0:10:15.280 --> 0:10:17.400 The British Air Force is in such dire need of 0:10:17.440 --> 0:10:20.199 fighters that Dolls quickly sent to the front lines before 0:10:20.200 --> 0:10:24.000 he even completes combat training. Sixteen other newly minted pilots 0:10:24.080 --> 0:10:27.280 go with him, but by war's end, only three of 0:10:27.320 --> 0:10:31.400 the sixteen will survive, including Dol. That's how close we 0:10:31.400 --> 0:10:34.360 were to never having heard of Willy, Wonka or Matilda. 0:10:37.200 --> 0:10:40.720 According to writer Nadia Cohen, Doll's first kill comes quickly. 0:10:41.320 --> 0:10:44.000 He shoots down a German plane and returns to base 0:10:44.040 --> 0:10:47.240 with the sobering realization that he's probably just ended another 0:10:47.280 --> 0:10:50.800 man's life. His conscience is rattled again, just like during 0:10:50.800 --> 0:10:55.400 those border patrol arrests. Is he built for this. He's 0:10:55.400 --> 0:10:58.600 in his early twenties, He's sensitive, thoughtful, and he knows 0:10:58.600 --> 0:11:00.440 what it feels like to lose a father and sister 0:11:00.520 --> 0:11:03.200 well before their time. Now he's taken the life of 0:11:03.200 --> 0:11:07.240 a young stranger, someone who probably has his own father, sister, brother. 0:11:08.000 --> 0:11:12.080 Dahl knows precisely what that family will endure. The next day, 0:11:12.360 --> 0:11:15.319 Doll finds himself in another air battle. He shoots down 0:11:15.320 --> 0:11:18.920 a second German plane, killing another pilot. He's affected, but 0:11:19.400 --> 0:11:24.760 he finds it gets a bit easier to compartmentalize. 0:11:25.040 --> 0:11:26.240 Two days later, in the. 0:11:26.160 --> 0:11:29.840 Battle of Athens, Doll and the squadron are vastly outnumbered. 0:11:30.240 --> 0:11:33.160 It'll be a miracle if any of them survive. Dahl 0:11:33.200 --> 0:11:36.360 describes it as a long dog fight in which fifteen 0:11:36.440 --> 0:11:39.280 hurricanes fought for half an hour with between one hundred 0:11:39.320 --> 0:11:42.880 and fifty and two hundred German bombers. Four of Doll's 0:11:42.880 --> 0:11:46.320 fellow pilots are shot down right before his eyes. Doll 0:11:46.440 --> 0:11:50.200 spends every last bit of ammunition he carries. When he 0:11:50.240 --> 0:11:53.680 finally lands back a base, his plane is riddled with 0:11:53.720 --> 0:11:59.559 bullet holes. Dall ends up needing a full month to recuperate. 0:12:00.120 --> 0:12:03.000 Then he hears the decimated remnants of his squadron are 0:12:03.000 --> 0:12:07.839 reassembling in Haifa. More adventure awaits, Doll finds another car 0:12:08.040 --> 0:12:11.480 and drives to Israel. He flies over French airbases every 0:12:11.559 --> 0:12:14.360 day for the next month, according to Cohen, shooting down 0:12:14.559 --> 0:12:18.400 at least two more aircraft. Doll keeps crashing his own planes, 0:12:18.400 --> 0:12:22.560 but always somehow walks away until the crash that open 0:12:22.640 --> 0:12:28.960 this episode, When Dol eventually writes that horrific crash into 0:12:28.960 --> 0:12:32.160 his memoirs, he conspicuously excludes the fact that there was 0:12:32.200 --> 0:12:34.480 another pilot with him that day in the Libyan desert. 0:12:35.080 --> 0:12:38.079 Maybe dolphinks having company made the whole thing less heroic 0:12:38.920 --> 0:12:42.760 even more curious, official RAF records showed Doll crash landed 0:12:42.960 --> 0:12:46.440 due to low fuel after getting lost, but Dallin says 0:12:46.600 --> 0:12:47.520 he was shot down. 0:12:48.200 --> 0:12:48.480 Hmm. 0:12:49.200 --> 0:12:52.280 In both of Doll's memoirs about his childhood, he perpetuates 0:12:52.320 --> 0:12:55.400 myths like this about himself. Now, to be fair, the 0:12:55.440 --> 0:12:57.920 memoirs are written in the style we associate with his fiction, 0:12:58.480 --> 0:13:01.319 so it's almost like a wink. Don't believe everything I'm 0:13:01.320 --> 0:13:05.040 telling you, folks. Dahl has the same habit of mythmaking 0:13:05.240 --> 0:13:08.400 in interviews throughout his life. Now, with some celebrities, we 0:13:08.480 --> 0:13:11.360 just call this straight up lying, but with Dol, I'm 0:13:11.360 --> 0:13:12.400 not sure i'd use that word. 0:13:12.559 --> 0:13:14.720 It's as if he's acknowledging that people expect him. 0:13:14.640 --> 0:13:17.280 To be Willy Wonka or the BFG, so they shouldn't 0:13:17.280 --> 0:13:19.679 take what he says at face value. But of course 0:13:19.920 --> 0:13:24.360 this makes his later problematic remarks and interviews more complicated. 0:13:23.760 --> 0:13:24.280 To deal with. 0:13:25.360 --> 0:13:28.840 We'll grapple with how to reconcile Doll's dedication to defeating 0:13:28.840 --> 0:13:31.280 the Nazis as a young man, which is at least 0:13:31.320 --> 0:13:34.520 somewhat inextricable from helping save the Jews of Europe, with 0:13:34.600 --> 0:13:37.360 the charges of anti Semitism against him as a much 0:13:37.400 --> 0:13:45.800 older man. For weeks after Doll's crash in the Libyan desert, 0:13:46.080 --> 0:13:48.839 he lies in a military hospital, unable to even open 0:13:48.880 --> 0:13:52.040 his eyes. Doctors are sure he'll be blind, He'll spend 0:13:52.080 --> 0:13:54.559 the rest of his life in darkness. Here's Dol, many 0:13:54.640 --> 0:13:57.640 years later, reflecting on the toll of all these crashes. 0:13:57.760 --> 0:14:00.280 I've had so many operations. I'm tied to you with 0:14:00.400 --> 0:14:06.360 bits of stream. I've had two hip replacements, my spines 0:14:06.400 --> 0:14:08.960 be not praised on many times from an airplane crash, 0:14:09.000 --> 0:14:13.840 and this year I had three massive operations on my tummy. 0:14:14.360 --> 0:14:17.640 But I'm all right there. But I'm a bit of 0:14:17.640 --> 0:14:18.640 a wreck physically. 0:14:19.200 --> 0:14:21.240 I always laugh when I hear him say tummy. There 0:14:21.640 --> 0:14:25.000 Doll speaks the way he writes, there's this childlike quality 0:14:25.040 --> 0:14:27.440 of someone who never fully grew up, an old man 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:30.680 who still says tummy with a completely straight face. Woven 0:14:30.680 --> 0:14:34.360 inside a much more gruesome, sobering account of horrible pain 0:14:35.040 --> 0:14:36.840 and The mixture of those elements are kind of the 0:14:36.880 --> 0:14:40.640 hallmarks of his books, too, right, the juxtaposition of childlike 0:14:40.680 --> 0:14:45.280 wonder alongside genuine darkness. It's the bfg's gentle dream catching 0:14:45.520 --> 0:14:49.040 coexisting with child gobbling giants and the whimsy of Willy 0:14:49.080 --> 0:14:55.760 Wonka alongside children facing horrific if comical fates. Dall ends 0:14:55.840 --> 0:14:59.240 up spending six long months in that hospital. Slowly and 0:14:59.320 --> 0:15:03.360 almost moraulously, he regains his vision. He emerges with the 0:15:03.400 --> 0:15:06.760 knowledge that he's cheated death, which encourages him to take 0:15:06.800 --> 0:15:10.080 even more risks going forward. He now knows he can 0:15:10.120 --> 0:15:14.680 survive a fall. Doll isn't alone among great artists who 0:15:14.680 --> 0:15:18.680 spent significant time recovering from catastrophic injuries. Free to Callo 0:15:18.920 --> 0:15:21.320 had devastating trauma from a bus crash when she was 0:15:21.360 --> 0:15:24.520 slightly younger than daul spending months in a cast. That's 0:15:24.560 --> 0:15:27.520 when she began to think about those haunting portraits. Similarly, 0:15:27.560 --> 0:15:29.920 Stephen King was hit by a van and nearly killed, 0:15:30.040 --> 0:15:32.760 leading to months of painful recovery. He was older than 0:15:32.840 --> 0:15:35.160 Doll or Callo, but he had not yet written some 0:15:35.200 --> 0:15:38.320 of his best work. In these long recoveries, not only 0:15:38.360 --> 0:15:40.480 do you learn to endure the solitude and loneliness of 0:15:40.480 --> 0:15:41.200 the creative life. 0:15:41.280 --> 0:15:43.560 But you also have so much time to reflect on 0:15:43.600 --> 0:15:44.720 your ideas. 0:15:44.680 --> 0:15:47.240 And maybe you also gain insight into suffering or pain 0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:48.040 or healing. 0:15:48.640 --> 0:15:50.960 Like Kllo and King, the lifelong. 0:15:50.560 --> 0:15:53.720 Chronic pain that Dahl deals with after the crash majorly 0:15:53.800 --> 0:15:57.880 infiltrates his work and reshapes his personality. Just recently, the 0:15:57.960 --> 0:16:01.840 US Navy published a confidential report Odin's Eye, suggesting the 0:16:01.880 --> 0:16:05.880 extreme conditions faced by fighter pilots HIGI maneuvers and repeated 0:16:05.920 --> 0:16:09.200 physical trauma like dollhad, can lead to long term effects 0:16:09.200 --> 0:16:13.360 on memory, mood, and behavior. Could lingering brain trauma from 0:16:13.400 --> 0:16:17.000 his pilot days have contributed to Doll's sharp temper. Could 0:16:17.040 --> 0:16:20.080 the injuries account for what some people very much, including 0:16:20.080 --> 0:16:23.880 his first wife, describe as his prickly personality. His wife's 0:16:23.960 --> 0:16:27.000 nickname for him, after all, was rolled the Rotten And 0:16:27.080 --> 0:16:31.120 might the brain trauma also account for his vivid, dark imagination. 0:16:33.360 --> 0:16:35.720 His headaches from the crash becomes so intense that he 0:16:35.800 --> 0:16:38.720 blacks out regularly, which is not what you want to 0:16:38.720 --> 0:16:41.240 hear if you're his commanding officer. Setting him up in 0:16:41.280 --> 0:16:46.080 the air, Dall is desperate to keep flying to keep 0:16:46.120 --> 0:16:49.239 the adventure going, but the RAF grounds him. 0:16:49.440 --> 0:16:51.160 His flying days are over. 0:16:52.520 --> 0:16:55.200 Dolls a mess, Terrified, he'll have no choice but to 0:16:55.240 --> 0:16:58.600 go back to Buckinghamshire, back to that landscape haunted by 0:16:58.680 --> 0:17:02.320 childhood loss, back to a conventional life that seems to 0:17:02.440 --> 0:17:06.320 him worse than death. Luckily, that's when Dolls recruited to 0:17:06.400 --> 0:17:09.520 Washington for an avenger so strange that even his imagination 0:17:09.600 --> 0:17:10.520 couldn't have conjured it. 0:17:14.040 --> 0:17:15.760 In our last episode, I talked about. 0:17:15.520 --> 0:17:18.000 Doll's life in the Shadowy Spy game in Washington with 0:17:18.040 --> 0:17:21.360 the Irregulars. He quickly makes friends there with other spies who, 0:17:21.880 --> 0:17:23.639 like him, go on to create some of the most 0:17:23.840 --> 0:17:27.640 iconic cultural touchstones of the twentieth century, like Ian Fleming, 0:17:27.840 --> 0:17:29.960 the creator of a spy as famous for how he 0:17:30.040 --> 0:17:31.960 likes as Martinis as anything else. 0:17:32.000 --> 0:17:34.680 A Martini shaken nutstud and. 0:17:34.680 --> 0:17:39.439 Doll's Georgetown roommate David Ogilvy, who later revolutionizes modern advertising 0:17:39.640 --> 0:17:42.320 and serves as an inspiration for Don Draper on mad Men. 0:17:42.720 --> 0:17:45.359 You never say thank you, That's what the money is for. 0:17:45.880 --> 0:17:49.400 Plus Noel Coward, the British playwright and wit who redefined theater, 0:17:49.800 --> 0:17:52.040 interviewed here by Dick Cavott. 0:17:51.760 --> 0:17:55.320 You're what is the word for? Win Warne has terrific 0:17:55.440 --> 0:17:57.119 prolific qualities. 0:17:57.600 --> 0:18:02.560 Ellen Yeah, or of the most influential storytellers and fabulous 0:18:02.560 --> 0:18:09.400 of the century, all hanging out together playing spy verse spy. Predictably, 0:18:09.600 --> 0:18:12.600 as these charismatic operatives carry out their spy work, they 0:18:12.600 --> 0:18:17.080 increasingly find themselves under the FBI's suspicious gaze. Jag Or Hoover, 0:18:17.280 --> 0:18:20.399 the authoritarian head of the Bureau, has very rigid rules 0:18:20.400 --> 0:18:24.879 for his agents, identical suits, military short haircuts, and absolutely 0:18:24.880 --> 0:18:27.640 no facial hair, so imagine how he feels about these 0:18:27.720 --> 0:18:31.520 arrogant playboys of British intelligence operating on his turf. The 0:18:31.600 --> 0:18:34.160 FBI turned a blind eye to the Irregulars when they started, 0:18:34.440 --> 0:18:36.240 but at this point it's like, are we really just 0:18:36.280 --> 0:18:38.240 going to let these British secret agents do whatever the 0:18:38.320 --> 0:18:41.359 hell they want on American soil? The Bureau attempts to 0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:44.560 get a bill through Congress putting the irregulars, including Doll, 0:18:44.760 --> 0:18:45.719 under its supervision. 0:18:46.200 --> 0:18:47.440 They open up secret. 0:18:47.080 --> 0:18:51.640 Files on Doll and every other irregular. The noose is tightening. Finally, 0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:54.720 William Stevenson, the head of the Irregulars, has no choice 0:18:54.720 --> 0:18:56.600 but to agree that all one hundred and thirty seven 0:18:56.640 --> 0:18:59.600 British intelligence agents in the US will run all their 0:18:59.640 --> 0:19:03.600 missions by Jagger Hoover. But no one thinks Stevenson will 0:19:03.600 --> 0:19:07.560 actually honor this agreement. According to writer Jenet Conan, stevenson 0:19:07.640 --> 0:19:10.760 superiors in England dispatch emissaries to him to verify his 0:19:10.840 --> 0:19:13.560 compliants spies infiltrating spies. 0:19:14.240 --> 0:19:15.720 One in particular, who will. 0:19:15.520 --> 0:19:19.280 Call Agent X, keeps feeding damaging reports about the irregulars 0:19:19.320 --> 0:19:22.840 back to London. Stevenson is furious and turns to his 0:19:22.920 --> 0:19:26.760 most resourceful agent for help, Roll Doll. Dall devises an 0:19:26.840 --> 0:19:29.600 elegant trap. He invites Agent X to his George shown 0:19:29.600 --> 0:19:33.560 apartment for drinks, a seemingly innocent social call between colleagues, 0:19:33.880 --> 0:19:36.920 But hidden within Dall's living room is a microphone capturing 0:19:36.960 --> 0:19:40.960 every word. As the evening progresses and booze flows, Dall 0:19:41.080 --> 0:19:45.720 skillfully steers the conversation, encouraging X to disparage his employers 0:19:45.720 --> 0:19:50.000 back in Britain. The secretly recorded conversation is promptly dispatched 0:19:50.000 --> 0:19:54.040 to London. Agent X is recalled immediately, the threat to 0:19:54.080 --> 0:19:58.639 Stephenson neutralized for now through Doll's cunning years later. This 0:19:58.680 --> 0:20:02.679 real life espionage operation will resurface in Doll's fiction, transformed 0:20:02.680 --> 0:20:05.320 into a chilling short story about a wealthy husband and 0:20:05.400 --> 0:20:08.159 wife who invite a younger couple to their home. The 0:20:08.240 --> 0:20:11.520 hosts secretly install a microphone in the guest bedroom, eavesdropping 0:20:11.560 --> 0:20:21.040 on their visitors most intimate conversations. The threat of the 0:20:21.119 --> 0:20:24.159 FBI has rattled Doll, making him very aware that the 0:20:24.160 --> 0:20:28.040 Irregular's days are numbered and therefore so are his. He's 0:20:28.080 --> 0:20:30.000 desperate not to go back home to England, to his 0:20:30.040 --> 0:20:33.360 mother's house. But what's next? What's he really trained for? 0:20:33.920 --> 0:20:37.159 He sees his pals Fleming and Ogilvy and Coward setting 0:20:37.200 --> 0:20:40.439 themselves up for future career success in other fields. They 0:20:40.480 --> 0:20:43.240 all have mentors who seem to be guiding them, so 0:20:43.560 --> 0:20:45.359 Doll begins looking for his own mentor. 0:20:47.760 --> 0:20:48.199 One way I. 0:20:48.160 --> 0:20:50.320 Could have structured this podcast, by the way, is to 0:20:50.359 --> 0:20:54.040 tell Doll's story by following the hero's journey. Joseph Campbell's 0:20:54.040 --> 0:20:58.040 outline for great adventurers from Odysseus to Luke Skywalker, which 0:20:58.080 --> 0:21:01.280 Doll fits to a tea. All heroes, according to Campbell, 0:21:01.440 --> 0:21:04.879 both fictional and real, go through a series of distinct stages. 0:21:05.520 --> 0:21:08.160 First is a call to adventure when the hero gets 0:21:08.240 --> 0:21:11.440 pulled out of their ordinary world by a quest for Dall. 0:21:11.720 --> 0:21:14.440 This is being recruited to Washington to join the Irregulars. 0:21:15.080 --> 0:21:19.080 Among the many stages that follow, there's one particularly relevant here, 0:21:19.680 --> 0:21:22.919 meeting the mentor. Once the hero commits to their quest, 0:21:23.240 --> 0:21:26.879 a guide or magical helper appears. Think Obi Wan Kenobi 0:21:26.960 --> 0:21:30.600 and Star Wars or Morpheus. In the Matrix for Dall, 0:21:31.160 --> 0:21:36.720 it's Charles Marsh, an arrogant, well connected, obscenely wealthy newspaper tycoon. 0:21:40.119 --> 0:21:43.080 Marsh started out as a journalist, rising up to become 0:21:43.160 --> 0:21:46.159 managing editor of the Cincinnati Post, but his hunger for 0:21:46.240 --> 0:21:49.320 wealth and status led him to buy every newspaper he 0:21:49.359 --> 0:21:53.440 could get his hands on. By the time he meets Dahl, 0:21:53.760 --> 0:21:56.119 Marsh is filthy rich and has grown bored of the 0:21:56.119 --> 0:21:59.280 newspaper game. He's putting all his energy and resources into 0:21:59.280 --> 0:22:02.679 his passion the war effort. Here's how Robert Carrow, the 0:22:02.760 --> 0:22:08.399 Extraordinary author of the Years of Lyndon Johnson series, describes Marsh. 0:22:07.560 --> 0:22:09.959 Having made money. He liked to play the patron with it. 0:22:10.240 --> 0:22:12.800 A tall man six foot three, he had the broad, 0:22:13.040 --> 0:22:16.000 high forehead and the beaked nose of a Roman emperor 0:22:16.080 --> 0:22:19.240 and a manner to match tips to head waiters were 0:22:19.280 --> 0:22:22.639 dispensed with a gesture reminiscent of a king tossing coins 0:22:22.680 --> 0:22:27.240 to subjects. Marsh traffics and power. If you're in his orbit, 0:22:27.520 --> 0:22:29.480 you're introduced to the right people, and you're in a 0:22:29.480 --> 0:22:32.760 position to know and be known. Marsh own's a grand 0:22:32.800 --> 0:22:35.200 mansion on our street and joy shown in which he's 0:22:35.200 --> 0:22:39.720 always playing host. DC insiders, artists, politicians, and powerbrokers of 0:22:39.760 --> 0:22:42.359 all sorts can just come on in, have a drink, talk, 0:22:42.760 --> 0:22:46.080 or more often negotiate to give you a sense of 0:22:46.080 --> 0:22:49.040 the house and the man. Marsh commissions a large oil 0:22:49.080 --> 0:22:51.879 portrait of himself and hangs it over the mantle in 0:22:51.920 --> 0:22:54.960 the main sitting room. I love that detail. It says 0:22:54.960 --> 0:22:57.359