David Simon claims that no critic has ever been able to guess the symbolism behind the train tracks seen in the Wire...

David Simon claims that no critic has ever been able to guess the symbolism behind the train tracks seen in the Wire during McNulty and Bunk's drinking sessions. Can the minds of Sup Forums crack the case?

Progress.

LOLCAUST

It's a slow train

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literally every smart person hates Drumpf. what's your point? by this logic you shouldn't watch or read anything.

It represents the different approaches McNulty and Bunk have toward police work. They both work in a dangerous field as detectives in a crime infested city, but they approach it in different ways. Bunk is the safe observer to crime (watching McNulty almost die from a safe distance), merely watching and judging the antics of others, while preferring not to get seriously involved, focusing more on himself and his desires (hence his infidelities and selfish attitude). McNulty takes a dangerous approach, going on the front lines toward crime, much to his own destruction, hence the train almost killing him (symbolic of his own close destruction to alcoholism and rampant cheating that came as a result of his work).

Bunk will merely view and comment on the world, while McNulty will take a headstrong approach, attempting to get involved and change it how he sees fit. These two approaches clash with the serial killer story line, where both approaches to law enforcement are put to the test, and the two characters clash heads in their attempts to serve and protect.

Drinking with a good buddy near train tracks or abandoned train stations is comfy as fuck.

Hating Trump is hardly surprising from him, but he's seen the system from so close, and he's still a hardcore Democrat AFAIK, disappointing.

>caring about what David Simon believes it to mean

nope, try again.

Well, what does it mean then, David?

And yet all income brackets above $50k/year voted for trump

>inb4 some marxist postmodern bullshit where all the REAL intelligent and hardworking people make minimum wage

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>insults my intelligence
>doesn't provide his own theory for what it represents

The topic is about the symbolism of the tracks as a whole. You chose one scene by the tracks, broke that down, and applied it to the entire series. Not only that, you broke it down on some high school grade 10 english class level shit, and are entirely wrong about Bunks character. Get a clue.

If I was going to watch this or the sopranos which would you choose and why?

They never go past the train tracks. They are trapped inside.

Watch The West Wing instead.

>symbolism exists as authorial intention and not as reader response

i liked it

I like Trump and I'm in law school. Am I not smart?

mcnulty is free
bunk is trapped on the tracks