Academic

So, it's that time of the year in which I'm relegated to running on a treadmill in my basement with only DVDs and streaming internet to distract me.  This week, it is the second season of The West Wing.  So, in the second episode (the second part of the season premiere that opens with the President and Josh having been shot), a series of flashbacks takes us to the time at which Sam Seaborn leaves his BigLaw partnership and joins the campaign.  He has just ended his second entreaty to the executive of some unnamed oil company to buy double-hulled tankers instead of the dirt-cheap single-hulled ones that seem toxic after Exxon Valdez.  He sees Josh, dripping wet from walking in the rain, outside the conference room window, giving Sam the signal that Bartlett is the real deal.  The executive says to Sam, "Sam, I get the feeling that I don't have your full attention. . . ."

Wow.  Where have we heard that lately, Mr. Sorkin?  In The Social Network, which seemed to have a good night at the Golden Globes yesterday.  (People around here were watching some sporting events.)  Mark Zuckerberg is being deposed:

Gage:     Mr. Zuckerberg, do I have your full attention?

Mark Zuckerberg: [stares out the window] No.

Gage: Do you think I deserve it?

Mark Zuckerberg: [looks at the lawyer] What?

Gage: Do you think I deserve your full attention?

Mark Zuckerberg: I had to swear an oath before we began this deposition, and I don't want to perjure myself, so I have a legal obligation to say no.

Gage: Okay - no. You don't think I deserve your attention.

Mark Zuckerberg: I think if your clients want to sit on my shoulders and call themselves tall, they have the right to give it a try - but there's no requirement that I enjoy sitting here listening to people lie. You have part of my attention - you have the minimum amount. The rest of my attention is back at the offices of Facebook, where my colleagues and I are doing things that no one in this room, including and especially your clients, are intellectually or creatively capable of doing. [pauses]

Mark Zuckerberg: Did I adequately answer your condescending question?

I don't think anyone can watch The West Wing and not know how much Aaron Sorkin loved the character of Sam Seaborn. I'm thinking we can maybe surmise that Sorkin feels the same sort of admiration for his character Mark Zuckerberg. Or, maybe he just thought it was a good piece of dialogue.

UPDATE:  My colleague Larry Ribstein is also blogging about The Social Network today and agrees that Sorkin means for us to like MZ.