OPEN LETTERS
Open Letter to the Coen Brothers
“The Big Lebowski” is one of my favorite films, but my landmark 1987 essay about being a “Dude” predates your masterpiece
Dear Beloved Coen Brothers,
Long before Jeff Bridges stumbled around in 1998 with his “Caucasian” — a White Russian — spitting out hilarious dude-line after dude-line about “this aggression will not stand” and the rug “really ties the room together” and “watch out, man, I have a beverage here,” I was The Dude in 1987.
In my way, I hope, dear Coen Brothers, to have helped popularize and polish the bowling alley for The Big Lebowski. I wrote a short series of columns — well — actually one — for my school newspaper about the Dude philosophy. It was, after all, May, and this Dude had other things to do, man. Writing is tough as a senior.
Perhaps you may have stumbled upon my landmark essay from 1987. Perhaps my column inspired you to write this comic masterpiece. As a Disciple of Dudeism, even now, I consider both of you, Joel and Ethan Coen, Fellow Dudes. I am not sure how cool it is to be a Dude now, and I’m not sure that everything I wrote as a high school senior now applies in a world so changed — in many positive ways, man.
