Then one student held up a hand and asked, “What truth about the world do you feel you’ve illuminated in the ‘House of Cards’ stories?”Willimon laughed. Then he countered: “What truth have I illuminated? Have I illuminated any truths for you?” Write A Comment “I wanted to hear your perspective,” the student said.“That’s an unfair question, and I’ll tell you why,” Willimon answered. “Because if I have to tell you what truths I think I’ve illuminated, then I haven’t done my job.”The exchange reminded me of one thing he said as we drove on a long and bleak freeway in rural Maryland in his stale-smoke-smelling Audi rental, the one he was using to shuttle himself back and forth between New York and Baltimore. While it may not quite qualify as an illuminated truth, it can certainly stand as a kind of artistic manifesto, one that recognizes politics as a stage on which deeper human truths are consistently revealed. “All relationships are transactional,” Willimon told me as we drove. “Even love. Love might be the most transactional relationship of all.”

The Post-Hope Politics of ‘House of Cards’ - NYTimes.com Sunday, February 9, 2014 @ 6:00pm