3 weeks ago
24
They say never judge a book by its cover, but some viewers of The White Lotus have been doing exactly that.
Online discussion around the critically acclaimed TV show has centred on the paperbacks glimpsed in the hands of several of the show’s characters and whether they offer clues about their psyches or fate.
Take Lochlan Ratliff, played by Sam Nivola, the younger brother of the protein and porn addict Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger), who is seen perusing Knut Hamsun’s Hunger. The winner of the Nobel prize for literature in 1920 is described by the London Review Bookshop as “a disturbing and darkly humorous masterpiece of existential fiction”, leaving many questioning if it mirrors Lochlan’s own deepening identity crisis.
Meanwhile, his mother, Victoria, played by Parker Posey, has been reading F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Beautiful and the Damned. Regarded as a meditation on money, power and excess, the novel seems apt for the status-obsessed lorazepam addict who is seemingly oblivious to her husband’s breakdown.
These type of details are known as “Easter eggs” – the term used in pop culture for covert messages planted within TV shows, films, music and video games. They are widely used by the popstar Taylor Swift, with her fans deciphering everything from lyrics to jewellery.
The White Lotus creator, Mike White, has long been a fan of the technique. In the second series, for example, the testa di moro busts warn of a lover’s doomed fate, while a floral dress from the 1972 film The Godfather foreshadows the fate of Jennifer Coolidge’s Tanya. The characters’ holiday reads have played a key part in previous series. Jack Edwards, a social media influencer who describes himself as “the internet’s librarian” says that BookTok – a corner of TikTok devoted to reading – particularly enjoys discovering them. “It feels quite rewarding. I like that Mike White wants us to slow down and linger, giving us time to theorise and delve into the mise en scène.”
In the new series, Chelsea (played by Aimee Lou Wood) is seen leafing through a book of poems by Rumi – the 13th-century Persian poet whose works explore love and spiritual reflection – as she lounges by the pool of a luxury hotel in Thailand’s Koh Samui. It’s fitting for a star-sign obsessed 24-year-old who believes her shady 50-year-old boyfriend, Rick (Walton Goggins), who is visibly irritated by her presence, is her “soulmate”.
Meanwhile, the dynamic of the three female friends on a group holiday is writ large in their reading choices. Laurie (Carrie Coon) is reading Emma Straub’s Modern Lovers, a novel about a trio of friends grappling with ageing; the TV star Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan) has brought along Barbra Streisand’s 992-page memoir to read by the pool; and perhaps most revealingly, the newly outed Trump voter Kate (Leslie Bibb) just scrolls on her phone. Other choices such as Belinda’s (Natasha Rothwell) book, Surrounded by Narcissists, are a little more on the nose.
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Michael Cory, the props master on season three, says he and White worked together on choosing the titles. White suggested Hunger for Lochlan and Outlive, a book about longevity, for his father, Timothy (Jason Isaacs), a man facing financial ruin.
“Once the actors arrived, we would meet to discuss all the little details that make up their characters and it became much easier to see the whole person,” Cory says. “The Beautiful and Damned, I originally intended for Jaclyn, but it ended up being perfect for Victoria, and The Lonely City by Olivia Laing [a book about isolation and creativity] was bought for Laurie but we ended up giving it to Piper [Ratliff, an aspiring Buddhist].”
Some of the books were made by the props team including those by the fictional monk Luang Por Terra and the resort owner, Sritala Hollinger. “Mike loved the idea of creating Sritala’s book Glowing so that she would leave a copy in Jaclyn’s room,” says Cory. “We not only created the fake cover but one of the Thai producers wrote part of the book itself.”
In fact, the books are so pivotal to characterisation that not every one is even in shot. Cory says one title would have given too much away about a character “but it makes me happy knowing it’s in their bag”.
