Five Conversations About Peter Sellers: Hybrid Play/Essay

by Elizabeth Gonzalez James

Five Conversations About Peter Sellers is an essay that begins as an exploration of the author’s burgeoning obsession with Peter Sellers, and specifically his role in hijacking and derailing production of the spy spoof, Casino Royale , in the late 60s. But what begins as a reported piece on how the film set erupted into chaos, quickly devolves into its own chaos as the essay splits into 5 different narrators, each with their own idea of what the essay is actually about. Is it about how Peter Sellers and his oversize ego ruined Casino Royale ? Is it about how society has too long allowed horrible men to run the world? Is it an exploration of the nature of the essay as a creative form? Or is Peter Sellers and his genius at impersonation actually a vehicle through which the author probes her own shifting identity as a bi-ethnic person? The answer is...yes. 
From Five Conversations About Peter Sellers
There’s a passage in Notes from Underground where the narrator speaks about the perverse pleasure of knowing your own vileness. ‘This pleasure comes precisely from the sharpest awareness of your own degradation; from the knowledge that you have gone to the utmost limit; that it is despicable, yet can’t be otherwise, that you no longer have any way out, that you will never become a different man.’ Build all the utopias you want, but some people can only know they’re alive when they’ve destroyed everything beautiful around them.

Genres: Essays

68 pages, Paperback

Published February 28, 2023

About the author

Elizabeth is the author of MONA AT SEA, FIVE CONVERSATIONS ABOUT PETER SELLERS, and THE BULLET SWALLOWER. Originally from South Texas, Elizabeth currently lives with her family in Massachusetts.

Reviews

[William Bevill · Rating 5 out of 5]

William: I tore through in one sitting and loved it. The author uses a very problematic actor to voice thoughts on their own upbringing, race and culture, and the muddled state of politics. Using one of my favorite actors to examine one's place in the world was a stroke of genius and I snapped this up the moment I learned it existed.

Clouseau: Does yerr dewg bite?

William: Sorry... dewg?

Dr. Strangelove: I particularly enjoyed the concept of the ratio of five different females narrating...

William: Hey now! But yes I loved that in the spirit of Peter Sellers, we experience a kind of Red Letter Media treatment of the plot of Casino Royale, as well as point/counter points of the unsavory aspects of Sellers, the patriarchy, Trump. Understanding Sellers is not an easy task as the author realizes. I find it possible to enjoy the acting and the performances while not holding the man in esteem.

Chance the Gardener: There will be growth in the spring in the garden.

5/5 stars- I loved it. I wish I had money and know-how and I'd stage this as a play ASAP. Maybe it could be done as a podcast.

[Stuart · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you've ever watched a very smart person paint themselves into an intellectual corner, and then try to paint themselves out again, or if you've ever been that person, then this short literary diversion is an ideal afternoon read for you, with much to chew over regardless of whether or not you have any actual interest in the purported subject matter of the title. Of course, it's not really about Peter Sellers, but rather, Elizabeth herself, who is every character in the Platonic dialogue that spins out for 60 pages, before ultimately ending mid-sentence, leaving the reader in an unresolved, yet ultimately satisfied state.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I mean, I thought it was ok.