What kind of background does a fixer have?

November 13, 2008 2:52 PM

I'd like to learn more about "fixers".

In a great deal of media (movies, television shows, etc), there are people characterized as "fixers". These are folks who do a variety of things, and as Wikipedia suggests, most of them illegal, in the pursuit of "fixing problems". I'm doing some research for a project (literary), and i'd like to know more about these people. How did they get into their "field"? Certainly connections help, but is it basically a business of knowing people? How did your fixer friend get so good at what he does? What made him get into the business (besides the money - which i'd imagine could be better?)

posted by arimathea to human relations (5 comments total)

There's a good profile of an Iraqi fixer from the NYT last year. Lots of them were professionals or graduates of foreign universities who had been put out of work before (or by) the invasion, had translation skills and social contacts, and put them to use. Ghaith Abdul-Ahad (aka 'G.' in Salam Pax's blog) made the transition from fixer to bylined journalist and photographer.

In a very different line, here's a blog piece on Anthony Bourdain's fixer in Paris.

A lot of it comes down to serendipity: a fixer can be an expat or contact in a location who gets a call from a media friend asking for recommendations or assistance in setting things up, and that can snowball. So I don't agree with the Wikipedia characterisation: fixers don't have to be shady, though the situation may demand using non-official channels in situations where 'going through the ministry' is counter-productive; in many contexts, they're part tour-guide, part local knowledge, part friend-of-friend.
posted by holgate at 3:16 PM on November 13, 2008

Here's a graphic novel (but journalism) about subject of one in Sarajevo.
posted by sully75 at 4:57 PM on November 13, 2008

The earliest (1518/1524) literary example I can think of is Ligurio in Machiavelli's La Mandragola.

Through Ligurio's machinations the play's characters achieve their deepest desires and even more miraculously, a species of happiness, including him, but at the same time they all make fools of themselves and worse, and all are morally degraded.

By the end, the very notion of morality and proper behavior lies across the stage bleeding to death from dozens of wounds inflicted by every character. And Machiavelli seems to be saying that's a good thing, as well as an inevitable one.
posted by jamjam at 6:55 PM on November 13, 2008

I haven't read that particular book, but I'll stand by Joe Sacco. He is to be trusted.
posted by OrangeDrink at 10:19 PM on November 13, 2008

Watch Pulp Fiction and pay close attention to the part where Winston Wolf (Harvey Keitel) "fixes" Jules and Vincent's problem with the corpse in the back seat of the '74 Nova. Probably the best cinematic depiction of a fixer you'll ever see.
posted by motown missile at 1:54 AM on November 14, 2008