Monday, June 22, 2009

P is for (Re) Publication: A Reprise

Earlier I posted that one success of the year was my appearance in The Pop Culture Zone, a book in which a profile on Gary Larson I wrote for Mental Floss Magazine is anthologized. I knew the pub was some kind of textbook, but not what kind, exactly.


Well, I finally received my copy, and turns out the book is designed for freshman comp. You! My old nemesis. The concept is “students relate to pop culture, so they will be more willing to think critically about it.” Having engaged in such ploys myself, I am skeptical. Only freshman could sleep through Pulp Fiction and whine at the end, "I didn't get it." (To which I reply in my mind, Fuck you motherfuckers. For next week read Tristram Shandy.) I suppose we must try. Although I fear the professors Smith, Smith and Watkins didn’t consider that the John Hughes movie era was at its peak about a decade before the current crop of Freshman were born.


No matter. I will certainly order this book when I teach Comp. Because of course I’m thrilled. I am referred by last name. I am indexed! And…I got to read the much anticipated discussion questions.


My fav: "Why does Ferguson hope that Larson will emerge from retirement 'long enough to draw a python that strangles The Family Circus'"?


Answer Key: Because the Family Circus blows. Why does academia insist on making everything so complicated?


I can’t wait to make my students buy this sixty dollar beast and assign myself as homework. Awesome.


Oh, and if all this wasn't too much already, Joy Williams and David Sedaris are in the same book. It’s like, we’re touching!

1 comment:

am said...

the editors are obviously brilliant.