craig3ff5

As far as pseudo/pop-academic books go, this was more pseudo than I thought it would be. The first chapter read more like a blog than an essay, with parenthetical asides every few sentences (as it turns out, the writer is also a blogger, hmm). Once I got over that things improved vastly. The chapter topics were varied and at times intricate. I particularly enjoyed the chapter on cars as extensions of a character's personality. Since my personal tastes lean more towards academia than totally pop, I got somewhat frustrated when writers brought up an interesting point and then either didn't pursue it or went in a superficial direction. If I had the book with me I'd look up one or two, but I've already lent it out to another VM fan. I particularly enjoyed Rob Thomas's mini-intros to each chapter, after I realized that it was him writing. In these half-page "asides" Thomas relates some behind the scene tidbits that relate (sometimes tangentially) to the following chapter. Any VM addict will eat these up. He talks about stuff that could have been in the series but was changed or how things weren't planned but got incorporated in a big way (like to Logan/Veronica relationship; imagine THAT never happening!). And now a moment of self-advertising-- I wrote a more academic essay about the first season of VM that will be published in an anthology of student essays, The World is a Text (3rd ed.). It comes out in August! I wish this book had been out when I wrote that paper...*sigh* Anyway... if nothing else, this collection of essays will make you want to watch your favorite episodes of VM (or all of the eps). I think right now my favorite season is #1, but we'll see.

2023-02-11 01:49