I’m going to a launch party at the Drake Hotel for my friend Chris “Turner” Turner’s first book, Planet Simpson.
Chris is a friend of mine back from our days at Crazy Go Nuts University, where he and I were both DJs at the engineering student-run Clark Hall Pub. He later went to become a freelance writer, submitting some of the best pieces for the late great Shift magazine (a creation of Canadian Gen-X pundit and CBC fixture Evan Solomon) and later, Time magazine. Wendy and I attended his wedding in January.
I have no idea if the party is an open or closed one; if you’re in the neighbourhood, drop by and check it out!
As for the book, it’s quite thick (450 pages!) and attempts to balance popular appeal with scholarly rigor.
Booklsut has this to say:
While the book will hold on to every reader, Turner’s dense academic
feel towards the end may feel like homework, and will definitely place it in
university bookstores for next semester. Some of the chapter subtitles have
a textbook feel, for example: “Journey to the Center of the Simpsons:
Self-Awareness, Self-Reference, Self-Parody, and the perfection of the Postmodern
Aesthetic.” But there is so much to this book that everyone will love
it.
The cultural studies canon has recently expanded to include dissections of
tv shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Sopranos and
Sex and the City. But Planet Simpson trumps them all.
Turner scored a coup (hah!) by landing Douglas (“Generation X“) Coupland to write the foreword. An excerpt:
If this book were to have an alternative title, it would most likely
be, How to Cook for Forty Humans. If that makes no sense to you,
chances are you probably haven’t read this far anyway. If it does make
sense, you’ll understand the treat that’s coming your way just a few
pages from here.
I’m looking forward to sharing a Guinness with Turner tonight. Congrats on getting published, dude!