In Memorium: my Gilligan story

[yurbud]

As an undergraduate, I had an upper division seminar in comedy in literature, that required one paper at the end of the semester on a topic of our choice. The only restriction the professor put on the assignment was we could NOT try to be funny ourselves.

I took that as a challenge and wrote a paper on the appeal of Gilligan's Island, trying my best not to make it openly funny, talking about archetypes and all the usual English hoo-ha.

Since it was a small class, we had to do a presentation on my papers and have a discussion. The class loved my paper,and they would have gone on talking about it all day if my professor hadn't interrupted and said, "You are full of shit. You were supposed to write about literature, not a third rate sitcom, and besides, I've never seen the show." (he had been living in Italy the years it was on the air.) The whole class turned on him and argued for how significant Gilligan was in pop culture and how we all bonded over it the way past generations would over religious or folk stories. He said he wasn't buying it.

I ended up getting a B in the class, but it was worth it for the story.

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. *lol* my roomie and I had a Lit prof who wouldn't allow us to use quotes

from Richard Bach books because they were "pop psychology, not literature".

Darn that unliterary seagull anyway!

[yurbud]

2. He probably wouldn't have approved of "Lesbian Seagull" either

Beavis And Butt-Head Do America Soundtrack Lyrics
Artist: Engelbert Humperdinck Lyrics

Song: Lesbian Seagull Lyrics

Over rocks and trees and sand
Soaring over cliffs
And gently floating down to land
She proudly lifts her voice
To sound her mating call
And soon her mate responds by singing
Caw Caw Caw
Come with me

Lesbian Seagull

Settle down and rest with me

Fly with me lesbian seagull

To my little nest by the sea
With me that's where you belong with me
I know I can be strong when you're with me
She skims the water
At the new time to seek
Her fish and she emerges
With one squirming in her beak

She plays among the waves
And hides between the swells
She walks the beach at twilight

Searching for some shells
Come with me

Lesbian Seagull

Settle down and rest with me

Oh fly with me lesbian seagull

To my little nest by the sea

With me that's where you belong with me
I know I can be strong when you're -- you're with me

And in the evening
As they watch the setting sun
She loooks at her as if to say
The day is done
It's time to find their shelter

Hidden in the dunes

And fall asleep the
Music of the moon
You and me

Lesbian seagull

You just watch the world oh my

Just you and me lesbian seagull

Side by side with me 'till we die
('Till we die)
You and I
We can make it if we try
Our love will keep us flyin' high

Until we die...

[mitchum]

3. Sorry, but good for your professor!

it should remain an ivory tower :)

I love some incredibly trashy things (far trashier than Bach) and I love literature, but in mitchum world never the twain shall meet :)

[crispini]

4. I wrote a 50 page thesis on "Love Connection."

Of course, it was for a Communication class, not a lit class. Amazing, though, how much you can dig out of pop culture once you start. The connections with Foucault were pretty obvious after the fact. :P