Monday, June 05, 2006

The Simpson's as philosophy

Years ago I wrote a newspaper column that mentioned The Simpsons. I used the word zeitgeist in referring to the show's brilliance.

Our copy editor sent the story back to me electronically with a glowing green note in the reverse field that often made our green and black screens seem like Kryptonite:

"Are you sure you want to use the word zeitgeist refer to a cartoon?"

My answer was yes and I left it in. Ours was an ongoing war about what belonged in the lifestyle pages. I lobbied for movie, book and television reviews of programs people watched, that actually reached the masses.

Like The Simpsons.

I was kind of excited to read this lead on a BBC news article this morning:

"The Simpsons is more than a funny cartoon - it reveals truths about human nature that rival the observations of great philosophers from Plato to Kant... while Homer sets his house on fire, says philosopher Julian Baggini."

Full story

Let's see now what does that make me? I believe it starts with an "R."

1 comment:

Charles Gramlich said...

Starts with an "R?" Let's see, "reprobate?" That would be my guess. ;)

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