Let's Go Exploring: Calvin and Hobbes was an entertaining and informative book for me since, although I very much enjoy Calvin and Hobbes, I didn't discover it until well after its newspaper run had ended (I didn't learn to read until about halfway through it, and we were overseas for the rest). So while some fans may be well aware of the timeline of the strip, this was all new information to me, so very interesting.

Aside from tracing the evolution of the strip and creator Bill Watterson's career, the author spends some time analyzing what it was about this strip that made it so beloved by nearly everyone, covering major characters and familiar elements -- as he mentions early on, there are "haters" for just about anything, but very rarely for Calvin and Hobbes. This part (the first couple chapters) was enjoyable and can help fans feel a sense of commonality in their appreciation of the strip, without getting bogged down in details or overanalysis. 

The final chapter covers the numerous tributes and homages that have continued to try and help fans fill the gap left by Calvin and Hobbes since its end. This was slightly less interesting to me, but at the same time it also ponders the question of why so many felt the need to find closure in the first place, and demonstrates the degreee to which Calvin and Hobbes has become a pop culture icon, even without lucrative licensing.

(Thanks to NetGalley for the review copy.)

Scrounged From: NetGalley

Format: Kindle
Author: Michael Hingston
Pages: 120
Content Advisory: None

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Book Scrounger's note: The following is a guest review by Doug, a.k.a. Professor Puzzler:

In 1985, Neil Postman wrote a frightening and prophetic book called Amusing Ourselves to Death, in which he analyzed the state of public discourse in the United States. In fact, he subtitled his book, "Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business."

This book should be required reading for all students before graduating high school.

In his foreword to the book, Postman explains the difference between Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and George Orwell's 1984 and then he writes, "What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one..." and "This book is about the possibility that Huxley, not Orwell, was right."

From there Neil Postman goes on to argue persuasively that we are becoming a society which would rather be entertained than informed, and that more and more the media will pander to our desire for entertainment, until we reach the point that all conversation is "sound bite conversation."

To me, the most extraordinary thing about this book is that Postman wrote it when the internet was in its infancy, and the concept of "social media" hadn't even entered anyone's minds. And yet, everything Postman wrote about in 1985 describes perfectly where we are as a society in 2016. Nobody wants to think deep thoughts or read in-depth analysis of anything. The basic premise of our society is: "If it can't be expressed as a facebook meme," it's not worth considering.

Postman, on the other hand, would probably have argued, "If it can be expressed as a facebook meme, it has been robbed of any surrounding context and is therefore good purely for entertainment." And even though Postman could not have predicted social media, he predicted the effect it is having on our society: it has become the cornerstone of our hunger for entertainment over understanding.

And it's not just reading, it's also listening. Postman writes about the Lincoln-Douglas debates, in which presidential candidates debated policy for three hours straight, took a one-hour break for supper, and then continued three more hours. And the hall was packed with spectators. Imagine that! People thought it was worth their time to sit and listen to people argue policy for six hours in one day! Today, debates have become circuses in which we're more interested in watching a trainwreck than listening to anything substantive.

It reminds me of a quote which is often (and probably incorrectly) attributed to Mark Twain: "The person who does not read has no advantage over the person who cannot read." We have become a society that can't be bothered to learn, study, read, and understand. And so we are no better than a society that can't do any of those things. 

Format: Paperback
Author: Neil Postman
Pages: 163
Content Advisory: None

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