Turn on Wisteria
I received in the mail yesterday a review copy of Reading Desperate Housewives: Beyond the White Picket Fence. The book is part of a series of books on reading contemporary television. While this sort of timely academic work is just the sort of thing I’m fully in support of (at least in principle), the cover for the book seems to promise some type of slimy tell-all, and I keep feeling embarrassed to be reading it in public. I want to reassure perfect strangers that I’m not reading some trashy celebrity gossip book.
The book has proven quite interesting so far, though — the series is actually from a British press, so most of the scholars who contributed are working in the UK, which means that some of the essays are providing an excellent outside perspective on the show. I look forward to delving into it further, even if I am tempted to wrap it in something more intelligent looking.