It’s nice to see nerdy, literate types becoming cool again, at least if you measure massive societal shifts by Fab.com’s t-shirt market (and who doesn’t):
I’d go for Fahrenheit 451, though “Death of a Salesman” would probably impress more people…
Writers can always use more t-shirts; we mostly hang around the house in sweatpants and yesterday’s underwear anyway.
Still, I wonder. Are the wearers of these t-shirts reflecting their love of a good, classic book, or is the effect more like public broadcasting, which everybody says they support — but only a few of us actually do?
Keep writing (otherwise your book will never get its own t-shirt), Tom Chandler.
I’d wear the Brave New World & Hound of the Baskervilles shirts for sure! My criteria would be, I’d read the book, and had a positive vibe from it (Salesman or The Bell Jar wouldn’t put me in a good mood, however cool) Some of the English classrooms at my high school had posters of classic book covers like these, so many are quite familiar.
If someone wore, say, a “War & Peace” shirt, would you expect that person to be able to answer questions about the book? I think so. Although if you made it through War & Peace or Ulysses (which I admit I have not), I think you DESERVE a t-shirt.
Rose(Quote) (Reply)
On Graham Strong’s blog, several of us were in the process of admitting we’d never made it all the way through Moby Dick, yet I like the shirt.
Perhaps each shirt could include a crib sheet offering answers to likely pop quiz questions posed by English teachers, librarians and college lit majors.
Certainly, it would help erase the fear of owning a classic literary t-shirt.
TC(Quote) (Reply)
Crib notes! Yes!!!
Rose(Quote) (Reply)
Rose,
Nice idea, Tom and Rose. Between all of us, I’m sure we could get most of them. Here are the crib notes for The Great Gatsby:
a. Daisy
b. The Valley of Ashes
c. The green light at the end of the dock
d. The “Black Sox” of the 1919 World Series
e. “Old Sport”
f. Klipspringer, piano
g. Duluth
h. “Of course she might have loved him just for a minute, when they were first married– and loved me more even then, do you see?”
I think they should be printed upside down at the bottom of the front of the shirt. That way, you can put your head down on the desk and make it look like you’re concentrating…
~Graham
Graham Strong(Quote) (Reply)
For the real literary snobs, we should probably market shirts containing nothing but our crib notes, allowing savvy readers to recognize the book (and each other) while confusing the hell out of everyone else.
A kind of a secret handshake to an exclusive club…
TC(Quote) (Reply)