IT'S T-SHIRT TIME!

Upon hearing that Snooki, one of the stars on Jersey Shore, is writing a novel, Ruth Franklin wrote this piece on October 6, 2010 about the Guidos and Guidettes on Jersey Shore.
http://www.tnr.com/article/books-and-arts/78178/jersey-shore-snooki-novel-disaster


CLAIM
 "As The New Yorker's Nancy Franklin put it none too gently in her review of the series, our interest in the characters—who are "energetic but essentially aimless, oblivious of their own deficits, and delusional about their attractiveness and their importance in the world"—depends not on "our ability to identify with them but on our ability to distinguish ourselves from them." To be successful, Franklin notes, the show has to "make us feel as though we are anthropologists secretly observing a new tribe through a break in the trees."


CONCESSION
"But the anthropologist analogy breaks down with the knowledge that there is nothing secret about our observations: The members of this tribe are well-aware that they are performing for an audience of millions, and it’s their lack of shame that makes the show so riveting."


1. "Shamelessness, in some ways, is a good quality for a writer to have; but, by any other measure, the “Jersey Shore” housemates fall wildly short."
-"For nearly two seasons (the second is scheduled to end in a couple of weeks), I’m not sure any of the cast has been spotted reading so much as a tabloid magazine. And yet, the series has already spawned three book deals: a dating-advice book co-authored by Ronnie and Jenni (who claims that, after she has sex, she likes to “bite [men’s] heads off”), a lifestyle guide by Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino, and now Snooki’s novel."
-"On the very first episode, Snooki got drunk, took off her clothes in the hot tub, and came on indiscriminately to all four of her male housemates; the next morning, her vomiting was audible through the bathroom door. She later apologized for her behavior, telling her housemates she was worried they might have gotten “a wrong impression” of her."


2. "In theory, it’s an interesting exercise: As any viewer of the series knows, the characters on “Jersey Shore” speak a kind of coded lingo that manages to be at once almost sub-literate and yet highly creative."


3.  "These characters aren’t real people; their personas are crafted by a show’s editors and producers, who wade through hundreds of hours of mundanity to extract a single snappy line or sassy eye-roll."








As much as I love watching unnaturally tan people fist pump and create a new language, I agree that they are in no way deserving of the title of author. I like watching dolphins at the zoo, but that doesn't mean I'll offer them money to write a novel. TV stars are running the world more than they know. These days, it's more likely that people will listen to the words of Tom Cruise or Lady Gaga or even Oprah over President Obama's speeches. Just recently with the controversey of  the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy none of my teenage channels (MTV, VH1, etc) never broadcasteda government officials take on the policy, but Lady Gaga was heard. It is also believed amongst many people that Barack Obama was elected not because of his ideas, but because Oprah Winfrey supported  him.