A visit to a beautiful, historic university library is always a good thing... but it gets even better with a little bit of "pop-culture goodness" thrown in.This Spring, the University of North Carolina Wilson Library Rare Book Collection is hosting a wicked-cool exhibit called "American Pop Culture in Print."
The display features a little bit of everything-- vintage Sherlock Holmes novels and spin-off comic books, Star Trek posters, cowboy dime novels, WWII-era advertisements, and much, much more!
A highlight was seeing the case filled with editions of canonical classic literature where the covers were adjusted to sell the works as pulp fiction and dime novels. A particular favorite was the copy of Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms which could pass as a steamy romance novel, featuring Frederic Henry and Catherine Barkley on the cover in a passionate embrace, gazing at one another lustfully.
Sadly there was no photography allowed in the exhibit. (I would have loved to snap a few photos to preserve the awesome-ness of some of the gems on display... items like the vintage "Everything I Need to Know I Learned from Star Trek" poster, for starters...)
The best thing about this exhibit was its overall intent-- to promote the message that popular culture, no matter how seemingly "low-brow," is still well worth studying because of the insights it reveals into the workings of society.
That's all for now. Live long and prosper. ;-)
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