Global pop. (Book Talk).(Gilligan Unbound: Pop Culture in the Age of Globalization)

Gilligan Unbound: Pop Culture in the Age of Globalization By Paul Cantor Rowman & Littlefield, 255 pages, $27.95

Gilligan Unbound, Paul Cantor's smart, lighthearted analysis of American TV's attitudes toward globalization, is not the sort of book you'd expect from a man with Cantor's resume. A University of Virginia Shakespeare scholar and an at times outspoken conservative, Cantor began to think seriously about pop culture over a decade ago. He has now produced a book about TV and global affairs. He focuses on four shows. Two from the '60s, Star Trek and Gilligan's Island, have become cultural icons through reruns. Two from the '90s, The Simpsons and The X-Files, stand among the longest-running and most influential shows of the decade.

If nothing else, Gilligan Unbound is a good read. Cantor, one of the few scholars to examine pop culture from the Right, avoids the overwrought, jargon-heavy academic prose typical of the cultural-studies Left. He writes with humor and wit whether discussing Shakespeare references in Star Trek or analyzing the cultural significance of Simpsons Kwik-E-Mart owner Apu Nahasapeemapetilon.

While Gilligan's Island, replete with bad writing and awful acting, is among the worst dreck ever to flit across the airwaves, Cantor looks carefully at the characters and plots. He argues convincingly that Gilligan's band of castaways represents the cocky pre-Vietnam American attitude that the U.S. and its citizens were capable of remaking the entire world.

Cantor likewise examines the Simpsons family and their town of Springfield with sophistication. Cantor says that The Simpsons, which mixes ...