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Full Smithsonian Article
Smithsonian Magazine Online summary
You Are What You Buy
According to advertising guru James Twitchell, every symbol, from Alka-Seltzer's Speedy to the Energizer Bunny, plants powerful notions of who we areAt a Wal-Mart, James Twitchell, professor of 19th-century poetry at the University of Florida, in Gainesville, is energized-- as any dedicated scholar would be upon entering an archive packed with new material. Twitchell loves this stuff so much that he has switched from teaching and writing solely about Romantic poetry to buzzier issues, such as adolescents wearing dungarees slung low to reveal their Joe Boxers, and whether the Jolly Green Giant is an avatar of Zeus.
New York Times Magazine Article Full Text
New York Times Magazine Article Summary
In Defense Of Our Wicked, Wicked Ways
July 7, 2002 Sunday"I CAN stand here and look at this for hours," said James B. Twitchell as he parked himself in front of the bottled water section in City Market, just past the jars of $30-per-pound teas and behind the eight-foot display of imported olive oils. Mr. Twitchell, a professor of...