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Townhall.com Gilligan Unbound Pop Culture in the Age of Globalization By Paul Cantor Review by Stephen Beale Paul Cantor is that rare breed of conservative who takes pop culture seriously, writing his book on the hunch that pop culture has something to teach us. In other words, he believes that there is more to pop culture than the moral decadence which has compelled traditional conservatives like Robert Bork to lament that we are "slouching towards Gomorrah." Paul Cantor's task in Gilligan Unbound is the study of globalization and how it is portrayed in pop culture, particularly in four television series from the 1960s and the 1990s - Gilligan's Island, Star Trek, The Simpsons, and The X-Files. Cantor limits his analysis to these four shows because they present globalization from two dramatically different perspectives. In the case of Gilligan's Island and Star Trek, globalization - the spread of free markets and democracy on a global scale - is represented as simply a process of Americanization. Gilligan's Island suggests that a small group of average Americans can duplicate an American-style democratic society anywhere in the world. Star Trek raises this principle to a galactic level. The connection between Gilligan's Island, Star Trek, and globalization is easy to grasp. Cantor's assertion that The Simpsons and The X-Files are also about globalization is what tickles the curiosity of the reader. What could a cartoon comedy and a morbid, conspiracy-theorist thriller possibly have to do with globalization? A lot, as Cantor deftly demonstrates. Cantor first turns to The Simpsons, in which the federal government plays only a very minor role in the lives of the inhabitants of Springfield (a sort of postmodern reincarnation of small-town America). However, another social dynamic is also at work in Springfield. While the citizens seem chiefly concerned with local affairs, they are also strangely cosmopolitan, as illustrated through the character of Apu Nahasapeemapetilon and through the numerous Simpson family trips to countries like Australia, France, and Japan. Cantor's survey of The Simpsons thus yields one of the more interesting insights of the book - that the tidal wave of globalization is also accompanied by the subtle undertow of localization. Or, as Cantor puts it, the Simpsons want to have their "global cake and eat it locally, too." Cantor reserves his final and longest chapter for The X-Files, which he finds to be the most intellectually stimulating of the four television shows. Just as in The Simpsons, the decline of the nation-state is the pivotal theme that ties The X-Files in with globalization. The chapter begins with a thorough review of how films often portray the FBI as a symbol of the national government as a whole. Consequently, The X-Files' depiction of the FBI as incapable of meeting the challenges of a new world order and as superseded by a global conspiracy with aliens may also be taken as a commentary on the fate of the nation-state. Thus, while globalization is a source of comedy in The Simpsons, The X-Files explores its dark side. In Gilligan Unbound, Cantor illuminates what is for many a complex, academic issue - globalization. A professor of English, Cantor applies the skills of interpretation he has honed in his studies of Shakespeare to television programs, producing a narrative that is as insightful as it is understandable. Much of the novelty of the book is also due to the fact that Cantor is a conservative who is venturing into intellectual territory that most other conservatives have ceded to the Left - a subject matter known in academic parlance as Cultural Studies. In so doing, the author has produced what was until recently an oxymoron: a work of conservative sociology. Scholars and laymen alike will not be disappointed by the results. Stephen Beale recently graduated from Brown University. He is the director of the Foundation for Intellectual Diversity and a research consultant with the Sagamore Institute. -- ----------------- R. A. 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