New book of essays on MSCL!

[Greybird]

One of the contributors to the second DVD release is a co-editor of a new and provocative book of essays about "MSCL," to be released on 28 July in both paperback and hardback.

You can order the book online from the publisher at a 25-percent pre-publication discount by going here. Amazon.com also offers it, but without the discount.

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Dear Angela: Remembering "My So-Called Life"

Series: Critical Studies in Television

Edited by Michele Byers and David Lavery

"We have waited too many years for a first-rate book on 'My So-Called Life.' Dear Angela has made the wait worthwhile. Editors Michele Byers and David Lavery have gathered an excellent set of essayists who write on topics ranging from Barbara Bell's brilliant work on language to Kelli Maloy's piece on music to Jes Battis's 'My So-Called Queer.' And of course Byers' and Lavery's own essays are lucid and moving. This book fills an important place in television scholarship; furthermore, fans of the show are sure to enjoy the thoughtful attention these writers pay to a worthy work of television."
— Rhonda V. Wilcox, Author of Why Buffy Matters: The Art of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"

"Dear Angela is a lively and vivid work that is sure to fascinate any reader interested in thinking about 'My So-Called Life' and its long-lasting cultural impact, which continues today. Anyone curious about teens and television will find this book to be absorbing."
— Sherrie A. Inness, Professor of English, Miami University

Dear Angela includes fourteen critical essays that examine the brief-lived but landmark television series, "My So-Called Life" (1994-1995). Though certainly not the first young woman to be the center of a television series, Angela Chase and the show about her life were doing something new on television and influenced many of the shows about young people that followed.

Dr. Michele Byers and Dr. David Lavery bring together enthusiastic and engaging voices that bear on a series that continues to be hailed as a breakthrough moment in television, even though more than a decade has passed since its cancellation. Tackling a broad range of topics - from identity politics, to music, to infidelity, and death - each essay builds upon a belief that "My So-Called Life" is a particularly rich text worth studying for the clues it offers about a particular moment in cultural and television history.

Dear Angela offers a sophisticated analysis of the show's legacy and cultural relevance that will appeal to media studies scholars and fans alike.

Contributors: Michele Byers, Susan Murray, Andrew Coomes, Kelli Maloy, Jes Battis, Nicholas Birns, Jolie Braun, Deidre Dowling Price, Chris Brooks, Barbara Bell, Bill Kte'pi, Caryn Murphy, David Diffrient, and David Lavery

Michele Byers is an Associate Professor at Saint Mary's University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. David Lavery holds a chair in Film and Television at Brunel University in London.

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The series has had occasional references in academic literature ("My So-Called Queer," mentioned above, being the most prominent I can recall), but it hasn't had this many such works pulled together before, some clearly newly written. I'm looking forward to a great deal of thoughtful grist and well-turned analysis.

It's an academic work, no question about it, and the writing tone and framework may not be to everyone's taste. Yet this is going into college and university libraries, and it's a sign of the series' enduring value, certainly as important in the longer run as DVD releases.

... Hey, S.J., you still owe me an "MSCL" book ... this'll do ... {rueful smile}

[Sascha]

I'm looking forward to this. The Call for Papers was more than three years ago so it's good to see this is finally getting published. I'll definitely order a copy.

[Sascha]

The book cover is now available. Meanwhile, it seems like the European publication date has been pushed back to October 1st, at least that's what amazon.co.uk is currently reporting.

[emmie]

yeah it does look good. it will definitely be the next book I buy!

[Rainey's_Mischief]

Sounds like a good read. I'll have to check into that.

[His_Girl_Red]

Hate to sound clueless but why does one price say $52 and the other says $21 on that link to the publisher's site?

[Sascha]

Hate to sound clueless but why does one price say $52 and the other says $21 on that link to the publisher's site?

One is a hardcover edition, the other (cheaper one) paperback.

[His_Girl_Red]

Ohhh okay, that makes sense. Thanks a lot. Now it's a matter of which one to get, hehe.

[TomSpeed]

I'm reading Dear Angela now. Well, I've read the introduction and am reading the first article. I have to admit that it has been many years since I've read academic texts. The vocabulary and concepts the writers use seem to be a bit over my head. I'm going to try to stick with it.

[lizardcub]

Anyone else reading this? I ordered it, but it hasn't come yet -- Christmas break reading, I suppose. I'd be curious to hear everyone else's thoughts.

(I did just read an old article by Michele Byers on MSCL that gave me some pause about the book -- it was VERY academic and I wished there was more textual evidence for her arguments about the show, which were interesting but seemed to get lost in all the theory -- but I'm still looking forward to the book.)

Meanwhile, I'm reading Douglas Heil's _Prime Time Authorship_ (a gift from a fellow MSCL fan several years ago), which has some very interesting stuff by one of the staff writers of thirtysomething about what the writing experience there was like.