College Literature Course Features Marx and SpongeBob

I have an upcoming article that briefly touches on the watering down of college courses with pop culture to appeal to younger ‘generations’ as a Marxist tactic.

And, lo and behold.

It’s not often that we talk about SpongeBob SquarePants in this newsletter, but maybe that should change.

Alongside Franz Kafka’s 1915 oeuvre Metamorphosis, Ling Ma’s 2018 post-apocalyptic novel Severance, and a long list of writings by economists, philosophers and other influential theorists, the cartoon’s 2006 episode “Best Day Ever” is on the syllabus of a class at Emory University, where students examine the shackles of work in culture and society — and consider a future without them.

“How does SpongeBob’s best day ever start?” asked Irving Goh, the comparative literature professor teaching the twice-weekly seminar. “It begins actually with SpongeBob going to [The] Krusty Krab to begin work as a fry cook. And I’m thinking: What? Is that how a best day ever should begin?”

Bloomberg doesn’t use the “M” word because when you’re smuggling in an ideology, you’re supposed to hide it, but it won’t surprise you too much to learn that behind the denunciation of work is a familiar bearded fellow.

From the Emory U site.

Goh’s course examines cultural icons from SpongeBob SquarePants and Rihanna (the course’s title is drawn from her 2016 hit song, Work) to Herman Melville, Franz Kafka, and Marx and how they relate to the concept and culture of work.

The three obvious things about Marxists is that they share their founder’s knack for destructiveness, contempt for the public and obsessive need to turn everything into a political theory.