{Guest Post} Emily Danforth

Today we welcome author Emily Danforth to Me, My Shelf and I.  This is all in part for The {Teen} Book Scene book tour of The Miseducation of Cameron Post.  We are the fourth stop on the tour and will be back again next week with a review!  To check out more reviews, author and character interviews, click on the banner below!

The Insistent Gray Muck That Was Pop Culture

In his coming of age novel, Sag Harbor, Colson Whitehead’s protagonist Benji Cooper talks about “…the insistent gray muck that was pop culture. It stuck to our shoes and we tracked it through our lives.” There’s a whole lot of pop culture “stuck to the shoes” of the characters in The Miseducation of Cameron Post—Cameron herself in particular. And while this also is true for many other contemporary YA novels, you won’t find any text messages or tweets, i-phone references or Netflix deliveries in my book, because it take place in the very early 1990s—now, unbelievably, a full two decades ago. As such: below you’ll find my brief and entirely unscientific catalog of just FIVE of the perhaps obscure (to some) pop cultural references in Cameron Post’s world, along with the page numbers on which they are found.

pg. 46, Personal Best: A movie from 1982 about Olympic-hopeful women’s track stars and the intensity of their training and passion—ahem—a passion that bubbles up in unexpected ways between two of the female leads, one of whom was played by the blonde and leggy Mariel Hemingway, and one of whom was played by “real life” Olympic competitor in the 100-meter hurdle, Patrice Donnelly. This was highly controversial and new(ish) territory for a mainstream American movie. Plus, it has that laid-back, natural, Oregon in the 1970’s vibe going for it. Cameron Post “discovers” it in the stacks at the video rental place. Also, this is the movie poster—pure 1980’s gold: Check it out a poster here!

pg. 78-Taco John’s: A “West-Mex” fast food chain founded in 1969 in Cheyenne, Wyoming and now in over 400 (mostly small) towns in the west and midwest, including Miles City, Montana—where The Miseducation of Cameron Post takes place. The chain is mentioned many times throughout my novel, often in reference to one of the most signature items on the menu. I’ll leave it at that. (Except to say that said signature item is both terrible for you and completely delicious.)

pg. 112-Rubyfruit Jungle: Rita Mae Brown’s debut novel, first published in 1973 and now considered a seminal lesbian coming-of-age novel. It concerns the adventures of the feisty, often laugh-out-loud funny, and eminently self-assured Molly Bolt as she boldly navigates childhood, high school, college, and adventures in the wilds of New York City. It’s a great read: I highly recommend it (and Cameron Post would, too). Novel Cover

pg. 114—Salt-n-Pepa: Nope, not just what you season your dinner with, but also an all female hip hop trio from New York consisting of Cheryl "Salt" Renee James, Sandra "Pepa" Denton, and Deidra "DJ Spinderella" Roper. In my novel, Cameron Post was likely listening to selections from their “classic” 1990 album Blacks’ Magic, which featured the very popular (and controversial) single: “Let’s Talk About Sex.” The video is really worth watching again if you haven’t seen it in awhile (or ever); it’s a nice time capsule of the era: Go dance!

pg. 166-Geo: a brand of small, affordable, US made cars built from 1989-1997. You don’t see them around so much anymore, but many a teenager drove them in the 1990s. And often they were unnecessarily teal or fuchsia colored, with decorative stripes, like this one: That's one bright car!

We’d like to take this opportunity to thank Emily and The {Teen} Book Scene for presenting a different post for us, especially Emily for getting into the heart of a few of her Pop Culture references!

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