EM Ideas - Peanuts

 

(First Peanuts strip, 1950)

So I, like most of us in this endeavor, am certainly the infancy stages of working out my ideas for the Electronic Monument.  The idea that initially came to mind was to memorialize Charles Schulz, creator of Peanuts.  There are two issues that I am wrestling with as I consider whether or not this is a viable option.  We've worked through these a little in class workshop, and I am beginning to feel more confident in my first-thought/gut-reaction/instinctual-response to the assignment, thus sticking with Schulz.  These two issues are:


1) Am I making the world a better place?  
     >> I've done work in the past on Peanuts as a serious-text, so I feel a little foolish for somehow momentarily abandoning ship.  I think I was a little caught in the wake of 9/11's enormity when reading Ulmer.  Schulz has and does affect Lots of people with his work.  <<I think I'm almost ready to get past this issue as a deal-breaker.


2) Am I re-inventing the wheel?
     << The fact that Schulz was/is so impactful means that his death and work were not and are not unnoticed.  Sure he died 9 years ago, so there aren't ongoing memorial specials about his work (save for around Christmas), but there's still plenty of him "left" in society.  A simply Google search can find a number of hodge-podge memorials to Schulz, most created shortly after his death.  So what am I going to do different?  Or maybe I need to find the more common and overlook to memorialize?
                          >> I think my answer might be in taking a different approach.  The current memorials focus on Schulz's work, but maybe the emphasis should be more on those affected by the work?  Maybe there isn't a real clear distinct here... maybe none at all, really... but here's my current ponderings for an EM that might be "new" --- perhaps a compilation of comments from others on how Schulz's characters allowed them to see something in themselves (THANK YOU Barbara, for your comment in the workshop - it was one of those reassuring/Lightbulb moments).  A working title has even come to mind - "I'maLucy".  I think it would be neat to collect video clips from folks stating why they are like/identify with a certain character.  Maybe someone would submit a video of themselves sitting at a piano, saying, "I am a Schroeder.  Music is what I breathe and silly little girls and dancing dogs just won't ever get it."       << This would give THEM a voice, using Peanuts as a vehicle for catharsis and community, thereby celebrating and memorializing Schulz's Peanuts work.  




There are LOTS of obstacles to this --- like GETTING the video, for instance, but those are all just logistical.  If I can figure out the theoretical and substantive, the logistical will merely be nuts and bolts. There are plenty of HomeDepot remedies for such.


Hmmm...