Publishing with Pop

Hello Readers. You guys will be happy to know that I've been working on improving my brainpower lately, attending the weekly Pub Trivia at a local drinking establishment. This event appeals to me, because I am able to learn and grow, while also showing off my insanely good memory and my great skill at celebrity face recognition.

However, last night I learned something at trivia, completely unrelated to any of the questions. I returned from a brief trip to the bar downstairs to find my 3 team members (all very smart and attractive young men, just in case you were wondering) in an animated conversation about Slavoj Zizek, a person (turned out to be a man) who I'd never heard of. They halted their rapid-fire admiration-session just long enough to tell me that Zizek is a 21st-century philosopher best known for a) being crazy and b) using examples from modern day popular culture to explain philosophy and psychoanalysis. Um, what? I feel like someone spoke in a magical language made just for me. I'm a big fan of crazy (from a distance, obviously), but I'm an even bigger fan of dumbing-down tough material (especially philosophy, which I've never been able to really wrap my brain around) with stuff I can actually understand, i.e. movie stars, musicians, and other mainstream memes. At that moment I made a vow to further research this mystery man, and research I did. Don't worry, I'll share.

Slavoj Zizek is a Slovenian philosopher and critical theorist who works in the traditions of Hegelianism, Marxism, and Lacanian psychoanalysis. He's also made some major contributions to the fields of political and film theory, as well as theoretical analysis. He is currently a senior researcher at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia, and has held professorial positions at a large number of Universities all over the world. Back to the interesting part: Zizek uses examples from popular culture to explain the theory of Jacques Lacan, and uses Lacanian psychoanalysis, Hegelian philosophy and Marxist economic criticism to interpret and speak on current social phenomena, such as the current global financial crisis. Zizek writes on many topics, including subjectivity, ideology, capitalism, racism, human rights, ecology, cinema, and religion. Seeing as I only found out about this guy last night, I haven't had the chance to read any of his work just yet, but I plan to do so, posthaste.

Now, you may be thinking, "This is a great story Bonnie, but what exactly does it have to do with Berrett-Koehler?" Perfect timing on your part, because that is the subject I was just about to address.

As an aspiring acquiring editor here at BK, I've been tasked with brainstorming ways in which BK might branch out and reach a younger audience. Young Adult (YA) literature is the fastest growing genre out there, but so far most publishers have been hard-pressed to get non-fiction material into the hands of those youngsters. Vampires and werewolves don't exist in real life (or do they?), so that option is off the table. Good thing I came up with another idea. What if BK were able to re-purpose some of our existing books so that they'd be more accessible to young readers? Sure, Theory U is a complicated read, but maybe less so if 'The U Process' were somehow related through the lens of Serena Van Der Woodsen's character arc on Gossip Girl. Macroshift is difficult for me to fully comprehend, but I imagine I'd give it more thought if 'The Breakdown' (i.e. destruction) were represented by Lindsay Lohan and 'The Breakthrough' (i.e. productivity) by Natalie Portman. I'm obviously just throwing things out right now, but I'm hoping that you get the idea.

And working on the assumption that you do get the idea, what do you think of it? Am I being crazy or am I being crazy smart? Because, really, this is about more than selling books to a new crowd. BK books are important, mostly because they're full of ideas aimed at creating a better future. Well, who better to invest in our future than those who will be around to see it? I'm taking this lesson from Zizek and running with it. Now, if only I could find a suitable author...