I hope you are now all hearing the western theme jangling away in your head. I don't even remember the show, Branded, but I can hear the announcer's voice saying it. 

Which is, you know, ironic, since we're here today to talk about this.

Who, you might ask, is reading this? Diana is reading this. It turns out that one of the consolations for not having a whole lot of Agatha Christie in your classroom's library is that they have books like this, what Diana terms "books for grownups" (though Agatha Christie is…well, never mind, maybe that's code for nonfiction).

And? She loves it. Loves it! I mean, she's already emerged as an outraged lefty super-feminist, and this sort of analysis is thrilling to her. I would never think to read this. But she brought it home and then snuck reading it under the table of the high school tour we were on, that's how compelling it was. (Though it does occur to me that when I was 13 we all were obsessed with reading about subliminal advertising, and how it was trying to control you—maybe it's about being fascinated with realizing that there are larger forces trying to control you?)

Whatever the allure, it's cool, as always, to watch the person emerge. I feel like, "OK, so you're interested in political and social cultural criticism. Maybe also in polemic. Maybe in…who knows?"

Also? It makes me remember that the world is much bigger than I think, and there are all sorts of great things in crazy and unexpected places, and it would behoove me to look for them.