Please Continue the Experiment, Teacher.

I’m trying to broaden my literary horizons. The brilliance that can be found in British literature over the last two hundred odd years is undeniable; however, it’s probably about time to read something new. Translation: I have exhausted a great portion of these works, and I can reread Wives and Daughters only so many times. The Learners, by Chip Kidd, is set in 1961 at an ad agency in New Haven. Our hero, Happy, a graphic designer recently graduated from art school, descends upon Spear, Rakoff & Ware with very few expectations beyond mirroring the life of his instructor/mentor. (Author note: Chip Kidd is an acclaimed Graphic Artist who has designed book-jackets for David Sedaris, Michael Crichton, Cormac McCarthy, Donna Tartt and many others. Ironically, the graphically pleasing cover art of The Learners is what originally caught my eye. Although it was not designed by him.) Office politics (both drama and comedy) between the amusing cast of characters, makes for a generally delightful and engaging read. Tip (a copy man) and Sketch (print designer/would-be cartoonist) are both better suited to a bustling, creative atmosphere (think Madison Avenue and Disney, respectively), while Mimi is both disturbing and amusing as the aged, skeletal, Coco Chanel-esque she-boss who longs to make the agency what it once was under her dead husband’s rule (don’t be fooled however, she doesn’t really miss her dearly departed spouse; she’s replaced him with a Great Dane named Hamlet. Get it? Great Dane? Hamlet?). Unfortunately, the witty repartee and situational comedy is short-lived due to the apparent need for melodrama. Enter Stanly Milgram, and his obedience study.

For those of you unaware of this psychologist or his experiment, let me enlighten you. In an attempt to explain how the Holocaust could have happened, social psychologist Stanley Milgram conducted a study in which a subject (the teacher) was asked to electrically shock another participant (the learner) if they answered a memory question incorrectly. This study was obviously a setup (in case you were worried, etc.), in which the “teacher” was the only one unaware of the real experiment taking place. The Psychiatry department at Yale estimated that only one in ten participants would distribute the full electrical charge (450 volts). When all was said and done, however, over 60% “shocked” the other “participant” when they were asked to do so. Messed up, huh? When Happy is assigned the copy and typography for the print ad, he becomes curious, and eventually becomes a participant. His eventual guilt, leads to a major moral dilemma. (In actuality, most of the participants felt free of any guilt connected to the study. Apparently, murder is only murder if you act of your own free will. If someone tells you to do something, not orders you to do it, you’re off scot free. Morally, at least).

The novel is low on plot and characterization and has a tendency to try way too hard to be something it’s not (a tale of morality, I suppose). But aside from these minor (hehe) grievances, the book was very witty and vibrant. No less then three times I found myself shutting the book and laughing out loud at some joke or another. Typography and graphics play a large role in the setup of the novel, which I found interesting at first, but by the end became a little too affected for my liking. As a whole I would recommend The Learners as a quick, offbeat read, with a mostly likeable cast of colorful characters, if only for pieces of dialogue such as this:

“’So, what are the refreshments?’ I didn’t see any on Tip’s desk.

‘Very, very special,’ he said, dragging a spare office chair behind the card table he’d set up next to the window. ‘I have a fly swatter that’s been dipped in tar and gravel. After the interview I’ll give them a quick smack across the face with it. Who wouldn’t be refreshed by that?’”

If you don’t find this amusing, then this probably isn’t the book for you.

Next up on my list, a tale of good old-fashioned family values…Medea! ;)