Joy Williams' admiring review of Brad Gooch's new Flannery O'Connor biography got the cover of yesterday's New York Times Book Review, but you have to go deep inside, to page 18, to find this gem from Jennifer Schuessler's TBR column: She writes that both Conan O'Brien and Tommy Lee Jones wrote Harvard undergrad theses on O'Connor's work. Here's O'Brien looking back on his brief career in literary scholarship: "I wrote a thesis: 'Literary Progeria in the Works of Flannery O'Connor and William Faulkner.' Let's just stay that, during my discussions with Pauly Shore, it doesn't come up much. For three years after graduation, I kept my thesis in the glove compartment of my car so I could show it to a policeman in case I was pulled over. License, registration, cultural exploration of the Man Child in 'The Sound and the Fury.'"
I figured this had to have been the first Pauly Shore mention ever in the pages of the Book Review. I was wrong.
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So where does Tommy Lee Jones keep his thesis?
ReplyDeleteI don't know, but TLJ's also featured in the documentary film, "Harvard Beats Yale 29-29" about their 1968 football game. He played offensive tackle for Harvard. Maybe he mentions his thesis in the movie. Or maybe he mentions Pauly Shore.
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