More on “Please Publish My New Adult Coloring Book: GTFU”

McSween1

Today my short parody, “Please Publish My Adult Coloring Book: Grow the F*ck Up!” is featured on McSweeney’s Internet Tendency.  I’m perversely proud of this, for some reason.  Mostly, I think, because it validates my thinking that this silly piece actually contains a great idea for a book!

However, I am also sensitive to the notion that adult coloring books have therapeutic value. When my dad had a stroke, this was something I bought him to help retrain motor memory and create even though debilitated.  I also think coloring is fun, and it’s kind of cool when groups of people gather together in coffeeshops to fill in the blanks and chat in a sort of crayola-laden kaffeeklatsch.

Or as @ShinyZomby puts it on twitter:

Anyway — no, it’s not the therapeutic value, it’s the denegration of publishing and the deskilling of the arts I’m against.  We are substituting artistic creation with…something else. So I’ve gathered together a list of some research I’ve been doing (and madly sharing on twitter all day) as a sort of “but seriously!” counter-message campaign:

I do like some coloring books.

The kind where the pages turn yellow-colored with time, for instance.

Thanks again, McSweeney’s!

p.s. the astounding stats cited at the top of my humor piece are real! See Publisher’s Weekly and Washington Post

Thanks Jeremy! I totally concur!