Little Big Man on Campus
Salon pretends to take Jeremy Iverson and his undercover in high school book seriously. Iverson, a prep-school kid from New York, got out of Stanford and feeling berefit of purpose, decided to re-create Fast Times at Ridgemont High–so much so he called himself Jeremy Hughes. But, considering his fellow class mates busted him almost the minute he put a foot on campus (probably because he was wearing makeup), as Bob Sipchen reports, who knows how much of the book is observation and how much is wishful thinking? In fact, the Claremont student paper, the Wolfpacket, won an award for their investigative work. Salon doesn’t mention that part, but then writer David Kent Randall seems to have done no research, and probably didn’t read the book. Trying to take the party line on US educational policy, he gets nothing but platitudes out of the author. Sipchen, a real pro, got a great quote out of Iverson:
When I ask how anyone can know if anything in his book is true, he says, “that’s what we’re warranting” and calls my question “epistemological… how can we know anything?”
Sipchen really lets the guy hang himself. Iverson’s website is also full of unintentional humor.
Lyn Tornabene did this stunt first, and her now-out of print I Passed As A Teenager has a veracity and zest that Iverson couldn’t muster if he tried. FBLA thinks he should stop trying.
