I've largely been ignoring politics lately, so I'm not entirely up-to-date on the latest pearls of wisdom Glenn Beck has shared with the world. I know his show on Fox was canceled, which he deftly spun as an opportunity to join the cause he's been championing since Obama's inauguration. What that cause entails remains a mystery to me, but he's incredibly prolific. The book pictured above was just one of 4 books he had published in 2011.
Based on the cover image alone, it's not exactly clear what this book is about. Obviously, Glenn Beck and George Washington are involved. It's also clear that Mr. Beck is quite fond of our first president. Here we have the author himself, perfectly in focus in the foreground, clothed humbly in gray, hands unassumingly folded, smirking as humbly as humanly possible. This is a clear and effective way of reinforcing the Glenn Beck as the everyman hundreds of thousands of people adore. Well done.
But wait! What's that bust doing in the background taking up less than a quarter of the cover? My community college critical thinking training tells me that it's George Washington. The very subject of the book. Why is he in the background, blurry, and taking up half the space of the author? There appears to be some dissonance between the title of the book and what's implied by the cover. Was this Glenn's idea? One of his handlers? One of the fine people at the publishing house? Which man is really so indispensable? Perhaps he is as we've "never seen him" because he's never appeared so blurry.
The dust jacket description makes it clear that Glenn's intentions were to show us what made Washington an ideal role model. It's likely that he's intending to magnanimously include himself as a regular guy who Washington inspires. This image's composition entirely contradicts that idea, instead making Mr. Beck look like someone with some serious delusions of grandeur.
But wait! What's that bust doing in the background taking up less than a quarter of the cover? My community college critical thinking training tells me that it's George Washington. The very subject of the book. Why is he in the background, blurry, and taking up half the space of the author? There appears to be some dissonance between the title of the book and what's implied by the cover. Was this Glenn's idea? One of his handlers? One of the fine people at the publishing house? Which man is really so indispensable? Perhaps he is as we've "never seen him" because he's never appeared so blurry.
The dust jacket description makes it clear that Glenn's intentions were to show us what made Washington an ideal role model. It's likely that he's intending to magnanimously include himself as a regular guy who Washington inspires. This image's composition entirely contradicts that idea, instead making Mr. Beck look like someone with some serious delusions of grandeur.
This is an even newer book about a former president, its cover makes much more sense.
