Everyone and everything you love will eventually fall short of your expectations. That’s just how life works. Nobody’s perfect, and the longer a piece of art abides, the more likely it is that it’ll start to suck. Few constituencies understand this better than comedy and fantasy fandoms, like-minded crowds that tend to share an affinity for the written word. Some of my favorite comics are also experts on elves and superheroes.
I don’t know where “Have I Got News for You” star Michael Ian Black falls on the nerd scale, though the comedian hosts a literature podcast called “Obscure.” Its current season dissects “An American Tragedy,” which I haven’t read. I’d bet I’m not alone there, and I’d further guess that far more people are familiar with J.K. Rowling than “Tragedy” author Theodore Dreiser.
