Becoming Anchorman
Eighth grade, 1980 — auditioning only for Anchorman in The Idiot Box, and recognizing the guardian archetype that would keep returning: the long white beard, the book against the machine, the keeper of the word.
Work in progress. This piece is still taking shape. What follows is a working outline, not a finished essay.
This essay is in progress. What follows is the working shape of the first piece in a trilogy of creative nonfiction — the identity hook behind this site. Subscribe via Take Flight for the finished work.
Becoming Anchorman
Trilogy I of III — with The Quest for Merlin and The Curse of Sweeney.
Premise
In 1980, in eighth grade, I tried out for a school play called The Idiot Box. I read for one part only: Anchorman. I was willing to risk not being cast at all if I did not get it. The identification was that strong — even then.
The play
The Idiot Box is set in a dystopian future controlled by television. A free-spirited child discovers an ancient artifact — a book — and brings it to Anchorman to learn what it is. Anchorman teaches the boy to read. The guardian against the machine. The keeper of the word.
What the essay will hold
- The audition: one role, or nothing
- Anchorman as guardian archetype — long white beard, myth, watchfulness
- Discovering a love of reading at that age, and recognizing myself in the part
- How the archetype kept returning: lighthouse, Merlin, Suibhne, the writer under the tree
- Why this site’s author page begins with a face that still rhymes with that first costume of meaning
Series position
- Becoming Anchorman — the archetype recognized (1980)
- The Quest for Merlin — the scholarly hunt and the name that answered (1995–1997)
- The Curse of Sweeney — the life that rhymed with the tale, and the mercy that restored it