Escape into Meaning: Essays on Superman, Public Benches, and Other Obsessions

Puschak, creator of the YouTube channel the Nerdwriter, mines pop culture in this quirky collection. In “Emerson’s Magic,” he recalls the jolt he received from discovering Essays and Poems by Ralph Waldo Emerson as a college freshman, which shocked him with its ability to solidify thoughts that had been “half-formed... in my mind.” In “The Comforts of Cyberpunk,” Puschak ponders dystopia as depicted in some of the genre’s classics including the novel Neuromancer and the film Blade Runner, arriving at a bleak conclusion: “Who could have guessed in the 1980s... that we would happily give up every crumb of personal information for packages delivered a few days sooner?” Puschak occasionally gets too niche as he follows his obsessions down a rabbit hole; in “Superman Is Clark Kent,” for example, he compares and contrasts story lines from various Superman movies and spin-offs at such length that only superfans need apply, and in “Thinking in Oeuvres,” a dense meditation on Quentin Tarantino’s filmography that includes a not entirely convincing comparison to William Butler Yeats, he similarly struggles to engage those not deeply familiar with the essay’s subject. Despite the occasional misstep, Puschak’s earnest search for meaning and incisive takes make him a writer to watch. (Aug.)