The Bard Brawl: Recent Episodes
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Sally Draper books are always interesting. Sally is always interesting. Sally, more than perhaps any (Peggy, Peter aside perhaps) is forced to navigate the era, adapt and grow. She does this by constantly listening, watching and learning. Her outbursts drive her mother crazy because she hits on exactly what is going on and Betty fuggin’... Continue Reading →
Enter Japan. In S4E05 (The Chrysanthemum and the Sword), the Sterling-Cooper-Draper-Price agency gets a nibble from the Honda motor company, who are taking suitors for an ad campaign to show off their new motorbike. The relationship between Japan and America post-Second World War is an irresistable and inevitable addition to the Mad Men series, and... Continue Reading →
The first book that shows up in season four of Mad Men in S4E05 (The Chrysanthemum and the Sword) is the first book that Sally is reading on her own: The Twenty-One Balloons, by William Pène du Bois. The story is about professor William Waterman Sherman and his attempt to fly across the Pacific Ocean... Continue Reading →
Betty Draper reclines in the tub with a book in S3E10 (The Color Blue). The book is Mary McCarthy’s best-seller The Group, a novel that was banned in Australia, sent a whole ton of critics (I’m looking at you Norman Mailer) into a self-righteous tailspin and stood firm as a best seller in 1963 It... Continue Reading →
Conrad “Connie” Hilton (Chelcie Ross) first appears in S3E03 (My Old Kentucky Home) and Don makes him a drink. He calls later and then appears in S3E07 (Seven Twenty Three), which is when Peggy mentions his book. “My mother gave me his book. He’s Catholic.” – Peggy Conrad’s character and the book (which I got... Continue Reading →
Don walks into the elevator and there’s Roger. It’s S3E07 (Seven Twenty Three). “Ogilvy wrote a book… Advertising is already up there with lawyers as the most reviled, this is not going to help,” – Roger Sterling Confessions of an Advertising Man is David Ogilvy’s ground-breaking book that makes up a lot of the meat... Continue Reading →
Standing in a hospital waiting room, Lane Pryce is talking with Don Draper after learning that he is staying in America because his replacement had his foot run over by a riding lawn mower. It is S3E06, and the perfectly titled “Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency.” Ha. Classic. Guy Mackendrick (Jamie Thomas King) is... Continue Reading →
We are in season three, and after looking at Rand-esque super heroes, destruction of such hollow creations and a deep dive into the soul of the catastrophe of personality and its beauty, we come to the decline of Britain, the Vietnam war, patriarchy’s end and a whole shwack of things we can pull out of... Continue Reading →
It is season two. Peggy is skinny again (post baby), Harry Crane’s wife is pregnant, Trudy Campbell is not, Betty is taking horseback riding lessons and giving them in flirtation, Don’s blood pressure is up, and there is a photocopier in the office. It is the future. The president (JFK) is young and hot, the... Continue Reading →
There are some books perfectly placed and incredibly important to Mad Men. William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury is one such tome.