Sometimes, being ordinary is just enough

For a movie fan, it’s unusual to want to talk about a literary festival. But when it comes to this year’s edition of Get Lit! , the annual celebration of words put on by Eastern Washington University Press (this year to be held April 12-18), it’s appropriate. Because in addition to the scheduled presences of Lynda Barry , Dave Barry, Kurt Vonnegut Jr. and Garrison Keillor, the press has added Harvey Pekar .

If that doesn’t sound familiar, then you haven’t seen the film “American Splendor.” Directed by the filmmaking team of Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, “American Splendor” is the story of an average guy from Cleveland who decides that “Ordinary life is pretty complex stuff.” And so he begins writing comic books , describing his job as a file clerk in a veteran’s hospital, his three marriages, his wife’s bout with cancer. In doing so, he makes life seem, well, “pretty complex stuff.”

And now Pekar is coming to Spokane. He’ll be part of a lineup that, along with last month’s surprisingly good Spokane International Film Festival , is an indication that the strange concept called sophistication is threatening to destroy our fair city’s reputation for being a backwoods Mecca for bumpkins. Hey, and I thought we were just ordinary. The irony is that Pekar’s appearance just may change that image.