Oh Guy. Oh Guy. Not even 10 minutes into your 

show and the word “food lube” was thrown 

around casually. The nomenclature in “Diners 

Drive-Ins and Dives” is a mix of ’90s gangster 

rap, Dad Jokes and middle-of-the-country-
salt-of-the-Earth-relentless-feel-good 
compliments, but I’m not that upset about 
it? It kinda works? It’s exciting? Or maybe 
that’s just the dizzying speed of these 
camera cuts. I blame my non-diagnosed 
epilepsy on Guy Fieri. And my fear of 
hair gel. And Bowling. We finished one 
episode about Baltimore and have moved 

onto some kind of memorial for Robert Lee. 

God bless the Confederacy am I right friends! 

Somebody. Just. Fed. The Guy. I’m not sure I 

can do anymore justice to this show then to just 

finish this with an extended section of direct quotes 

from 
Diners Drive Ins and Dives that I could also use as pick-up 

lines at Ricks:

“Excellent.”
“After this, you will go home big.”
“You’re something I shoulda seen coming.”
“Everything has a really nice, rich, smoky flavor.”
“Cumin.”
“Here’s something you’ll never see cumin.”
“We’re gonna rub it up.”
“When I walked into this place, I saw the smoke so I knew it had a little bit of funk.”
“I’m a bit off the beaten path, which is fun.” 
“Can you rub this up for me?”
“We’ll just keep it a secret.”
“You like eggs?”
“You really just can’t find anything else like this around here.”
“I’ll be looking for you next time on ‘Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.’”
- Matt Gallatin, Daily Arts Writer

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
the b-side
Thursday, September 8, 2016 — 3B

By JACOB RICH

Senior Arts Editor

Am I the only one who’s 

noticed a major Stephen King 
resurgence 
lately? 
King’s 

themes of darkness just below 
the surface and supernatural 
horrors lurking in the American 
countryside feel like they’re 
infecting 2016 entertainment 
with the strength and speed of 
a deadly viral outbreak — “The 
Stand” style. 

This 
summer, 
literally 

everyone I know fell hard for 
“Stranger Things,” the Duffer 
Brothers’ loving distillation of 
King’s genre archetypes into a 
six-hour Netflix show. Podcasts 
like “Welcome to Night Vale” 
and 
“Bizarre 
States” 
have 

been 
incorporating 
Kingian 

genre elements into otherwise 
standard, 
ethnographically 

specific American dramas. And 
let’s certainly not forget Robert 
Eggers’s fantastic film “The 
Witch,” the demonic thriller 
that feels ripped from the pages 
of “Jerusalem’s Lot.” Point 
being: there’s a lot of spooky 
stuff coming out lately that 
probably wouldn’t be here if not 
for King’s influence. 

Let me be clear: I’m NOT 

complaining 
about 
how 

much genre stuff there is. 
Dark, 
supernatural, 
make-

stuff-float-with-your-mind 
thrillers are most definitely 
in my wheelhouse (let me rant 
to you sometime about why 
“Chronicle” is one of the greatest 
films of the 21st century). But 
while we’re ripping off King, 
why don’t we look back at his 
more mainstream stuff, too? 
In my humble opinion, I think 
the best thing King ever wrote 
was “The Body,” a novella that 
was released as part of the same 
collection that included the 
inspiration for “The Shawshank 
Redemption.” 
You 
probably 

know it better as “Stand By Me,” 
Rob Reiner’s film adaptation 
from 1986. It’s the story of four 
boys who, after an infamously 
quotable goading from a friend 
(“You guys wanna go see a 
dead body?”), go on a spiritual 
journey through the Maine 
wilderness to find the corpse 
of a kid who was hit by a train. 
It’s an essential exploration 
of 
youthful 
masculinity 
— 

certainly a guy movie, but a 
heartfelt and good one. 

The second I heard about 

Aaron Burch’s book, I knew I 
had to meet him. The concept, 
an 
autobiographical 
and 

analytical 
book 
about 
one 

author’s experience with “The 

Body” and the change in said 
experience 
over 
time, 
was 

immediately 
gripping. 
His 

book is a part of a line called 
“Bookmarked,” 
a 
series 
of 

books about books (books that 
made a “mark” on the author — 
hence, “Bookmarked”). The line 
was inspired by “33⅓,” another 
series of books in which writers 
take an in-depth look at classic 
albums.

“I’ve spent years thinking 

about what I’d write as a 33⅓,” 
Burch said in an interview with 
The Michigan Daily.

“But I don’t really think I 

want to write one. And then 
‘The Body’ just came to mind, 
because I love ‘Stand By Me’ 
so much. It’s like, well, that’s 
a movie, and these are books 
about books. But it’s a movie 
based on a book, so I could kind 
of cheat a little bit and write 
about both.”

Burch is an English lecturer 

at the University of Michigan, 
and 
formerly 
at 
Eastern 

Michigan 
University. 
You 

might have taken his “Rhetoric 
of Growing Up” English 124 
section, in which he taught 
King’s 
novel 
among 
other 

coming-of-age 
narratives 
to 

freshman students. He’s a 
young, down-to-earth guy, and 
his enthusiasm for the material 
was quite immediately evident 
— a bright, bearded smile 
shined at me throughout our 
conversation.

“I think I’ve read and loved 

lots of books that I don’t have 
anything to say about,” Burch 
said. 

“I’ve been forced to say 

things about it because I’m the 
teacher, and I have to at least 
pretend to be the authority 
on it. And then, also, (I) can 
end up using that to talk about 
teaching. I have lesson plans 
that I could almost turn into 
essays that (could) become the 
book but I can also talk about 
how that lesson plan worked in 
class.”

Besides teaching and writing, 

Burch also curates Hobart, 
a literary journal. A stuffy, 
stereotypical academic journal 
Hobart is not. It has a sleek, 
indie aesthetic, and frequently 
publishes 
poems, 
nonfiction 

and fiction from a huge variety 
of writers.

“I 
wasn’t 
yet 
seriously 

thinking about if I ever wanted 
to write a book or publish a 
book. I was just doing these 
short little things to entertain 
myself,” Burch said.

“I had just finished college 

and I didn’t know what I was 

doing. And those things were 
fun. And I had a day job at a 
bank which wasn’t fun.”

Burch started the journal in 

2001 as a website. He learned 
how to build in HTML in a 
class and used it as an excuse to 
practice web design.

“And then we started doing 

books at some point,” Burch 
said.

Burch’s 
wife, 
Ellen, 
is 

essentially his creative partner. 
They work on most of their 
literary ventures together — 
though he’s mostly focused on 
the online journal, and these 
days she’s mostly in charge of 
the full-length books.

One of my favorite chapters 

of Burch’s book talks about the 
relationship between Gordie 
(the narrator and protagonist) 
and King himself. Being a video 
game fan, I couldn’t help but 
geek out when Burch compared 
the nature of Gordie’s narration 
to a customizable role-playing 
game protagonist, synthesizing 
an excerpt from a Matt Bell 
essay on “Baldur’s Gate 2.” I 
made sure to grill him about it.

“I don’t just like (that part) 

just because (the narrator) was 
King, and that makes it more 
real. I like it because you can 
feel King peeking out from 
around the corner,” Burch said.

“The 
Body” 
has 
been 

criticized over the years for a few 
things, likely most frequently 
about its almost complete lack 
of female characters. But often 
it seems like people criticize 
fans of “The Body” fans more 
than the text itself — online 
rhetoric around “Stand By Me” 
and “The Body” is extremely 
negative toward those that 
have vigorous nostalgia for the 
stories. I love what Burch had 
to say about the matter.

“I think the reason the book 

and the movie still work is 
because of nostalgia, but I don’t 
think nostalgia alone would 
hold up over so long,” he said.

“It’s easy to be really cynical 

about 
nostalgia 
and 
just 

blanket discount it. I think 
King doesn’t do that at all. He 
really embraces … you know, he 
loved this moment. But saying 
he loved it doesn’t mean it was 
perfect.

“I think one of the important 

things is that they all end up 
going 
their 
separate 
ways. 

It’s not the ‘and then we were 
friends forever’ ending. Or also, 
it doesn’t just end ‘and then the 
summer ended.’ ”

Aaron Burch’s book, “Stephen 

King’s The Body: Bookmarked,” 
is available on Amazon. 

COLUMBIA PICTURES

Are these the dads from “Teen Mom”?

‘Diners, Drive-Ins 

and Dives’ 

in this series, three daily arts writers in 

varying states of mind do the same activity 

and write about their experiences.

this week’s event:

so i guess we picked this episode bc “flavortown” is in the name. everyone in this room is 

trash

this fat man is talking about street signs for some reason
dis boi just said “let’s fight it up” while sweatily eye-fucking this chicken. 
my body is tingling yo

i’m stoned and i feel like guy fieri’s showing some really raunchy pornography rn

guy fieri — “uhh uh don’t u love it wen uh u fuk a dam smoked ribeye folks” 

[editors note: ew]

guy fieri — “oh dam this ice cream thicc ;^)”

i think he’s cryin over sum ice cream. some literal tears. 

iconic.

this man really just rolled up in a damn jeep and 

mustard colored oakleys

this man is hitting on some elderly 

asian lady like he tryna get in 

this food truck rn
guy fieri is extremely off the 

MSG, beleeeeeh dat

i had a trailer trash neighbor when i 

was grown up and he used to play trash rock 

til like 2 in the morning and i think he scored this 

dam show

guy fieri - “real chicken based garlic sauce hrs smash dat 

mf heartburn button !!!”

the amount of sexual innuendos they shove into this show has got 

me messed up

-Daily Arts Writer

This dude’s dressed like when you first start 

skateboarding in 6th grade except he started after his kids 
started. He just said “fired up” while describing duck fat 
and rapped about a duck 
based dish, rhyming “rice” with 

“nice.”

Does anyone know Guy Fieri’s real age
Startup Idea: a drinking game based on the number of 

fist 
bumps initiated by Guy Fieri
What in the fuck kind of restaurant puts ice cream on 

chicken. The south should’ve low key stayed seceded

He’s wearing gym shorts with flip flops lmao
“Can’t go wrong with big rig shrimp”
Guy Fieri hitting on a Thai chef in a food truck
Damn i just noticed he has earrings lmao
The originator, not the imitators, baby
A statistics study investigating the probability that rock 

music is playing given a shot of meat on fire

How has guy fire not been in an internet rap video yet 

??? spaceghostpurrp I’m talking to you

Guy Fieri the type of dude to not ask for napkins
How has guy fieri not been sponsored by oakley yet
Feel like they intentionally target obese southerners for 

the customer interviews

The perfect storm of strawberry and soup. You rocked 

the house baby

Go big or go home; after this, you go home big

baked.buzzed.bored.

Low key Guy Fieri drops bars if you pay attention
I smelled the smoke; knew it had a little funk
You ever seen a dude with a bandana that only goes around the back of their head? You ever 

seen Guy Fierir?

This dude drops ad libs but for food truck chefs
-Daily Arts Writer

Burch on King’s 
great ‘The Body’

DO YOU KNOW WHAT A 

TURBO THOT IS?

IF SO, WRITE FOR ARTS!

Email katjacqu@umich.edu and ajtheis@umich.edu for an 

application.

