THE JOLLY ROGER-- sighted in Book Magazine:
Ex-prof takes love of literature online
At just thirty years of age, Elliot McGucken is already an ex-professor. After earning a Ph.D. in physics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and getting a teaching post at nearby Davidson College, McGucken quit to devote all his time to--what else?--his Web site. www.Jollyroger.com is, according to McGucken, a "classical portal," a huge index of chat rooms, essays and poetry--each with a literary theme. A quick tour reveals a number of McGucken's own poems as well as live discussions for fans of everyone from Daniel Quinn to Herman Melville to Sylvia Plath to Joseph Heller.
"I want to bring the classics to life for my generation, a generation that's lost touch with literature," McGucken says. His use of the term "classics" is pretty loose. Any Jollyroger.com visitor who wants to start a chat room on his or her favorite author is welcome, and the site even has a few unapologetically philosophical discussions (like "Women's Fear of Sexuality").
McGucken considers himself a bit of a rebel, what with quitting academia and loving literature despite his scientific background. And he's definitely attempting to defy the stereotype of Generation Xers as disinterested layabouts. Hence Jollyroger.com's pirate theme. It also ties in nicely with North Carolina's Outer Banks, one of McGucken's favorite haunts and the destination of many of his childhood vacations.
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