Chris Gavaler and Nathaniel Goldberg Collaborate to Publish Third Book Together The W&L professors’ latest publication uses pop culture concepts to untangle real-world histories.

By Brian Laubscher
June 18, 2024

Washington and Lee professors Chris Gavaler and Nathaniel Goldberg have collaborated on a new book “Revising Reality: How Sequels, Remakes, Retcons and Rejects Explain the World,” which first hit bookshelves on May 30.

The work, produced by Bloomsbury Publishing, is the third book collaboration published by Gavaler, associate professor of English, and Goldberg, professor of philosophy. The duo previously teamed up to publish “Revising Fiction, Fact, and Faith: A Philosophical Account” in 2020 and “Superhero Thought Experiments: Comic Book Philosophy” in 2019.

Their latest publication uses pop culture concepts to untangle real-world histories. Gavaler and Goldberg explain, “Novels, comics, films and TV shows can continue events (sequels), reinterpret events (retcons) or restart events (remakes), and audiences can ignore any of these revisions (rejects). We draw on these kinds of revisions from ‘Star Wars,’ ‘Harry Potter,’ ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and Marvel comics to analyze scientific discoveries, Supreme Court cases, folk heroes and even trans names and human memory.”

Describing their third experience co-authoring a book, Gavaler says “The great thing about our collaboration is that Nat and I could probably have each written maybe 25% individually, so 50% in total, but it’s the other 50% that feels like magic.”

“I can spend a couple of hours writing, go off and take a walk,” Goldberg adds, “and when I come back, as if by magic, my mistakes have been fixed and a couple more pages have been added.”

The research leading to the book was made possible through assistance from the Summer Lenfest Grant and the Class of 1956 Provost’s Faculty Development Endowment.

Gavaler, who has served as a member of the W&L faculty since 2010, has authored or co-authored nine books and several one-act plays, including five winners of the Pittsburgh New Works Festival. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in English and a Master of Arts in English education from Rutgers University and an MFA from the University of Virginia.

Goldberg has been with the W&L faculty since 2008. He has authored or co-authored four books and has been published extensively throughout his career. He received a Bachelor of Arts in history from Brandeis University, a Master of Arts in philosophy from Tufts University and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Georgetown University.

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