Over at Slate, Glen Weldon, author of the recently released Superman: The Unauthorized Biography, has posted an “unedited transcript” of a phone conversation between him and his editor:
Editor: Glen, who are you writing this book for? Who exactly is this person in your head who’s prepared to wade through 13 pages about Superman’s dog? It’s you, isn’t it?
Weldon: OK, let me just stop you right there. I think I see the issue. You are talking about Krypto as if he’s just a dog. He’s not just a dog, Eric.
Editor: Here we go.
Weldon: He is a dog …
Editor: “ … in a cape.”
Weldon: Yes, he is a dog in a cape, Eric. And that … that is awesome. OK? Empirically so. That’s just science. I mean … did you read that section? Really read it?
Editor: Oh, I read it. All 13 pa …
Weldon: Because it doesn’t sound like you really read it.
What follows is a stirring argument for the importance of Superman’s super pet, as if the argument needed to be made.
I was hanging out with my sister’s three dogs yesterday — one still a pup who was so excited about playing that he peed on the couch — and would argue that most all dogs are empirically awesome, let alone one who built himself a Doghouse of Solitude in space.
