Second-year Alex MacLean’s walls have been adorned with the same posters since he arrived at UofT. A flexing Muhammad Ali protectingly watches MacLean each night as he falls asleep and his window is flanked by Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. MacLean claims he’ll never forget tuning into the famous Ali vs. McGregor fight of the century, or hearing his first Pink Floyd song, “Hey Jude.”
However, one poster routinely gives MacLean headaches.
On the wall hangs Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction—a staple poster in any first-year starter-pack, MacLean admits. “I’m just not sure which is better,” a puzzled MacLean said, “the movie, or the poster?” The torn student continued:
“The movie starts out great, but drags on after a while. The poster, on the other hand, never gets boring. I mean, just look at that lampshade! Why is it on diagonally? Is Tarantino trying to imitate a Dutch angle? Did someone just nudge it the wrong way and forget to fix it? I point these details out to every single woman who glances at the poster... that’s right, I get tons of ladies in my dorm thanks to this bad boy,” grinned MacLean, giving the ragged poster a couple hearty slaps.
MacLean spends most of his CIN201 tutorial clashing with fellow students on this topic, drawing the TA’s ire in the process. “The poster is Tarantino’s best work, hands down. It should’ve won the Oscar for Best Picture,” MacLean proclaimed to his bewildered classmates.
The passionate student can often be found chewing the fat with fellow customers at Poster World on Queen Street West, where he initially bought the Pulp Fiction merchandise. “Here, I find other like-minded enthusiasts spreading the poster-superiority gospel. It’s more common than you'd think.”
Thus far, only seven of MacLean's peers have dropped out of his CIN201 tutorial since the start of his ceaseless ranting.
Photo Credit: Patrick Fraser