Or at least try to.
And if you make it in, there’s a good chance you’ll never want to leave this unique world that he puts onto paper and television. He makes you feel like you’re following your best friend on a satirical adventure that guarantees gut wrenching laughs, a lot of hope and even a sprinkle of sadness from time to time – just to remind you that there’s no better hero than the underdog.
“I once was reading before class started. Jack walked in, stomped over to my desk and threw my book across the room. He told me he wanted to feel like a ‘schoolyard tough,’ and that was all he said. I learned a lot that semester,” former student Andy Paul said, recollecting his junior year in Pendarvis’s class.
Combining an imaginative, unique writing style that gives an impressive amount of visual depth, mimicking the struggles of the real world with an easy-going, adolescent-esque diction, Pendarvis establishes a different intimacy with his readers. He interacts with his readers the way most would interact with their best friends – quirky, heartfelt and especially honest.
“I tell my stories in a way that comes naturally to me,” Pendarvis said. “Reading certain other writers, for example, James Thurber and Woody Allen when I was very young and George Saunders when I got older, helped me understand my way was acceptable.”
With two collections of short stories (“The Mysterious Secret of the Valuable Treasure” and “Your Body Is Changing”) and a novel (“Awesome”) as well as writing for Cartoon Network’s animated series, “Adventure Time,” Pendarvis has brought laughs and maybe even some tears to his audiences.
“Jack can make writing a thought-out, affecting, hilarious story seem simple,” Paul said. “Then you try it and realize that it’s the hardest thing you’ve ever attempted, and that Jack knows something you don’t about how to write a story.”
Spending most of his life in the South, the Alabama native has taken a lot of inspiration from his surroundings. Writing for the Oxford American, having a monthly column in The Believer, chosen as the 2007-2008 Grisham Writer-In-Residence here at The University of Mississippi, and after staying in Oxford to teach in the English department, Pendarvis has made a notable impact on his colleagues and students and vice versa.
“Jack is my oldest friend. The way his humor and intellect intersect amazes me over and over,” said colleague and close friend Tom Franklin.
Pendarvis shows no fear in finding new creative ways to challenge himself, such as his parody of “folksy wisdom” in The Believer that will feature his last column in October.
“The Believer column was one joke that I told over and over, sometimes more successfully than others,” Pendarvis said. “I think I really got away with something, telling the same joke 40 times over the course of four years. It was a fun challenge.”
With challenges come great rewards. In the beginning stages of writing for “Adventure Time,” he was attending the writers’ meetings in Burbank, Calif., via Skype while here in Mississippi. The other writers welcomed him graciously.
“That’s what I love about the men and women of ‘Adventure Time’: they couldn’t be nicer, shier or easier going,” Pendarvis said. “At the same time, they can be intense and mysterious. They’re also the greatest professionals- really serious about the job. I have met some geniuses working on that show. I only knew the barest details about “Adventure Time” when I started, from watching it with my nephews. I’ve really enjoyed diving into that world, which, as you say, has unexpected depths.”
Unexpected depths are evident in all of Pendarvis’s work. His characters, from their actions and angst to their optimism and hope, entice you to dive into his eccentric world … and never want to leave.
