Dean of Purdue Global Law School creates illustrated book about 'Furious George'
What happens when a curious little monkey named George gets mad after a man in a yellow suit leaves him to fend for himself? He becomes “Furious George,” an incensed primate with a bow tie who commits arson and auto theft and makes questionable choices about others’ healthcare.
Written by Martin Pritikin, the dean of the Purdue Global Law School, the cover of the self-published illustrated book Furious George: A Parody carries a “Warning: Not Suitable for Young Children” label above an artificial intelligence-generated image of a monkey that seems familiar yet far more devious.
The idea for the book targeting teenagers and parents published last month grew out of Pritikin’s boredom rereading the original Curious George series to his 6-year-old daughter, his third child.
“So one night I read, ‘George is a good little monkey and always very furious,’” says Pritikin, who has dabbled in standup comedy.
Martin Pritikin is the dean of the Purdue Global Law School. (Photo courtesy of the Purdue Global Law School)
His daughter laughed, and they agreed how it would be funny if George had an edge. His daughter pushed him to write the book, now available on Amazon.
It took only a few hours to write four short stories for the collection, he says, but creating the illustrations with AI took a few weeks. He worked with Google Gemini to develop the illustrations—a new frontier for Pritikin, who adds that it was a good exercise for a law dean working to integrate AI into the curriculum.
“Sometimes it takes a lot of iterations to get the image you want,” says Pritikin, who has self-published two other books. “Seeing what sorts of prompts worked, what didn’t and where it tended to go astray helped me better understand what the strengths and limitations were of AI, at least with regard to images.”
Ever the law professor, Pritikin conducted research on the distinctions between parody and satire to make sure that his book was on the right side of the law.
“They are distinct categories with very different consequences,” he says.
Parody is a derivative work that comments on or reflects the original and is protected, while satire uses the original style to comment on something else and could be considered as infringing on its copyright.
He cites Dr. Seuss Enterprises v. Penguin Books USA Inc., a 1997 case in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at San Francisco centered on The Cat Not in the Hat! A Parody by Dr. Juice, a book about the O.J. Simpson double murder trial in the 1990s using the look and feel of Dr. Seuss illustrations and rhymes.
The appeals court ruled that the book was satire because it had utilized copyrighted images, such as The Cat in the Hat, as well as Seuss’ distinctive writing and rhyming style but was commenting on a different topic than Dr. Seuss books. As such, the appeals court ruled that it was not protected speech.
“The parody that I wrote is a critique of how absurd it is to bring a monkey into public places, leave him alone and expect that everything’s going to be fine,” Pritikin says. “This is about as clear of a case of true parody as you can get.”
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