Ron Swanson. Transcendentalist?

The Believer: How did you become such a contrarian?

Nick Offerman: When I was in fourth grade, we were learning vocabulary words, and the word nonconformist came up. The teacher said, “It’s somebody who whatever everybody is doing, they do the opposite.” I remember raising my hand and saying, “Mrs. Christiansen, I would like to be a nonconformist.”

In the most recent issue of The Believer lies a fantastic interview with Nick Offerman, the actor and woodworker behind Ron Swanson of NBC’s Parks and Recreation. Offerman holds one of the starring roles on the show and in the last few years his character has become quite an icon among, well, pretty much everybody.

In this interview we learn that Offerman once acted in a rendition of Alfred Jarry’s avant-garde, “pata-physical” play Ubu Roi and that he is well versed in the music of both Frank Zappa and Tom Waits. When asked who he thought would be Ron’s inaugural poet his response was, “Probably himself. Or Wendell Berry. I think that Ron would be a big wendell Berry fan.”

Here at The American Scholar we wanted to thank The Believer for making this available, as well as confirming our hope that Offerman was as much a nonconformist as Ron Swanson.

Source: believermag.com

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