Using the Force: Creativity, Community and Star Wars Fans

(Hardback)

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Description

In this intelligent and entertaining study of fandom at its most intense, Will Brooker examines the Star Wars phenomenon from the audience's perspective and discovers that the saga exerts a powerful influence over the social, cultural, and spiritual lives of those drawn into its myth. From a Boba Fett-loving police officer in Indiana to the webmistress of www.starwarschicks.com; from an eleven-year-old boy in south London to a Baptist Church in South Carolina; Brooker unearths a seemingly endless array of fans who use and interpret the saga in a number of creative ways.

Reviews

"This is a wonderful book. Will Brooker provides a wealth of badly-needed evidence, which will be of great use to anyone interested in ongoing debates about the relation between cultural production and consumption, the place of media in identity formation, and the ways in which meanings are produced from texts. The book is intelligent and informed, and is supremely careful only to make claims which are supported by the evidence it presents. It shows that it is not only possible, but vitally important, for academics to have a detailed knowledge of the texts and communities they are writing about, if they are to provide reasonable analyses of the ways in which they function. Above all, this book is beautifully written, and extremely readable."--Alan McKee, Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies
"Timely and provocative....enthusiastically written....In 10 well-crafted chapters, Brooker manages to capture the original excitement surrounding the film's 1977 premiere while dissecting how and why the enthusiasm endures....Brooker's clear prose sings....[his] obvious dedication to his project makes Using the Force a must for fans and a necessary read for students of pop culture."--The Austin Chronicle
"...both readable and informative...There is a lot for the Maul fan here"--Darth Maul Estrogen Brigade 2, 9/12/02

Author Bio

Will Brooker Professor of Film and Television at Kingston University, UK. He is the author of several books, including studies of Batman, Star Wars, Blade Runner, and Lewis Carroll.