- Paperback: 288 pages
- Publisher: Continuum; New edition edition (Mar 20 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0826414664
- ISBN-13: 978-0826414663
- Product Dimensions: 2.3 x 1.5 x 0.2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 503 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#911,182 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #62 in Books > Nonfiction > Social Sciences > Sociology > Leisure
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
"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
"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
Book 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.
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Most helpful customer reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
Non Fans Only,
By
This review is from: Using the Force: Creativity, Community and Star Wars Fans (Paperback)
Anyone who frequents theforce.net message board will find everything in here to be old news. There isnt anything unique or any revelations of any kind on the state of fandom. Many of the editorial decisions are downright headscratching, such as devoting the most pages and the largest chapter to the most obscure and least appetizing (and interesting) of SW fan activites, slash fan fiction, and then giving mere lipservice to the fan film subculture despite its overwhelming popularity and overabundance of ancedotes. There was nothing in the fanfilm section at all that could not be gleened by even a superficial examination of a handful of fanfilm websites. Very shallow.The author's research as a sum total is highly suspect. He says that the bulk of his personal correspondance consists of merely the first 100 members of theforce.net to answer his email. Whereas he can hide behind that process being allegely random, the results obivously indicate that he got caught with a string of egomaniacs and malcontents. My impression is that the author has an unreasonable hatred of Phantom Menace, and is using this book to get back at Lucas, for Lucas "owes" him in some etherial manner known only to the TPM bashers who spend far too much time and spend far too much anger to be taken seriously about anything. This book is not Star Wars friendly, yet it tries to fool you into thinking it is a fair assessment. It is not.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Uneven, but Worth it for Fans,
By Teague Bohlen (Denver, CO United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Using the Force: Creativity, Community and Star Wars Fans (Hardcover)
If you're a fan of the Star Wars mythoi, get this book, no question. Parts of it are a lot of fun, but it gets too bogged down in its own pseudo-academic style sometimes. There were points in the book where I got a bit impatient with the belaboring of the point at hand, but that's a niggling point at best. Bottom line: I'm a fan, and I'm glad to have this book in my Star Wars collection of reading. You will be too.
4.0 out of 5 stars
SW Community,
By john kersten (St. Louis, MO USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Using the Force: Creativity, Community and Star Wars Fans (Hardcover)
A great book for appreciating the various outlets of current Star Wars fandom. While offering little serious academic discourse, the book does put into print many issues which to this point have been limited to internet discussion and fan zines, such as LFL's strict licesing enforcement, the culture of message board discussion, fan fiction and films. In the end it stands as an interesting catalog of current happenings in the world of Star Wars fandom, as seen from an insider who respects the devotion of a unique community.
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