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Using the Force: Creativity, Community and Star Wars Fans (Updated Edition)
Using the Force Creativity Community and Star Wars Fans - Updated Edition Author:Will Brooker Star Wars is not just a film, or a trilogy, or a trilogy and two prequels. For many people, myself included, it is the single most important cultural text of their lives; it has meshed with their memories of childhood, with their home-made tributes from the amateurish childhood comics to the professional product of an adult fan ... more »0; with their choice of career or education, with their everyday experiences. Even in 1977, Star Wars was a phenomenon. For many people now, it is a culture: a sprawling, detailed mythos which they can pick through with their eyes closed, a group of characters who may have been more important role models than friends and family, and a set of codes quotes, in-jokes, obscure references which provide instant common ground for fellow fans meeting for the first time, and bind established communities together. (From the Introduction) In this intelligent and entertaining study of fandom at its most intense, Will Brooker examines the Star Wars phenomenon from the audiences 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 StarWarsChicks; from an eleven-year-old boy in south London to a Baptist Church in South Carolina; from the director of George Lucas in Love to the custodians of the Jedi Hurtaholics Archive Brooker unearths a seemingly endless array of fans who use and interpret the saga in a number of creative ways. Using the Force explores what it means to be a fan. It examines the role of gender and generation in creating sub-communities within the larger group of Star Wars devotees. It discusses the films and stories created by thousands of fans around the world, and asks whether this apparently unstoppable creativity can be controlled by an organization that has completely unintentionally positioned itself in the role of the Empire and turned loyal fans into Rebels. Ultimately, the book serves as a testament to the extraordinary power of the Star Wars films and the Expanded Universe that surrounds them.« less