My book on Star Wars and Geek Culture is now available

Five years ago, I started writing a book on geek culture, trying to explain why geeky properties like Star Wars and Harry Potter and the X-Men blew up around the turn of the millennium, and haven’t gone away since. In writing the book, I came to believe that a lot of the stories that we tell ourselves about geeks and Star Wars are wrong, and that the rise of geek culture can teach us a great deal about how movies and TV have changed over the past forty years. My goal became to write a book that would explain these changes to both geeks and non-geeks, as well as to explain what it is that geeks are looking for, and why.

That book, I Find Your Lack of Faith Disturbing: Star Wars and the Triumph of Geek Culture, is finally out, available both electronically and in print. An audiobook version is also in the works, if you prefer that. (You can listen to an excerpt here.)

I’ve pasted more information about the book below, and in the coming days I’ll post links to reviews and interviews. In the meantime, thank you for your interest! If you check the book out, I’d love to hear what you think!

In I Find Your Lack of Faith Disturbing, A. D. Jameson takes geeks and non-geeks alike on a surprising and insightful journey through the science fiction, fantasy, and superhero franchises that now dominate pop culture. Walking us through the rise of geekdom from its underground origins to the top of the box office and bestseller lists, Jameson takes in franchises like The Lord of the Rings, Guardians of the Galaxy, Harry Potter, Star Trek, and, in particular, Star Wars—as well as phenomena like fan fiction, cosplay, and YouTube parodies. Along the way, he blasts through the clichés surrounding geek culture: that its fans are mindless consumers who will embrace all things Spider-Man or Batman, regardless of quality; or that the popularity and financial success of Star Wars led to the death of ambitious filmmaking.

A lifelong geek, Jameson shines a new light on beloved classics, explaining the enormous love (and hate) they are capable of inspiring in fan and non-fan alike, while exploding misconceptions as to how and why they were made. I Find Your Lack of Faith Disturbing tells the story of how the geeks have inherited the earth.

“Funny, incisive, and timely … Jameson does for geeks what geek culture does for its superheroes: he takes them seriously, respects their power, and refuses to hide his deep affection.” — Lawrence Kasdan, co-screenwriter of The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, The Force Awakens, and Solo: A Star Wars Story

“Self-aware and self-reflective, A. D. Jameson deftly examines the development of mainstream geek culture from an insider’s perspective. He traces the path of contemporary geek media from Lucas to, well, Lucas, celebrating the future-forward thinkers in gender-fluid cosplay gear who will inherit geekdom and arguing that even if cranky critics like me find some superhero movies are getting staid that the geeks are capable of reinventing cinema again.” — Film critic April Wolfe, host of the Switchblade Sisters podcast

“Compulsively readable, Jameson’s Geek Culture is a tasty combination of personal memoir, survey of the rise of geek culture, and defense of the value of geek literature and arts. Enjoyable for the general reader and exceedingly useful to teachers, academics, and anyone interested in the past, current, and future of geekdom.” — Mary Ann Mohanraj, author of The Stars Change, founder of Strange Horizons, and Director of the Speculative Literature Foundation