Why the Past 20 Years Have Witnessed the Triumph of Geek Culture

When I started writing my most recent book, I Find Your Lack of Faith Disturbing: Star Wars and the Triumph of Geek Culture, I wanted to make an argument about aesthetics. Namely, I wanted to argue that when it comes to art, geeks tend to like works of realist fantasy, which puts the lie to the widespread belief that realism and fantasy are opposites. (They’re not: realism is a mode, or way of making art, while fantasy is a genre; any genre can be done in any mode.)

As I worked on the book, however, I realized that people were just as interested, if not more interested, in the history of geek culture. Whenever I told people what I was doing, they said that they hoped the book would explain why geeky stuff is everywhere these days—why it’s taken over the culture. Why are all the movies at the Cineplex superhero movies? Why is everyone talking about Game of Thrones? Why is it now considered OK, or mostly OK, for adults to read Harry Potter novels and comic books? So I knew I needed to write about that, too.

As it turned out, this wasn’t a problem, because the two topics are intimately intertwined. Indeed, you can’t understand the history of geek culture without also grasping its aesthetics.

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The Death and Rebirth of Star Wars: Part 2

In Part 1 of this series, I documented how the Star Wars franchise, which burst so spectacularly onto the scene in 1977, fizzled out by the end of 1986. Before the first movie had even celebrated its tenth birthday, George Lucas had stopped making not only new Star Wars films, but Star Wars comics, cartoons, TV movies, action figures, novels, video games—you name it:

But of course the story didn’t end there. In May 1991, the franchise rumbled back to life, resuming all of those product lines, and eventually going on to release new Star Wars movies:

What’s more, all of those products have continued in some form or another until today.

What explains that four-year-long gap, when Star Wars disappeared? And why did the franchise return, and why has it stuck around since then?

In order to answer those and other related questions, I wrote my most recent book, I Find Your Lack of Faith Disturbing: Star Wars and the Triumph of Geek Culture, which I encourage you to buy and read! But if you want the short version of the story, then read on …

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The Death and Rebirth of Star Wars: Part 1

Like a lot of people my age, I just missed out on seeing the original Star Wars movies in the theater. Instead, I grew up with them on VHS. And right around when I was really getting into them, in 1986, Star Wars went away.

Which perplexed me at the time. Why did Star Wars disappear in the mid 1980s? And why did it come back, and come back differently, starting in 1991? These questions haunted me so much, I eventually wrote a book about the subject: I Find Your Lack of Faith Disturbing: Star Wars and the Triumph of Geek Culture. Because it’s an interesting story, I’ll explain what happened in this series of blog posts.

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I Find Your Lack of Faith Disturbing: reviews, interviews, articles, and more

I wanted to collect in one place all of the secondary materials related to my most recent book, I Find Your Lack of Faith Disturbing: Star Wars and the Triumph of Geek Culture. Below you’ll find links to the audiobook, online excerpts, interviews with me, reviews, and related articles. I’ll also update this post as new materials become available. … Enjoy!

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My talk at Google

Last month, I visited Google (as part of their Talks at Google series) to discuss my latest book, I Find Your Lack of Faith Disturbing: Star Wars and the Triumph of Geek Culture. Over the course of an hour, I spoke with Josh Pyle and other Google employees about how geeks have become a mainstream demographic, and what that entails: what geeks want, why corporations increasingly cater to geeks, and how those intersecting desires have resulted in the geek community’s current political struggles. Thanks to Google for inviting me to speak, and thanks to everyone who checks out the video below—I’d love to hear your thoughts!

 

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I Find Your Lack of Faith Disturbing: The Audiobook

I listen to a lot of podcasts and audiobooks, so I’m thrilled to announce that there is now an audiobook version of my latest book, I Find Your Lack of Faith Disturbing: Star Wars and the Triumph of Geek Culture! I myself read the introduction, and the rest of the book was read by actor Holter Graham. You can listen to samples here and here, and you can purchase the whole recording here, as well as here.

Enjoy!

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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!

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My book on Star Wars and Geek Culture comes out on May 8th

On May 8th, FSG will publish my book I Find Your Lack of Faith Disturbing: Star Wars and the Triumph of Geek Culture, which is available for pre-order here.

About the book:

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

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