Non Fiction::: USING THE FORCE by Brooker

This book attempts to address all the major fan activities and explain them to the non-fan: Fan Fiction, Fan Films etc. A good idea in theory, however......


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.
The author lets these "fans" (used loosely) go off on the most inane and undefendable rants on how Lucas is an idiot, the movies suck, and how much better everything would be if they were in charge, and the author never follows through to get them to justify these positions. Every wild eyed gut spew is taking as God's Holy Fact. That would be acceptable if the author was writing a book about people who hate the Phantom Menace, but he isnt. He pretends to write a book about ALL Star Wars fans, and pretends that these anti-Phantom views speak for the majority of all fans, a position which is completely unjustified. He gives pro-phantom fans only brief soundbites to rebut the furious raving of the bashers, and never even tries to gives both sides an equal shake. This ought not happen.
(There was not a single complaint given by the bashers that was not completely refutable if not outright ridiculous paranoia. They dont review TPM, they engage in character assassination, the maturity of which is nonexistant and juvenile. I could cut any one of these yo yos into metaphorical ribbons on a moderated message board in 30 seconds or less).

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.
Stick to the message boards.

 

Yes, I actually visited London last summer and while I was in a bookstore there, I saw that book and picked it up. I thought it'd be interesting to see what the general reaction to our fandom is from, what seemed to be at first, a fan himself. I started reading it and when I was roughly a third of the way through it, I came to a similar revelation to yours: why do I need to read a book on myself from, for all intents and purposes in this topic, myself? If I want to know about the fans, why not talk to others? So that blue covered book with the stormtrooper helmeted kid on front is currently sitting on my bookshelf, one third read.

It got a bit monotonous hearing his disdain for Lucas' multimedia empire (as he refers to it on multiple occasions) and his general indifference to the prequels. I'm not really one to judge, however, as I haven't finished the book, and the author, Will Brooker, seemed to be a pretty good guy. Maybe one day I'll get up enough time to read this book, but I'm not really losing any sleep over not doing so.

 

Isn't this a movie that came out this weekend? Wait I'm thinking of politics not SW.

 

Isn't this a movie that came out this weekend? Wait I'm thinking of politics not SW.

That is so weird, before I even read your post, I was thinking the same thing.

I do have to agree with the other posters. If the book does not give a fair and balanced account of the various views of Star Wars fans, then it is not right. I am a relative Newbie to these boards, but even I know the reaction to the prequels runs the gamut from those who love it to those who believe Jar Jar should be drawn and quartered. For an author to dismiss the views of the PT lovers is wrong.

I do want to say, I have not read this book, but I am only commenting on what was said in the other posts.

 

A book and a movie. Anything that takes any word of any malcontent as infallible truth without any challenge is juvenile.

 

Never read it and never heard of it until this thread. But now I'm curious as to the ages of most of the "fans" this guy used. I'm part of the generation who were growing up when the OT was originally released, and I'd believe more PT haters would probably come from my generation than from the generation who are growing up as the PT is being released. It would be intresting to see if most of those he used for this book came from the generation who grew up with the OT.

 

He didnt make that entirely clear, but my experience is along the lines of yours, that people these days judge movies by dead bodies and bare breasts and similiar immaturity. TPM has a similar structure to The Hobbit as it relates to the entirety of The Lord of Rings, yet that kind of three-steps-ahead thinking is alien to todays channel surfing culture.

 

Actually I thought Using the Force was pretty balanced in his views. He used the crazy "Phantom Menace" backlash as an example because it showed how meaningful some of the ideas were to the fans. My only problem was the

'No shavit Thrawn' factor.

He stated effectively views known to every single Star Wars fan alive who is even remotely serious about his hobby.

The book might be fascinating for people who think we're odd and strange for our views but it'd be like writing a book on Trekkies and saying

'Well there were quite a few people who liked the Next Generation more than the original. Alot of fans hated Wesley though'

 

Perhaps it's just the areas of fandom I'm involved in (RASSM, Beyond the Saga), but most of the fans I know aren't great fans of the Prequels - and in the wider world, where most people like Star Wars, the reputation of TPM and AotC is poor...

And yes, I can see things in the films that suggest that George seems to be trying to something interesting with them - I can see angles from which they're a rich and rewarding viewing experience - but if they don't make the average viewer care, then, considering the amount of goodwill that Star Wars in general still has, there's something worrying... they've failed to retain the human interest the which is part of the storytelling style of the Star Wars saga...



Fundamentally, it's possible to be a SW fan without liking the Prequels, or at least, while retaining the ability to criticise and question them - and while there are certainly places (AFS, Before the Saga) where strong pro-Prequel sympathies are likely to be prevalent, I'm not sure they don't represent a minority even within hard-core fandom.

Certainly, people who believe in "George's vision" and as such, regard the Prequels as measuring up to the standards set by the OT (and, for that matter, the best of the EU) are a small clique compared with the far, far larger group of people who like Star Wars...

- The Imperial Ewok

 

Everybody has their own little sphere of life, and in the end we can only decide what we can decide based on that sphere. My brother hangs around like minded people, like minded people who all think that TPM sucked. The mistake is in my Brothers thinking that his sphere is the most perfect and most balanced and best of all possible realms of experience.

My own experience says that most fans liked TPM. And I of course hold my own sphere in the highest regard, so in the end it must be asked "who is more in tune with the general Star Wars public?"

Well in terms of my brother and myself, it is obviously me. As for everyone else....I cannot hold USING THE FORCE in high regard for the printing of paragraph long quotes from rabid TPM haters who make the mistake of insulting Lucas rather than insulting the movie. That is a huge red flag of complete bias and not thinking things through. There is no opportunity for the TPM gushers to get their own paragraph long viewpoints out. That is the best of all possible measurements of the fairness factor of the book.

Something to chew on, I do not have any respect for the viewpoint of "lucas has lost the magic," for I cannot seriously believe anyone, even the average fan, knows what that Lucas magic was. I have asked too many TPM bashers who have used that phrase to answer: "Name one Samurai movie that Lucas got inspiration from."
I get a "well....I....uh" for my trouble.

"Name a book of classic sci fi that lucas got inspiration from."

"Well...I...uh"

Most people wouldnt know "the magic" if it came up and stuck a lightsaber down their throat, and cannot be taken as credible with their complaint. I hold most if not all TPM bashers in that group, including the author of the book in question.

 

Personally, I loved the book. It's one of my favorite cultural anthropology studies. Of course, part of that is because I was around for a while when he was writing it, so I ended up being quoted in his Fan Film chapter intro, but I read it cover-to-cover twice already.

Will Brooker was one of the first people I set up an interview with for my radio show, ChronoRadio, when I was first starting out, and the interview went really well. He's a pretty good guy. I'm not sure if the original poster there was referring to the hardback that came out a couple of years ago, or the paperback (since last I talked to Prof. Brooker, he wasn't sure when the paperback would come out), but if the paperback is out now, people should really pick up that one, as he gave me a sneak preview of the new AOTC chapter before the interview, and I think it does a good job of expanding on the whole "prequel fan disappointment, and fan feelings" concept that he tried to get across in the hardback edition.

Great book. I recommend it to anyone.

There's a review of it in ChronoRadio #1 (my sad, sad first episode), and his interview is up as well. Both are here.

 

'No shavit Thrawn' factor

What is that? I don't like the sound of that!!

I haven't read the book, so I am in no position to say anything for or against it.

 

I was referring to the hardback edition. I do not believe the paperback has been released yet. I will be interested in reading a chapter on AOTC, and seeing how equal handed the book is this time around, other than taking the opinions of a few malcontents and blowing them all out of proportion.

If I were to recommend the book, it would be to complete Star Wars neophytes only, for as I said before, most of his research and thesis statements are common knowledge to anyone who surfs these boards.

 

"will be interested in reading a chapter on AOTC, and seeing how equal handed the book is this time around"

To my knowledge, the text isn't being re-edited. It just has the new epilogue on AOTC. And, generally, given all the stuff I've done and been around in different fan communities and professional SW stuff, paid and assisting, I think it was pretty even-handed as it was.

It's a study on the cultural proclivities of fandom, and the unabashed gushing of some fans isn't really quite as study-worthy as the reasons *why* other fans are anti-Lucas at some points. It's like doing a study on the criminal justice system. You'd stick to what doesn't work and why, because what does work is outlined in the structure already.

 

I dont know if I really buy that. Some fans hate new SW, and that is just great. But the whole reason that there are books to be written about the SW subculture is that people love the movies, all of them, to such an extent that they are willing to bend over backwards to create such a subculture with its own language, traditions, and activities.

To ignore the gushers is to ignore the whole alleged point of Brookers whole book. If he wanted to address the bashers in such unique terms, then he should have titled the book accordingly, but this is about the subculture. The subcultures lifeblood is the gushers, not the bashers.

On a note to my original point, that Brookers original 100 volunteers was a skewed and tainted pool to draw such firm conclusions, I recently participated in a 4th of July parade in a STAR WARS Float. The attendance of this parade was said to be in excess of 300,000. Aboard the float was a Vader, a Maul, a Boba, Jango, and a number of troopers. Spot on costumes, the best that the 501st can put in the field. Our float was very popular, getting cheers al the way down the line, including specific cheers for the characters on the float.
Now out of this enormous crowd of all demographics, ages, likes and dislikes, which SW character would you guess got the most cheers, besting even Darth Vader?

Maul.
Somewhat of a larger pool of opinions than the one Brooker had access to.

 

Oddly, it was these very TFN boards from which he drew the vast majority of his subjects.

 

Brookers 100 TFN emails from which he drew his conclusions should have had every chance to be a fair handed random grouping. It just so happens that his book is full white-knuckled paranoid bashers. Now either the author indeed got a fair split of email and decided to ignore the gushers (for in my own analysis, the author lets the bashers go on and on with the most ridiculous of unprovable conspiracy theories and never lets the gushers refute them), or his initial 100 emails was skewed (through no fault of the author I am sure, these things happen).

And the end of the day, his statements about what the fans do and do not like about the prequels bare no resemblance to what is actually available on the prequel message boards. The bashers are outnumbered for one thing, which you would never know from Brookers statements.

 

Ba Da BUMP

I take it that few people have read this book, which counts as good news considering its biased viewpoint.