Using the Force: Creativity, Community and Star Wars Fans

In this 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; 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.

Will Brooker is Director of Film Studies and Television at Kingston University, UK. He is the author of several books, including studies of Batman, Star Wars, Blade Runner, and Lewis Carroll.