Hop on Pop: The Politics and Pleasures of Popular Culture

Rating:
Summary: Giving Pop Culture Its Due!
Review: An outrageously eclectic collection of essays about the world we live in, finally turning a legible as well as legitimate critical eye towards our cultural organism - and some of the weird and wonderful sprouts. A book to take your mind off of the nasty habits of humanity (like war) and set you thinking about the wonderful weird stuff we do every day.

Rating:
Summary: Henry Jenkins is brilliant.
Review: Why more people don't know his name is beyond me. Maybe its because of his haircut?

In all seriousness, reading the man's work is like waking up and realizing that you've been dreaming. He lifts the veil off the world we live in, the media stream that we swim in, and he illuminates its basic nature better than anyone I have ever read. He also has the great advantage of not being a "fogey", in other words he's not mystified by popular culture, he UNDERSTANDS it. He KNOWS why we like certain videogames and movies and doesn't berate the world for it, rather he simply looks at the underpinnings of those desires. Great stuff. Read all his works - and then visit VIDEOTOPIA because Professor Jenkins references it and it's cool.