Archive for the 'Books' Category

Authorship, intentionality and intelligent design

26Mar09

I’ve been thinking a lot about authorship lately, in a range of ways. Most practically, two long-gestating essays that I authored have come out in print – “All in the Game: The Wire, Serial Storytelling and Procedural Logic” is published in the beautifully put-together book Third Person: Authoring and Exploring Vast Narratives edited by Pat [...]


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To Spread or To Drill?

25Feb09

I was invited by Henry Jenkins, Josh Green, and Sam Ford to contribute to a book project they are working on, Spreadable Media: Creating Value in a Network Culture.You can see an outline of the project posted serially on Henry’s blog, emerging from a research paper drafted as part of the Convergence Culture Consortium. The [...]


Filed under: Books, Fandom, Media Studies, Narrative, New Media, Television, Viewers   |  6 Comments
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Fair Use Held Hostage by ABC-Disney

14Feb09

My textbook, Television and American Culture, has hit the streets (or at least the postal system – order yours now!). I received my first copy yesterday, and am happy to say that it looks great. This is due not to my own work (I’m solely to blame for the content), but the excellent staff at [...]


Filed under: Books, Copyright, Fair Use, TV Industry, TV Textbook, Television   |  6 Comments
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New book on its way!

22Jan09

Observant visitors to the site might notice a new image on the right – the cover of my new book! Television & American Culture, the textbook I’ve been writing with intermittent furiousness for the past four years, has gone to press and will be released in mid-February. If you want to learn more, visit the [...]


Filed under: Books, TV Textbook, Teaching, Television   |  1 Comment

Dumbledore’s sexuality and the authority of the serial author

21Oct07

As you might have heard, Dumbledore is gay. Or at least so says J.K. Rowling.
I’m less interested in how this impacts our understanding of the world of Harry Potter, the relationships between Albus & other characters, or even the cultural controversies surrounding the series that this announcement has already inflamed. What interests me more is [...]


Filed under: Books, Fandom, Narrative, Not Quite TV   |  27 Comments
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A Companion to Narrative

08Aug07

A bit of self-promotion here: check out an excellent new anthology, The Cambridge Companion to Narrative, edited by David Herman. The book is an introductory overview of the study of narrative across media and tackling a wide range of issues. My chapter, “Film and Television Narrative,” includes an analysis of two key examples, The Wizard [...]


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Harry Potter and the Magic of Narrative Closure

25Jul07

I finished Deathly Hallows this morning. I have some things to say about the book, the series, the nature of storytelling, authorship, reading, faith, and the meaning of life. I’m not claiming that they are profound or original things – just things.
So if you have finished the book or do not mind having some of [...]


Filed under: Books, Narrative   |  7 Comments
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Harry Potter and the Curse of Narrative Memory

22Jul07

No spoilers here for Deathly Hallows – I’m only 8 chapters in, and don’t think anything revealed herein will do anything but jog memories for people who’ve read the previous books. And that’s what I’ve been thinking about – how do the Harry Potter books negotiate the need to build upon intricate narrative information in [...]


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Thoughts on Deathly Hallows Eve

20Jul07

Before I hole up to read Deathly Hallows, a couple of thoughts & and a link of note.
First, I’ve been intrigued by the spoiler hooplah from my perspectives both as a spoiler scholar and non-spoiling reader. One the one hand, I certainly believe that everyone should be able to have stories unfold per their own [...]


Filed under: Books, Spoilers   |  4 Comments
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Some links and thoughts to break blog silence

08Jul07

Sorry for the blog silence, but the past week was spent on family vacation in Rhode Island. Not much more to say, but a few links for your trouble:
First, I highly recommend The West Side, a new serialized online video co-created by a former student of mine, Ryan Bilsborrow-Koo. The program is a contemporary urban [...]


Filed under: Books, Narrative, New Media, Spoilers, TV Shows   |  4 Comments
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Game interfaces for academic writing?

24Jun07

Over the past couple of days, I read Ian Bogost’s book Unit Operations: An Approach to Videogame Criticism. It’s very, very good, and I’m sure will be very influential within game studies and media studies more broadly. It’s certainly going to be helpful as I revise my article on The Wire. And Ian’s a great [...]


Filed under: Academia, Books, Media Studies, New Media, Videogames   |  5 Comments