Popular Stories and Promised Lands: Fan Cultures and Symbolic Pilgrimages (Studies in rhetoric and communication) : fan cultures and symbolic pilgrimages

This text discusses who we are, where we've been and where we might be going by suggesting that possible answers to those questions can be found in the popular stories we encounter at the movies, on television, in popular magazines and even on the funny pages. As countless scholars and popular writers have noted, people living in the United States find ourselves at a cultural crossroads. We are increasingly aware that the stories that once permeated life in these United States, stories that tell us that social and economic progress comes from working hard, that everyone has an equal opportunity to experience such progress, do not resonate to the degree they once did. Because many Americans have traditionally defined themselves, others, and their unique sense of place through these stories, we find ourselves displaced socially, economically, politically and/or culturally. So, Roger Aden argues, we go to places of our own making. Fans of the television series ""The X-Files"" return each week for a dose of frightening fun. Fans of the weekly magazine ""Sports Illustrated"" play in the American Elysian Fields where dramatic efforts at balancing work and play are valued. Fans of the movie ""Field of Dreams"" work as altruistic producers in an alternative garden spot. Grounded in the author's own experiences and reinforced by the voices of approximately two hundred additional fans of the four popular stories, this book offers a case for understanding the alleged wasteland of popular culture as a fertile site of individually and communally created sacred places.