Week 2 Reading, Chapter 4, Quentin Tarantino's Star Wars?

The first thing that popped into my head as I was reading this chapter is that people have been doing this for so long, but until recently, they did not necessarily have an outlet for it. I know that when I was younger, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth and there was no such thing as YouTube, my friends and I would borrows someone's Dad's video camera and we would do all sorts of spoofs, songs and movie scenes. Of course we would just watch them ourselves later and laugh- there was no mass distribution and we were certainly not in danger of affecting the reputation of the original works.

Star Wars is an amazing phenomenon. Every aspect of media is covered, thus creating a huge fan base- it has comics, movies, novels, toys (ahem, I mean action figures)- there is something for everyone. The Empire Strikes Back was the first movie my father took me to see in the movie theater. My son, who is six, is currently obsessed with all things Star Wars. My father loves to share his love for Star Wars with his grandson- they can play for hours with action figures and ships. What is my point? I can understand why fans achieve the point of adoration that dictates that they must create a tribute to this series. While it is possible to find someone who does not care for the Star Wars saga (gasp), it is extremely difficult to find someone who has not heard of it. In fact, I just watched an episode of How I Met Your Mother where the main character loved Star Wars so much that he made his fiancée, who had never seen it, watch it before he could marry her.

As Jenkins asks, "where do we go from here?" In my opinion, it is only a matter of time before mass media companies are over-thrown, so to speak, by consumer generated material. Often times, fan driven content is more creative than the mass produced content. Just as reality (or suspended reality) TV is giving sitcoms a run for their money, so might fan generated material. Or perhaps it is just wishful thinking...

Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence Culture: Where old and new media collide. New York: New York University Press