[ecrea] New book: Getting a Life - Benjamin Woo

We would like to announce a new publication from McGill-Queen's 
University Press, which we hope will be of interest.

*Getting a Life***

The Social Worlds of Geek Culture

*Benjamin Woo***

*_http://www.combinedacademic.co.uk/getting-a-life-content_**__*


"Long overlooked by those who study fandoms, subcultures and gendered 
identities, the Geek now gets the attention it deserves. Benjamin Woo’s 
/Getting a Life: The Social Worlds of Geek Culture/is a witty, smart 
book marked most of all by its methodological agility. Woo moves in to 
examine geek culture up close, then pulls back to illuminate its 
relationship to taste cultures, the boundary-work of social in-groups 
and the shifting relationship of capitalist media producers to their 
fans. Wit and humour run through this engaging book, but so, too, does a 
commitment to taking Geek culture seriously and fashioning the 
analytical tools with which to understand it."*– Will Straw, McGill 
University, and co-editor, with Alexandra Boutros, of /Circulation and 
the City: Essays on Urban Culture/**//*

Comic book superheroes, fantasy kingdoms, and futuristic starships have 
become inescapable features of today’s pop-culture landscape, and the 
people we used to deride as “nerds” or “geeks” have ridden their 
popularity and visibility to mainstream recognition. It seems it’s 
finally hip to be square. Yet these conventionalized representations of 
geek culture typically ignore the real people who have invested time and 
resources to make it what it is. /Getting a Life/recentres our 
understanding of geek culture on the everyday lives of its participants, 
drawing on fieldwork in comic book shops, game stores, and conventions, 
including in-depth interviews with ordinary members of the overlapping 
communities of fans and enthusiasts. Benjamin Woo shows how geek culture 
is a set of interconnected social practices that are associated with 
popular media. He argues that typical depictions of mass-mediated 
entertainment as something that isolates and pacifies its audiences are 
flawed because they do not account for the conversations, relationships, 
communities, and identities that are created by engaging with the 
products of mass culture. /Getting a Life/combines engaging interview 
material with lucid interpretation and a clear, interdisciplinary 
framework. The volume is both an accessible introduction to this 
contemporary subculture and an exploration of the ethical possibilities 
of a life lived with media.

*Benjamin Woo*is assistant professor of communication and media studies 
at Carleton University.

With all best wishes,

Combined Academic Publishers

*McGill-Queen's University Press**| February 2018 | 280pp 
| 9780773552845 | Hardback | £20.99**

*Price subject to change.


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