Prophetic Revisionist Paratextual Ontologies: Preparing the Way for The Force Awakens

Curator's Note

 

 A Short Time Ago, Across An Internet Near Nearby...

FAN WARS

It is a time of

cautious rejoicing and

restless anticipation for The Force Awakens

The zeitgeist rumbles with speculation, deliberative

concern, and unending discourse circulating a number

of Internet Fan Theories that may or may not bring peace

to the fanoptic galaxy. Spiritual renewal hangs in the balance,

with the masses in prayerful meditation as to whether the copycat 

wunderkind, Cinemaster Abrams, can fulfullthe capitalist prophecy

and bring balance to the franchise...

 

Meanwhile,

across the galaxy at

the farflung reaches of the A.V. Club, 

young padawan film critic Noel Murray ponders a

sideways universe in which the universally maligned 

Star Wars prequels legetimate misunderstood genius on

the part of fallen filmmaker and Toy Rights Overlord,

Darth Lucas. Lucas, no stranger to controversy, relinquished

control of his Galactic Empire to the Monopolistic Mouse House

in 2012. With this Media Conglomerate acquiring the power to print 

money ad infinitum, a great(er) tide hangs in the balance between 

good and evil, or as fallen sage Ken-E-Wan Burke-Nobi identifies, 

"The Nature of Art Under Capitalsim."

 

Not unlike the

secret war waged

beneath the surface of the

[Trade Federation and Galactic Senate]

Rebellion and Empire, but less beknownst

to the average consumer, a temporal war wages on 

between contesting paratextual ontologies or what I've previously

identified as oppositional engines of industrial fandom (Slade, Narro,

Givens-Carroll, Ch. 7, 2015). On one hand, the entertainment industry

thrives upon the distribution and positive reception of publicity, and

indeed, the nichification of media franchising speaks to greater

consumer demands for revisionist industrial nostalgia and a prosumer 

affect combined by traditional modes of production and consumption 

alongside audience innovations. On the other hand, fandom's "shoot-

first" cynicism can either highjack textual legitimacy, lead to 

criticism, or simply (un)willingly smuggle billions of spacebucks in free

publicity. Given the popularity of space smugglers right now, perhaps

audiences are interested in a contradictory combination of both...

 

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