Review by Choice Review
The study of popular culture is burgeoning within the discipline of religion. But though more topics have been broached in recent years (for example, hip-hop, role-playing games, social media), new theoretical applications to the subject are sparse. Entertaining Judgment offers no new approaches, arguments, or topics. Garrett (Baylor Univ.), who teaches fiction and screenwriting, literature, film and popular culture, and theology, breaks no new ground in arguing that popular culture narratives and motifs concerning the afterlife "assure us that the universe has ultimate meaning and order, even if we may not perceive it around us in our everyday lives." Accordingly, this is not a book for scholars and students of religion and popular culture. But it will certainly prove entertaining for casual readers. Garrett includes chapters on the undead, angels and demons, heaven, hell, and purgatory. His numerous subjects include ghosts, vampires, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Hellboy, Lost, A Christmas Carol, zombies, Twilight, Harry Potter, Southpark, and Alice Sebold's novel The Lovely Bones. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers. --Sean McCloud, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In contemporary America, concern about the afterlife threads through popular books, TV shows, and movies, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to The Hunger Games. Garrett (The Gospel According to Hollywood) offers a comprehensive survey, spanning decades of pop culture and touching on several key themes: angels, demons, and the devil; heaven, hell, and purgatory; and those living in between (the undead). Popular culture offers a meeting place for traditional and contemporary ideas about the afterlife to mingle and create meaning for audiences today. TV and movies especially offer some alternative traditions by way of time-traveling doctors, animated foul-mouthed children, billionaire vigilantes, etc., to augment traditional stories, such as the biblical book of Job, that may no longer hold the same power they once did. Garrett suggests that even without theology to answer these questions, popular stories will continue to be produced in order to imagine an ambiguous hereafter. Though not groundbreaking, Garrett's book is nonetheless an entertaining and highly readable addition to the field of popular culture studies. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Starred Review. Contemporary American culture seems to be fascinated with the afterlife. Visions of heaven, hell, and supernatural beings are ever-present in movies, television, books, music, and even objects we buy. Here Garret (literature, theology, Baylor Univ.; The Gospel According to Hollywood) addresses this fascination, pulling from numerous popular and theological sources to tackle a range of questions with new and insightful discussion. Topics include how tales of ghosts, zombies, and vampires such as Salem's Lot and The Walking Dead address society's questions about the afterlife and what it means to be alive, how our perceptions of angels differ through a comparison of films such as Michael (1996) and It's a Wonderful Life (1946), how Batman's Gotham City represents a vision of hell, and much more. The author primarily addresses American culture and Christian doctrine during his discussions (other theologies are mentioned occasionally). VERDICT Garrett's compelling, thorough, and accessible work pulls from a massive list of sources to successfully confront, address, and analyze our cultural perceptions and fascinations with death and the afterlife. Highly recommended for readers interested in religion or popular culture.-Jennifer Harris, Southern New Hampshire Univ. Lib., Manchester (c) Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
