Popular Stories and Promised Lands: Fan Cultures and Symbolic Pilgrimages (Studies Rhetoric & Communicati)

Popular Stories and Promised Lands enters a conversation
about 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,
those of us 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 says, we go to places of our own making.
Fans of the television series The X-Files return to the Funhouse
each week for a dose of frightening fun. Fans of the weekly magazine Sports
Illustrated play in the American Elysian Fields where democratic 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 compelling case for understanding the
alleged wasteland of popular culture as a fertile site of individually
and communally created sacred places.