Transmedia Storytelling and the Apocalypse PDF
Preview Transmedia Storytelling and the Apocalypse
Transmedia Storytelling and the Apocalypse Stephen Joyce Transmedia Storytelling and the Apocalypse Stephen Joyce Aarhus University Aarhus C, Denmark ISBN 978-3-319-93951-3 ISBN 978-3-319-93952-0 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93952-0 Library of Congress Control Number: 2018950237 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the pub- lisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institu- tional affiliations. Cover illustration: Johan Swanepoel / Alamy Stock Photo Cover Design: Tjaša Krivec This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland To my grandmother, who started calling me “professor” at age ten; looks like the nickname stuck A cknowledgements I would like to thank my colleagues at Aarhus University for their invalu- able feedback on rough drafts of the book, especially Susan Yi Sencindiver, Jens Kjeldgaard-Christiansen, and Matthias Stephan, as well as the Cultural Transformations research group for organising writing retreats with plenty of cake. Thanks also go to my students in the BA project course “American Apocalypse: Visions of Armageddon in Modern American Culture,” the MA course “Old, New, and Transmedia Fictions of Disaster: Modern Media and the Apocalypse,” and the BA elective “Media Convergence.” They were unfailingly knowledgeable, patient, and articulate in explaining what was wrong with my concepts, how the way people engage with media has changed, what social media is, the most revolutionary changes in major narrative media, and why I should get rid of my old Nokia and for the love of God get a smartphone. I hope they also learned something. Thanks finally to Lina Aboujieb and Ellie Freedman at Palgrave Macmillan for their encouragement, professionalism, and tactful remind- ers that those deadlines I had blithely agreed to a few months back were arriving on Friday. I would still be doodling in the margins of a half- written Chap. 4 if it weren’t for their support. Elements of certain chapters in this book have appeared in different articles and are here reprinted with kind permission: Parts of Chap. 5 previously appeared in: Joyce, Stephen. 2016. The Last Non-Judgment: Postmodern Apocalypse in Battlestar Galactica. In The Last Midnight: Essays on Apocalyptic vii viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Narratives in Millennial Media, eds. Amanda Firestone, Leisa A. Clark, and Mary F. Pharr, 60–68. Jefferson: McFarland. By permission of McFarland & Company, INC., Box 611, Jefferson NC 28640. Parts of Chap. 6 previously appeared in: Joyce, Stephen. 2015. The Rapture at the World’s End: Non-optional Choice and Libertarianism in New Media. Synthesis 6: n. pag. Parts of Chap. 7 previously appeared in: Joyce, Stephen. 2016. The Double Death of Humanity in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. Transatlantica 2: n. pag. c ontents Part I P ortal 1 1 Doomsday Dreaming 3 2 The End of the Media as We Know It 15 3 The Appeal of the Apocalypse 37 Part II Post-apocalypse 55 4 The Endings of I Am Legend 57 5 Battlestar Galactica’s Post-9/11 Apocalypse 77 6 Worldbuilding and World Destroying in BioShock and The Last of Us 99 ix x CONTENTS 7 Convergence Publishing and Prestige Niches 121 8 Antichrist Obama and the Doomsday Preppers 143 Part III Paradigms 163 9 The Many Deaths of The Terminator 165 10 The Many Lives of The Walking Dead 185 11 Epilogue: After the End 207 Index 213 PART I Portal
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