Author: CarrieLynn D. Reinhard
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Podcast Episode #5: Planet of the Apes
In the fifth episode of The Pop Culture Lens podcast, Christopher Olson and I discuss one of my all time favorite pop culture texts: Planet of the Apes. I fell in love with this movie, this franchise — as dorky as it got in the 1970s — because of how many layers of meaning I…
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Ghost Whisperer’s Ghost in the Machine
This essay was originally posted as part of my work for the Virtual Worlds Research Group at Roskilde University. This essay reflects my interest in how pop culture represents new media technologies, such as virtual worlds, as part of the process whereby a society / culture comes to determine what will be the acceptable and…
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The Unborn: Exorcism, the Holocaust, and Twins
Comic book fans will undoubtedly recognize the name David S. Goyer. For better or worse, he has become synonymous with Warner Brothers’ cinematic adaptations of their DC Comics titles. Although he gained notoriety as the writer for a Marvel cinematic adaptation, Blade (1998), his most successful writing gigs have been with Christopher Nolan on the…
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Fractured Fandom and Contemporary Issues in Fan Communities
Today I launch an online survey to gather people’s anonymous and confidential stories of their experiences dealing with other fans. This survey is part of my ongoing research into the phenomenon I call fractured fandom. Primarily, with this story, I want to hear people’s real problems of dealing with fans, whether they were fans of…
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Pop Culture Lens Podcast Episode 4: Bewitched (1964-1972)
Our fourth episode for the Pop Culture Lens podcast is up, in which we are joined by friend of the podcast Megan Stemm-Wade to discuss the importance of the American TV sitcom Bewitched (1964-1972). In this episode, we cover many aspects of how the series was referencing the beginnings of second wave feminism while also…
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Metaphors for making sense of virtual worlds
The following paper comes from a presentation given at ECREA in 2010 and at NCA in 2011 (the version of which can be found here on the blog). I submitted this paper to a journal, but never did anything with it after it was rejected. I still think there are interesting ideas in the paper,…
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Categorizing Fractured Fandom
Defining Fractured Fandom According to the discipline of fan studies, at this point in history, being a fan is considered a positive for any individual. Being a fan helps people discover their identities, and to determine what they like and do not like. Being a fan helps people find friends, establish communities, and develop a…
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The Pop Culture Lens Episode 3: Carnival of Souls
Welcome to 2015, the year of Back to the Future II! And to start off the new year, The Pop Culture Lens podcast presents a new episode that takes us back in time to examine how a film made at the beginning of second wave feminism may still be relevant in this third wave feminism…
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The Hobbit International Research Project
Are you a Tolkien fan? Did you enjoy the Lord of the Rings films? What do you think of The Hobbit films? Join in with thousands of others and share your thoughts in this massive international survey! From Dr. Martin Barker, one of the lead researchers on the project, who previously oversaw a similar project…
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The Pop Culture Lens Episode 2: Freaks (1932)
The second episode of The Pop Culture Lens podcast is up and live! In the second episode of The Pop Culture Lens podcast, Christopher Olson and CarrieLynn Reinhard are joined by young scholar Clelia Sweeney to discuss the counterculture cult horror classic Freaks (1932). Their guest brings to bear her research on freak shows, reality…
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