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    Planet Simpson: How a Cartoon Masterpiece Documented an Era and Defined a Generation
    Planet Simpson: How a Cartoon Masterpiece Documented an Era and Defined a Generation
    Planet Simpson: How a Cartoon Masterpiece Documented an Era and Defined a Generation
    Audiobook (abridged)11 hours

    Planet Simpson: How a Cartoon Masterpiece Documented an Era and Defined a Generation

    Written by Chris Turner

    Narrated by Oliver Wyman

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Going well beyond a critical discussion of a single television program, this book will use The Simpsons as a window on the culture at large to deliver first-hand reportage of the defining events and trends of our accelerated, confounding era.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHighbridge Company
    Release dateOct 11, 2004
    ISBN9781598872194
    Planet Simpson: How a Cartoon Masterpiece Documented an Era and Defined a Generation
    Author

    Chris Turner

    Writer of fantasy, adventure and SF. Visual artist, musician.Chris's books include: The Starship Rogue series, The Swords and Skulls series, The Alien Alliance series, The Dragon Sea Chronicles, Bindu, Haloband, Icarus, Beastslayer : Rise of the Rgnadon, Denibus Ar, The Relic Hunter series, The Rogues of Bindar series, Future Destinies and Fantastic Realms.Free soundtracked versions of selected titles are available at:http://innersky.ca/booktrackEnjoy!

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    Reviews for Planet Simpson

    3.5/5

    85 ratings9 reviews

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 2/5
      Too much repetition of specific episodes. Needed to site more episodes. Don't get me started about the character voices. Awful.
    • 2/5
      What starts as a nice little exploration into the history and impact of The Simpsons, turns into the authors attempt to explain everything wrong and right with the time period under review. His knowledge of Simpsons seems to be quite extensive, and it all starts out fun as he discusses episodes in the context of what was going on. And then two things happen.The first is that, while I’m sure the author has seen every episode (and probably knows every episode quite well) he keeps coming back to the same ones. In fact, he goes back to the same scenes, writing as though each entry was the first time he talks about it. This gets old quick. And it means that individual episodes (in some cases, individual scenes) are used to support various contentions. These cannot be all things to all peopleThe second is that the author just tries to dang hard to make The Simpsons the Zeitgeist of the times, to the point where he seems to be saying the times are the Zeitgeist of The Simpsons. Apparently, everything that happened in the 90s (and other times when The Simpsons aired) can be viewed through a Simpsons’ lens. And it is as if The Simpsons drove the time, not the other way around.Which is all too bad. Because, at the outset, I was really enjoying this book. And then it made its nasty turns. And it went on and on. And I got really tired of it all.
    • 3/5
      Planet Simpson was a fairly enjoyable read. Turner's career is in journalism and it shows. To wit, the writing is crisp, clear, and generally easy to follow. For an author taking on rather weighty themes, Turner manages to avoid obfuscatory language and the tendency to overindulge the his inner aesthete. With that said, journalists are rarely in a good position to offer the sort of rigorous intellectual analysis needed to support many of Turner's claims. So the book scores well on readability, less well on argumentation and justification.Now why should those latter criteria even matter? Isn't this a book about the Simpsons? Well, yes...sort of.Planet Simpson is certain about the Simpsons, but it's also about much, much more. Turner's work is less aimed less towards the task of cataloging fan-boy minutiae (though there is some of that, much of which is pretty fun) and more towards the task of describing, explaining, and engaging with the cultural movements from which the Simpsons emerged. Thus, we get pages and pages on such seemingly disparate topics as globalization, DIY culture, the rise of alternative rock music, the role of religion in the public square, the emrgence of the cult of celebrity, and so on. Turner's thesis is that the the Simpsons is able to balance its enormous popularity and its continued cultural cache because it is perhaps the best reflection of the contemporary Western society of any other piece of pop culture. This Simpsons is both the consummate product and critic of the time and the society that birthed it. Turner's thesis is interesting, but it's so grandiose that it's hard to figure out how to evaluate it. I mean...the Simpsons is obviously a big deal. The task of explaining how and why this came to be is an interesting (possibly even important) one. Nevertheless, I can't help but think that much of Turner's supporting claims are too obvious (kids in the 90s were disaffected and thus open to programs that satirized the sources of their disaffection) or else under supported (the idea of Bart as a character who is directly informed by punk rock and its ethos is interesting, but it's clear to me...as the singer of hardcore band...that Turner has little substantive knowledge of punk rock). Similarly, the parts of the work that are most straightforwardly autobiogrpahical are a mixed bag. There's certainly something kind of fun about hearing Turner recount his youtful cynicism and tell us about his initial encounter with Nirvana...but at the same time much of it seems unnecessary and borders on straight forward cheesiness (like when he describes, in great detail, the feeling of inner peace he experienced at a Phish festival or how the band Wilco "saved his soul".)
    • 2/5
      I've found some unpolished gems on the reminders table at my local bookstore - this was most definitely not one of them. Unauthorised and relying on stale secondary research, Planet Simpson offers nothing in the way of fresh insights. Chris Turner's "analysis" includes the fact that Homer Simpson represents voracious Western consumerism and white male privilege, Mr. Burns unchecked corporate greed and Lisa the aims and limitations of social activism. In other words, nothing that hasn't already occurred to any halfway serious Simpsons fan long ago. It is kinda fun to relive some favourite moments of the show, but Turner often rehashes the same scenes two or even three times. He also mistakenly assumes that reflections on his childhood in Kingston, Ontario or a Wilco concert he once attended (among other inanities) are of interest to complete strangers. Terminally self-indulgent.
    • 2/5
      The key to this book is the admission early on that Fox would not allow anyone connected to the show to be interviewed for outside book projects. What follows, then, is a string of, "and then, in that one episode, Homer did something funny" interspersed with "analysis" that reads like someone's senior thesis. I got bored after the second chapter.
    • 4/5
      I don't know what I was expecting with this audio book.The topic (The Simpsons) is accessible, but after I've accessed it, I'm thinking it's a little bit of a waste of time.
    • 2/5
      Umm, why did I buy this? I felt like I was just reading some guy telling me his favorite Simpsons moments and than explaining the meaning behind each episode. Nothing that I did not already know. I enjoyed the Simpson quotes, but that's why I have every season on DVD. D'oh-dee!
    • 2/5
      Detailed book that analyses the television programme to the nth degree. I agree that the Simpson's is a great show but somehow found his contant references to its greatness put me off somehow.
    • 3/5
      Quite academicy & big. Managed to persevere through all of it, but I'm a dedicated Simpsons fan with lots of time to read. It put me off analysis of the show though, and I was weary towards the end of it - I wouldn't really touch it unless you are an academic, and even then I'd probably not bother either bar a cursory glance through.