If you're somebody like Shelby Chappelle, a smart, witty, pretty geek army of one, you can't just put a poster up at school and advertise for somebody to be your best friend. But now freakishly tall Becca Gallagher has moved to town, with her dragon tattoo and wild ideas. Suddenly Shelby's madscientist father and their robot, Euphoria, seem normal. They become best friends instantly. But Becca wants to shake things up at school and look for "others of our kind"...and decides to form the Queen Geek Social Club. The thing is, this guy Fletcher Berkowitz keeps nosing around, asking lots of questions about the Club. He's cute, and interesting, and possibly likes Shelby. Therefore, she must torture him. One good thing about being a loner: no one can break your heart.

American Studies has only gradually turned its attention to video games in the twenty-first century, even though the medium has grown into a cultural industry that is arguably the most important force in American and global popular culture today. There is an urgent need for a substantial theoretical reflection on how the field and its object of study relate to each other. This anthology, the first of its kind, seeks to address this need by asking a dialectic question: first, how may American Studies apply its highly diverse theoretical and methodological tools to the analysis of video games, and second, how are these theories and methods in turn affected by the games? The eighteen essays offer exemplary approaches to video games from the perspective of American cultural and historical studies as they consider a broad variety of topics: the US-American games industry, Puritan rhetoric, cultural geography, mobility and race, urbanity and space, digital sports, ludic textuality, survival horror and the eighteenth-century novel, gamer culture and neoliberalism, terrorism and agency, algorithm culture, glitches, theme parks, historical guilt, visual art, sonic meaning-making, and nonverbal gameplay.

An argument for retaining the notion of personal property in the products we “buy” in the digital marketplace. If you buy a book at the bookstore, you own it. You can take it home, scribble in the margins, put in on the shelf, lend it to a friend, sell it at a garage sale. But is the same thing true for the ebooks or other digital goods you buy? Retailers and copyright holders argue that you don't own those purchases, you merely license them. That means your ebook vendor can delete the book from your device without warning or explanation—as Amazon deleted Orwell's 1984 from the Kindles of surprised readers several years ago. These readers thought they owned their copies of 1984. Until, it turned out, they didn't. In The End of Ownership, Aaron Perzanowski and Jason Schultz explore how notions of ownership have shifted in the digital marketplace, and make an argument for the benefits of personal property. Of course, ebooks, cloud storage, streaming, and other digital goods offer users convenience and flexibility. But, Perzanowski and Schultz warn, consumers should be aware of the tradeoffs involving user constraints, permanence, and privacy. The rights of private property are clear, but few people manage to read their end user agreements. Perzanowski and Schultz argue that introducing aspects of private property and ownership into the digital marketplace would offer both legal and economic benefits. But, most important, it would affirm our sense of self-direction and autonomy. If we own our purchases, we are free to make whatever lawful use of them we please. Technology need not constrain our freedom; it can also empower us.

Was Diane really doing anything wrong? Surely no-one begrudged her odd pence? But how to make her every single action appear normal when each of her accounts, all 37 of them, were churning thousands of pounds her way week after week. The Bank had to know, but not how to act without advertising that every customer was vulnerable? Of course, it was all son Lukes fault, this special talent: embedding the trapdoor, the invisible interest payments? And what harm for a year, a few million pounds un-noticed? So why a breakdown, why wreck her retirement plans? And another threat: had Luke any friends in cyber-space - like Jas, the card, the master PIN? It might be transforming his relationship with Tanya but not with the expiry date looming, and Luke in an expensive nursing home? He needed the mother. But she had other problems. What did Tanyas friend, Ros, know: manager at one of Dianes 37 branches? But her accounts could never be closed, never be moved? And how had ex-husband, Frank, contrived to re-appear? What might he be saying to her two older children? Hadnt she made them wealthy enough? And as for her dream home: couldnt the builder have mentioned his tax affairs? Most unlucky of all, why the police: did they believe she was linked to Harry, smashing and grabbing ATMs? Could they not appreciate that was real robbery? But perhaps it explained why a Bank publicity man wanted to interview recently retired staff; might he have also have tracked down old Aunt Diana to the nursing home? Uncertainties might lie ahead but Diane remained absolutely convinced: this life-style had to be preserved. It just came down to overcoming the obstacles one by one.

This book examines trauma in late twentieth- and twenty-first century American popular culture. Trauma has become a central paradigm for reading contemporary American culture. Since the early 1980s, an extensive range of genres increasingly feature traumatised protagonists and traumatic events. From traumatised superheroes in Hollywood blockbusters to apocalyptic-themed television series, trauma narratives abound. Although trauma is predominantly associated with high culture, this project shows how popular culture has become the most productive and innovative area of trauma representation in America. Examining film, television, animation, video games and cult texts, this book develops a series of original paradigms through which to understand trauma in popular culture. These include: popular trauma texts’ engagement with postmodern perspectives, formal techniques termed ‘competitive narration’, ‘polynarration’ and ‘sceptical scriptotherapy’, and perpetrator trauma in metafictional games.

The views of leading researchers on the emerging topic of post-mortem digital legacy and posthumous interaction are explored in this book which combines the technical, cultural and legal aspects associated with this new branch of HCI. The technical aspects of emerging technologies, both for the web and mobile platforms, are analysed and useful information is provided for system development, requirements engineering, and data management and storage. The authors address the cultural aspects of virtual identity, ethical problems, cross-culture differences regarding memories and death, bereavement, taboos and beliefs, and the visual/verbal representations of death. The legal aspects covered include regulation, property, privacy and conflicts between international and local jurisdictions. The coverage of Digital Legacy and Interaction: Post-Mortem Issues is relevant to the development of systems that consider the influence of death, bereavement and mortality on Human Computer Interaction. The interdisciplinary approach that guides this book is intended to foster enriching and innovative discussions amongst HCI scholars and professionals. Cristiano Maciel and Vinícius Carvalho Pereira are researchers at LAVI (Laboratory of Interactive Virtual Environments) and professors at UFMT (Federal University of Mato Grosso, Brazil).

In A Feeling of Wrongness, Joseph Packer and Ethan Stoneman confront the rhetorical challenge inherent in the concept of pessimism by analyzing how it is represented in an eclectic range of texts on the fringes of popular culture, from adult animated cartoons to speculative fiction. Packer and Stoneman explore how narratives such as True Detective, Rick and Morty, Final Fantasy VII, Lovecraftian weird fiction, and the pop ideology of transhumanism are better suited to communicate pessimistic affect to their fans than most carefully argued philosophical treatises and polemics. They show how these popular nondiscursive texts successfully circumvent the typical defenses against pessimism identified by Peter Wessel Zapffe as distraction, isolation, anchoring, and sublimation. They twist genres, upend common tropes, and disturb conventional narrative structures in a way that catches their audience off guard, resulting in belief without cognition, a more rhetorically effective form of pessimism than philosophical pessimism. While philosophers and polemicists argue for pessimism in accord with the inherently optimistic structures of expressive thought or rhetoric, Packer and Stoneman show how popular texts are able to communicate their pessimism in ways that are paradoxically freed from the restrictive tools of optimism. A Feeling of Wrongness thus presents uncharted rhetorical possibilities for narrative, making visible the rhetorical efficacy of alternate ways and means of persuasion.

The annual, bestselling guide to all aspects of the media and how to write and illustrate for children and young adults. Acknowledged by the media industries and authors as the essential guide to how to get published. The 70+ articles are updated and added to each year. Together they provide invaluable guidance on subjects such as series fiction, writing historical or funny books, preparing an illustration portfolio, managing your finances, interpreting publishers' contracts, self-publishing your work. Foreword by Sally Green, author of the award-winning YA fantasy trilogy: Half Bad (2014), Half Wild (2015) and Half Lost (2016). NEW articles for the 2018 edition on: - Writing for reluctant readers by Jon Mayhew - Writing for teenagers by Holly Smale - Choosing the right agent by Gill McLay or the Bath Literary Agency - Plotting: getting started with your YA novel by Sarah Mussi - Writing adventures in the real world: children's non-fiction by Isabel Thomas All of the 2,000 listings of who to contact across the media have been reviewed and updated. The essential guide for any writer for children.

He has reached every level of Myst. Her room is littered with soda cans. He idolizes Data from Star Trek®. But all your favorite geek really wants is to be understood.... Whether you're friends with a geek, work with one, love one, or hate one, The Geek Handbook provides handy instructions for analyzing and understanding all things geek, including: How Your Geek Relates to Others Geek organizations and gathering spots Getting Your Geek to Exercise Klingon™ martial arts as workout strategy The Geek Diet Soda, pizza, and other geek food groups; how to help your geek thrive

A drinking guide that “dives deep into Star Wars prequels, Doctor Who (the blue-hued Gin & Tardis) and superhero culture (a Midori-spiked Hulk Smash)” (Liquor.com). Sci-fi and fantasy worlds are full of characters who know that sometimes magic happens at the bar. Drink Like a Geek is a look at iconic drinks and the roles they play in our favorite movies, shows, books, and comics. It’s also a toast to the geeks, nerds, and gamers who keep this culture alive. Drink Like a Geek is a fan encyclopedia and cocktail book. Because audience participation is strongly encouraged, dozens of recipes for otherworldly cocktails, brews, and booze are included. If you’re looking for geek gifts, Drink Like a Geek raises the bar. Homebrewers and mixology nerds who are fans of superheroes, wizards, or intergalactic adventure will also enjoy this book’s celebration of real-world bar-arcades, geeky Tiki culture, and the surprising connections between space and modern booze. In Drink Like a Geek, you’ll find entertainment and drinks for fans who love: Sci-fi Comic books Wizards Genre TV B-movies Videogames Cosplay and conventions Space! “Puts a whole new spectrum of geek-loved media together with peppy, name-checked cocktails . . . Drink Romulan Ale with Doc McCoy, Tardis-blue gin with The Doctor, and a corrected Vesper with Bond, James Bond.” —Lew Bryson, author of Tasting Whiskey “Not only is Cioletti’s book informative and inventive, but wildly entertaining as well. Of course, I’m drunk on an Ewok ‘Bright Tree Swizzle,’ but there you go.” —Matt Gourley, actor, comedian, podcaster