An indispensable resource, this book provides wide coverage on aliens in fiction and popular culture. The wide impact that the imagined alien has had upon Western culture has not been surveyed before; in many cases the essays in Aliens in Popular Culture are the first written on the topic. The book is a compendium of short entries on notable uses of aliens in popular culture across different media and platforms by almost 90 researchers in the field. It covers science fiction from the late nineteenth century into the twenty-first century, including books, films, television, comics, games, and even advertisements. Individual essays point to the ways in which the imagined alien can be seen as a reflection of different fears and tensions within society, above all in the Anglo-American world. The book additionally provides an overview for context and suggestions for further reading. All varieties of readers will find it to be a comprehensive reference about the extra-terrestrial in popular culture.

For centuries, people have wondered about life on other planets but most aliens did not start showing up in literature and other forms of pop culture until the late 19th century. Since then, aliens have become familiar characters in books, films and video games. Given their overwhelming popularity, visitors from other worlds are sure to be featured in pop culture for many years to come.

From religious beliefs and legends to movies and TV shows, from advertising and celebrities to Internet sites and photo ops, this illustrated A–Z encyclopedia makes it easy to locate each topic, and the opportunities for further research assure its timeliness. Is the human race the result of a breeding experiment carried out by ancient astronauts? Are satanists, extraterrestrials—or both—mutilating cattle? Whimsical and fascinating, UFOs and Popular Culture explores a rich facet of Americana and its impact on contemporary society. The UFO phenomenon is put into folkloric and psychological perspective, revealing much about our collective psyche. From religious beliefs and legends to movies and TV shows; from advertising and celebrities to Internet sites and photo ops; this illustrated A–Z encyclopedia is your first stop resource for understanding UFO beliefs and their impact on contemporary America. Topics explored include Music and UFOs, Naked Aliens, Reincarnation, Roswell, Brad Steiger, Heaven's Gate, War of the Worlds, and UFO Conventions.

This three-volume reference set explores the history, relevance, and significance of pop culture locations in the United States—places that have captured the imagination of the American people and reflect the diversity of the nation. Pop Culture Places: An Encyclopedia of Places in American Popular Culture serves as a resource for high school and college students as well as adult readers that contains more than 350 entries on a broad assortment of popular places in America. Covering places from Ellis Island to Fisherman's Wharf, the entries reflect the tremendous variety of sites, historical and modern, emphasizing the immense diversity and historical development of our nation. Readers will gain an appreciation of the historical, social, and cultural impact of each location and better understand how America has come to be a nation and evolved culturally through the lens of popular places. Approximately 200 sidebars serve to highlight interesting facts while images throughout the book depict the places described in the text. Each entry supplies a brief bibliography that directs students to print and electronic sources of additional information.

The concise introduction to the study of popular culture From Madonna and drag queens to cyberpunk and webzines, popular culture constitutes a common and thereby critical part of our lives. Yet the study of popular culture has been condemned and praised, debated and ridiculed. In Popular Culture: An Introduction, Carla Freccero reveals why we study popular culture and how it is taught in the classroom. Blending music, science fiction, and film, Freccero shows us that an informed awareness of politics, race, and sexuality is essential to any understanding of popular culture. Freccero places rap music, the Alien Trilogy and Sandra Cisneros in the context of postcolonialism, identity politics, and technoculture to show students how they can draw on their already existing literacies and on the cultures they know in order to think critically.Complete with a glossary of useful terms, a sample syllabus and extensive bibliography, this book is the concise introduction to the study of popular culture.

What are the consequences when law's stories and images migrate from the courtroom to the court of public opinion and from movie, television and computer screens back to electronic monitors inside the courtroom itself? What happens when lawyers and public relations experts market notorious legal cases and controversial policy issues as if they were just another commodity? What is the appropriate relationship between law and digital culture in virtual worlds on the Internet? In addressing these cutting edge issues, the essays in this volume shed new light on the current status and future fate of law, truth and justice in our time.

This book is an enthusiastic celebration of the ways in which popular culture has consumed aspects of the ancient Near East to construct new realities. The editors have brought together an impressive line-up of scholars-archaeologists, philologists, historians, and art historians-to reflect on how objects, ideas, and interpretations of the ancient Near East have been remembered, constructed, reimagined, mythologized, or indeed forgotten within our shared cultural memories. The exploration of cultural memories has revealed how they inform the values, structures, and daily life of societies over time. This is therefore not a collection of essays about the deep past but rather about the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves.

For as long as humans have been on Earth, they have wondered if other intelligent life exists in the universe. If so, what would these extraterrestrial beings look like? Today, there are true alien believers as well as skeptics. Some people have claimed aliens exist and have been responsible for creating great works of wonder, such as the pyramids and crop circles. Others are less sure. Regardless, human history has seen many stories of mysterious flashing lights, flying objects, and even alien abductions. This book discusses the history of alien lore and seeks to answer the question: Are humans alone, or are aliens among us?

Contains essays that provide information on various elements of popular culture in the United States during the twentieth century, covering the major areas of film, music, print culture, social life, sports, television and radio, and art and performance. Arranged alphabetically from A-to-D.

The alien abduction phenomenon is one of the enduring enigmas of our time. While the reality of alien abductions is a hotly debated topic among UFO researchers, scientists, skeptics and true believers alike, the phenomenon indisputably exists as an artifact of popular culture. This book analyzes more than 75 films that draw their inspiration from allegedly fact-based accounts of alien contact, from 1951's The Man from Planet X to Contactee in 2021. These films are examined in terms of both their cinematic qualities and their exploration of thematic elements derived from abduction reports. Abduction motifs that appear in science fiction classics such as The Day the Earth Stood Still, 2001 and Close Encounters are analyzed, as well as those in lesser-known films like The Stranger Within, Starship Invasions, Dark Skies and Proximity. Special attention is given to movies based on the famed experiences of abductees Betty and Barney Hill, Whitley Strieber and Travis Walton. The book also addresses skeptical theories about the origins of the phenomenon in science fiction and examines an uncanny prescience that appears to anticipate these inexplicable occurrences.