title: Finding the Force of the Star Wars Franchise: Fans, Merchandise, and Critics (Popular Culture and Everyday Life)
author:  Matthew Wilhelm Kapell 
description: Star Wars is the most important franchise in the history of American popular culture, and Kapell and Lawrences Finding the Force of the Star Wars Franchise: Fans, Merchandise, and Critics is the most important book about Star Wars. This collection of well-written and engaging essays examines the Star Wars phenomenon from a variety of important and revealing perspectives. It is a must have for any Star Wars fan, or for anyone interested in the dynamic interplay of popular culture and society. (Gary Hoppenstand, Editor, The Journal of Popular Culture)<br /> These essays place the dynamics of the twentieth centurys most wide-reaching science fiction phenomenon in a meaningful cultural and political context. (Javier Martinez, Editor, Extrapolation)
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  Turn On, Tune In, Veg Out
  
  By NEAL STEPHENSON
  
  Published: June 17, 2005
  
  Seattle
  
  IN the spring of 1977, some friends and I made a 40-mile pilgrimage to the
  biggest and fanciest movie theater in Iowa so we could watch a new science
  fiction movie called "Star Wars." Expecting long lines, we got there early,
  and found the place deserted.
  
  As we sat on the sidewalk waiting for the box office to open, others like us
  drifted in from the towns, farms and colleges of central Iowa and queued up
  behind. When the curtain in front of the big Cinerama screen finally parted,
  the fanfare sounded and the famous opening crawl appeared against a backdrop
  of stars, there were still some empty seats. "Star Wars" wasn't famous yet.
  The only people who had heard about it were what are now called geeks.
  
  Twe