Jacking In To the Matrix Franchise: Cultural Reception and Interpretation

Bys: Matthew Kapell and William G. Doty

Book Overview

There have already been several very successful books devoted to the original film in the Matrix trilogy. This entirely new collection of essays is the first book to examine the trilogy as a whole -... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0826415873
• ISBN13: 9780826415875
• Release Date: June 2004
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Length: 230 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.8" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

The ONLY book on the Matrix you need

This is far and away the best work on the Matrix films. It is the only one that covers the entire franchise; the films, the games, the pop culture aspects. Doty's introduction is amazing, while the other chapters manage to cover just about every aspect of the series you can imagine. Highly useful for anyone interested in figuring out which colored pill to take.

Superb writing, accessible and insightful

This is unquestionably the best quality book in a field crowded with poseurs and worse. See particularly the essays by Wilhelm & Kapell, John Shelton Lawrence, Flannery-Dailey & Wagner, and Mizelle & Baker. Accessibly written, enlightening, intellectually stimulating, with touches of humor that delight and intrigue, this book is worth every penny. The primary editor, Kapell, along with the highly competent Dr. Doty, have selected papers which are reflexive, more than capably developed, and multi-faceted in their approaches to the Matrix franchise. Enjoy this literate and worthy book!

A Good Read

Jacking In to the Matrix Franchise is the red pill that makes us understand the world of the Matrix in ways we could not while we were immersed in it, since the volume's essays serve as a comprehensive look into the Matrix franchise, not just the film trilogy composed by The Matrix, The Matrix: Reloaded, and The Matrix: Revolutions. For the Matrix directors, Andy and Larry Wachowski, orchestrated an array of artistic endeavors, including a collection of short anime stories entitled The Animatrix, the video game Enter The Matrix and the The Matrix comics as alternative texts that provide background or side narratives to Reloaded and Revolutions. In the Fall of 2004, the Matrix saga will continue in the form of a massively multiplayer online role-playing game, The Matrix Online. As co-editor William G. Doty claims in the introduction, Jacking In situates the franchise in the context of "the history of thought"-from Romanticism to Postmodernism and the posthuman-and in the context of cinema. Accordingly, the volume is multidisciplinary in scope, though it remains firmly set in the humanities and social sciences, as shown by the authors' credentials: Religion and Culture, Comparative Ethnic Studies, English, Philosophy, History, Anthropology...Besides Doty's introduction, other highlights of Jacking In include John Shelton Lawrence's reading of the film trilogy as a fascist narrative, and Frances Flannery-Dailey and Rachel L. Wagner's analysis of the franchise's problematic connection of violence and religious themes.Jacking In also includes a useful appendix with a glossary of names and terms used in the franchise, plus a collection of internet sites by theme and a short bibliography of recommended readings.