Bøker av Jason Barr

What makes a kaiju a kaiju? What makes an ape a large ape, and why do we sympathize with some, such as King Kong, and not with others, such as Konga? And what makes a giant person become a "monster"? This book provides a new perspective on kaiju and reveals that our boundaries for the genre are perhaps not so solid. This work focuses primarily on newer kaiju works, ranging from Colossal to Shin Godzilla to Godzilla vs. Kong, but also touches on classics such as King Kong, Mighty Joe Young, Godzilla Raids Again, and lesser-known works such as What to Do With the Dead Kaiju? and Agon. Like our ancestors we have collectively adopted giant monsters into our culture, especially our pop culture. Within the domains where giant monsters walk, we experience the rigidity of our moral structures, and the fleeting borders of our definitions of humanity. Within the kaiju film genre rest our own assumptions about what makes a monster a monster, and, more importantly, what makes a human a human.

Explores how werewolves in cinema have provided an avenue for frank and often enlightening conversations about gender roles and masculinity. Werewolves are indeed a harbinger of change, but the genre of werewolf cinema itself has changed over time in how different styles of masculinity and different gender identities are portrayed

In this examination of how video gaming and video gaming culture are depicted in science fiction, Jason Barr examines how preconceived, media-fueled paranoia about video gaming, first formed almost fifty years ago, still resonate in modern science fiction prose.

The Kaiju (strange monster) film genre has a number of themes that go well beyond the "big monsters stomping on cities" motif. This examination of kaiju considers the entirety of the genre. The author examines how kaiju has crossed cultures from its original folkloric inspirations and how the genre reflects national values to audiences.