Will Brooker Boeken

Will Brooker's illuminating study takes issue with many commonly held ideas about Star Wars.  He provides a close cinematic analysis, carefully examining its shots, its editing, its sound design, cinematography and performances. Brooker argues that Star Wars is not, as Lucas himself has claimed, a departure from his previous work, but a continuation of his experiments with sound and image. He reveals Lucas’ contradictory desires for the total order and control of the Empire, and, on the other hand, for the raw energy and creative improvisation of the Rebels. Though at first Star Wars seems a simple fairy-tale, it becomes far more complex when we realize that the director is rooting for both sides, creating a tension unsettles the saga as a whole and illuminates new sides of Lucas' masterpiece.

"An in-depth analysis of bestselling, much-loved author Lisa Jewell, this biography will be perfect for superfans and aspiring authors alike Have you ever thought about what it takes to become a bestselling writer? If so, The Truth About Lisa Jewell is the book for you. It is the story of how a novel is written, from before the start to after the finish; it's an in-depth analysis of how that novel fits into a bestselling author like Lisa Jewell's career and her previous work, and what her style shares with authors from James Joyce to Martin Amis. But this is more than just a study of an author at the top of her game. Like Lisa Jewell's much-loved novels, it's also the story of a relationship - between the bestselling author and the professor of cultural studies who has made her his muse - evolving slowly as the world comes gradually out of Covid. It's the story of two very different writers getting to know each other gradually through words; two complete strangers becoming something more like friends."

What began with Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' landmark graphic novel, Watchmen (1987) is no longer a single story, but rather a cross-platform, multi-media franchise, including a role-playing game and video game, a motion comic, a Zack Snyder movie, and a series of comic book prequels and sequels, as well as a prestige HBO TV series. Will Brooker explores the way that Watchmen expanded over time from the mid-1980s to the present day, drawing on theories of adaptation, intertextuality and deconstruction to argue that each addition subtly changes our understanding of the original. Does it matter whether these adaptations are 'faithful'? Can they ever be, as they cross over into another medium? How does each version enter a dialogue with the others? And as Damon Lindelof's series ran parallel to an entirely distinct comic book Watchmen sequel, Doomsday Clock, how do readers and viewers make sense of these conflicting narratives? Can we relate the unstable, shifting stories of Watchmen to our contemporary climate of post-truth, where we have to weigh up contradictory versions of the facts and decide which we believe?