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Wikipedia / Planet Simpson

Planet Simpson: How a Cartoon Masterpiece Documented an Era and Defined a Generation, also abbreviated to Planet Simpson: How a Cartoon Masterpiece Defined a Generation, is a non-fiction book about The Simpsons, written by Chris Turner and originally published on October 12, 2004, by Random House. The book is partly a memoir and an exploration of the impact The Simpsons has had on popular culture.

Background

Planet Simpson was written by Canadian author Chris Turner, who is a big fan of The Simpsons, although "not even the biggest fan I know personally... I think I am actually a pretty average hardcore fan. What I brought to it was a sense that because the show is as well put together as it is, it really offers a wide lens for looking at culture generally." Turner notes: "I can count on The Simpsons to provide me with a solid thirty minutes of truth, of righteous anger, of hypocrisies deflated and injustices revealed, of belly laughter and joy. It is food for my soul. Seriously. I think many Simpsons fans would agree. And that, as far as I'm concerned, makes it a kind of religion," he explains in the book. He had previously written an essay during his time at Shift entitled "The Simpsons Generation", which was syndicated across North America. Turner wrote Planet Simpson because there had not been a book that had looked at the "genesis, past, characters and influence" of the show, only official episode guides or academic pieces.

Planet Simpson examines the show's satirical humor and its impact on pop culture. It also looks at numerous episodes of the show.

It features a foreword by Douglas Coupland.

Chapters

  • Foreword by Douglas Coupland

  • Introduction: The Birth of the Simpsonian Institution

Chapter 1: The Life & Times of The Simpsons

  • A brief history of the show, its creation, its writers and a study of its various styles of humour. Also details the shows descendants and its "ancestors".

Chapter 2: Homer's Odyssey

Chapter 3: Bart Simpson, Punk icon

Chapter 4: Citizen Burns

Chapter 5: Lisa Lionheart

Chapter 6: Marge Knows Best

Chapter 7: The Simpsons in Cyberspace

  • Focuses on the Internet and its influences in the show and the shows influence on the Internet, extended mention of Comic Book Guy.

Chapter 8: The Ugly Springfieldianite

Chapter 9: The Simpsons Go Hollywood

Chapter 10: The Simpsons Through the Looking Glass

  • Focuses on the shows take on pop culture.

Chapter 11: Planet Simpson

  • The conclusion of the book.

Top 5 episodes

The end of the first chapter includes a look at the author's Top 5 episodes. Turner lists "Last Exit to Springfield" as his favourite episode. The other four episodes ordered by airdate: "Marge vs. the Monorail", "Rosebud", "Deep Space Homer" and "El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer (The Mysterious Voyage of Homer)".

Reception

Christopher Hirst of The Independent felt the book would largely appeal to fans of The Simpsons who would enjoy "Turner's critical intelligence and social awareness," while "non-fans will see 470 pages of geeky raving." He felt the book was "sui generis," and its "combination of motor-mouthed omniscience and voluminous footnotes is reminiscent of a certain style of highbrow writing about pop music." Curtis Gloade of The Record described the book as "almost 500 pages of this sort of meticulous, clear, and I believe, accurate rhetoric. It kept me nodding in agreement throughout. And laughing, too." He also wrote that he hopes people will not skip by the book at the bookstore because it is about The Simpsons and assume that it is "little more than a laugh-along-with-me book with lots of pictures and funny quotes." Gloade commented that this is "not the case. I laughed out loud regularly at the many Simpsons quotes, but that's only a small part of the total package." He concluded that Planet Simpson is an "enjoyable reading experience, one that will likely be matchless still for a long time because I highly doubt we'll see such a melding of a stellar pop culture icon (The Simpsons) and eloquent cultural critic (Turner) again for a long time." Kevin Jackson of The Times gave a largely negative review of the book. While feeling Turner's knowledge of the show was vast and finding much of the initial "less well-known aspects of Simpsonian pre-history" interesting, he overall felt the book was mostly "flimflam and filler" and criticised Turner's "gee-whiz prose and occasional lapses into plain old illiteracy" and ultimately failed to achieve the analytical goal Turner set: "It would take wit as keen and literary flair as supple as [the show's writers] to do justice to the show, and Turner is gifted with neither: he may think like Lisa, but he writes more like the Comic Book Guy."

Editions

  1. A. Citation from article "Books previews: Saturday, 11 September 2004" (The Guardian).

References

  1. Bibliography