Customer Reviews

Planet Simpson: How A Cartoon Masterpiece Defined a Generation

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

99% of the reviewers missed the point of the book. A book that promises a 'sprawling, multidimensional critical look' at "The Simpsons" as seen through the lens of pop culture analysis--what did they expect to read about? Most of them complain about the book's length and criticize the author's penchant for branching off into other pop culture topics. However, these two main complaints are both the central points of the book, and their arguments seem to be very defitions of "sprawling and multidemensional". I enjoyed this book very much, and liked the length of the it, as it meant the author did go in-depth in his analyses. While I did not necessarily agree with all of his points, he did present them very well and it is very obvious the man knows his "Simpsons." Furthermore, I did find many, but not all, of his "tangents" to be related and very applicable to the points he was trying to make using aspects of The Simpsons. As a long-time fan, I've always said that there is very little in life that "The Simpsons" doesn't relate to, so I really enjoyed this book. The reason I didn't give it a perfect is b/c I did find parts to be a bit dry for me, but that's the extent of my dislikes. My advice is this: if you want a more lighthearted read on "The Simpsons," buy one of the many other books about them--BUT if you want a much more in-depth and well-written book delivering what it promises, this is it.

This book isn't a masterpiece, but it deserves better reviews. If you're looking for something more fun in the vein of Simpsons merchandise or don't like to have your pleasures intellectualized, then stay way. But if you're a Simpsons fan and you've always thought it was postmodern but you were absent on the day they taught Jameson and Baudrillard in seminar and so you can't explain why . . . then this book is for you! Sure, the chapters are way too long and the prose reads like it was written by comic book store guy, but it's got its insights and it makes you laugh. The chapters are organized by character so you get a sense of how each represents a little slice of Americana--Homer the working-class oaf, Marge the desparate housewife, Bart the punk rock nihilist skateboarder, Lisa the earnest liberal do-gooder, Burns the wretched capitalist pig. I really like chapter 10, about the show's endless spiral of self-referentiality and media parody. The quiz on p.411 asking if you can guess which was a fake movie with Troy McClure or a real movie with one of the Baldwin brothers is almost worth the price of the book itself.

After reading all of these negative reviews, I was fairly hesitant about wasting time on this tome; however, as an avid Simpsons fan, I felt obligated. I had to skip over most of the introduction. It seemed too personal, too contrived, and frankly, I felt as if he greatly overestimates the impact of the show at the outset. As I started reading the text proper, I was immediately intrigued. While I take a lot of Turner's social analysis with a grain of salt, I was entertained by the references, and interested in the majority of the material covered. I think I would have enjoyed a book about this subject that was a bit more academic since Turner tends to ramble and lose sight of his focus in his too-frequent tangents. I recommend this book only to hardcore Simpsons fans who are also interested in the popular culture that ran parallel to the show.

... I mean, a journalist from Calgary writes a book about the Simpsons? What lost Turner that fifth star was his lack of disclosure: This book doesn't belong on the shelf beside the episode guides, quiz books, or comics. It would be more comfortable in the culture section tucked between Naomi Klein's No Logo and Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation. I just wish I knew that before I dove into this engrossing book. What better way to reach this generation, after all, than to wrap a narrative of liberal politics (honestly represented by the Simpsons itself, by the way) in everyone's favorite cartoon family. I would have still bought it and read it (that's my disclosure) but this isn't a book about cartoons: it's a book about the last fifteen years of Gen X, Y, AND Z.

True, Turner spends a handful of pages at the beginning of the book setting the stage, as it were. We are treated to favorite moments from the show, relatable anecdotes, and some unofficial history behind its conception. But then Turner begins his broad and sweeping path through the cast: we are treated to archetypal descriptions of each character -- not as end in itself, but rather as a jumping point for some wild (and often speculative) tangental explorations of culture and politics in our modern age. We laugh at the antics of Homer, then grimace at how the bumbling cartoon documents the decline of modern society.

It's interesting. And if you are looking to explore the Simpsons at a level that is much deeper than average (though very relatable and written very friendly) this is your book. Recognize that. You'll either love it or hate it -- but I think that may depend on your political viewpoint AND your tolerance for literature of society's vocal left.

Have you ever been to a party and been cornered by someone who wants to discuss his favourite book (or cartoon, or CD, or political theory, or celebrity) in detail? Chris Turner's Planet Simpson reminded me of the many times that I have had to endure a bore talking with passion about his views on such fascinating topics as Perl vs C++. We have all had these experiences, but most of use would prefer to avoid reading a book that treats the reader this way.

Planet Simpson is a long, rambling discourse about why the author likes The Simpsons, and why the author thinks that The Simpsons defined North American pop culture during the 1990s. Unfortunately the book contains little more than a rehash of the jokes that the author found funny, and repeated comments about how
The Simpsons deconstruct pop culture. The book offered no real insight into why The Simpsons was popular, why The Simpsons nailed such a wide variety of topics over its ongoing 14-year run, or why The Simpsons started to decline. The author
appears to have made no effort to interview people involved with the show; does not discuss, or even acknowledge, other works about The Simpsons; and largely misses the connections between this tv series and other developments in pop culture over the past 14 years.

In short, this book was dull.

This is a strange book. If you're looking for a great book on the Simpsons, this is not it, because the author rambles and attempts to tie everything but the kitchen sink into the show. While there's no doubt The Simpsons has had a broad base and has touched satirically on most anything you can imagine, Turner goes on for pages about declining western values, the fall of modern civilization, the decay of popular culture, and the disillusionment of his generation, citing snippets of dialogue from various episodes to illustrate it all, making me feel, after about a hundred pages, "So what?" Is this a book about The Simpsons or a critique of modern society? While I agree with a good deal of what Turner says (while feeling at the same time he has no perception how much earlier generations have had the same exact view of their culture; we've been here before) I am also left wondering why he didn't simply put The Simpsons aside and write a book about the zeitgeist of the time. While he doesn't have many original ideas and quotes from others' books, articles and interviews too often and too much, he is at least passionate. He could have tried to be a spokesperson for Generation X. As it is, it's hard to tell if this is a book about The Simpsons or about the decline of America.

We get long and obviously heartfelt commentaries on the current world held loosely together by citations from Simpson episodes. Since, as I've said, the show has lampooned everything under the sun, this is not difficult to pull off. It is, however, painfull tedious, as others here have attested. Why this book had to be 446 pages I don't know. A third that length would have been sharper and said as much. Also, the Simpsons comparisons somehow only seem to diminish the utter seriousness of what the author is saying, which is, as I said, substantive. And rather than bemoan the fact that modern culture is going down the tubes, Turner should perhaps look to other times and other cultures. Music wasn't invented in Seattle by Curt Cobain. We are forced to live in our political and economic times, but there's no reason we have to live in our cultural times. Turner should perhaps expand his horizon beyond Bart, Homer, Marge, Maggie and Lisa and their generation.

I really wonder, especially lately, how a lot of people get book contracts. Turner really has little to say, beyond the usual rant about how "now" sucks. Maybe if he emerged from his Simpsons shell, quoted from other sources less, and thought about things on his own more, he might come up with something actually interesting. As it is, he thinks he's really "on to something" that the rest of us have already figured out.

Ultimately, Planet Simpson tries to be an entirely different beast, but, fails. It tried to be a cultural analysis of the TV series and its impact on society, particularly American society. However, in the end, it indulges in its author's love for the series too much.


The narrative structure is not coherent enough to sustain interest in the book. Turner too often than not tries to start a dialogue on a particular point of fact. That fact being how, in whatever way, that point backs up his belief that the Simpsons in the most culturally important element of the late 20th century. Unfortunately, he never backs up the statements he starts to make. He many times starts off with a good topic, but, diverts off. Punctuated with his own words saying he's about to state an example of what he means, he veers off his topics entirely. The text is reduced to mere catalogues of episodes, moments, details, and the like. He completely forgets the vast majority of his main points and never returns to them.


Because of this somewhat rambling style, the chapter structure just does not fit it. Each seems way too long and bloated for its own good, because nothing is ever established in each section. Just collections of ideas, peppered, of course, with numerous story descriptions and notes.


This might have worked far better as an episode guide, with Turner taking asides to express his commentary. His love for this show and extent of knowledge on it is firmly established within the book. In an attempt to culturally analyze the series, though, he has failed to make a point more often than he succeeds.

Turner's book relates a collection of his opinions and personal anecdotes regarding 90's culture/counterculture, and the pivotal role (he argues) the Simpsons played in all of this. While the premise was thought-provoking enough to keep me reading out of curiosity, the book falls short in several ways.

First, you probably won't learn much new about The Simpsons!

Secondly, this book is long and dense; Turner's writing style is not just erudite, but overly sophisticated in a way you'd expect to see from a college student who is really, really, trying to earn that A++ grade. His style often slides back and forth from "academic" to "hipster". You find yourself marveling at his vocabularly... That is, until the umpteenth reference to "American hegemony"... Which brings us to the second problem...

Political bias intrudes all too often. While I'm not at all offended by his taking a liberal perspective on the Simpsons, Turner's unrelenting focus on The Simpsons' supposed fight against "American hegemony" gets old and starts to look downright immature. More importantly, he seems to miss the point -- The Simpsons satire *everybody*, right? The Simpsons writers have always skewered aging hippies and disaffected youth (liberal targets) right along with the "easy" targets such as corporate stooges and lazy Americans.

Turner's impassioned analysis often gets derailed by his own inability to take a break from his own pet concepts. Pages that may have been devoted to something like what The Simpsons says about childhood in America (much could be mined from the whole world of Ralphie, Nelson, Milhouse and others), are instead given to rambling tangents about 90's zeitgeist and such things as the raves and concerts the author attended. In this way (as other reviewers have said here) the book is too often about *Chris Turner*, and not often enough about *The Simpsons*.

Some parts are actually very funny... But it should be noted that these funny parts tend to be in the footnotes, which re-tell in detail various antics from Simpsons episodes that perhaps you haven't seen for awhile... As other reviewers have rightly pointed out, you may as well just put your money toward the DVDs and enjoy it firsthand!

This hefty book is clearly a labor of love. Overall, it's a mildly interesting, sometimes amusing, and often annoying essay. While it's *long* enough to be a good academic treatise on The Simpsons and Society, a disappointing number of pages are consumed by the author's birdwalking socio-political rants and stories.

On the whole an enjoyable book, with a couple of caveats.

What Turner tries to do is to show how the characters of the simpsons are representative of western [american] society in the 90s and beyond. A largely enjoyable book with a couple of very enjoyable chapters, particularly on Homer, Marge and Lisa.

This is a book for fans, and fans alone. If you ain't a fan of the show,don't bother. You'll miss it.

The introduction is *painful*, self referential and pseudo-intellectual. The chapter on Bart is weak but a lot of the rest of the book is clearly a labour of love and as I mentioned a book for fans..

If you ever felt the slightest hint of guilt that your love of the Simpsons - in the face of a partner's misgivings about your love of a 'cartoon' - hand them this book and ask them to start reading.
Covering some characters in depth and the show as a whole as part of society, this is a book that does some real justice to the intelligence that sits behind the Simpsons as an institution and a part of pop culture itself.
Aligning itself with the issues of modern societies 'existiental angst', religion, faith, the individual, modern corporations and globalisation and so on and so on, this book brings forth an educational experience as well as ensuring the reader is never bored before too long with another quote or snippet from the show itself.
For a book that covers a broad spectrum of societal issues, this has got to be one of the most enjoyable 450 pages I've read in a long time. Fantastic.