George A. Dunn

Excellent reading, i could not put it down. As a fan of True Blood and Charlaine Harris's books I found myself pondering some of the more philosophical issues raised by the show/books. Why didn't I have this when I was studying Philosophy in school ?The book lives up to the hype on the cover. After finishing the book I watch an episode and I found my enjoyment of the show even greater.
The BLACKWELL PHILOSOPHY AND POP CULTURE SERIES has many other books in their series that look just as entertaining, The Simpsons, Twilight, Watchman... etc… (more)

I liked this compilation of essays by philosphers much better than any 'pop culture' book of this kind I've gotten that had to do with psychology. Though, out of pure curiousity in the case of this one series I actually wouldn't mind reading the psychological analaylsis in essays of The Hunger Games Trilogy truth be told. There is plenty of dsyfunction going on that I'd love them to pick to death. In fantasy books, the psychology analysis is sort of pointless. But a philosophical book of essays would be more interesting. I discovered the psychology pop culture books through my love of Harry Potter and wasn't impressed, though found a psychological analysis of The Simpsons (the cartoon that hasn't stopped since it's debut on Fox when I was in Third or Fourth grade!) was entertaining. Now a philosophical rendering of the Hunger Games was really thought provoking in all honesty. I loved this book. I loved the essays.… (more)

I'm a big fan of the True Blood show. I have the books but have not yet begun to read them (planning to soon, though!). As the seasons have progressed, I understand that the TV series departs a bit from the books. That being said, I did enjoy reading this collection of essays. I'm a big fan of academic critical thinking pieces based off pop-culture (specifically I like reading academic criticism of horror film and television). The essays are each authored by separate scholars, many who are teaching professors. My main criticism with the book is that even though it is just 2 years old, the content is already dated. The True Blood series is quick moving so by the time the authors had a chance to write essays and have them published, many of the topics are moot as the True Blood plot has evolved so much from when the essays were written. I'd like to see another installment covering the more recent seasons.… (more)

I've been a big fan of Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire series and am in the process of catching up on the True Blood series so my interest was peaked when I was asked to review this book. It was an interesting book and the best part are the examples pulled for each philosophical argument from the books and TV episodes. Each chapter opens up with a quote from one of the characters are the perfect collection of one liners that make you laugh or remember why everyone enjoys the series so much. The main down side was after awhile it started to sound repetitive. Some of the quotes about coming out of the coffin/closet were used so often I started to skim over those parts. The best part were the questions it brings up that makes the reader started arguing the various sides of each question asked like should vampires be granted the same rights as other US citizens or when does a vampire have the right to change someone else into a vampire.… (more)