Introduction
Vampires, and Wrestlers, and Wizards...oh my!
Detectives, Designers, and Dashiell...oh my!
What a great range of topics and tastes we bring you in this final issue of
2003. Our opening article discusses the “carnival” aspects of both professional
wrestling and the Las Vegas entertainment world. David Schwartz, UNLV’s very
own coordinator of the Gaming Studies Research Center, provides amusing assur
ances that the carnival is alive and well here in the new millennium. Next, Dennis
Russell and Richard Lentz outline “Project Kingfish” the United States Informa
tion Agency’s strategy for introducing propaganda into the motion picture busi
ness. For the period from 1951 to 1967 the USIA inserted ten minute newsreels
into public movie showings throughout the world with the intent of directing U.S.
foreign policy. Russell and Lentz concisely list the themes promoted by Project
Kingfish as well as the various filmic techniques the USIA adopted depending
upon the geographic area being targeted.
While we have heard plenty about those “hard-boiled” male detectives - in
both film and fiction - over the past few issues, Katja Hawlitschka brings us an
enligh tening and important article on another type of detective fiction in “Female
Academic Detectives: Bridging the Border Between Individualism and Commu
nity.” Her character analyses of these sharp-witted, funny, unique detectives in
spire readers to take on her Works Cited author by author, novel by novel. Ron
Briley’s article on John le Carre and Philip Dubuisson Castille’s on Dashiell
Hammett round out our suspense fiction category. Both articles are astute com
mentaries on the roles that these two important authors have played in U.S. social
and political history.
On lighter notes, Kathryn E. Kuhn and Scott R. Harris bring us “ ‘It Had to Be
You:’ Narrative Themes in A Wedding Story” which addresses one of the fastest
growing popular culture arenas - the “reality” show. A Wedding Story pursues real
life brides and grooms to the altar while Kuhn and Harris follow close behind (and
before) them to deconstruct the show’s insistence on cliche themes such as love at
first sight, love as “destiny”, and love conquers all. Mark Moss traces the connec
tions between old world ambiance (i.e., class, refined culture, leisure - money!)
and the marketing strategies of Ralph Lauren in “Dressing History: Nostalgia and
Class in the Worlds of Ralph Lauren.” I don’t think I’ll ever look at those little
horses on polo shirts in quite the same way.
From the big screen medium (but with roots in the fictional worlds of Stoker,