Jacking in to the Matrix Franchise: Cultural Reception and Interpretation (Book Review)

Matthew Kapell and William G. Doty, editors. Jacking in to the Matrix Franchise: Cultural Reception and Interpretation. New York and London: Continuum, 2004. 215 pp. $19.95 paperback. This volume of essays is an example of the ways in which the scholarly examination of a popular cultural phenomenon can itself become a franchise. Of course, the academy is an institution to which one would rarely, if ever, apply the word franchise, at least without cynicism, and for that reason it is no surprise that the appropriateness of that designation might be overlooked. However, the authors of the various essays of this volume are not merely on the outside of the Matrix franchise looking in. Sadly, it often seems as if the purpose of this franchise is to simply keep it going, endlessly relating themes from the Matrix to religious, philosophical, and postmodern issues, without coming to viable conclusions as to how any of the information gleaned is in any way sociologically relevant.