Popular Culture Review Vol. 12, No. 2, August 2001 | Page 48

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Popular Culture Review

Tulloch and Jenkins’ approach to fan culture. What is missing in Noriega’s study,
therefore, is an analysis of how American Godzilla fans actually use these texts.
Many fans are extremely aware of the cultural differences between Godzilla films
and American monster movies and are attentive to their political and social mes
sages. Others complain that too much is being read into the films, that they should
be appreciated simply for their aesthetics. And yet a third group follows the “it’s so
good it’s bad” philosophy and appreciates these films as humorous camp, regard
ing the poorly dubbed and re-edited American releases as superior to the slick
special effects of Hollywood. An analysis of Godzilla fan culture in America, there
fore, appears much more complicated and varied than previous critics have as
sumed.
The utopian ideal which Godzilla fans most highly cherish is the prin
ciple of “global understanding through Godzilla.” In on-line chat rooms, Godzilla
fans not only discuss their views and opinions about the films, but they also ad
dress issues of racism and stereotyping, issues they consider an inherent part of
their fan project. They often recount experiences of suffering from discrimination,
as well as times they were able to realize and overcome their own prejudices. For
example, in one chat room session, a fan nicknamed “Gamera” talked about his
experience getting to know an African-American, and another fan named “Gwangi”
related a similar story about getting to know a punk, someone he normally would
not have talked to