000 01997cam a2200241 4500500
005 20250112063630.0
041 _afre
042 _adc
100 1 0 _aDuffett, Mark
_eauthor
700 1 0 _a Hearsum, Paula
_eauthor
245 0 0 _aAlas, Poor ‪Richard‪‪: Fandom, Personal Identity and Ben Myer’s Novelization of Richey Edwards’ Life Story
260 _c2017.
500 _a28
520 _a‪In 1995 the Manic Street Preachers played their last show as a four piece before their rhythm guitarist and “minister for propaganda” Richey Edwards disappeared on the advent of a US tour. ‪Although his body was never found, his car was discovered at the Severn bridge. It was assumed Edwards had committed suicide. In order to explore the troubled guitarist’s mysterious last days, fifteen years later in a novel called Richard the music journalist Ben Myers wrote a fictionalized first-person account of Richey’s life story. This article assesses Richard as a perceived act of literary impersonation by focusing on the way its author positioned himself as a fan and also on how fans and reviewers responded to the book. Addressing ideas such as parasocial interaction and mythologization, the piece shows that the “cult of Richey” apprehended Richard’s author as an unwelcome textual poacher. Fans challenged both Myers’ motives and the accuracy of his portrayal. We argue that rather than dismissing them as irrational, blind loyalists who cling to the false belief that they know the actual person, fans should be studied as individuals who use their accumulated knowledge to serve shared ethical concerns.
690 _aliterature
690 _ajournalists / critics
690 _aidentity (individual / collective)
690 _apsychology
690 _aautobiography / biography
690 _afans / fandom
786 0 _nVolume ! | 14:1 | 2 | 2017-12-12 | p. 65-84 | 1634-5495
856 4 1 _uhttps://shs.cairn.info/journal-volume-2017-2-page-65?lang=en
999 _c234617
_d234617