{"product_id":"the-sheikhs-batmobile-isbn-9781593762926","title":"The Sheikh's Batmobile","description":"What happens to our pop culture when it meets another culture head-on—especially one that, according to some, is completely at odds with our own?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eThe Sheikh’s Batmobile\u003c\/i\u003e, pop culture commentator Richard Poplak sets out on an unusual two-year odyssey. His mission is to see what becomes of his and America’s obsessions—pop songs and sitcoms, Hollywood movies and shoot-'em-up video games, muscle cars and punk music—when they make their way into the Muslim world.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOver the course of his journey, Poplak gets body-slammed by WWE fans in Afghanistan, hangs out with hip-hop artists in Palestine, headbangs to heavy metal in Cairo, discovers a world of extreme makeovers in Beirut, bowls with the chief of police in small-town Kazakhstan, and encounters a mysterious Texan who builds rocket-propelled Batmobiles for a clientele of sheikhs.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith uproarious humor and keen cultural insight, Poplak asks some vital questions: How is American pop culture consumed and reinterpreted in the Islamic world? What does that say about how we are viewed by young Muslims? And can Homer Simpson bridge the divisions that are tearing our world apart?\"With insight, humor, and compassion, \u003ci\u003eThe Sheikh's Batmobile\u003c\/i\u003e puts a nail in the coffin of 'Clash of Civilizations' theory. The author and subjects are equally human. If you see Ayaan Hirsi Ali, throw this book at her. --Michael Muhammad Knight, author of \u003ci\u003eJourney to the End of Islam\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“I would read Poplak if he wrote about watching paint dry. He is a gifted addition to the exploding and increasingly sloppy literary non-fiction genre. Dark, funny, self-deprecating and poetic, Poplak is a punk Graham Greene both exploiting and being exploited by the cultures he inhabits.” --\u003ci\u003eThe Globe and Mail\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A heroic feat of research, analysis, and on-the-ground reportage . . . At the very least, The Sheikh’s Batmobile should shatter the Western stereotype of the Muslim world as repressive and stagnant.” --\u003ci\u003eQuill and Quire\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Poplak avoids making easy connections . . . his de-embedded journalism is always open-minded and captures the uncanny perfectly.” --\u003ci\u003eEye Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Humorous, astute and vivid . . . Poplak’s view of popculture is nuanced, as it emerges as a mutating entity crossing national and ideological boundaries.” --\u003ci\u003eThe Coast\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“This is a great book and despite its lighthearted title and subject matter it’s a serious book. It’s an important book too, because it promotes understanding and leaves the reader with hope that at a human level, and at a creative level, the kids are all right.” --\u003ci\u003eWinnipeg Free Press\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The book is not a magnifying glass searching for Western brushstrokes on an Islamic canvas, but rather a kaleidoscope that bounces the reader's assumptions and expectations off the colorful mirrors of zestful narrative and impressive legwork.” --\u003ci\u003eWiretap Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A fast-paced and culturally savvy look at a section of the Muslim population underrepresented, if not entirely ignored, by Western media.” --\u003ci\u003eOpen Book: Toronto\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“In the riotous, fearless, and very funny tradition of Hunter S. Thompson and Jon Ronson, Richard Poplak takes us through the looking glass and into an upside down, funhouse mirror pop culture universe where Homer Simpson drinks juice out of a beer can, batmobiles are custom-designed in a desert lair and Islamic children spontaneously recreate the video for Lionel Richie’s ‘Hello.’” --Nathan Rabin, \u003ci\u003eThe A.V Club\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Poplak is everything you want in a cultural interpreter--funny, frank and utterly incapable of spewing mass market pabulum. Poplak gets beyond the cheap, superficial observations lesser writers bring to his subject, revealing himself as a genuine thinker who delivers original insight and laughs in every chapter.” —Chuck Thompson, author of \u003ci\u003eSmile When You’re Lying: Confessions of a Rogue Travel Writer\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eRichard Poplak\u003c\/b\u003e was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1973 and immigrated to Canada with his family in 1989. A co-founder of the successful Canadian music label 2wars \u0026amp; A Revolution Records, Richard is also a trained filmmaker and has directed numerous music videos, earning five nominations at the 2005 MuchMusic Video Awards. He is the author of the acclaimed \u003ci\u003eJa, No, Man: Growing Up White in Apartheid-era South Africa\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Sheikh's Batmobile: In Pursuit of American Pop Culture In The Muslim World\u003c\/i\u003e.","brand":"Soft Skull","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46300561113317,"sku":"NP9781593762926","price":17.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781593762926.jpg?v=1767741498","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/the-sheikhs-batmobile-isbn-9781593762926","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}