A Purposeful Grimace: In Defense of Godzilla

In this brilliant look at the decades-long, loved and mocked Godzilla movie series, Jim Knipfel delves deep into one of his own obsessions to extract a wealth of cross-cultural insights. Among other things, the book covers the history of monster film special effects, explores the relationship between nuclear war and Godzilla, and analyzes how the evolving film series tracked changing social and political imperatives. A Purposeful Grimace: In Defense of Godzilla is a fascinating and unique study of one of the Twentieth Century’s most-loved, most-dismissed and most-enduring pop phenomena.

“Knipfel’s personal perspective is full of intriguing insights on the many meanings of Godzilla. I devoured it with great relish and suggest that all fans of Gojira would enjoy partaking in this thoughtful celebration of the wondrous daikaiju universe conjured by those Toho sorcerers.”

—Magus Peter H. Gilmore