Star Wars on Trial (65 page)

Authors: David Brin,Matthew Woodring Stover,Keith R. A. Decandido,Tanya Huff,Kristine Kathryn Rusch

3 George Lucas, interview by Orville Schell, "I'm a Cynic Who Has Hope for the Human Race," New York Times, March 21, 1999.

Another excerpt: "The United States, especially the media, is eating its own tail. The media has a way of leveling everything in its path, which is not good for a society. There's no respect for the office of the Presidency Not that we need a king, but there's a reason why kings built large palaces, sat on thrones and wore rubies all over. There's a whole social need for that, not to oppress the masses, but to impress the masses and make them proud and allow them to feel good about their culture, their government and their ruler so that they are left feeling that a ruler has the right to rule over them, so that they feel good rather than disgusted about being ruled. In the past, the media basically worked for the state and was there to build the culture. Now, obviously, in some cases it got used in a wrong way and you ended up with the whole balance of power out of whack. But there's probably no better form of government than a good despot."

Let me add that the reader should carefully take into account context. For example, this was said during the height of Clinton-era "morality" witch-hunts. Nevertheless, there is irreducible meaning to the words themselves.

' This isn't just a one-time distinction. It marks the main boundary between real, literate, humanistic science fiction-or speculative fiction-and most of the movie "sci-fi" you see nowadays.

The difference isn't really about complexity, childishness, scientific naivete or haughty prose stylization. I like a good action scene as well as the next guy, and can forgive technical gaffes if the story is way cool! The films of Robert Zemeckis take joy in everything, from rock 'n' roll to some deep scientific paradox, feeding both the child and the adult within. Meanwhile, noir tales like Gattaca and The 13th Floor relish dark stylization while exploring real ideas. Good SF has range.

' For the purposes of clarity, Star Wars refers below to the saga as a whole. The individual films are referred to by their chapter titles. Yes, this means I'm referring to the film released in 1977 as A New Hope, which makes my teeth hurt, for much the same reason that seeing the 1981 Harrison Ford picture being called Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark does likewise, but it works better this way Damn you, George Lucas, damn you to hell.

2 Brin, David. "What's wrong (and right) with `The Phantom Menace."' Salon, June 15, 1999. http:// www.salon.coin/ent/movies/feature/1999/06/15/brin side/index.html.

'Gunn, James. "The Tinsel Screen." In Teaching Science Fiction, edited by Jack Williamson. King of Prussia, PA: Owlswick Press, 1980.

' Galaxy Far, Far Away-what Star Wars fandon calls the Star Wars universe.

3 Publishers Weekly year-end statistics, taken from their Web site, www.publishersweekly.com.

' Williams, Walter Jon. "Thought Experiments: The Science Fiction Village." Asimov's Science Fiction, July 2005, 22.

2 Ibid., 25.

5 Ibid.

' Dozois, Gardner. The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-second Annual Collection. New York: St. Martins Press, 2005. Dozois got his numbers from Locus magazine.

6 Okay. Its Jack McDevitt's new paperback Polaris.

Statistics compiled every year by the Romance Writers of America (www.rwanational.org). These statistics come from two studies commissioned by the organization. One study "is tabulated by mathematician Olivia Hall, who draws data from mass-market book distributors' yearly release information; from figures released by the American Bookseller[s] Association; and from reports by Ipsos-BookTrends reports, an independent market research firm that studies book trends. This study is updated yearly. Another study focuses on reader demographics, book content, and book-buying habits. It is conducted via telephone survey and in-person focus groups by Corona Research, a market research firm in Denver, Colorado." Other studies, conducted by various organizations, have similar figures. Anyone who doubts these numbers can do his own tally using books in print numbers: total fiction books published into the number I used above. I prefer the RWA statistics; they're less dismal for SF publishing.

8 In fact, I believe the Star Trek juggernaut faltered when it lost track of the same values that sf literature forgot: the excellent storytelling, the Hero's Journey, the strange new worlds (familiar and yet unfamiliar) promised in the voice-over for the first and second series.

9 Sidebar to "A Hobbit Takeover?" Publishers Weekly, April 4, 2005. Retrieved from Web site archives.

10 Chabon, Michael. Introduction to The Best American Short Stories 2005, edited by Michael Chabon. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2005.

' I am, of course, referring here to the original 1977 film, which was initially titled simply Star Wars and was only later renamed Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope. Since the latter is a rather unwieldy name, and since STE4ANH looks like something a 14-year-old might text-message, I will refer to the original movie as Star Wars throughout the remainder of my testimony.

2 The term "sci-fi" was coined by writer, editor, agent and sometimes actor Forrest J. Ackerman, who is just about the nicest guy you could ever want to meet. It is used here with both permission and the greatest affection and respect. Yo, 4E!

' My personal favorite being Garnera, the giant, flying, fire-breathing, saber-toothed turtle.

8 Winner of the Academy Award for Best Special Effects, 1954.

12 Which eventually grew up to become a five-movie pentology and a TV series.

14 Winner of the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, 1968.

4 In fairness, we must note that Lucas himself has never made this claim. Rather, fans and critics have often made this claim on his behalf.

" Okay, so it was a silly movie that depicted early humans and dinosaurs living side-by-side. But what's not to like about a movie in which Raquel Welch spends the entire film running around in a fur bikini?

s Winner of the Academy Award for Best Special Effects, 1950.

'Winner of the Academy Award for Best Special Effects, 1951.

9 Winner of the Academy Award for Best Special Effects, 1960.

10 Winner of the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, 1966.

Winner of the Academy Award for Best Special Effects, 1953.

" Winner of the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, 1968.

's Winner of the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, 1969.

16 Four-time Hugo Award-winning editor George Scithers has been known to define science fiction as, "Whatever I'm pointing at when I say, `That's science fiction."'

" Winner of the Academy Award for Best Special Effects, 1965.

18 No problem. It was the 1970s. Superficial was in.

19 Actually, the Academy has changed the name of the award several times over the years, and Logan's Run won a "Special Achievement Award." It shared this honor with the Dino De Laurentiis remake of King Kong, but let us not speak of that awful abomination here.

2' Did Star Wars help elect Ronald Reagan? Its at least worth considering.

20 Well, at least it wasn't the Horst Wessel song.

22 Or are they earlier? I can never keep this straight.

' http://www.magicdragon.coin/UltimateSF/timeline 1980.html#7OsDates.

2 Heinlein, Robert A. Time Enough for Love. New York: Putnam, 1973.

' Kessel, John. "Twenty-Nine Years, Twenty-Nine Books: The Works that Most Influenced Science Fiction, 1963-1992." http://www4.ncsu.edu/-tenshi/index2.htinl. Originally published in Science Fiction Age, 1997.

' George Lucas, interview by Jim Windolf, Vanity Fair, February 2005.

' Bostrom, Nick. "Are You Living in a Computer Simulation?" Philosophical Quarterly 53, no. 211 (2003): 243-255.

' I use the word "human" very loosely here. In the universe of Star Wars, Gungans, Wookiees and little green Jedi Masters are human, too. But clones aren't.

2 This is Sean Miller's The Empire MenaceD: The Unauthorized Autobiography of Dearth Nadir (Imperial Beach, CA: Aventine Press, 2004). I guess the point is that male adolescence and Star Wars often go together; and that obsessive fascination with sex and male adolescence often go together, so there's a sort of association by implication.

' Even the production companies have got in on the act. At least, I've no reason to believe that LickUs Films is named after an actual filmmaker called George Lick-Us.

' There is in fact an entire Web site devoted to listing the myriad Star Wars parody moments in The Simpsons, as you can see for yourself if you direct your browser to www.snpp.com/guides/starwars.html.

I Ever since seeing that small-minded, nasty-spirited excuse for a comedy Dumb and Dumber I have resolved to write to the directors every year exhorting them to change their name by deed poll to "The Farrelly Brothers (shudder)." I shall persevere until they agree.

s This is what the Oxford English Dictionary gives us under sith: an archaic and largely dialect word... used especially as an interjection to draw attention or as a conversational filler. Are you telling me that Revenge of the Interjection to Draw Attention or Conversational Filler wouldn't make a good parody title?

' Snyder, Gabriel. "NATO, MPAA pass B. O. ball." Variety, October 25, 2005. http://www.variety coin/article/VR1117931602?categoryid=l8&cs=1.

' EU, of course, stands for Expanded Universe, which includes all of the Star Wars books as well as the movies.

' Speaking of big gorillas, run out and get King Kong Is Back (David Brin, editor, BenBella Books, 2005).

2 Frivolity aside, my real punishment is all the time that went into this critical appraisal of a successful series that can easily afford to shrug off a few ankle-bites by the likes of me. Heck, the angriest letters I've received have been from my own fans! (Come on, Brin, drop this silliness and write your own stuff!)

' Of course, Yoda says, "There is no try." I always wondered why more SW fans didn't balk at this statement, all by itself. In real life, effort and practice, failure and gradual improvement are the paths to skill and success. Yes, "there is no try" sounds very cryptic and guru-like. But isn't it also just plain... offensive?

4 Tell me, who is the "hero" in The Phantom Menace? There is a mentor archetype, a precocious kid, a princess, mystic helpers, comic relief, a sidekick... but no hero! Oh, it should have been young Obi-Wan's "journey"-but he was left on the ship through the whole middle, with nothing to do!

s Maybe I am too harsh on Return of the Jedi. Perhaps the whole first (second?) trilogy of Episodes IV-VI is in keeping with the spirit of The Empire Strikes Back. Still, can anybody doubt that the other trilogy, the more recent one, is just a long, unalloyed, fatalistic bummer? In which not a single good or brave deed goes unpunished?

6 Criticism Is The Only Known Antidote To Error.