TheRPGSite

...is boring.

Look, I can accept that a bunch of academics have identified correlations between Star Wars and mythology and psychology and symbolism, but I think that a better celebration of the film on its 30th birthday would be a discussion of how it changed our world, from the film industry and how merchandising works to our culture, our language and our outlook on life.

I don't really think Lucas was that focused on The Odyssey, whether he'd read Hero Of A Thousand Faces or not.* I sincerely think he was trying to amuse himself and other people and wanted to make a big, fat, honest paycheck on it at the same time.

Academics will forever try to ascribe meaning to every damn thing, and that's fine -- I'm not gonna tell them how to get off.  "Star Wars is about balance."  Fine.  Swell.

It's also one of the biggest cultural movers of our time.  That's history.

*I especially think the movies were better before he started believing all that stuff, too.

I'd forgotten all about that thing even being on.

I was mainly pissed at the very idea that someone would give exclusivve coverage of the 30th Anniversary celebrationg to fucking G4.

who the fuck was behind that idiotic decision?  5 minutes into listening to those fuckwits and I tuned back to MASH reruns.

I'm tempted to install TIE-Fighter.

At the very end of the show, Peter Jackson pulls an ace out -- he basically says (and I paraphrase), "You can talk all you want about how Star Wars has bits of The Bible etc., but none of those stories has C-3P0, R2-D2, Jabba the Hutt, and that stuff.  What Star Wars is to me is the sheer brilliance of imagination."

You tell 'em, Pete.  Hey, man, you're lookin' trimmer.  Kong was a workout, huh?

Quote from: Dr Rotwang!At the very end of the show, Peter Jackson pulls an ace out -- he basically says (and I paraphrase), "You can talk all you want about how Star Wars has bits of The Bible etc., but none of those stories has C-3P0, R2-D2, Jabba the Hutt, and that stuff.  What Star Wars is to me is the sheer brilliance of imagination."

You tell 'em, Pete.  Hey, man, you're lookin' trimmer.  Kong was a workout, huh?

I noticed that.  he seems to have pulled a John Popper on us all.  I was confused because it almost didn't look like Jackson when I saw the promos.

I guess he used some of that fat Tolkien loot to get some decent exercise training.

Quote from: Dr Rotwang!Look, I can accept that a bunch of academics have identified correlations between Star Wars and mythology and psychology and symbolism [...]

I don't really think Lucas was that focused on The Odyssey, whether he'd read Hero Of A Thousand Faces or not.

Kid, I've flown from one side of this galaxy to the other, and I've seen a lot of strange stuff. But I've never seen anything to make me believe that there's one all-powerful Monomyth controlling everything. There's no aesthetic energy field that controls MY destiny.

I don't even wanna know how academics would interpret my attraction to lekku...

Quote from: JimBobOzKid, I've flown from one side of this galaxy to the other, and I've seen a lot of strange stuff. But I've never seen anything to make me believe that there's one all-powerful Monomyth controlling everything. There's no aesthetic energy field that controls MY destiny.

Uh-oh!  JimBob WIN!  Fatality!

Quote from: Dr Rotwang!Uh-oh!  JimBob WIN!  Fatality!

 (In that MORTAL KOMBAT arcade coin-op voice):

Jim Bob Wins!!

Quote from: SosthenesI don't even wanna know how academics would interpret my attraction to lekku...

Freud would have quite a few things to say about that, I'm sure. :)

You get this constant harping about SW being a carefully-crafted retelling of the  hero's journey, just because Lucas was a close personal disciple of Joseph Campbell.

But really, we also know he didn't have ANYTHING planned for Empire Strikes Back or Return of the Jedi (much less eps. I-III) back when did the original Star Wars.  Certainly, he created all sorts of stuff that was drawn from myth and symbolism, but the only one of the films that was carefully and intentionally done to tell the story of the Hero's Journey was the original Star Wars film.

And really, so what? I do the same thing every fucking day in my RPGs.  This is only notable because SO MANY people involved in the media and the arts today have utterly forgotten (or chosen to abandon) the impact and power that using these myth-forms has on the telling of a story. The fact that Star Wars is impressive by doing what story-tellers have been doing for thousands and thousands of years is only significant because everyone else in the liberal media are too corrupt or incompetent to do it too.  Its a sign of the decadence of our civilization that we have lost touch with the myths of our culture.

RPGPundit

I love the fact that, having read Lucas' original Star Wars ("The Star Wars", actually) script that elements of all three "first movies" are present in the single-movie script. All that bullshit about him planning a 9-movie arc from the beginning always makes me smile. He had ONE move idea, then when it became a mega-block-buster he padded it as best he could.

Trivia - Star Destroyers were originally 3-man ships.

For the recrord, I highly suspect the same is true of the Matrix - first movie was self-contained and good. Next two were flapping-in-the-breez crap.

I'm 5 minutes into it and already I'm feeling faint.

"Did Lucas MEAN to connect Skywalker's decent into the Death Star with the decent into the Underworld? Did he intend all these connections, or am I participating with the poet, the creator, in making these connections?"

Then again, we've got just about every Liberal media icon of the last 40 years as comemtators. Paglia. Elerbee. Rather. Brokaw.

I never thought I'd find a need for this, but:

:rollbarf:

Werekoala, you're starting resemble Nox with this insistence on turning your every post in Off Topic into being about those nasty liberals and their hating on you poor republicans.

Someone has to take up the slack. And I'm not a Republican. But hey, thanks for noticing!

And to be fair, this is the only non-political thread I've brought politics into lately, and Pundy started it, and even then it was tangental. The barfing was for the deepification of a Saturday Morning serial writ large. The RCTV thread was about a political move in another country, so it was marginally relavent.

I suppose that was supurflous. But can't any of these folks just watch a damn movie without it becoming a philosophy 201 lecture course? I guess I'm just too shallow to do any deep-thinking about a popcorn movie. Close Encounters - okay, I could see it. ET? Probably. The Phantom Menace? Oy.

Quote from: WerekoalaSomeone has to take up the slack. And I'm not a Republican. But hey, thanks for noticing!

And to be fair, this is the only non-political thread I've brought politics into, and Pundy started it.

I suppose that was supurflous. But can't any of these folks just watch a damn movie without it becoming a philosophy 201 lecture course? I guess I'm just too shallow to do any deep-thinking about a popcorn movie. Close Encounters - okay, I could see it. ET? Probably. The Phantom Menace? Oy.

So turning the Chavez thread into "Ohh that poor Bush" was entirely unmotivated by politics, then?

Quote from: J ArcaneSo turning the Chavez thread into "Ohh that poor Bush" was entirely unmotivated by politics, then?

It was an attempt to point out that one =/= the other, as some would have folks believe. After all, I'm sure Chavez has SOME good points.

I think it's good to use our intellects to derive a deeper and richer appreciation of art from critical insight and reflect. Television extravaganzas aren't really a good medium by which to express that deeper and richer appreciation though.

I'll buy that. But honestly, I think any meaning in Star Wars beyond "Don't get emotional, it turns you into a dick that blows up planets." is a product of the viewer, not Lucas.

Sure, but since Lucas is a pretentious, narcissistic dick, it's a good thing that we're not beholden to his puerile understanding of his own work.

If the quotes given by everyone else in this thread about the interpretations offered are accurate, then the problem isn't so much with using one's intellect to understand a work of art more deeply, but rather doing that badly, or without much skill.

I certainly agree that we should mock, abhor and otherwise disdain poor thought. But I do not think we can go from there to say that all thought is of that poor character, and therefore, we must be careful that we do not say things that lead to that conclusion.

I just spent some time re-reading David Brin's articles on Star Wars and Lord of the Rings instead of watching any more of that - show - as I'm wont to do occassionally. Man's got some good points, but as with most things they're open to interpretation.

Me, I don't care if somebody draws parallels between Star Wars and, hell, I dunno, Bob Ross paintings.  That's fine, get down with your happy little space-tress.  We're cool.

I'm just not always interested.  I wanna talk about what Colbert said in the very beginning:  "I went back to school the next day and couldn't describe to everybody how everything had changed".

RPGPundit, you had me nodding and agreeing with you all the way up to this point:

Quote from: RPGPunditthe liberal media are too corrupt or incompetent to do it too.  Its a sign of the decadence of our civilization that we have lost touch with the myths of our culture.

And then, poof, it's like your whole post just disappeared. Seriously, you're blaming poor writing on the liberal media? That's... wow. BIIIG stretch.

Umm. note that by "liberal media" I didn't mean it in the sense that they usually do on American radio talk shows... as in, I'm not saying "Its CNN's fault": I meant  modern day liberal postmodernist relativist mediums of communications, modern literature, modern art, modern TV and movies, etc.

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPunditUmm. note that by "liberal media" I didn't mean it in the sense that they usually do on American radio talk shows... as in, I'm not saying "Its CNN's fault": I meant  modern day liberal postmodernist relativist mediums of communications, modern literature, modern art, modern TV and movies, etc.

RPGPundit

 OH ...thats different then....

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