Topic: OH COME ON!? How am I not a Star Wars fan?!
Blayne Bradley
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posted
quote:"There is a diabolical twist to Star Wars fandom, you see, that defies comprehension, and yet is the life-blood of all Star Wars fans. It is this: Star Wars fans hate Star Wars. If you run into somebody who tells you they thought the franchise was quite enjoyable, and they very-much liked the originals as well as the prequels, and even own everything on DVD, and a few of the books, these imposters are not Star Wars Fans."
But this nearly discribes me perfectly!!
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It describes me as well, except I own more than a few of the books.
But haven't you heard? To be a true Star Wars fan you have to hate everything to do with the franchise since 1983 (or 1980 if you're really hardcore). The rest of us are a bunch of Jar-Jar loving, Ewok petting, Greedo-shot-firsters.
Posts: 1569 | Registered: Dec 2004
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You know, kind of sadly I think my passion for Star Wars has fizzled out a little over the past few years. I remember when I was younger I'd watch the Original Trilogy once every month at least. Now, it's been years since I've seen Empire Strikes Back or Return of the Jedi or the prequels. I used to know tons of little factoids about the movies but now the memories have faded somewhat.
But, yeah, I actually did enjoy the prequels (though the OT is definitely surperior and I don't fault people for having issues with the writing in the prequels), do like the ewoks, and have no particular hatred for Jar-Jar. But, listen folks, HAN MOST DEFINITELY SHOT FIRST!
Posts: 132 | Registered: Feb 2009
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Blayne Bradley
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I was extremely surprised at how good the special effects were in the ORIGINAL ORIGINAL Episode VI Return of the Jedi, the lightsabre "sailboating" scene with Luke was COOL! Its THE reason for being a Jedi in games. I don't recall Strike Back very well but A New Hope struck me in hindsight as looking like a bunch of amateur larpers afraid to get their foam swords hurt.
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I also own more than 'a few' of the books... a more reasonable estimation would be to say that I own all of the books between ANH and the beginning of NJO.
The NJO, and what reputedly came after it, is Not To Be Discussed. *shudder*
Posts: 7 | Registered: Jan 2007
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You know, without seeing any sort of context that this quote came from, I really can't comment.
Posts: 3826 | Registered: May 2005
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I think the quote, as it stands alone is perfectly comprehensible. I am a Star Wars fan, but I'm not interested in any of the current stuff, lost interest in the NJO and can't stand the prequels.
Let me use an analogy everyone here can understand: Star Wars prequels are to the Original Trilogy as Children of the Mind is to Enders' Game.
Both are derivative of a beloved work. Both are by the creator of the original work. Both lacked elements of the originals that made them good. Both tried to delve deeper into a universe and plot elements that only worked on a superficial level. Both stories were trapped by the constraints of prior work into becoming something that was, by necessity absolutely ridiculous when taken out of context.
The only difference between Children of the Mind and the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy is that OSC knows that CotM is a bad book. He asked the audience at a signing in Boston in 2005 if anyone had actually read the book. A few people raised their hands, and OSC called them liars: he had tried to reread his own book and found it too boring to get though and realized that it was an awful book. George Lucas hasn't figured this out about the prequels yet.
Posts: 1757 | Registered: Oct 2004
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The only difference between Children of the Mind and the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy is that OSC knows that CotM is a bad book. He asked the audience at a signing in Boston in 2005 if anyone had actually read the book. A few people raised their hands, and OSC called them liars: he had tried to reread his own book and found it too boring to get though and realized that it was an awful book.
Really? And yet:
quote:OSC has no illusion that everybody likes all his books equally. But he likes all his books. So perhaps a signing is not the occasion to tell him which of his books you did not care for. After all, you would hardly say to a parent you just met, "I really love all your children except Bucky. He's ugly and he smells."
(That comes from the section of this site about what to expect and how to behave at an OSC signing.)
I don't know that OSC dislikes CotM, but he has been known to joke that only a handful of people ever read it or Xenocide, since they've never been as popular as EG or SftD. I think he once said that only 500 people actually read Xenocide, which is obviously an exaggeration.
Posts: 1569 | Registered: Dec 2004
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I think that mostly falls under black people can call other black people names that get books taken out of high school libraries, women can call other women female dogs, and I can make fun of my siblings but if you do any of these things (assuming you are neither black nor a woman nor my other sibling) then that is socially unacceptable.
So OSC can make fun of his own books. He was mostly bothered by the fact that people in COTM just sat around and talked. I was sort of offended that he said what did, having really read Children of the Mind to the very end and liked it when I read it. Afterwards I was offended because while I had come to respect Ender and Novinha as characters the story no longer did. Yet, I still really liked the part where the fleet admiral says that he was just doing what Ender would have done, and Ender-Peter says he was doing the same thing. That melted my heart- and the part where Ender-Peter tells Wang-mu that the enemy's gate is down.
To be fair, I think OSC was in a tighter corner than George Lucas and did a lot more with what he had than Lucas did. At some level, when you know a work enough to love it, to know all the little details and factoids that make you a fan, it becomes difficult not to be able to see the work beyond its face value, to know why it is good when it is good, to know why it it bad when it is bad. That's why Star Wars fans hate Star Wars: they know it too well.
When I came up with my books, I just asked OSC why Ender and Novinha didn't have kids between Speaker and Xenocide. He told me that Novinha didn't really want any more after 6. Thinking on this, this is probably a good thing, because I don't think the Lusitania Colony have been able to handle a child with that particular parental combination, no little doctor necessary. I kind of wish I said, "you know, I did read all of COTM, and yeah, while it can be boring at times, and parts made me very sad, there was this beautiful line at the end."
Posts: 1757 | Registered: Oct 2004
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Blayne Bradley
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I also liked Children of the Mind and felt that upon rereading the Ender Series touched me deeply.
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