Let's Begin Now...

Why an ongoing blog about Star Wars from the perspective of a life long (since I was six and saw it for the first time in 1977) devotee? Because as of late I have begun to take the Star Wars films and the universe it has created more seriously. Perhaps I am just nourishing an obsession and justifying it by spending even more time analyzing some of what I like and dislike about the films and their spin-offs, but I'd like to think I am also contributing in a small way to emphasizing what it is about the films that can be life-affirming and meaningful rather than just entertaining. But what has really pushed me to start writing this blog is that since the release of the last three films, the prequels, I have found myself often comparing my childhood-to-adulthood expectations of the backstory to the original films (from what was merely hinted at or suggested in episodes IV, V and VI) and what was finally made into product for the screen. After scribbling down one too many notes on the subject, I realised that it was time I gathered these haphazard thoughts together into coherent paragraphs and essays and try to flesh them out and see where they lead, even if mostly (and most likely) for myself. In doing so I may not only turn a raging obsession into something a bit more framed and coherent but I might just stave off mental illness as well! There are things that I very much enjoyed and things that I very much hated about the new films but this, along with my own imaginings of what it could have been, create an interesting dynamic, one that oscillates between fantasy and reality, hope and despair, expectation and surprise. This kind of approach is also a way to discover what it is about the story and world of Star Wars that is most important to me and hopefully, from time to time, what is significant about them for most of us: by comparing what I enjoyed in the new films and what I wish had been has already begun to open up to me an understanding I did not know I had about the strengths of certain archetypical and mythic figures, about my own, all-to-often resisted, appreciation of the sci-fi/fantasy genre and what it has to offer to the life of the mind and, ultimately, about what constitutes a well crafted story itself. I hope that in these writings I will demonstrate that I seek to offer a well thought out opinion that comes from a genuine love of these films, their universe, their values and the characters that made them what they are, even if at times a harsh criticism is required. The Star Wars films are a very strange cultural phenomenon indeed. They have been so powerful in their influence on at least the generation that saw them for the first time that in a sense they have become a part of our own personal mythologies. They can no longer be considered solely the property of one George Lucas alone, regardless of what legal precedents might deem otherwise. Their heroes and villains are now a part of many people's psyche and inform how we read our lives and sometimes guide our actions and decisions. The films and their themes and characters offer us a way of understanding the world and our place in it, just as any good myth should.