I just started listening to it on my iPod over lunch.
It seems David Brin has edited a new book on the subject (as well as these great articles).
My own view is that Lucas screwed up Star Wars when he came to Darth Vader (Anakin Skywalker) as the Hero of his saga instead of the villain:
To those of us who went to the original movies when they first came out, Star Wars was the story of Luke Skywalker and his companions – especially rogue Han Solo – as they rebelled against the evil empire which was personified by the great villain Darth Vader.
Darth Vader aka Anakin Skywalker is the bad guy. George Lucas thinks he is the star or hero. That is why the episodes 1 thru 3 suck pretty much.
Heh…the Darth Vader-as-Hero thing got me ranting on a younger co-worker this week who said it the plan along to have the saga revolve around Vader. It wasn’t. Vader-as-hero-journey is how Lucas “improved or upgraded” from his original idea of “The Adventures of Luke Skywalker”.
I don’t care what George Lucas thinks.
Filed under: Pop Culture Stuff | Tagged: star wars |
PurpleSlog - The Future Will Be Kludged 
I ways like reading “The Empire Is The Good Guys”, thanks for the reminder that it is time to read it again 🙂
Unfortunately, David Brin is one of those “conservatives”, he calls himself that, that is going to vote for Obama because Sarah palin is 1, 2, 3, etc.
Hmm…I don’t recall Brin being a conservative. He was never in that camp of Science Fiction writers.
Of course he wasn’t, Purple, but he calls himself an advocate of fiscal economy and various other things he says that line up with the conservative philosophy at his blog when he was arguing with me.
I think, after six years of personal discovery in 2014, that the Left had begun to feel the tides of power shifting, as the Left mobilized for Total War against humanity, with Americans being first on the extermination list.
So the story they propagated was no longer “little guy fighting the vastly more powerful Regime”, it had to be reversed. Because the Left was finally, finally, going to win the power to make themselves into an Empire, using America as a base.
See how that works? They were going to be the ones unleashing storm troopers on little Palins and TruetheVote citizens. They were going to be the ones stomping on cattle ranchers and farmers, ala Reid’s Nevada. They couldn’t, rightfully, fund propaganda about the “little boy and his American rough neck team” going up against the Empire any more.
I don’t thing the left is in retreat yet. I hope you are right, but I I think not.