Here's the latest posting at www.davidbrin.blogspot.com/
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Finally, no more Star Wars...
Well, wasn't that interesting about SETI? Not exactly my usual stuff. I guess I'm clearing my decks of miscellaneous irritations. I will get back to the serious episodic tome about Modernism and its Enemies, soon.
But first, here's another misc. item. Another volcanic opinionation!
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At Last... the Final Star Wars Episode!
It is not too soon to speculate about the summer's coming event... about the coming SW "episode 3."
Anyone who has not heard or read my iconoclastic views toward the Star Wars Universe is in for a treat... that is, if they like classic rants! I started out very favorably oriented. I liked the first film and adored EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, with its wonderful script by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasden. Almost everybody but George Lucas believes that Irwin Kershner's film is the best of the bunch. When I first saw it, my heart swelled and I blessed GL for crafting a truly noble American saga. Hell, even YODA was bearable in that film. Smarmy and unlikable and a damned liar... but at least he didn't preach evil. And I was eager for the 3rd film to answer Luke's passioned question -- "Ben, why didn't you tell me!"
(Try this on your die-hard SW fan pals and have fun watching them get tongue-tied and beet red. Ask them to name a single scene in which Yoda - that awful green oven mitt - behaves in a way that is open, friendly, informative, helpful, egalitarian, cooperative or truthful. He manifests Plato's ideal philosopher king - in other words, a superior, self-appointed, secretive and ruthless liar.)
The three essays at http://www.davidbrin.com/fictionarticles.html go into my indictment of all the wretched films that followed. Rich in visual imagery (Lucas hires the best) but filled with vapid dialogue and truly horrible moral lessons, they failed worst of all at the level of storytelling. There are at least two dozen plot inconsistencies that don't even begin to make remote sense....
Unless, that is, you express it as a challenge!
"Come on, Brin," someone dared me. "If Lucas begged you, could YOU come up with a scenario that might save the series?"
Well.... since the film is already in the can... with its utterly predictable set of events... incomprehensible political motivations... clueless civilization... and a manipulative/secretive/nasty Jedi Master... what is there that CAN be fixed? I mean, we've known for 3 decades that Anekin gets injured and sees wife tormented, so he gets mad... and this (naturally) turns a good man evil... so Obiwan grabs the twins from dying Amidalah and sends the girl to Alderan while he hides the boy from Anekin/Darth...
...in Darth Vader's home town. Uh, right. Oh, and Darth's own personal robots accompany the girl. This is how you HIDE the twins?
Then there are so many other absurdities. Recall how Vader grabbed Leia by the arm and tormented her with truth drugs? And yet, he never detects his own daughter's "force"? How likely is that?
Can you see where I'm going with this? How nothing in the whole series makes any sense unless...
Unless getting mad DOESN'T automatically make people evil! (It doesn't in THIS human race!) Instead, a decent and brave man does what he must. He pretends to go evil!
Oh, wait! I get it! Anekin was actually a secret goodguy spy all along! VADER's the one who sent the secret plans to Leia's ship! He arranged for the droids (HIS personal droids!) to get away, and coincidentally land just a few miles from his hidden son! (A staggering coincidence, since Leia certainly did not know where Luke was.) Remember how, a little later, he talks Tarkin into "letting them go so we can trace them"? Likewise, he's the only close-up witness to Obiwan disappearing when he supposedly "killed" his master in that sword fight! (Maybe he actually helped Obiwan pull a vanishing act.) Note that the "fight" with Obiwan distracted the guards & helped let Luke get away!
But there's more. Remember how Vader "chased" Luke in that Tie fighter... which had the chief effect of turning off all the antiaircraft guns and keeping all the other fighters away? Giving the boy a clear shot to blow up the first Death Star! (From which event, Vader is conveniently the only Imperial survivor.)
Recall how in TESB Vader offered to make Luke co-ruler? (Presumably it would thus be a nicer dynasty than the emperor's). Then in ROTJ recall how Vader brought Luke aboard the second Death Star? Could it be because he knew the kid would irritate the emperor and get him upset enough to finally let Darth get a crack at him from behind?
Now there is an explanation that could get Vader into Jedi Heaven! It could tie together... well... maybe half of the inconsistencies and loose ends! And it could be laced into EpIII!.
Oh, but I forgot about the billions of people he helped kill. The Nazi helmet. I mean, I won't even forgive his crushing the life out of a brave non-Jedi Captain Antilles. So never mind.
(Too bad. It was starting to look like I could make the Star Wars Universe actually make sense. Alas, it cannot be done. Some miracles are beyond authorial skill. Sigh.)
Move on. Move on....
I'll resume on modernism after I return from Computers, Freedom and Privacy...
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That is, if I haven't already offended too many high and mighty types to survive the trip... ;-)
Stay wary and open-eyed... _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
