Confessions of a Star Wars Fan

My name is Steve, and I am a Star Wars fan, a "Han Shot First," dressing up for premiers, Empire lunch box having, fan.

Episode V, now in lunch box form!

It's been difficult for me to get started on this because of just how important Star Wars was to my childhood. Let me try this way: my teddy bear was an ewok. Not a stuffed bear with a hood. A plushie of Princess Kineesaa made by Kenner in the 1980s as a tie in to the short lived Ewoks cartoon show.

(Updated with my actual ewok.)

Our discussion this week has me wondering just why Star Wars is so important to me. Is it the hero's journey and quest myth? If I were a Mesopotamian child would I have been as obsessed and profoundly impacted by the Gilgamesh epic? Running around with a friend (they, of course, would make me be Enkidu, because I never get to be Gilgamesh), battling the Humbaba, castrating heavenly bulls, and being smote by Ishtar. Did Greek children stay up all night telling stories of Odysseus, and arguing over which of Scylla and Carybdis were the better nautical peril, or if Odysseus or Polyphemus was the aggressor. 

Does the type of fanatical devotion I exhibit go along with any hero myth? If it hadn't been Star Wars for me would it have been something else? 

Either way, for this snow day I will be watching Empire and Jedi, and there may even be a flashlight lightsaber battle or two.

-Steve

P.S. For your viewing pleasure, I present a panel of voice actors reading Episode IV as their famous characters. My personal favorites: Jess Harnell as Christopher Walken as R2D2, and Maurice LaMarche as Kif Kroker as Han Solo.

P.P.S: My girlfriend made me a Death Star pancake today.

The superlaser is a banana slice.

Star Wars: A Hero's Journey

I can't tell you guys how excited I am for Tuesday's discussion about Star Wars and archetypes. I think it might look something like this:

(But perhaps with a bit less Michael J Fox.)

So why am I so excited?

Everyone, it seems, has a Star Wars story, or even a few of them. My journey into loving Star Wars begins in the third or fourth grade. My mom and I rented all three of the films (yes, only three then) from our local video store and watched them back-to-back. I spent that summer writing a screenplay for "Episode VII" on something like 10 legal pads. The plot, as I recall, revolves around Luke training his sister to be a Jedi. (Maybe I should send it to JJ Abrams?) Star Wars introduced me to fan culture and fanfiction long before I knew either of those things even existed.

O Captain my Captain!

But my fascination with the movie deepened in the ninth grade. I had an amazing English teacher that year, Ms. Huff. She stood out a bit at the very traditional southern girls' school I attended. (I've always thought of her as my school's version of Mr Keating from Dead Poets' Society.)

A bit of a free spirit, she taught us the rhythms of poetry by teaching us to waltz. And she taught us about archetypes and mythology by showing us Star Wars.

Ladies and gentlemen, my eyes were opened.

I had never thought about the ways that all of the books and films that I loved were part of something larger, something connecting me to all of the people who ever have, or ever will, tell stories.

Even though I hope I have achieved a more sophisticated theoretical approach to texts than I had when I was 14, that lessons sticks with me. It's a formative moment in my education and my life, and it couldn't have happened without Star Wars.

Before I sign off for today, I wanted to share a link to a helpful article on Screened discussing how the Hero's Journey structure plays out in the film. I think you'll find it useful for our discussion next week. Click on the helpful diagram below to see it full size - you may want to consult it before, during, or after watching the movie for Tuesday's class.

from the Screened article linked above

So what about you guys? Do you have a Star Wars story to share? Are you a fan? Why or why not?