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| 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.
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| (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.
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| The superlaser is a banana slice. |
I covet your pancake!!
ReplyDeleteWhat would it be if not Star Wars? I don’t think I know, but I suppose that depends on if it was the story of the Monomyth that drew you to Star Wars. For our own part my friends and I fought lightsaber battles because they are far more awesome than either a gun or a sword. We didn’t play as Luke or Han as much as simply in the Star Wars setting. Would Star Wars have been as appealing if it were set in WWII or the West? There is something I think to the imagination of the setting that contributes to something’s endurance as much or more than its relation to the Monomyth
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