The Balance of George Lucas' Star Wars (original) (raw)
Related papers
The foundational structures behind Star Wars
2015
The Star Wars franchise is one of the most successful film series of all time. The original three movies, along with the more recent three prequels, serve as the foundation to a vast empire of Star Wars television shows, action figures, comic books, and novels. Millions of people have already been exposed to these films, and millions more will be exposed to it in the future. With such a vast amount of people which continue to view these movies, it is easy to understand the impact Star Wars has had on our culture. But how did creator George Lucas sculpt this franchise? What were his influences when he created Star Wars? Researching this question by looking at the underlying structures led me understand the connections between literature, history, philosophy, and even mythology. This thesis shows the connections inherent in Star Wars and reveals why these movies are the way they are.
LUCASFILM: Filmmaking, Philosophy, and the Star Wars Universe - Introduction (Uncorrected Proof)
2021
From A New Hope to The Rise of Skywalker and beyond, this book offers the first complete assessment and philosophical exploration of the Star Wars universe. Lucasfilm examines the ways in which these iconic films were shaped by global cultural mythologies and world cinema, as well as philosophical ideas from the fields of aesthetics and political theory, and now serve as a platform for public philosophy. Cyrus R. K. Patell also looks at how this ever-expanding universe of cultural products and enterprises became a global brand and asks: can a corporate entity be considered a “filmmaker and philosopher”? More than any other film franchise, Lucasfilm's Star Wars has become part of the global cultural imagination. The new generation of Lucasfilm artists is full of passionate fans of the Star Wars universe, who have now been given the chance to build on George Lucas's oeuvre. Within these pages, Patell explores what it means for films and their creators to become part of cultural history in this unprecedented way.
Jewish commentaries on Star Wars: theology, history, and debate
Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, 2019
This paper examines how pop culture commentators, rabbis, bloggers, and others use "inverted midrash" [Zierler, Wendy. Movies and Midrash: Popular Film and Jewish Religious Conversation. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2017. I follow Zierler's use of the term "inverted midrash" to refer to the singular midrash as well as to a body of material (personal correspondence September 10, 2019)] to comment on the implicit Jewish dimensions of Star Wars movies. These midrashic commentaries fundamentally challenge the conceptual divide between pop culture and religious life, and online religion and religion online. Commentaries examined here are grouped into three categories, including those created by commentators who link a range of points from Jewish theology to the Star Wars universe, events, and characters; see in Star Wars traces of Jewish historical experiences, from biblical episodes, Second Temple times, the Enlightenment, and the Nazi period, to the present day; and believe that aspects of the Star Wars story, particularly key scenes and characters from Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017), facilitate critical debate on Jewish movements today.
2016 From Star Wars to Jediism: The Emergence of Fiction-based Religion
Full bibliographical information: Davidsen, Markus Altena (2016), “From Star Wars to Jediism: The Emergence of Fiction-based Religion”, in Ernst van den Hemel & Asja Szafraniec (eds.), Words: Religious Language Matters, New York: Fordham University Press, 376-389 (plus endnotes pp. 571-575). The article is a revision of an article published in Danish in 2010 as "Fiktionsbaseret religion: Fra Star Wars til jediism", Religionsvidenskabeligt Tidsskrift 55, 3-21. Unfortunately the volume took a long time coming along; the volume is based on a conference in Groningen, the Netherlands in June 2009. My article was submitted in 2011. Sorry if it is already pretty outdated - and please get in touch if you have newer or better information on Jediism.
'The Force' as Law: Mythology, Ideology and Order in George Lucas's Star Wars
Australian Feminist Law Journal Vol 36, 2012
Where is the Law in Star Wars? Why in films so resonant with our current times, saturated with technology, enmeshed in political turmoil and structured by international-or, rather, intergalactic-commerce has the law been jettisoned like space trash from an Imperial Cruiser? My argument is that despite the lack of any overt references to law and legality, the Star Wars franchise in its mythological creation, as well as its capitalist construction, is in fact saturated with law. This law can be found in both the mythology and legality of 'the Force'-that mystical energy field that supposedly binds the galaxy together, desires a sense of universal order and balance and seeks to regulate destiny itself. This is not simply to read 'the Force' in its mythical trappings as a form of natural law that seeks to provide balance to the universe, but, rather, as a representation of modern law and its concern with the defence and preservation of order. As such, this article seeks to 'read' Star Wars and 'the Force' as a 'telling instance' of both popular culture and law: a law that is preoccupied with maintaining peace in a civilisation that is always precarious and under threat. It is this law that, as Obi-Wan Kenobi might say, becomes 'more powerful than you can possibly imagine' through its very suspension in what Georgio Agamben has termed the 'state of exception'. What Star Wars shows us, however, is that it is the restoring of balance or order-the very reason for the declaration of the 'state of exception'-that is of far greater concern. For 'the Force' and the law's desire for order underlie both the 'good' Jedi and the 'evil' Sith-the liberal-democratic Republic and the totalitarian Galactic Empire!
The article discusses inspirations from Far Eastern cultures present in George Lucas' Star Wars saga. This cinematic story is treated as a postmodernist text, in which references to earlier cultural works appear. More attention is given to the sequel trilogy, not explored in academic circles as much as the two earlier trilogies. These inspirations are analysed through the lens of Edward Said's concept of orientalism, with additional focus on the specific ways in which it was employed in the United States of America. In the conclusion, some reflections are devoted to audience reactions to the newest trilogy and the Eastern elements present therein.
2017 The Jedi Community: History and Folklore of a Fiction-based Religion
New Directions in Folklore, 2017
The Jedi Community is a loose confederation of groups and individuals who, inspired by George Lucas' Star Wars movies, have adopted an identity as Jedi Knights. Contrary to Star Wars fans who may occasionally and temporarily play as Jedi, members of the Jedi Community aim to simply be Jedi Knights – always and everywhere. They will even say that they are the real Jedi – as opposed to the fictional Jedi of the movies. Members of the Jedi Community also believe that the Force, the cosmic power from Star Wars, actually exists in the real world. An important part of the practice as Jedi Knights is thus to study the Force and connect with it in ritual. This article provides the most comprehensive overview to date of the Jedi Community. It sketches the history of the Jedi Community since its emergence from the online Star Wars roleplaying community in the late 1990s, and presents an overview of the Community members' core beliefs and practices. Throughout, due attention is paid to the divergent views on issues of doctrine, practice, and identity held by the two main factions within the Jedi Community, the Jedi Realists, for whom the Jedi Path is a spiritual way of life, and the Jediists who seek to develop Jediism into a full-fledged and legally recognized religion. As Henry Jenkins has famously pointed out, fans of popular culture are no passive consumers, but active agents – " textual poachers " even – who engage in " a type of cultural bricolage through which [they] fragment texts and reassemble the broken shards according to their own blueprint " (1992, 26). In other words: fans use popular culture as a resource for the creation of their own folk culture or folklore. This process of turning popular culture into folklore can arguably take place at three levels. At the most basic level, any consumption of popular culture involves the co-construction of " folk meaning. " Readers interpret popular culture in light of their own experience, and use fan texts to make sense of situations, relationships, and aspirations in their own lives. This interpretative freedom is what Michel de Certeau