Just a quick update on The Star Wars Heresies, that little book of revolutionary academic
criticism that has a bit to say on the themes, symbols, and philosophies of Episodes I-III. Contrary to Amazon, it will not be out this month, but before
anyone goes all dark side or starts ripping people’s arms out of their sockets,
things are very much underway.
The book is almost finished. The publishers have sent me
the proofs and I am getting very acquainted with adobe reader. After having
been away from it for so long, it is quite a little thrill to see how much of
the text is perfectly intact. I’m still proofing part one, but the editing thus
far looks to be brilliant. The tone and style and pretentious verbiage are all
very much intact, not to mention even some of my wittier asides in the
endnotes.
If only I didn’t have to do the bloody index, the Force
would be flowing quite nicely.
Not to mention it’s far too late to update bits of the preface, which is a little out of date thanks to that whole Disney takeover. Part of the afterword will seem a little incongruous now also, but oh well. The content, I have to say, is gonna be great. I just can’t believe I mailed in the book at Kinkos on Saturday back in October, and then Lucasfilm was bought and the world turned upside down three days later. The Force does work in mysterious ways.
Not to mention it’s far too late to update bits of the preface, which is a little out of date thanks to that whole Disney takeover. Part of the afterword will seem a little incongruous now also, but oh well. The content, I have to say, is gonna be great. I just can’t believe I mailed in the book at Kinkos on Saturday back in October, and then Lucasfilm was bought and the world turned upside down three days later. The Force does work in mysterious ways.
While there is not an official release date - Amazon be
damned - the final proofs should be going to print about halfway through
August. I have a lot of stuff to work through, but as long as my eyes don’t
melt from staring at this computer too long, it should be okay. The sad part is
I was really and truly going to do a post for this blog today, but then the
publishing sandstorm hit, Tatooine-style.
It also seems relevant to note that McFarland and Co. are
compiling a list of relevant reviewers and such to fire off copies to, with
some input from me. I’m not sure how many copies we’re dealing with here, but
if anyone has a blog or website or podcast of note to promote this thing on,
feel free to let me know. I will need mailing info shortly.
P.S. For those interested in such things, the Heresies now has an ISBN! 978-0-7864-7181-2,
to be exact. While I don’t feel like I could take on the whole Empire myself, I
am a little proud.
As I have an order in for this book, I appreciate the update. It might be something to see an "out of date" preface and afterword, though; I suppose that certain attitudes sensed leave me with the feeling a few well-argued "heresies" might be more welcome than ever...
ReplyDeleteWell, thank you, Keith. I have been waiting as well. Originally it was going out with the fall catalog, but got pushed up to summer. Yeah, I can't really change any content at this late stage. Still, I kinda like the preface and afterword. They stand as testament to a bygone age. We'll just have to wait and see what the new one is going to be ....
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