Along
with the interwebs, this whole podcasting thing seems to be catching on.
Indeed, my own Star Wars fandom has largely been guided and inspired by it,
starting with the old Forcecast
shows. Things have since progressed with
the splintering of that source of the Force into Rebel Force Radio, as well as increasingly popular shows like Full of Sith.
But
if there is indeed one podcast that is remarkably in tune with my own approach
to that long ago, far away galaxy, it has to be Coffee with Kenobi. It offers a friendly yet analytical approach to
all the happenings when it comes to Star
Wars, and is hosted by two of the nicest, most intelligent gentlemen in
fandom – Dan Zehr and Corey Clubb.
They
were kind enough to express interest in having me on as a guest to talk about
my book, The Star Wars Heresies.
Fortunately, they are far more knowledgeable than I concerning podcasting, and
were able to edit together a fine show out of it. As for me, I’m just amazed I
got Skype working at all. And I still haven’t listened to the whole thing,
basically because I think I sound like an over-caffeinated Ewok or something.
At any rate, it does offer a nice look at my work by two generous and
enthusiastic professionals.
The
entire episode can be found right about here.
The
second big bit of news I feel necessitates commentary is the decision by Disney
and Lucasfilm to finally breathe fresh breath into the modern Expanded
Universe, a topic of some controversy online. While it was something of a given
that the new owners of the franchise would bring it into the fold of their own
publishing empire, it has caused a considerable amount of angst because pretty
much everything post-Return of the Jedi
is going to be scrapped.
Since
you are reading a blog with Heresies
in the title, I’ll be honest. This is the first move Disney has made that has
endeared me to them since the cancellation of The Clone Wars. As more than a few fair have pointed out, it’s not
that the EU stopped being canon this
week, it’s simply that it was never canon to begin with. Personally, all I had
to do was read about fifty pages of Timothy Zahn’s beloved Thrawn trilogy to figure that out. It never resonated with my own
well-honed fanboy barometer. It wasn’t canon; it wasn’t even Star Wars, and had nothing to do with Star Wars.
It’s
like I said at the beginning of my interview, much like Emily Dickinson’s take
on separating the wheat from the chaff when it came to distinguishing what’s
true poetry and what isn’t, I know it’s Star
Wars when I feel as though the top of my head has been taken off. Needless
to say, most of the modern EU has barely ruffled my hair. And if I’ve wanted to
be particularly snarky, I simply offer my own book as a balm to all the
controversy. It’s somewhat sad that I can state without a hint of arrogance
that it has far more relevance to the galaxy that George Lucas actually created
than half of what has gone on in the ever-expanding Expanded Universe over the
past decade or so.
As
noted in earlier posts, my main source of contention with the EU is the
teeth-clenched dogmatism so many approached it with. It would be easier to pry
open the jaws of a rancor than get them to relax their hold on the belief that
what was simply started as a series of media tie-in books to be read for fun on
rainy afternoons when no new films were on the horizon had become the Gospel According to Star Wars. No and
no. The tail does not wag the Tauntaun.
As
is my modus operandi, I simply always wheel this whole enterprise back to what
it was originally intended to be. It is a mythology, not a religion. As such,
whatever version of the story you’re listening to depends largely on whatever
village you’re standing in at the time. So frantic arguments about canon and
continuity are always somewhat out of place. As Joseph Campbell said, myth
changes and evolves and that’s what Lucas has always done with the franchise.
Canon debates are only necessary if this is about to evolve into a religion, as
some fundamentalist fanboys would no doubt like it to do.
Not
to mention it gets really boring and futile trying to fight over what “really”
happened in fictitious stories set in a fictitious galaxy.
So
maybe this Disney business has some potential after all. If they are really interested
in something resembling quality control over this material, then more power
them. For me the films were always be paramount over everything else, but I
remain cautiously optimistic and willing to let the future reveal itself ...
