Myth, media, and culture in Star wars: an anthology PDF
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Myth, Media, and Culture in Star Wars An Anthology Edited by Douglas Brode Leah Deyneka THE SCARECROW PRESS, INC. Lanham (cid:129) Toronto (cid:129) Plymouth, UK 2012 1122__009944__BBrrooddee__MMyytthh..iinnddbb ii 55//88//1122 99::2233 AAMM Published by Scarecrow Press, Inc. A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 www.rowman.com 10 Thornbury Road, Plymouth PL6 7PP, United Kingdom Copyright © 2012 by Douglas Brode and Leah Deyneka All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Myth, media, and culture in Star Wars : an anthology / edited by Douglas Brode, Leah Deyneka. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8108-8512-7 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8108-8513-4 (ebook) 1. Star Wars films—History and criticism. 2. Myth in motion pictures. 3. Culture in motion pictures. I. Brode, Douglas, 1943–. II. Deyneka, Leah, 1971–. PN1995.9.S695M97 2012 791.43'75—dc23 2012003282 ™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. Printed in the United States of America 1122__009944__BBrrooddee__MMyytthh..iinnddbb iiii 55//88//1122 99::2233 AAMM For my son, Shane Johnson Brode, the original Star Wars kid. —Douglas Brode To my parents, Joe and Judy, and my sisters, Elisa, Larissa, and Tammy, who have tirelessly bolstered my Star Wars obsession. Thank you also to Professor Douglas Brode for creating such a fantastic Star Wars course and proposing the idea for this anthology. —Leah Deyneka 1122__009944__0033__DDeedd..iinndddd iiiiii 55//88//1122 99::3333 AAMM 1122__009944__BBrrooddee__MMyytthh..iinnddbb iivv 55//88//1122 99::2233 AAMM Contents Acknowledgments vii Introduction: “Of That Time, of That Place” ix Douglas Brode 1 “Cowboys in Space”: Star Wars and the Western Film 1 Douglas Brode 2 Is Star Wars a Modernized Fairy Tale? 13 Arthur Berger 3 From Disneyland to Modesto: George Lucas and Walt Disney 21 Craig Svonkin 4 May the Myth Be with You, Always: Archetypes, Mythic Elements, and Aspects of Joseph Campbell’s Heroic Monomyth in the Original Star Wars Trilogy 31 Leah Deyneka 5 Not So Long Ago nor Far Away: New Variations on Old Themes and Questioning Star Wars’ Revival of Heroic Archetypes 47 Dan Rubey 6 From Sky-Walking to Dark Knight of the Soul: George Lucas’s Star Wars Turns to Tragic Drama 65 John C. McDowell v 1122__009944__BBrrooddee__MMyytthh..iinnddbb vv 55//88//1122 99::2233 AAMM vi Contents 7 Under the Influence of Akira Kurosawa: The Visual Style of George Lucas 83 Michael Kaminski 8 Balancing the Force: How Media Created by Star Wars Now Defines the Franchise 101 Crystal Renee White 9 A Long Time Ago on a Newsstand Far, Far Away: The Mythic Comic Book Hero in Marvel Comics’ Star Wars 113 Jon Hogan 10 The Jedi Network: Star Wars’ Portrayal and Inspirations on the Small Screen 127 Eric Charles 11 Gaming in a Galaxy Far, Far Away: The History of the Expanded Worlds, Canon Conflicts, and Simplified Morality of Star Wars Video Games 141 Seth Sommerfeld 12 Quentin Tarantino’s Star Wars?: Digital Cinema, Media Convergence, and Participatory Culture 153 Henry Jenkins 13 Star Wars and the Technophobic Imagination 169 Cyrus R. K. Patell Index 185 About the Editors 189 About the Contributors 191 1122__009944__BBrrooddee__MMyytthh..iinnddbb vvii 55//88//1122 99::2233 AAMM Acknowledgments Thank you to Professor Douglas Brode and all of the contributors for their dedication in bringing this anthology to print. I would also like to extend gratitude to the Syracuse University Library and the Inter-Library Loan department who proved to be invaluable in researching this extensive an- thology. Finally, many thanks to my colleagues at the Syracuse University Bookstore who respected my publication deadlines and allowed me the opportunity to focus on completing this project. —Leah Deyneka vii 1122__009944__BBrrooddee__MMyytthh..iinnddbb vviiii 55//88//1122 99::2233 AAMM 1122__009944__BBrrooddee__MMyytthh..iinnddbb vviiiiii 55//88//1122 99::2233 AAMM Introduction “Of That Time, of That Place” Douglas Brode These are the legends that prove special since, like the Bible, Greek mythol- ogy, Shakespeare, and the collected films of John Ford, certain narrative works do not merely satisfy an audience at the time of their release only to disappear, sooner or later displaced by the next “big thing” to come am- bling or roaring down the pike. While other stories, some extremely strik- ing, perhaps well received at a specific juncture in history, come and go, we are talking now about those that pass the test of time. These are the legends that prove special in that, however pleasurable and/or profound they may have appeared long, long ago, in some past culture near or far, far away, they speak over the years, the decades, the centuries, even in some rare and remarkable cases, the millennia. More incredible, they do so to far-flung so- cieties that often share nothing but such ongoing yarns and the basic ideas contained within them. These are our uber-stories, meaningful as well as absorbing after other tales, temporary in value, have fallen by the wayside, forgotten except by scholars of antiquity. In each such case, a combination of the universal story itself and the unique manner of its telling causes the piece to continue to move mass au- diences and individual receivers, despite ever-changing fads and fashions. This includes the coming and going of political, philosophical, cultural, and religious outlooks. Indeed, in some cases, the iconic tales are respon- sible for those very changes. They are, simply put, the stories that most powerfully answer certain essential questions raised by the world’s first philosophers, back when man ceased to merely accept his own existence. At this point humankind rose above any animal origins by questioning life: What does it mean to be a man? What is our place in the universe? Why are we here, and ought we to pursue that final question from birth to death? ix 1122__009944__BBrrooddee__MMyytthh..iinnddbb iixx 55//88//1122 99::2233 AAMM
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