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Friday, January 8, 2016

I wish I got slagged like George Lucas

The highest form of praise for a writer may vary from person to person. It might be counted in number of books sold or box office receipts. I have my own disjointed take.

This may seem very counterintuitive, but I think that George Lucas has – of late – received what I would consider the highest accolades possible for a creator of fiction.

You might think I’m daft. After all, most of what has been written has been pretty ill tempered. I have seen where people have said that Lucas ‘ruined’ the franchise with the less than critically successful prequels. That reaction is precisely the thing that Lucas should take some pride in.

Hear me out.

Long before “A long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away”, the Star Wars saga – or what would become the narrative – existed in only one place: George Lucas’ brain. The Skywalkers were not born on Tattooine. They were born with the firing of neurons in the cranium of a writer / director. Without sounding sacrilegious, to say that George Lucas got any part of Star Wars wrong is a bit like saying that God screwed up terraforming the Himalayas.

Having said that, people are entitled to their opinions and the fact that people have opinions and are passionate about them is pretty remarkable. In arguing over the merits of Lucas’ later work, people are according it the status of a real thing. Yet, when you boil it all down, it’s a fanciful tale constructed from his imagination.

Star Wars ain’t real, but the fact that there are a myriad of people who are willing to declare ‘pistols at dawn’ over its treatment and portrayal is quite an achievement in itself. It means that people have taken ownership of the story and its characters. You care because it’s important to you, and it’s important to you because you care. The George Lucas who pissed you off with Jar Jar Binks and midichlorians is the very same George Lucas who made you care so much about Star Wars that you would even think to be pissed off about those things.

George Lucas might be smarting over the slings and arrows of critics, but millions of people have taken something borne solely of his imagination and afforded it a status that is more real than reality.

If I ever get hate mail and criticism from readers for a story I wrote about what I may or may not have done to a recurring character, I won’t get mad.  The fact that they were inspired to take me to task over what I did to one of my imaginary characters means they care about the story.

You’re welcome.