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My STAR WARS Thesis; I need help!

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Hi, guys. As some of you know I'm a university student and my major is English. Now, in order to finish my studies, I have to write a 30 - 40 page thesis.  I should have been working on this for ages but being the stupid lazy slob that I am, I kept neglecting it, as well as my other school stuff and procrastinated by working on my edits. Actually, I was hoping to have the edit done by now, so I could take a break from editing and work on it but it didn't exactly work out. Now I'm going to need your help to get this done as quickly as possible, because the deadline is getting dangerously close, which I didn't realize (I thought the deadline was a month later than it actually is).

Why I think you can help is because I was lucky enough to be able to choose STAR WARS as my topic (under the subject of "American Cutural Studies.") My topic is something along the lines of "STAR WARS, American Cultural Heritage."

I'd like to analyse what it it is that makes STAR WARS such a great cultural phenomenon and underline its importance as an American cultural landmark.

 

It's a little absurd that they want us to show critical thinking in the work but at the same time we have to back every single idea with a citation, so I need sources, lots of them. I turn to you because I know this place is an incredible well of knowledge on this subject and there are people here who can point me to the exact right places. I need quotations from documentaries, film historians, academic books etc.

The thing is, I need the exact places, it's like I've read The Secret History of Star Wars (and it was awesome too) but if I was to find some quote in there, I'd be quite lost.

If you can help, please post here but keep any discussion about the edit in the Despecialized Edition thread, I need this thread to stay on topic.

Thank you.

Help me, OT.com, you're my only hope!

Harmy

 

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I'll leave the "academics talking about Star Wars" to others who probably know a lot more about this subject than me, and I'll throw in some non-academic stuff.  I haven't studied this in detail (so my analysis is shallow), but I am an American so I feel I can give opinions about stuff without being burdened by the need for any research or facts.


To me, the most interesting "cultural landmark moment" was when the term "Star Wars" was used politically to discredit the US SDI program in the 1980's (to portray it as unrealistic/infeasible/"science fiction" as opposed to an achievable technology).  I think this is interesting because it's completely outside the typical film/literary context and also because the term was politically very successful (indicating it resonated with the US population).  Counterarguments are that this happened in the heyday of the Star Wars phenomenon (concurrent with ROTJ) and doesn't indicate a lasting influence, and that SDI failed for far more serious and concrete reasons than a simple political slogan.


You can get some basic quotes and info here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Defense_Initiative#Controversy_and_criticism

As far as I know, cultural influence can only be measured by inferring from the number of references over time.  i.e. William Shakespeare has more cultural influence than Christopher Marlowe in the 21st century, but they were probably equally influential in the 16th century, and you could measure/prove/disprove this by how many other authors cribbed lines and concept from their writings over time.  So you've probably seen all of these lists below, but I'd be remiss not to include them because IMO this is the solid measurable stuff.  Of course, you may need to compare this against other American cultural landmarks to see how it stacks up: I'd suggest Casablanca or Wizard of Oz for other iconic films and the Beatles (yes, I know they're British) for a non-film comparison.  Certainly academics may have already looked at this and made their conclusions, but I find these lists interesting in their own right.


http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_references_to_Star_Wars_in_movies
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_references_to_Star_Wars_in_television
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_references_to_Star_Wars_in_video_games
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_references_to_Star_Wars_in_webcomics
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_references_to_Star_Wars_in_miscellanea

Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)

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Here's a 1977 Rolling Stone interview with Lucas.

I think it's incredibly important to look at how much Star Wars draws upon older pulp sci-fi, westerns, swashbuckling adventures, and war movies, which Lucas openly admits to in that interview. Lots of Star Wars isn't new, it just did old stuff in a very new way. Kids who grew up being forced to watch boring Westerns by their dads suddenly got an exciting one with bad guys in black helmets instead of hats. Kids who loved Errol Flynn adventure movies but found them old-fashioned got laser sword fights. I think its audience in the late 70s was craving all the good parts of many genres that had fallen out of popularity (I don't have a source but I'm sure you can find charts of box office numbers in 1975 and 1976 and show that these sorts of movies were out fashion).

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If you use Wikipedia, try to follow the associated links to the original source material, and quote THAT.  Wikipedia is valuable but it generally isn't considered a quotable original source.

Also, make sure that any useful stuff that you get here is either rewritten in your own words, or that the author here (and the site itself) is cited.  You wouldn't want to get in trouble because you used text that was written by someone else.

I think Siskel and Ebert have done some retrospectives on Star Wars that could be useful, and I think they would be considered a quotable editorial source.

There is a book called "The Science of Star Wars" by Jeanne Cavelos (I didn't find it to be as interesting as it sounds), that is fairly scholarly and you might find it useful for any sections of your paper that relate to actual science.

"Close the blast doors!"
Puggo’s website | Rescuing Star Wars

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Thanks :-) Yeah, I know Wiki isn't a quotable source and yeah, getting the citations right is basically the most important part of the work, so I will be careful about that :-)

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Maybe a small-scale anecdote from the old Making of Jedi paperback (pg 177)?: (The crew arriving to shoot desert scenes, setting up camp in a motel in a very small, isolated town in Yuma:

The largest movie house in town opens only when the proprietor feels like it, and the last time he felt like it was for THE EMPIRES STRKES BACK".

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There is a section in SHOSW that addresses this, and why (or at least what I think is why) the film became a hit. Pages 213-225 or so, under the sub-heading "A Cultural Phenomenon". I can paste it in here if you like, but it would be quite a bit of text.

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LOL, I think you replied as I was editing my post to say I can paste it here. Did you want me to or do you have the actual book?

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I have it, thank you. It's really great btw.

You're one of the people I knew could really help with this. I think I'll also use some of your savestarwars.com articles, if that's ok with you :-) 

The thing is that it's really hard to even get any SW books here, because sadly, no one really gives a shit about SW in my country, so I have to do with sources that are available on-line.

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Also, if you ever want some backup you can always just email me or ask me here about a specific aspect, as it sometimes is useful for your paper's arguments to have an "authority" or whatever backing you up (in a "personal communication" in the end notes no less! :p ). Also, be sure to read Dale Pollock's bio, it touches upon this. I quote an article at length in the section in SHOSW on this topic, which I would strongly encourage you to read for a then-contemporary analysis of the film (and one generally critical too, which is hard to find today).

Of course, reasons such as the ones being made by myself and others I reference is mainly limited to the era of its original release. Obviously the films continued to endure, but there are different contexts for the films as time has gone on, and so the elements that have made it endure have changed over time. I guess the main thing to keep in mind is that the films don't exist in a vaccuum. It's a lofty undertaking for an English thesis because you have to know a bit about film history, American social history, and the movie business itself.

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And, one last thing to throw out there is the page I did about the films' reception at secrethistoryofstarwars.com. The site might be down right now becauise I am having some issues with reports of malicious software, but it shows in tangible terms using dozens of newspaper articles how the films' perception and rep changed over the years.

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Harmy said:

I'd like to analyse what it it is that makes STAR WARS such a great cultural phenomenon and underline its importance as an American cultural landmark.

It's a little absurd that they want us to show critical thinking in the work but at the same time we have to back every single idea with a citation, so I need sources, lots of them.

You can't know Star Wars without knowing George Lucas. If you don't know that George Lucas is a warmed-over U.S. '60's radical hippie who choose propaganda (with the art-house contemporaries he hung around, like Francis Ford Coppola) rather than "the streets", and never went underground as did the revolutionaries when "the streets" failed (and now have resurfaced inside American government & institutions to further their communism "revolution" as subversives), then you must read:

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2012/01/im-60s-west-coast-liberal-radical-artsy.html
"January 18, 2012 - 'I’m a ’60s, West Coast, liberal, radical, artsy, dyed-in-the-wool 99 percenter before there was such a thing.' Said George Lucas, who has $3.2 billion."

http://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/2012/02/10/george-lucas-confirms-it-the-star-wars-we-loved-never-existed/
"George Lucas Confirms It: The Star Wars We Loved Never Existed - Now everything is starting to come into clarity. Today is a bit like the day we learn that Santa Claus is your parents, socialism stops working when rich people’s money runs out, and a BA qualifies you for a $10 entry-level job that you could’ve gotten just out of high school."

http://mightygodking.com/index.php/2012/03/05/the-politics-of-star-wars/
"The Politics of Star Wars - ... It was the idea that we had a President [yesterday's Nixon, not today's Obama] who genuinely saw himself as not subject to the rule of law. “Imperialist Presidency” gets bandied around a lot by both sides of the political spectrum, but everyone was worried that Nixon was setting one up. And what did Lucas write against this backdrop? He wrote a story about a democracy that had become an Empire, with a ruler who (all together now) “dissolved the council permanently”."

"The truth is out there. You just have to know where to look." -The X-Files

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This is a useful wikipedia article on the cultural impact of star wars

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_impact_of_Star_Wars

 

Also have a look at this:

http://www.bukisa.com/articles/301539_star-wars-influence-on-popular-culture

 

And the History Channel documentary 'Star Wars The Legacy Revealed' might be useful - it looks at the history that inspired star wars, connections to ancient mythology and how star wars is relevant today

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHa5RbuH5F0

 

Also these might be useful:

http://www.galacticbinder.com/pgeorge-lucas-on-the-impact-of-star-wars.html

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20091110123554AAxbHwP

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1272/is_n2634_v126/ai_20409138/

http://www.space.com/8917-star-wars-changed-world.html

http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1173216,00.html

http://www.hollywoodinsiders.net/articles/george_lucas_illuminati.html

 

hope this helps in some way

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Spaced Ranger said:



Harmy said:

I'd like to analyse what it it is that makes STAR WARS such a great cultural phenomenon and underline its importance as an American cultural landmark.

It's a little absurd that they want us to show critical thinking in the work but at the same time we have to back every single idea with a citation, so I need sources, lots of them.


You can't know Star Wars without knowing George Lucas. If you don't know that George Lucas is a warmed-over U.S. '60's radical hippie who choose propaganda (with the art-house contemporaries he hung around, like Francis Ford Coppola) rather than "the streets", and never went underground as did the revolutionaries when "the streets" failed (and now have resurfaced inside American government & institutions to further their communism "revolution" as subversives), then you must read:

<img src="http://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/files/2012/02/georgelucas-208x300.jpg" width="208" height="300" />

<a href="http://althouse.blogspot.com/2012/01/im-60s-west-coast-liberal-radical-artsy.html"></a><a href="http://althouse.blogspot.com/2012/01/im-60s-west-coast-liberal-radical-artsy.html" target="_blank" title="althouse.blogspot.com/2012/01/im-60s-west-coast-liberal-radical-artsy.html"></a><a href="http://althouse.blogspot.com/2012/01/im-60s-west-coast-liberal-radical-artsy.html" target="_blank" title="althouse.blogspot.com/2012/01/im-60s-west-coast-liberal-radical-artsy.html"></a><a href="http://althouse.blogspot.com/2012/01/im-60s-west-coast-liberal-radical-artsy.html" target="_blank" title="althouse.blogspot.com/2012/01/im-60s-west-coast-liberal-radical-artsy.html">http://althouse.blogspot.com/2012/01/im-60s-west-coast-liberal-radical-artsy.html</a>
<span>"January 18, 2012</span> - 'I’m a ’60s, West Coast, liberal, radical, artsy, dyed-in-the-wool 99 percenter before there was such a thing.' Said George Lucas, who has $3.2 billion."

<a href="http://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/2012/02/10/george-lucas-confirms-it-the-star-wars-we-loved-never-existed/"></a><a href="http://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/2012/02/10/george-lucas-confirms-it-the-star-wars-we-loved-never-existed/" target="_blank" title="pjmedia.com/lifestyle/2012/02/10/george-lucas-confirms-it-the-star-wars-we-loved-never-existed/"></a><a href="http://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/2012/02/10/george-lucas-confirms-it-the-star-wars-we-loved-never-existed/" target="_blank" title="pjmedia.com/lifestyle/2012/02/10/george-lucas-confirms-it-the-star-wars-we-loved-never-existed/"></a><a href="http://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/2012/02/10/george-lucas-confirms-it-the-star-wars-we-loved-never-existed/" target="_blank" title="pjmedia.com/lifestyle/2012/02/10/george-lucas-confirms-it-the-star-wars-we-loved-never-existed/">http://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/2012/02/10/george-lucas-confirms-it-the-star-wars-we-loved-never-existed/</a>
"George Lucas Confirms It: The Star Wars We Loved Never Existed - Now everything is starting to come into clarity. Today is a bit like the day we learn that Santa Claus is your parents, socialism stops working when rich people’s money runs out, and a BA qualifies you for a $10 entry-level job that you could’ve gotten just out of high school."

<a href="http://mightygodking.com/index.php/2012/03/05/the-politics-of-star-wars/"></a><a href="http://mightygodking.com/index.php/2012/03/05/the-politics-of-star-wars/" target="_blank" title="mightygodking.com/index.php/2012/03/05/the-politics-of-star-wars/"></a><a href="http://mightygodking.com/index.php/2012/03/05/the-politics-of-star-wars/" target="_blank" title="mightygodking.com/index.php/2012/03/05/the-politics-of-star-wars/"></a><a href="http://mightygodking.com/index.php/2012/03/05/the-politics-of-star-wars/" target="_blank" title="mightygodking.com/index.php/2012/03/05/the-politics-of-star-wars/">http://mightygodking.com/index.php/2012/03/05/the-politics-of-star-wars/</a>
"The Politics of Star Wars - ... It was the idea that we had a President [yesterday's Nixon, not today's Obama] who genuinely saw himself as not subject to the rule of law. “Imperialist Presidency” gets bandied around a lot by both sides of the political spectrum, but everyone was worried that Nixon was setting one up. And what did Lucas write against this backdrop? He wrote a story about a democracy that had become an Empire, with a ruler who (all together now) “dissolved the council permanently”."

"The truth is out there. You just have to know where to look." -The X-Files


I like your avatar.

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DuracellEnergizer said:

I like your avatar.

You do? Let me quick check! ... Oh, I thought my movie was showing again.
;)

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http://books.google.com/

Can point you in the right direction, plus you can refine your search when you discover an alley worth micro-searching on.  All the major GL bios and his books are in there.

Same thing but with newspapers:

http://news.google.com/news/advanced_news_search?as_drrb=a

You could cross compare what people said about the movie in the few early years verses quotes from when it was re-released in 97.  See how recorded opinions changed.

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Certainly examine the roots of SW in myths/fables/classic adventure literature and classic film serials. Then look at the development of Lucas in the film industry and as a filmmaker. These are very important to the development and overall appeal of the film.

I remember doing my thesis and it was a film thesis specifically for my degree. The idea that you must be critical whilst referencing sources and writing in essence a research paper is the stupidest and most inane thing ever devised. The two parts contradict each other completely. If your paper starts to look different to what you originally envisioned, don't worry. In the end, you can't really go into much that shows deep thought. That would contradict the research. Your final result will be rather homogenized unfortunately. But this is coming from the guy whose thesis included 7+ pages on how James Bond's sexual appetite defined his humanity and failings.

Just remember to have fun with it. Break it apart into sections to work on and then work on connecting the sections together into a cohesive "saga".

VADER!? WHERE THE HELL IS MY MOCHA LATTE? -Palpy on a very bad day.
“George didn’t think there was any future in dead Han toys.”-Harrison Ford
YT channel:
https://www.youtube.com/c/DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader

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Hi Harmy,

Here's what interest me the most about Star Wars:

http://moongadget.com/origins/myth.html

 

^ It gives a very good view on the whole story telling (with a comparison with Matrix here).

Never forget to mention Joseph Campbell btw, HE is to me the main source for Lucas for reaching a bit the depth of ancient myths and archetypes.

 

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Thank you guys, you're awesome.

About Campbell, as far as I know, Lucas using his stuff when writing the first SW is a bit of a myth, actually I think Lucas hasn't actually read Campbell's works until after the 1st SW came out.

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Harmy said:

...

About Campbell, as far as I know, Lucas using his stuff when writing the first SW is a bit of a myth, actually I think Lucas hasn't actually read Campbell's works until after the 1st SW came out.

 Ah, maybe. I've been told once by an old friend of mine who's a fan of Campbell that Lucas didn't especialy read him but rather met him asking for help. But this is to be verified indeed.

 

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I think he was vaguely familiar with his stuff, because he did major in anthropology for one year, and that's part of the genesis of Star Wars since he studied a lot of mythology and cultural practices. But the whole notion of Campbell basically "providing the roadmap" or whatever is total BS. But, he may have skimmed through some of his stuff since one of the case studies in Hero with A Thousand Faces shows up (supposedly, but its not a real match--Massai in Campbell, Masasi in Lucas. Personally, I think Lucas got this from people he met, like he did for all of his early names, since Masasi, like Vader, is an actual surname). The personal connection between the two men doesn't even begin until after Star Wars, I think around 1981 was when they first met.

He did have a copy of Hero on his writing room desk in 1981 when he was doing the rough drafts of Jedi, but that may have been there because they had recently become aquaintences and so he maybe took a closer look at his work.

I share Lucas sentiment in that Campbell was far more powerful as a speaker than a writer. I can't stand his books; I sold my copy of Hero a few years ago--it had Luke Skywalker on the cover actually.