A Galaxy Not So Far Away: Writers and Artists on Twenty-Five Years of Star Wars

I was just out of graduate school and working in my first professional position when the first Star Wars movie (now known as "Episode 4") came out. I loved it. I had been a confirmed pulp-sf addict since the mid-1950s, and I was predisposed to enjoy the film for what it was, not for what the critics thought it was (and what they apparently wanted me, as a card-carrying intellectual, to believe it was). But I'm not too proud to admit that I also loved "2001: A Space Odyssey" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" when they came out. I mean, this stuff is great fun, right? The stuffier film critics, though, decided that George Lucas had killed the movies -- just as there were cries of anguish back in the late '20s, when the movies began to talk. Yes, the Star Wars universe has had a great influence on culture, and not just "pop" culture, but so have Gucci and Ronald Reagan and McDonald's. Most of the contributors to this anthology are of an age to have grown up on Star Wars, and the distinction can easily be made between those who don't take it, or themselves, too seriously (Jonathem Lethem, Neal Pollack, Erika Krouse, and Elwood Reed), and those for whom Lucas is Evil incarnate (notably Arion Berger and Tom Carson). The book is an interesting read for those, like me, with an interest in film-making and screenwriting that goes beyond just sitting there with a bag of popcorn, but I could only shake my head at some of the breast-beating Jeremiads.

A GALAXY NOT SO FAR AWAY is a collection of essays that attempt to illustrate just how far reaching STAR WARS has impacted and influenced our society and culture. Most of the essays are positive, many are humorous, and several are nostaligiac in their reflections. Some, however are negative and a few are quite thought provoking. I especially enjoyed reading Kevin Smith's "Married to the Force" and Todd Hansen's "A Big Dumb Movie About Space Wizards". The two essays that paint the STAR WARS phenomenon in the most negative light "Jedi Uber Alles" and "Anakin, Get Your Gun" are also the two essays that made me pause and think the most. I also enjoyed the essay that illustrated just how STAR WARS has influenced hip-hop music, suggesting that hip-hop wouldn't exist (at least not in it's current form) without STAR WARS.This book is not a collection of essays about "What STAR WARS means to me" (though there are a few of those in here). Instead, it is a book illustrating just how huge and powerful the little space opera that could has influenced our society. This is a great book for most STAR WAR fans or for anyone interested in popular culture.

Don't listen to disgruntled Star Wars fans on this book. There are only a few out and out negative pieces here (one, "Jedi Uber Alles" by Tom Carson, is actually pretty good); most are fond, respectful, but above all they're *interesting.* No, this isn't a licensed love fest. Nor does it claim to be. It's about how the movies have affected our culture and our minds, and it's done so in good and bad ways. Star Wars, as this book's editor Glenn Kenny points out, did not at all kill movies. But it seems pretty inarguable that it made them louder and dumber, which (again as Kenny points out) is weird because George Lucas is the world's biggest independent filmmaker who controls with an auteur's pickiness his own product. But anyway: The really good essays here are Jonathan Lethem's (about seeing Star Wars 21 times in one summer), Tom Bissell's (about Boba Fett), Todd Hanson's (about The Phantom Menance), Lydia Millet's (about Darth Vader), Elvis Mitchell's (about Lando), and the above-mentioned Carson essay which I hate as a fan but admit makes some good points. There are also some really quite dreadful essays (say nothing but good of the dead) which I won't stoop to name. All Star Wars fans should get this book; it's important, and it's funny, and it has smart, tough things to say.

One of the funniest books I have ever read. You think the pieces are cute, and they are, but then they're serious, and you're stunned. What a weird, wonderful project and what a perfect gift for movie-lovers. Lydia Millet's piece on Darth Vader is a must-read whether you like Star Wars or not. This book should sell for a long, long time.