A Galaxy Here and Now This Page Intentionally Left Blank a Galaxy Here and Now Historical and Cultural Readings of Star Wars
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A Galaxy Here and Now This page intentionally left blank A Galaxy Here and Now Historical and Cultural Readings of Star Wars Edited by Peter W. Lee McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Jefferson, North Carolina LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Names: Lee, Peter W., 1980– editor. Title: A galaxy here and now : historical and cultural readings of Star wars / edited by Peter W. Lee. Description: Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2015049160 | ISBN 9781476662206 (softcover : acid free paper) Subjects: LCSH:♾ Star Wars films—History and criticism. Classification: LCC PN1995.9.S695 G33 2016 | DDC 791.43/75—dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015049160 BRITISH LIBRARY CATALOGUING DATA ARE AVAILABLE © 2016 Peter W. Lee. All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Front cover image of alien planet © 2016 Sylphe_7/iStock Printed in the United States of America McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640 www.mcfarlandpub.com For Clare and Helen Wong, who introduced me to space opera, and to Lai Goon Lee, who never wanted to hear the odds. This page intentionally left blank Table of Contents Preface: Galactic Graffiti 1 Hearing the Force: Manifestations and Transformations of Music from Far, Far Away Tom Zlabinger 7 The Space Community and the Princess: Reworking the American Space Program’s Public Image from “Miss NASA” to Princess Leia Karin Hilck 33 Feminist Icons Wanted: Damsels in Distress Need Not Apply Mara Wood 62 Jedi Knights, Dark Lords and Space Cowboys: George Lucas’s Re- Imagined and Redefined Masculine Identities Erin C. Callahan 84 Jedi Knights and Epic Performance: Is the Force a Form of Western-African Epic Mimicry? Gregory E. Rutledge 106 Deconstructing the Desert: The Bedouin Ideal and the True Children of Tatooine Paul Charbel 138 Periodizing a Civil War: Reaffirming an American Empire of Dreams Peter W. Lee 162 An Elegant Weapon for a More Civilized Age: Star Wars, Public Radio and Middlebrow Cold War Culture Jessica K. Brandt 189 Part of Our Cultural History: Fan- Creator Relationships, Restoration and Appropriation Michael Fuchs and Michael Phillips 208 About the Contributors 239 Index 241 vii This page intentionally left blank Preface: Galactic Graffiti Star Wars needs no introduction. From its initial release in 1977, George Lucas’s franchise has captured the hearts, imaginations, and wallets of three generations of moviegoers. Comic book adaptations, novels, video games, and television shows have cre- ated an “Expanded Universe,” extending the Skywalker mythos and perpet- uating its fan culture into other media beyond the confines of celluloid film. Star Wars hinted at a larger galaxy than the one on screen. Shortly after the 1977 premiere, the universe took a giant leap forward in developing a fan base, marketing characters such as Snaggletooth, R5-D4, and Dodonna— names never mentioned and sometimes even barely seen on screen, but became collectible action figures among fans. The word “Force” means more than simple pressure, but connotes an entire lifestyle combination of medi- tation and martial arts. Although nearing middle age and despite the dynamic shifts in the United States since the waning Seventies, Star Wars is very much a relevant cultural phenomenon. Less so in academic circles. Popular culture, while generally accepted as a legitimate source of scholarly attention, still contains a stigma of low- brow, disposable junk—merely fads for the masses, and surely not on equal footing as “high” culture. Nevertheless, the $32 billion of sold merchandise in 2014 speaks to the adaptability and prevalence of Lucas’s universe on the world stage (Taylor). Escaping its Cold War roots, side- stepping the embarrassing shuffles of Jar- Jar Binks, erupting debate over “who shot first,” and building a next generation in spinoffs, followers continue to flock around the adven- tures of Luke Skywalker with reverence. When Disney spent $4.05 billion to acquire Lucasfilm in 2012, the Mouse probably wasn’t after the filmic rights to Howard the Duck (Taylor 393). Juxtaposed against the ubiquitous presence of Star Warriors on Main Street, the libraries in the Ivory Tower display a noticeable dearth in Darth Vader analyses. Recent works have examined Star Wars primarily through a philosophic lens; Paul F. McDonald, Caleb Grimes, Douglas Brode, and Leah 1 2 Preface: Galactic Graffiti Deyneka discuss the mythology and multimedia contexts within film genres. Within a historical and cultural context, recent studies have drawn compar- isons between the filmic galaxy to what happened on Earth a long time ago. Steven A. Galipeau and Mary Henderson point to the original trilogy’s plot as evidence of continuing tropes of classic myths, Arthurian lore, and visual imagery from World War II. Nancy Regain’s and Janice Liedl’s Star Wars and History relies primarily on visual comparisons without noting the dynamic shifts in the political, social, and cultural contexts. Kevin J. Wetmore, Jr., positions the film as a continuation of white colonialism writ large. Recent anthologies by Carl Silvio and Tony M. Vinci have explored facets of the films’ connections with American cultural identities. Star Wars’s resonance with American audiences reflects more of the recent past than classical antiquity. George Lucas drew from the vast collective memory of American history, his own background, his experimental days in film school at the University of Southern California, the unhappy future depicted in his first feature- length production THX-1138, followed by his trib- ute to his hot- rod past (Kaminski). Star Wars, an accumulation of his cine- matic visions of the past and future, hit audiences with strokes of celluloid graffiti uniquely American. Fittingly, the film, like the nebulous term “American culture,” eludes a specific meaning. Star Wars embraces a mechanical future both on the screen and off even as it champions the age- old tropes of knights and princesses. Even as the original Star Wars film negative recedes into the past, the various spinoffs, sequels, prequels, alternate realities, and a fan- based Expanded Uni- verse across the entire spectrum of visual and audio media, continue to update a galactic history supposedly far away. George Lucas’s universe, contrary to the opening title cards, is very much a living one. Given Star Wars’s evolving relationship with modern times, the historical and cultural (F)orces underpinning Star Wars are much more complex than the film’s simple binary “light” versus “dark.” The essays in this volume reflect those multiple points of view—a concept which stumped Luke Skywalker in Return of the Jedi, but such complications no doubt make film and cultural analyses so much fun. George Lucas re- introduced Twentieth Century–Fox’s opening fanfare, which has become a part of the movie soundtrack, segueing into John Williams’s score. Music is the audience’s first exposure to Lucas’s cinematic universe and, appropriately, also starts this collection, even though Tom Zlabinger surveys the music beyond the cinematic universe. Looking at/hear- ing the different interpretations, Zlabinger analyzes how shifting tastes in music—such as from disco to rock—altered the musical adaptations of John Preface: Galactic Graffiti 3 Williams’s iconic score. Star Wars has become a coded language connecting audiences to artists beyond the mere sights and sounds of the franchise. While some musicians paid homage to the nostalgia the film evokes, other interpretations suggest larger critiques against socio- political norms and raises issues of identity construction. After hearing John Williams’s iconic introduction and Industrial Light and Magic’s opening battle sequence, viewers come across the ethereal image of Princess Leia. Far from a typical damsel- in-distress, yet the original tril- ogy’s sole prominent female, Leia has attracted much critical attention as an anchor to a deeper discussion of feminism within Lucas’s mythos. Karin Hilck’s essay contextualizes Leia’s representation within NASA and the Amer- ican space program’s role in the Cold War. Hilck argues Leia failed to appeal to NASA as a cultural spokesman. In contrast to NASA’s appropriation of Star Trek’s Uhura as a model for feminism and multiculturalism, the Alder- aanian senator/princess duality complicated the image NASA wanted to proj- ect as well as the organization’s own internal gender politics. In recent years, however, this relationship has become noticeably warmer to suit NASA’s changing public profile. Mara Wood expands on the conflicting image of female characters as cultural icons. In close readings of the main female leads in the six movies, Wood argues Leia Organa and Padmé Amidala represent strong characteri- zations, subverting the traditional image of helpmates and damsels imposed in the largely male-dominated movies. She extends this strength to the more recent television shows Clone Wars and Rebels with the programs showcasing non- white, non- human female characters’ emotional growth and leadership abilities during times of galactic unrest. Erin C. Callahan examines the men in Leia’s life, drawing out the con- tentions between forms of masculinity through the princess’s brother, father, and future husband. Using the western frontier as a parallel mythology, Calla- han argues the “return” of the Jedi heralds a masculinity replacing the dom- inant patriarchy that fell out of favor in the late 1970s. Luke’s growth and Han’s transformation from space cowboy to the ranks of general suggest the future of Lucas’s mythos rests upon “the importance of non- violence, peace, cooperation, connection to and serving others.” Leia’s capture also coincides with Darth Vader’s introduction.