Re: Salinger turns to the Dark Side

jason varsoke (jjv@caesun.msd.ray.com)
Wed, 30 Jun 1999 10:58:59 -0400 (EDT) 

> Ok, all this is pretty good, but the idea of "redemption" is only
> meaningful within the context of a black and white distinction between
> good and evil.  To my knowledge, you don't really have redemption
> described in, say, the Upanishads.  Just enlightenment.  Luke has to
> undergo this enlightenment himself, and that much seems consistent.  In
> the first movie he learns to believe in The Force and realize that all
> nature is One.  But the redemption facets of the film seem alien to this.
>   It's really more sensible to me to interpret the films' redemption
> symbolism within the context of Christianity than something like The
> Force.  I would see Luke's "black clothing" and the fact that he started
> becoming "mechanical" as symbols of taking on his father's evil to redeem
> him.  
> 
> The mere fact that you have to turn from one side to the other side of
> the force indicates that it's not the same thing on both sides.  When
> Thor was saying that the difference between good and evil is essentially
> non-existent, that's consistent with my understanding of the Vedas too. 
> But there's no acknowledgment of this in the film.  Lucas seems to blend
> Christian ideas of good and evil and redemption with an essentially
> Eastern ontology.  It works in the film, but as an intellectual edifice
> in its own right it's shallow and stupid, and demeaning to both Vedic
> theology and Christianity.

   I don't think Lucas was espousing religious doctrine.  I don't think he
was presenting a theory of existence that had any external value.  I don't
know of anyone who has joined the "Church of the Force."  I also don't
believe the films can be read as a disertation on Vedas (something I wish
you'd explain in detail) or Christianity.  It's a synthasis.  Lucas
borrows from both and like any good writer, uses what works, sheds what
doesn't.
   What Lucus is promoting, more than anything else, is Mythology.
(Bethany, feel free to chime in.)  I'm sure you can look at Homer's Iliad
and find that the theory of the Gods is pretty callow compared to
Christianity.  And many of the characters within the text are stock
(though it could be argued that Homer forged the originals which became
stock.)  Both stories take a certain amount of suspension of disbelief to
really understand and marvel at.  How could a silly arrow, severing one
tendon, destroy a nearly invulerable warrior?  Wouldn't you hear the men
inside the big horse?  Stuffing wax in your ears hardly makes the world
silent, especially if someone is singing your favorite song.  And there is
no way you'd prop your eyelids with splinters, even if everyone else was
fat and drunk.  And what the heck is with a 16yo hero? (Odyssius).
   The thing is, Lucus was creating Myth.  Myth is something you believe
in but know is not the truth.  It explains aspects of life, though
fiction.  It gives you heros to worship, villians to hate, people to
emulate, and others to dispise. 
   More than anything, the test of the Epic is that the characters are
larger than life.  Test of the Myth is that it permeates our culture.
   But I think the true test of SW as genius is the way it rapped us.  10
years after the last movie you still saw things like the Rebel Assault
video game.  You still read things on the internet like, "how to know
you're a redneck jedi."  Our love of SW has never vanished.  Parents told
their children the story.  I remember brat sitting for a few kids and they
were entralled, had figures, and bed sheets.  I asked which movie was
their favorite.  They didn't know there was more than one (Return).  But
they still identified with the characters.  Still roleplayed being luke
and Vader.  14 years after the last movie you have people lining up around
the block to see a movie released 20years ago, but with a few more special
effects.  16 years after the last movie and you have droves lining up at
the theaters.  And the truth is, it's not just the 20 somethings who's
entire life has been influenced by SW.  My parents were almost as exicted
as I was about the release of E1.  It's probably the most quoted movie on
record.  You can chalk this all up to a juggernaut of a marketing machine,
but no marketing campain could ever hold the fickle intrests of the
American public for 22 years.

> But whaddya expect from Hollywood? :)

certainly not that.

-jason