lazypadawan's Holocron

Someone on Twitter linked to this page from Random House listing various Star Wars books set for publication over the next several months (RH is the parent company of Del Rey). At the top of the list is a book (no cover art yet) called "Images: A Journey Through Art From Egypt To Star Wars" by Camille Paglia. The publication date is October 16, 2012 and it doesn't give a whole lot of info, but it is by that Camille Paglia, professor, feminist, essayist, pop culture expert, and Star Wars fan.

This book looks awesome, but do I really want to spend $500 to get it?

http://www.starwars.com/vault/books/star_wars_the_blueprints/index.html

Maybe I'll luck out and they'll pre-sell it at Comic Con at a 50% discount.

A couple of weeks ago, starwars.com posted that the coffee table book "The Complete Vader," due out in October, was going to be delayed because of a "printing problem." Lo and behold, a few days later I got my copy from Amazon.com. I figured it was a delay by a few days because now it was in my hot little hands.

Now comes this announcement on starwars.com stating the new release date is now October 25, 2011:

http://www.starwars.com/vault/books/news20091022.html

I've flipped through the book and while the pages seem to have some static cling, once you separate the pages, they're fine. Maybe this is the printing problem but why should it take another year to resolve? I didn't notice any other problems with the book but I haven't read it in detail yet.

Consider me confuzzled (but really lucky).

Will Brooker, the guy who penned the basher-friendly Use The Force some years ago, has returned with a book about ANH for BFI Modern Classics where he asserts Lucas is rooting for both sides, torn between the order and control of the Empire and the energy and creativity of the Rebels. It's an interesting theory. But I think every film director is probably that way ;). If you ask me, I think the whole saga is on some level a metaphor for the process of independent filmmaking. But Brooker also claims that Lucas became a "distant, cold, and fearsome disciplinarian" while making ANH. I don't know if Lucas is a wonderful guy or not and I suspect neither does Brooker. I'm not particularly interested in either hagiography or iconoclasm. The book's on Amazon in case you are interested.

Meanwhile, actor Tim Dry, who was a background guy in ROTJ, wrote an e-book called "Continuum"about his experiences on the set and on the convention circuit years afterward. I have no idea if it's worth reading or not...Christian Simpson wrote some very interesting blog entries on starwars.com about his time on the set of ROTS...but if you're interested, head over to http://www.starwarscontinuum.com. The download is $10.

Boy am I glad I preordered that thing on Amazon months ago. It was $47.50 back then and Amazon's policy is to give you the lower price when you preorder should the final version cost more. Now it's $75 on Amazon and $125 at full retail price!

With seven different authors and three volumes, it goes to show you how much was added to SW since the last edition in 1998. Much of it is because of the expanded universe of books, comics, and video games, but of course we've also had three more movies and an animated series.

Now some of you are wondering why, in an age of Wookieepedia and other references sources on the internet available for free, would you bother buying this? Won't the info be obsolete in just a year? Six months? Well, sometimes you just want to-the-point, accessible info without having to plow through inaccuracies and the sort of overdone information you commonly find on wikis. Not to mention biases. Besides, this has pretty pictures!

Here are some of the books I've finished lately:

The Making Of Indiana Jones

t's a very interesting book, particularly since I don't know nearly as much about the behind-the-scenes stuff on the IJ movies as I do about SW. The meatiest part of the book is about Raiders of the Lost Ark; here you can read about the evolution of Indiana Jones and the movies/artwork that inspired the character as well as the process of casting. Everybody knows Tom Selleck was originally going to play the character until CBS decided it needed to rope him down with "Magnum P.I.." But did you know Sean Young--then an actress with only a little bit of experience--was a strong contender to play Marion? Every detail of filming is chronicled, from the illnesses of cast and crew to the quirks of Steven Spielberg (he brought his own canned food on location, which was probably smart) and Frank Marshall (who created a tradition of jumping into a cake). There's less detail on the subsequent films but some surprising things crop up nonetheless. Ke Huy Quan, the kid who played Short Round, was only accompanying a brother trying out for the film only for the casting folks to take an interest in him instead. Papa George wanted to have a Scottish haunted castle somewhere in there, which ended up being the unhaunted big German castle in "The Last Crusade." The book kinda runs out of gas when it gets to "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull." Sure it was interesting to see what plot points and set pieces were there from the get-go--Lucas insisted on aliens all along and Spielberg had to be convinced--but because there's not a lot of history behind the movie we instead get a lot of PR-ish "(insert name) is so awesome" or "(insert name) is just the best." It gets a little old after a while. But there is a poignancy to the fact that many of the key players who worked on "Raiders" were deceased by the time KOTCS started shooting.

All in all a fascinating read.

Star Wars Manga Black & Silver

This was originally published in Japan with different language translations in Europe by Tokyopop. I remember reading about it a few years ago and could never find anywhere with a copy until I came across a recent LiveJournal post on how the two volumes are available through Amazon's British sister site, Amazon.co.uk. The order wasn't cheap, even at a discount from a second-hand seller, thanks to the exchange rate. But the manga is definitely unique and it's always fun to have something unusual and rare in your collection. It's a bit like the Star Wars Infinities series, with most of the stories revolving around Darth Vader. One dark, angst-filled story is about Vader taking on a young Jedi survivor named Tao as an apprentice and then discovering his son is still alive. But other characters like General Grievous star in their own stories and there's some lighthearted fare, including one about Jawas and another about a Gungan playing a feint with Vader just before ANH. As someone not used to reading untranslated manga, the format was a bit of challenge to follow.

The Clone Wars

Just finished Karen Traviss's novelization. This reads like a PG-rated version of her Republic Commando books only with more Anakin and less Mando culture. The book's Anakin is darker and angstier than the one in the CW cartoon, a guy with a lot of secrets and resentment. It's obvious Traviss loooooves Anakin and haaaaaates the Jedi Council. If it's not Anakin mulling over how the Council has screwed him over or its mind games, it's Ventress mulling over how the Jedi are hypocrites. Still, Anakin takes to Ahsoka and there are several passages that will make A/P fans happy :). Ahsoka fares well and at one point, Anakin realizes she is going to be a good Jedi and will butt heads with the Council, figuring that went hand-in-hand. Captain Rex and his fellow clones are written well too. There are scenes not in the theatrical release and there are scenes done from a different perspective than the film version.

I am still reading the most recent LOTF, Revelation. By the time I finish the 400+ epic, Invinicible will be out :P.

However, I finished another non-fiction book about two weeks ago and I keep forgetting to post about it. This one is called "Wizards, Wardrobes, and Wookiees: Navigating Good and Evil In Harry Potter, Narnia, and Star Wars" by Connie Neal. It is a Christian look at Harry Potter, Chronicles of Narnia, and SW. Her take is that these popular fantasy stories have themes that echo in the Bible and they can all teach us about confronting evil and staying on the light side. It's obvious the author knows a lot more about the Potterverse and about Narnia than about SW. Her discussions on SW generally do not go into a tremendous amount of detail although they are astute if not brief observations. She also misspells stuff like "Alderaan" (Alderon??!!).

That said, the author understands quite well how fantasy stories work and what purpose they serve. It's interesting to see her combine what she's learned from reading all of C.S. Lewis's work, including his religious writings, and from secular myth scholars like Joseph Campbell. I don't think I've seen anyone do that before.

It's available here on Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Wizards-Wardrobes-Wookiees-Navigating-Potter/dp/0830833668/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1206509571&sr=1-7

My copy of "Star Wars Vault," a massive book by Steve Sansweet and Pete Vilmur, arrived today from Amazon.com. Obviously, I haven't had time to sit down and read the whole thing, but I've flipped through it to see what it had.

You have to buy this. Seriously.

I know it's expensive (I got the bargain price of $53), but if you're going to buy only one SW book this year, buy this one. Do whatever it takes. Sell your bodily fluids if you have to. If you're any kind of SW fan at all, this is a must-have. It has two CDs of radio ads, rare interviews, and Princess Leia warbling away during the Holiday Special. It has reproductions of all kinds of cool stuff you can pull out to look at, including ads, invitations to various events, George Lucas's handscribbled notes, John Williams's handwritten music sheets, stickers, advertisements, newsletters, postcards, stickers, filmstrips, etc.. A lot of it is stuff I'd never seen before, such as a Queen Amidala tarot card used as an invitation to a Lucasfilm function or rare photos from the set of ANH.

I can't wait to dig through it all!

Sorry I haven't had much to post lately. The past week at work has been very stressful and that can drain on my inspiration.

However, all is not lost. For one thing, the SWPAS is close to completion. Once it's ready to rock, I will let you know. But I have ideas for it...and no, I haven't forgotten about the t-shirts.

One idea is to try and get an interview with fan Jonathan L. Bowen, who wrote Anticipation and the book I'm reading now, Revenge. Like its predecessor, the book could've used a really good professional editor to help keep Bowen focused, but also like its predecessor, it often makes for fascinating reading. What's interesting is that in this new book, Bowen mentions how he had trouble finding a publisher for Anticipation and then getting any media interested in booking him for interviews. They all felt that Bowen's generally positive attitude toward SW, particularly the prequels, wasn't representative of fandom. Quite amazing. Maybe I can get Bowen to name names ;).

I've already started working on my fanzine collection of A/P fan fic. It's sort of fun, like a throwback to my zine days in the '90s. It's even more fun because I don't have to edit or wallow through people's submissions ;).

Finally I've finished the behemoth of a book, over 300 pages in length, especially if you splurged for the hardcover edition like I did. So it took me a little while to get through it all. J.W. Rinzler chronicles in detail the arduous and troublesome path ANH took from its inception in the early 1970s through its insane box office run years later. He managed to dig up never-before-published interviews with many of the key players that were recorded back in the day, capturing impressions from people who had little idea of what they were a part of. Who could've known, anyway? The making of ANH was filled with logistical problems, corporate meddling, personality conflicts, creative differences, and a real lack of faith on the part of Hollywood insiders who didn't understand what this bizarre project was about. And in the end, even with ANH's success, Lucas still wasn't entirely happy with the end result. He was happy that audiences liked it but knowing what he wanted to accomplish with the film, he apparently felt efforts fell short. Little wonder he tinkered with it years later.

Rinzler writes most of his book in the present tense, as though he'd been working on this thing since 1973. It's consistent with the style of "The Making of Revenge of the Sith," a book he started working on in 2002 just as production on the film was underway. He chronicles Lucas's many drafts, clarifying what was in each draft, what changed, what was dropped, etc.. Over the years, people have gotten a little mixed up over what was in those drafts and when. The mythical "Journal of the Whills" isn't anything more than a short background summary. What is rather interesting is how Lucas's radical '60s politics played into some of his concepts. It's one of those things we all sort of knew was there but it's here in print what exactly he was thinking at the time. One can headdesk over how Lucas could've naively bought that the VietCong were just innocent folk of the wood while totally ignoring the real evil Empire that was funding them, but it also goes to show you that sometimes a great story can transcend almost anything.

Some true stories are elaborated upon; Alec Guinness was initially okay with being killed off but for some reason he changed his mind by the time the production moved on to London and it was at that point, Lucas had to talk him into not leaving the project. Other interesting tidbits are revealed. Carrie Fisher almost missed her chance to audition for the film due to play obligations at her drama school in London. Various ILMers were battling each other, particularly with John Dykstra. The reason why Lucas saw limos outside of the Chinese Theater on that famous day he watched from the Hamburger Hamlet across the street was that Hugh Hefner had come out with his entourage to see ANH. (So Hef's been on the bus since day one.) Phone operators in Los Angeles were getting 100 calls an hour for the numbers of the two theaters in town showing the film.

The book seems to cure any fanboy notions that producer Gary Kurtz was Lucas's discipliner who somehow managed to whip ANH into shape. Interestingly enough, the person who comes across as perhaps the biggest hero aside from Lucas is Fox's Alan Ladd, Jr.. He stood by the project all along even though he probably would've had the boot had ANH failed, doing whatever he could to keep it alive and get the support of the suits (Ladd left a few years later over DGA fining TESB director Irwin Kershner).

There are also scores of rare and never-before-published photographs that for some reason haven't been iconned yet. What's wrong with you people?

The hardcover edition features pages of storyboard and what's called Lucas's ideas for the "expanded universe." The latter is a misnomer; it's really background info he was using to develop the characters and the filmed story, not ideas for books and comics. Still, it's a very fascinating read. Some of it has made it into "secondary sources" and spinoff fiction, some of it has become part of the later chapters or even the PT, and some of it doesn't fit at all into what the saga has evolved into. For example, Han being raised for a few years by space gypsies who were sometimes cruel to him and made him panhandle ended up in the "Han Solo Trilogy" published 10 years ago. Threepio was "reassembled by a young boy who worked for a junk dealer," background that ended up in TPM. Leia's background states she worked on relief efforts and was directing mercy missions at age 7, info that turned into Padmé's background in the AOTC novelization as well as in a short deleted scene from the film. At the point these character studies were created, Vader and Annikin, Luke's father, were written as two separate people, which we all know changed.

Oh, and one has to wonder if Lucas has some psychic abilities when in his earliest drafts he doodled with using characters named "Ford" and "Hayden." I swear to God it's true.

All in all, required reading for all SW fans. After years of urban legends, misinformation, fuzzy memories, misconceptions, and rumors, it's nice to see something that gives us the straight dope as well as stuff we haven't read before. It also chronicles how the making of any film is difficult, especially one that was so different for its time.