A Chalice Of A Self That Was Better Then

On This Day In History
1977: Star Wars: A New Hope opens at the cinema

Quote Of The Day
“There’s something depressing about seeing all these impressive cinematic gifts and all these extraordinary technological skills lavished on such puerile materials. Perhaps more important is what this seems to accomplish: the canonization of comic book culture which in turn becomes the triumph of the standardized, the simplistic, mass-produced commercial artifacts of our time. It’s the triumph of camp—that sentiment which takes delight in the awful simply because it’s awful. We enjoyed such stuff as children, but one would think there would come a time when we might put away childish things.”
(Joy Gould Boyum, The Wall Street Journal)

Bonus Quote Of The Day
“The only way that Star Wars could have been interesting was through its visual imagination and special effects. Both are unexceptional ... I kept looking for an 'edge,' to peer around the corny, solemn comic-book strophes; he was facing them frontally and full. This picture was made for those (particularly males) who carry a portable shrine within them of their adolescence, a chalice of a Self that was Better Then, before the world's affairs or—in any complex way—sex intruded.”
(Stanley Kauffmann, The New Republic)

A rainy day yesterday meant I could finally get around to starting to watch the Ahsoka Blue Ray DVD's I purchased a few weeks ago. After two episodes, I'm hooked. The two Sith characters are really cool, Baylan Skoll and especially Shin Hati looking like a cold, psychotic Scarlett Johannson. It's great to see that the Witches of Dathomir have made it into Disney's Star Wars canon, and Diana Lee's portrayal of Morgan Elsbeth is wonderful; powerful, mysterious and regal, she reminds me of Celia Lovsky's T'Pau on Star Trek. So, great so far and I'm still on tenterhooks to see Hayden Christensen reprise his role as Anakin Skywalker (presumably in a flashback) and the appearance of Imperial Grand Admiral Thrawn, my favourite character from the Star Wars expanded universe. My one concern; having learned that Thrawn is currently in a different galaxy, will the Yuuzhan Vong appear? When the Yuuzhan Vong appeared in the Star Wars Expanded Universe (now referred to as Star Wars Legends), they were a huge disappointment to me. Beings separate and immune to The Force seemed like weak storytelling to me, a way to put the galaxy back on a war footing after peace had largely been restored between the New Republic and the remnants of the Empire. Apparently, George Lucas did not like the Yuuzhan Vong either because, in his mind, The Force binds all living things. Lucas disapproved of the Ysalimiri for the same reason.

Anyway, Ms. Boyum, I recommend you try to live up to your name and take out those childish things once more. And Mr. Kauffmann - I hope you got some therapy before you passed away and that you stopped eating dog biscuits and shouting at the kids on your lawn.

May the Force be with you.

Ahsoka Theme - Epic Version

Indiana Jones and the Chalice of the Self That Was Better Then ? Anyone? Anyone?