Photo credit: Shin.
Over at PJ Media, where all the cool kids hang out, Kathy Shaidle rattled a few nacelles the other day by posting a piece called “Five Reasons Star Wars Actually Sucks.” Although the article was primarily an attack (not entirely unfair, either) on Star Wars fandom, she painted with a wide enough brush to step on a lot of general science fiction fans’ toes.
Successful, mature men do not play computer games, attend “cons,” and get excited about overrated science fiction movies from the 1970s.
Come on, all the conservative boys who’ve read this far:
Do you imagine Victor Davis Hanson is some kind of font of boring zombie lore?
Do you think Mark Steyn wastes his spare time playing World of Warcraft? (Trick question. Mark Steyn doesn’t have any spare time.)
No, these men have careers and families, here on planet earth.
So today Bryan Preston took up the gauntlet at The PJ Tatler, with a piece called “Why Star Wars and Sci-Fi Actually Don’t Suck.”
But here’s a little known fact about Star Wars: More than just being a series of two very good films, a pair of decent films and a pair of bad films, it bequeathed a whole industry. I’m not talking about the parallel marketing of the toys, many of which I used to own and now wish I still did because they would be worth a pile of money. I’m talking about Photoshop, and the broader digital imaging industry.
But here’s where it gets exciting and relevant and important. He goes on to say,
Now, if you hate sci-fi it follows that you’ll probably hate both of Lucas’ most successful franchises, but that doesn’t make them bad films and it doesn’t make sci-fi a bad genre. There’s a tendency around to try to force others to stop liking things that we don’t like. Well, I love sci-fi. When I’m not reading up on politics, I’m probably reading either legitimate history or sci-fi/fantasy. Good sci-fi, like good video games, gets your mind going. Lately I’ve been reading a lot of Jack McDevitt and Lars Walker. (Emphasis mine. lw) Both are fine writers with interesting minds who can create a universe and invest that universe with life. I don’t just read sci-fi/fantasy for the escape. I read it because, right now, it’s where the intellectual action is in fiction.
Thanks for the plug, Bryan.
Loo, that’s good. Is he saying Return of the Jeri is a decent film?
I never realized it before, but their boots look like something Elvis would have worn…
I’m not sure the zipper-sided ones are authentic.
I think anyone who is ever going to write literary (or film) criticism needs to read, mark and inwardly digest C.S. Lewis’s fascinating and thought-provoking book Experiment in Criticism
What I am particularly thinking of in this case ia 2 statements Lewis makes:
1. If there is even one person you know, respect and believe to be an intelligent, thinking person who reads a book [or watches a film] you find worthless in a thoughtful way and clearly gains something meaningful from it, be very hesitant to dismiss it.
2. If you have no emotional or intellectual sympathy with a genre that at any thinking people appreciate, you should disqualify yourself from critiquing it.
Wow, if anyone said my work was “where the intellectual action is,” my head would explode.
By the way, I really liked Wolf Time. It was kind of a Tom Clancy/Stephen King/Garrison Keillor thing.
Thanks.