Being in and of Star Wars
As part of an article written about my being in Star Wars: The Force Awakens in a technical trade magazine, I was asked why the story has continued to resonate over all these years, especially with technologists. I thought that it’d be worth sharing why it seems so powerful (at least to me).
Star Wars seems to speak to people who are striving to understand their place in the universe. It’s centered on someone who feels totally insignificant and unable to follow his dreams, yet was somehow special. So when the first film was released, many of us who felt like misunderstood outsiders could immediately relate to it. This sense of differentness was clearly evident in the “wretched hive” of Chalmun’s Cantina in Mos Eisley, an iconic scene that has been etched in many of our minds.
Along with the characters in the film, we were also starting to recognize (perhaps subconsciously) that the balance of cultural power was shifting from a seemingly homogenous mainstream to something more heterogeneous and complex. Star Wars provided the canvas upon which we could paint our newly realized future: it was a rich mix of the past (“a long time ago”) in a fantastical distant land (“a galaxy far, far away”) with the promise of the misfit underdogs (the Rebels) overturning the uniform status quo (the Empire).
Then if you specifically consider technologists, we tend to understand complexity. And, importantly, we believe that this complexity can ultimately be reduced to more understandable binary operations. We’re able to break down a complex situation into a series of simple options. Star Wars presented this binary choice in a clear and compelling way: good or evil; light or dark; “Do or do not.”
Further, many of the technologists I know are highly cerebral and often aren’t naturally inclined to understand emotions. As someone in this camp myself, I know the importance emotions play in life, but the concept can be confusing as it’s hard to qualify and quantify in a way that’s familiar and comforting. This is especially true of the adolescent Star Wars audience who were already struggling with the concepts of new emotions. In this way, the idea of a mysterious force that “surrounds us, penetrates us, and binds the universe together” sounds an awful lot like this unknowable (yet undeniably powerful) force of emotions.
Most importantly, Lucas built a solid foundation of a totally new universe of discourse on the back of deep-rooted cultural myths. He mined older narratives that have resonated across cultures for centuries. Using these tropes, he provided the audience with a means to propel our own stories forward. He showed us that, even when we don’t understand everything, we can be part of something more important than ourselves.
There are, of course, those who scoff as they roll their eyes, dismissing my visceral reaction to the original film trilogy. They can’t understand why a silly melodrama set in space can mean so much to me. All I can say is… the films happened to embed themselves in my psyche (as they did for millions of others). They are a powerful force that penetrates and surrounds me with a feeling of comfort: the comfort of being welcomed into a diverse and complicated universe.
These may just be the ramblings of someone trying to understand the apparent power of a simple science fiction film… or maybe there’s something truly resonant in this story that will continue to reverberate through untold generations.
For those interested in learning more about how I ended up in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, check out the video about it, and then listen the Film Reel Podcast interview for our reactions.
