Star Wars Heresies
BECAUSEYOURFOCUS DETERMINES YOUR REALITY
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
It's All Greek To Me
-Myths and Epics and Dramas, Oh My–
“IfThe Odysseyhad enjoyed – or suffered – as much anticipatory
fluffing asPhantom Menacedid, some ancient Greeks surely would
have muttered, ‘Homer’s lost it.’ And the poet would
defend himself, as Lucas does today.”
- Richard Corlis,TIME, 2002
After winding my way through several interpretations and commentaries on the grand Greek duology,The IliadandThe Odyssey, it doesn’t take too much effort to find all the implications toStar Wars. At least, not for me. Thenagain, my mind pretty much automatically translates everything of this ilk into being aboutStar Wars, whether it is or not. Still, the comparisons are there and pretty interesting.
This isn’t going to be a detailed look at the specificparallelsbetween the stories, so much as a quick glance at various elements I’ve gleaned from my own studies. The first time I can consciously recall hearing any such comparisons were, no surprise, from our old friend Joseph Campbell. InThe Power ofMyth,Campbellremarked on a similarity between the quest of Telemachus, who’s looking for his long lost father, Odysseus, and Luke Skywalker, who is doing much the same in the original trilogy. According toCampbell, it’s about finding out what your source is and what your career is. What your adventure is.
While flipping throughWorld Mythology, a grand collection of tales the world over, Donna Rosenberg made some interesting comments about the nature of the twin Greek epics that inspired so much of Western culture. It is believed that the poet Homer probably created bothThe IliadandThe Odyssey, perhaps the first in his youth, and the second in his older years, though there’s obviously a lot of debate about this. What is really interesting to me is her descriptions of the two works:
The principal difference between the two epics is thatThe Odyssey
is primarily a superb adventure story, perhaps the greatest in literature,
whereasThe Iliadis a serious, dramatic portrayal of human personality
and the conflicts that arise between a person’s own wishes and his or her
responsibility to the needs of the community.
Thus, the plot ofThe Odysseyhas a narrower focus than that of
The Iliad. Instead of presenting the heroic deeds and psychological
conflicts of Greek and Trojan heroes,The Odysseydescribes a long
and difficult journey of Odysseus, one of the heroes in The Iliad as
he returns fromTroyand struggles for his control of his kingdom.
Those two paragraphs really struck the fanboy in me when I first read them. She could just as easily have been talking about the prequel trilogy and the original one as opposed to the Greek epics. Actually, the main difference is that George Lucas, unlike Homer, wrote and directed the prequels in his older years and the sequels in his youth. Still, the comparisons are ripe.
The original trilogy paints the tale of Luke Skywalker, who is striving to become a Jedi Knight and overthrow the evil Empire which has the galaxy enslaved. Perhaps first and foremost, likeThe Odyssey, itisa superb adventure story, arguably the greatest adventure story in the history of cinema. It also focuses on a narrower cast of heroes and, while the galactic civil war is still going on unlike the Trojan one, there is certainly a struggle for control of the kingdom, played out in large part between father and son. And true, Luke doesn’t have to outsmart a Cyclops, but he does have to take down a Rancor.
The prequel trilogy is perhaps a more serious and dramatic portrayal of human personality, much likeThe Iliad. While centering around the windy plains ofTroy, much of the conflict takes place between Agamemnon and Achilles. While the greatest Greek warrior - the Chosen One, if you will - Achilles’ honor has been taken from him by Agamemnon, the leader of the Greeks. Incidentally, for those who found Anakin Skywalker whiny in the prequels, Achilles spends a significant amount of time not fighting alongside his men in the Trojan War, but rather pouting in his tent. Just a note.
At any rate, the prequels also boast a profound conflict between a person’s own wishes and his responsibility to the community, a conflict that is found in spades in the Anakin and Padme relationship. It also lurks behind the entire Jedi Code.
Donna Rosenberg also notes:
In addition, the moral issues inThe Odysseyare clearer than they are
inThe Iliad. Many characters inThe Odysseyact more like heroes or
villains, whereas more of the characters inThe Iliadhave complex
personalities and display a combination of good and bad traits. In
keeping with Homer’s attitude toward good and evil inThe Odyssey,
the heroes survive, the gods punish the villains by killing them, and
the story ends happily. In contrast, the best among the heroes inThe
Iliadmake mistakes and die, and the story has an unhappy ending.
This certainly holds true when comparing the original trilogy to the prequel one. From the first scenes onward, a Sith Lord dressed all in black captures a princess dressed all in white, and there is little question inA New Hopewho the good guys are and who the bad ones are. Even the mercenary Han Solo comes around in the end. Right up until the last act ofThe Empire Strikes Back, particularly with the revelation of Darth Vader’s fatherhood, the heroes are heroes and the villains are villains. In the end ofReturn of the Jedi, Death Stars are blown up, the Emperor gets the shaft, and it’s hard to get much happier than an Ewok party in the tree villages of Endor.
The prequel trilogy, on the other hand, is often mired in ambiguity. Much like inThe Iliad, the characters have a very complex set of traits. The Jedi practically initiate a war in front of legions of clone troopers and aboard the bridges of Star Destroyers, while the lead hero falls to the dark side inRevenge of the Sith. Characters even repeat dialogue at different points, such as Chancellor Palpatine and Mace Windu who each tell Anakin that respective enemies are “too dangerous to be kept alive.” The heroes make mistakes and the bad guys win the day. The prequel trilogy ends with Obi-Wan and Yoda exiled, Padme dead, Anakin as Darth Vader, and the Sith once more in control of the galaxy. Grim, indeed.
Along these lines, I’ve also been enjoying theModern Scholarseries on CD. The first I chose wasMonsters, Gods, and Heroes, which traces the development of the epic in Western civilization. With lectures by Professor Timothy Shutt, it began withThe IliadandThe Odyssey, and then Virgil’s Aeneid, eventually moving on to Dante’sDivine Comedy,Milton’sParadise Lost, some Edmund Spenser, and a few others that have developed outside the realm of verse, taking the form of novels.
For my money,Star Warsis certainly a continuation of this trend. In point of fact, I would stand it up against about any of the others mentioned. It would acquit itself well. While Professor Shutt did citeLord of the Ringsand other fantasy works as bringing the epic back into the postmodern world, he did mention “the variousStar Warsfilms” in the course booklet that came with the series as doing the same.
He also hit on the very real hunger that still exists for these types of stories, regardless of whether human beings can accept them as being serious and true anymore. They may have to exist in the realms of science fiction and fantasy, because a post-Enlightenment Western world can’t accept them anywhere else, but one is certainly a continuation of the other.
Nonetheless, Shutt did mention how engineering majors and such would no doubt write myth and epic off altogether as “A lot of silly stories that don’t mean anything.” No doubt they would feel the same way aboutStar Warsas well, not to mention people who dress up as stormtroopers and Jedi on a regular basis. In my opinion, this attitude has become a significant problem in society today.
Sure, the liberal arts and humanities are at something of an impasse as they do not automatically lead to six figure incomes, yet without them society winds up creatively and intellectually crippled. A mythic wasteland. Still, Shutt feels the epic is on the rise, even with the predominance of irony and the abstract in the art world (Fair enough, he feels the abstract pretty much peaked with Jackson Pollock splattering paint on a canvas).
Incidentally, I’ve also been listening to more of theModern Scholarseries, this time with Professor Peter Meineck onGreek Drama. Yes, more comparisons abound. I found it interesting that “theater” actually means “seeing place” and, while there was a profound marriage of the literary and the visual in Greek drama, it is nice to be reminded that film is first and foremost avisualevent. One quite literally goes to the cinema tosee, and the vistas and splendor ofStar Warsis unparalleled in that regard.
It’s funny listening to Meineck conjure up images ofAthensin the fifth century B.C., particularly when Greeks are camping out in lines to get good seats. Granted, no one was dressed up as Darth Maul or Yoda, but it is highly reminiscent of the inevitable lines that creep around the cinema whenever a newStar Warsfilm debuts. Actually, in the days of Sophocles and Euripides and Aeschylus, it surprised me that plays were performed one time, and one time only (Imagine aStar Warsfilm coming out and only getting to see it one lousy time! Nowthatwould be a tragedy).
The professor also waxed lyrical about the shared communal experience, which also strongly reminded me of what happens to an audience during a midnight premiere of aStar Warsfilm. It is a highly emotional experience and, much like in ancientGreece, perhaps even a borderline sacred one. Even going to the theater today, with its stadium seats, enormous screens, and all-encompassing stereo sound, brings a taste of this to the modern soul. Particularly when everything goes quiet and the words “A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away” form on the screen. And much like the Athenians, they didn’t go to the theater to see “kitchen sink drama,” but rather tales of gods and heroes, stories that dealt with social, political, and mythological themes.
In short, your average fifth century Athenian would have felt right at home watchingStar Warsat the local AMC, or more at home than you might think. And as far as Greek tragedy goes, I betRevenge of the SithorThe Empire Strikes Backcould certainly give the plays of Aeschylus a run for first prize ….
P.S.Yes, the rumors are true.The Star Wars Heresiesis graduating to book form, hopefully by fall of 2013. Unfortunately, that also means my blogging time isseriously hijacked. Between that and a move,time has been in short supply. Hopefully I will be getting better at balancing it all. Stay tuned!
Posted byPaul F. McDonaldat11:28 AM