Three Years of Hell to Become the Devil: Outgeeking Bainbridge

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Outgeeking Bainbridge

Now, I'd never take on Professor Bainbridge when it comes to wine: I haven't the taste buds. And on corporate law? More fool me to challenge the guy who authors textbooks. But outgeeking? There we're on more equal ground. And I'm afraid that his accusation that George Lucas has sold the soul of Star Wars to the Democrats just rings hollow.

Basically, the good Professor is upset because:

...Lucas betrayed the basic story arc of the Star Wars mythology in order to score these cheap political points. In the original trilogy, Luke struggled against the absolutism of Obi-Wan and Yoda. It was Luke who insisted that there was still good in Vader, which Yoda and Obi-Wan rejected.

The betrayal in question is in having Obi-Wan say to Anakin, after the latter has muttered some you're-for-me-or-against-me line, "Only a Sith thinks in absolutes."

Now, I've not seen the movie yet, and to the best of my knowledge, neither has Prof. Bainbridge, but to my mind his internal critique doesn't hold up. Bainbridge spends a great deal of time talking about how an older (presumably wiser) Obi-Wan was still doctrinaire and absolutist in his consideration of the Force. But if we consider this Obi-Wan to be less mature than Alec Guinness (and who wouldn't), then the plot still hangs together. Obi-wan may just be full of it. And there's no "betrayal" for "cheap political points" so long as the elder Jedi isn't doing anything more than the lightsaber equivalent of Godwin's Law: you know the conversation's over (and someone's limbs are about to go) when somebody mentions the Sith.

So why are so many assuming that Old Kenobi needs to be taken seriously? It seems that the New York Times found political meaning in the film:

"This is how liberty dies - to thunderous applause," Padm observes as senators, their fears and dreams of glory deftly manipulated by Palpatine, vote to give him sweeping new powers. "Revenge of the Sith" is about how a republic dismantles its own democratic principles, about how politics becomes militarized, about how a Manichaean ideology undermines the rational exercise of power. Mr. Lucas is clearly jabbing his light saber in the direction of some real-world political leaders. At one point, Darth Vader, already deep in the thrall of the dark side and echoing the words of George W. Bush, hisses at Obi-Wan, "If you're not with me, you're my enemy." Obi-Wan's response is likely to surface as a bumper sticker during the next election campaign: "Only a Sith thinks in absolutes." You may applaud this editorializing, or you may find it overwrought, but give Mr. Lucas his due. For decades he has been blamed (unjustly) for helping to lead American movies away from their early-70's engagement with political matters, and he deserves credit for trying to bring them back.

Dear goodness, we can only hope. I mean, if Democrats can't do better than Lucas's tin-ear for dialogue for their political bumper stickers, then I suspect the Republicans will get the geek vote. But now the New York Times has done the impossible: it's made me curious about the final Star Wars film.

Let's face it: Lucas is about as subtle as a chainsaw running through a screen door, at least when it comes to dialogue. I'd expect that even if Chewbacca were mouthing Bush-lite rhetoric, you wouldn't need to be Han Solo to figure out the reference. On the other hand, the New York Times could probably scan Beowulf and find hidden anti-Bush meanings.

So who is it? Is George L. taking on George B.? Or is this all a figment of the Times' fevered fantasies? Sadly, I'll have to see the film to find out, because when it comes to a conflict between the Lucas lack of subtext and the Greying Lady's determination to find same, we reach a level of difficulty almost equal to that of the Great Sci Fi Paradox: What happens when a bunch of clueless red-shirts, guaranteed to survive less than three minutes after a beamdown, meets a platoon of Imperial Stormtroopers, who can't hit a barn from inside it?

Comments

This article on a Cannes press conference might save you the trouble of going to the movie.
http://midwestsummerassociate.blogspot.com/
A wise man once pointed out that "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar", and I think someone needs to remind Prof. Bainbridge that sometimes a trashy sci-fi B flick is just a trashy sci-fi B flick.....
The "wise man" was Freud, on the sometimes-noninterpretation-of-dreams. Less well known is his debt to Kipling. The original line went something like "Wine is only wine, but a cigar is a smoke."
I've noticed that people who are absolutist often think that they are nuanced. (Often because they know other people on their own side who are even more extreme, or have unexpressed feelings which are much nastier.)
TTP: I know it was Freud; I was under the impression that the quote was familiar enough that nobody (at least nobody well educated enough to be follwoing a first person narrative of American legal education) needed to be told who said it. :-)
Oh, perhaps I've underestimated folks. I was under the impression that a lot of people didn't know the source. Eh. Also I was trolling for the exact phrasing of the Kipling quote.
"Now, I've not seen the movie yet, and to the best of my knowledge, neither has Prof. Bainbridge..." And thus continues the conservative tradition of critiquing movies without having seen them. :)
If you notice, Dave, the above isn't a critique of a movie, but a series of questions about it. And having now seen the movie, if you want to carry water for Lucas's dialogue, I hope your back's pretty strong.

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G’Day Brisbane

No visit to the South Pacific would be complete without a stop in Australia. We planned to spend just under three weeks exploring the Oz, which resulted in a considerable amount of criticism from every Aussie we’ve met along the way. How could we possibly get to know a country nearly as big as the continental US in a few short weeks? We do realize we can’t, but recognize our budget would take a serious beating if we decided otherwise.

Our hope was to get to know a small part of the country well, spending our time taking in the beauty of the eastern coastline and exploring the cosmopolitan cities of Melbourne and Sydney. Thus our Aussie journey began, but not without a few bumps along the way.

A Tizzy in Brizzy
Brisbane e1266984202617 G’Day BrisbaneOur first stop on our visit to Australia brought us to the city of Brisbane. We really didn’t know much about the city of Brizzy, as the locals call it, when we planned to arrive there, but geographically we thought it made the most sense as a jumping off point for exploring the coast. This was our first of many mistakes we would make during our time in Oz.

Trying as hard as I can not to knock any Brisbaners or Brisbane-lovers out there, but Brisbane for us was a bust. First off, it was ungodly hot (I know what can we expect in the peak of summer and why complain when most of you are freezing your buns off in the dead of winter?!), but the weather was pretty rotten. We were pummeled with rain and humidity so intense I was crowned with a permanent afro. Secondly, we couldn’t find a decent place to stay for the life of us. Everywhere we looked was seedy and filthy. We know we were spoiled when it came to accommodation in New Zealand, but were having a hard time accepting the state of our Aussie lodging options. Thirdly, with its bright lights, trashy souvenir shops and plethora of adult entertainment venues, the city seemed to live up to its ‘Bris-Vegas’ reputation. Lastly (and I promise I’ll stop complaining!), it’s here we were faced with the reality that in Australia, we can’t afford a darn thing!

Brisbane Botanical Gardens e1266984423936 G’Day BrisbaneWe spent two days sweating our way through the city, taking in the sights. To Brisbane’s credit, it has some beautiful parks we enjoyed exploring and a nice riverside walkway lining the city. Soon realizing, however, it was a place we weren’t keen on planting our feet, we began to plot our next step.

Reality Bites
We had our eyes set on heading up north to experience the crown-jewels of Australia’s east coast: snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef, sailing the WhitSunday Islands and taking a 4WD expedition across Fraser Island. These were what we had come all this way for and who knows when we’d be back, right?

We did our homework, however, spending lots of time poking into travel agencies, chatting with tour operators and surfing the Web, and came to the sad reality that these were exactly the experiences that would put our budget on the line. Transportation alone to these locales would cost a pretty penny and the costs of the excursions would seriously set us back. With our tails between our legs, we knew we had no choice but to opt out of some of these “must-see” activities if we’re really going to make this year of travel a reality.

pixel G’Day Brisbane

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