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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Death and Dying in Varanasi

 Death and Dying in Varanasi

Morning puja along the ghats of Varanasi

When I look back on this year of travel, I am sure of one place that will stand out in my mind. That place is Varanasi, India. I can’t say I loved it. I can’t say I hated it. What I can say about this place is I felt it.

Varanasi is said to be one of the world’s oldest cities. It’s also India’s holiest. Pilgrims come to Varanasi from far and wide to cleanse their souls in the sacred River Ganges. The river’s edge is lined with resting spots, known as ghats, made of concrete slabs where pilgrims come to wash away their sins.

Bathers1 e1272568982440 Death and Dying in Varanasi

Bathers entering the Ganges at dawn

To get a proper taste of the city’s unique mystical energy, we took boat ride on a wooden paddle boat along the river at sunrise. Here we witnessed hundreds of pilgrims gathering along the ghats to partake in their daily session of puja (prayer). Some remove nearly all their clothing to completely submerse themselves in the water. Others splash the water all over their bodies or sit in complex yoga poses, eyes closed, facing the rising sun. And at sunset, too, the ghats are crawling with pilgrims along a river dotted with thousands of flickering candles and flower petals.

As the beating heart of the Hindu universe, Varanasi is also the place where people come to cremate their loved ones. Upon arriving, we discovered our hotel was conveniently (and I say this with the heaviest hint of sarcasm) located directly next to Varanasi’s main burning ghat. At the burning ghat, on the shores of the Ganges, bodies are cremated in public 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

 Death and Dying in Varanasi

Elderly woman resting on the ghats

Due to the religious significance that comes with being cremated along the holiest of rivers, many people come to Varanasi to die. Others arrange to have their bodies shipped here shortly after their death. But no matter how they arrive, nearly all of them go in the same way. First the bodies are wrapped in beautiful cloths. Red fabric is used for young unwed women, orange for married women and gold for older women. Men are wrapped in white cloth. The bodies are then carried to the ghat on a bamboo stretcher by sons and relatives of the deceased. The sons shave their heads (sometimes leaving a little patch on the back unshaven) the day before the cremation ceremony as a sign of grieving.

Once the bodies arrive at the river’s edge, they are unwrapped from the cloth and dunked into the river. The sons then open the mouth of the body, dip their hands in the river and fill the mouth with holy water. The body is then carried a few feet away from the river where a pile of firewood awaits. After the body is laid down the sons and male relatives are given a torch. The eldest son, with blazing torch in hand, leads the others in circling the body five times before lighting the body in flames.

 Death and Dying in Varanasi

Public cremation at the burning ghat

Some visitors may catch a glimpse of the burning ghat from afar or possibly a brief look from a boat ride down the river, but due to the close proximity of our hotel, we were given a brutally up-close-and-personal experience. Each time we left our hotel, we were face to face with death. We found ourselves in the middle of funeral processions. We had to fight our way around dead bodies and grieving families. We watched sons as they lit their dead mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers on fire. We witnessed the unforgettable smell of burning flesh and the sight of arms, legs and heads set ablaze.

Cremation, however, isn’t for everyone. There are a select few whose bodies go directly into the river. Pregnant women, children, holy men and (strangely enough) anyone bitten by a cobra are instead tied to a stone and dropped off a paddle boat into the middle of the river.

 Death and Dying in Varanasi

Young boy steers us down the Ganges River

As you can imagine, the Ganges is notorious for being one of the dirtiest rivers in the world (second only to China’s Yangtze River). On top of the hundreds of corpses, bones and ashes lining the river floor, sewage lines from the city run directly into the water. You can certainly imagine our concern when we witnessed our 10 year old boat driver quenching his thirst with a big gulp of water from the river and hundreds of locals brushing their teeth and washing their clothes at the river’s edge each morning.

More than 100 bodies are cremated in Varanasi each day and around 200-300 when the sweltering heat of the summer brings even more its way. With customs and traditions so different from my own, it’s so easy to judge with a critical eye. What I’m slowly but surely learning, however, is that just because we do things differently, doesn’t mean it’s the right and only way. Really, who is to say putting a body in a wooden box in a hole in the ground is all that better?

More than a month later, the sights, sounds and smells of Varanasi are still with me. I can’t say I’ll be running back any time soon, but I can say it’s a place that has burnt an indelible mark on my mind.

pixel Death and Dying in Varanasi

Comments (4)

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  1. Antonio Pedro Silva says:

    Fantastic description. First i saw images in internet without understand what happen in that city. Only understood that was a powerful and very emotional place. And your description is amazing. Fantastic moment reading this text

  2. Elise says:

    wow is all i can say….great post. i love hearing about this stuff!

  3. Varanasi is such a unique place, glad you were able to experience it! Thanks for sharing your journey!
    .-= TravelingCanucks´s last blog ..Photo of the Week: Inside the Temple, Thailand =-.

  4. Courtney Callahan says:

    Wow, I am speechless. I can’t imagine witnessing this and it is amazing the way that each culture handles death. Again, your blog has provided me with an insight on something I will never experience. Love and miss!