A lot of Star Wars fans hate George Lucas. It's just a basic fact. In the course of his career he has gone from beloved father figure of every Sci-fi geek's favorite movie series to a reviled and often mocked character whom most view as loathsome. It's amazing what one prequel trilogy will do to the public's perception of you.
But it's not just Episode One that has people hating on the man who made Greedo shoot first. No, there's far more to it than that. There's science!
At the website VeryEvolved.com, they have fascinating article up that takes a look at nostalgia and how it affects how our brains process memories and how when those processes are disrupted a change in emotions can take place.
Our brain isn’t the hard drive of a computer, and our memories aren’t hard coded and unchangeable. Every time you recall a memory it may become subtly altered and associated with what ever it was that triggered that old memory. If this trigger happens repeatedly, then you’re adding new layer of interpretation that will be recalled automatically with the old memory next time it’s called up.
A great example of this in action that also demonstrates fluid nostalgia, is the backlash against George Lucas. A large portion of 70’s and 80’s children had grown up owning Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader figures and playing in the backyard pretending sticks were light sabers. Fond childhood memories.
When the first abysmal Star Wars Prequel was released the strong feelings against the film weren’t just those of disappointment at a bad movie. If it were that simple, we should also feel the same way about Police Academy 7.
The reaction can be partly explained by the sense of attack on our previously fond feelings. Watching the new movie automatically calls up memories from the previous series and all the pleasant childhood playtime memories associated with it. But recalling these fond memories in the context of a negative experience begins the process of re-coding, or modifying our old memories. This is an undesirable outcome for nostalgia as it is usually such a pleasant feeling. Naturally there is some resistance and cognitive dissonance when this happens and the brain will try to avoid it like any other unpleasant experience.
Cognitive dissonance is the important term there. It is the technical term for that really uncomfortable feeling you get when you are simultaneously holding on to two contradictory concepts or ideas. In the case of Star Wars, it is the result of loving the original films, but hating the new ones. They're all Star Wars, so technically our brain is telling us we should love all the films equally. We've always loved Star Wars before, so anything else Star Wars that comes out too should therefore be loved just as much as the original films. The fact that we don't like the new films is in conflict with the pre-set construct we have in our brains, and this results in confusion, anxiety and eventually anger.
And for George, unfortunately, that anger seems to have been directed at him. As the creator of the franchise, as well as the writer and director of the prequels, fans everywhere have made him the focus of the negative emotions that have arisen due to the cognitive dissonance that the prequels have created in them.
Which leads me to this next item. In what could be considered a case study for these new findings, a new documentary film is coming out called The People vs. George Lucas.
The documentary takes a detailed look at how George Lucas is perceived around the world, both by the fans of the Star Wars films as well as people inside the film industry. He's become a rather controversial figure over the last decade or so, and people's opinions of him certainly do run the gamut from angry and vengeful bitterness to to exalted worship.
Personally, I will admit to having been a total Lucas hater in the past. The prequel films (Episode I mainly, II and III weren't so bad) really bothered me and as a result I, like many other people, turned that anger at Lucas for what I felt was a betrayal of what I have loved.
However, my opinions on this have changed a lot lately. I don't really hate Lucas anymore, nor do I hold any real blame for him anymore for making Episode I the way it was. Maybe I'm getting softer as I get older, but I'd rather look at it as having gotten wiser. The key question I asked myself that changed my mind on things was, "What would you say to George Lucas if you met him on the street one day?" It's a really important question actually, so let me ask it again.
"What would you say to George Lucas if you met him on the street one day?"
What would you say? Would you bitch him out for making some really horrible films? Would you slap him out of anger? Or would you say thank you for creating something you loved so much? Something that had such a profound impact on your life?
Personally, I realized I would do the latter. I would have to shake his hand (maybe even hug him) and say thank you. Thank you for creating something that has forever altered how I view the world. Thank you for creating something that has turned me on to so many other things in this world that I love like Star Trek and comic books and toys and books and sci-fi and fantasy. Thank you for giving me something I can bond with others over, thus creating life long friendships that have already spanned decades. Thank you for expanding my mind and my imagination as a child and for making me dream dreams I probably wouldn't have ever dreamed about otherwise.
I'm actually finding myself getting angry at fans nowadays who say that they hate George Lucas. Like the guys in the trailer that are singing the song "George Lucas Raped My Childhood." It's funny how the roles have reversed lately. A few years I would have gotten a chuckle at that song and would have said that I agreed with it, but today stuff like that just makes me want to smack the people saying it and then yell at them, "George Lucas didn't rape your childhood you stupid ignorant douchebag!!! He GAVE you your fucking childhood!!! Without him you would have spent the 80's playing football in your back yard with your friends instead of playing with Star Wars figures. You would have grown up to be a jock date rapist who wears DC shoes and clothes that say Volcom or Famous Stars and Straps on them. You'd be driving around in a truck with a big Metal Mullisha sticker on the back instead of that X-Wing decal you have."
Without George Lucas and Star Wars, life as we know it would be totally different. It was the merchandising machine that Star Wars created (which everyone bemoans by the way) that paved the way for pretty much everything you've ever loved as a kid to exist. Without Star Wars and the incredibly popular and money making line of Star Wars toys, large toy companies may never have learned that TV and Movies can be used as vechicles for massive toy advertising.
Without that realization, pretty much everything else from the 80's disappears. GI Joe, Transformers, He-Man, MASK, Rainbow Brite, Care Bears, Thundercats, Silverhawks, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and about a million other toy lines and shows all disappear. All of it.
The impact of Star Wars on our lives really can't be measured. Even today we have things like the current run of the new Battlestar Galactica on the Sci-fi channel which I absolutely adore and am convinced is the best damn show on TV. But it's a remake. And what was the original BSG? It was a knock off of Star Wars. So without Star Wars there is no BSG. And that's just one show as an example. Give me 10 minutes and I'm sure I can think of a hundred more.
My point is, I have realized the error of my ways. To hate George Lucas is to hate myself. Does this mean I have to like everything he does? No, I don't. I will still like or dislike anything he does based on the product itself, but I am no longer going to hate him for what he's doing. He created Star Wars, nothing else he will ever do, short of turning into a new Hitler and starting a holocaust, will ever take away the joy that his creations have already brought into my life. He can make a new trilogy of films based solely on Jar Jar for all I care. It doesn't matter. Nothing he ever does will ever take away what he's already given the world. The only reason people are so mad at him all the time is because they love what he created so much, and what does that say about what he's given them?
(Via IO9)
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