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Uncle George's Fairy Tale:Shaping a Generation By Tadhg "Christopher" Bird Cain "... I set out to make a film for a generation growing up without fairy tales." --George Lucas. I find these words on the box that contains my first commercial copies of the Star Wars trilogy, reproduced in his handwriting. Those tapes were a gift from my best friend, the films on those tapes, a gift to my generation.It was May of 1977, I was 5 years old, and in kindergarten. Most everyone knew that there was this thing called "Star Wars" but all I had seen of it were T-shirts with heat transfer images on the front. I remember how happy I was when my father gave me a light blue one with a picture of two robots, and the words "STAR WARS" in bold, glittered letters. It was around this time that I discovered that it was also a movie. After school, I was delighted when my father picked me up early from after school day care and drove me in my new powder blue and glitter Star Wars shirt to the movie theatre. In an auditorium that seats about 100, there were at the most 20 people. Not many people go to the movies on a Wednesday afternoon. "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..." read quietly out loud by me. Music blares. STAR WARS in golden letters flashes across the screen and recede. As the opening crawl begins to scroll, I read that as well. A spaceship roars overhead. My jaw drops in amazement. An even larger spaceship thunders above me. I hide under my seat. Before the Star Destroyer finishes roaring overhead, my father has coaxed me back into my seat, and I soon recognize the robots on the screen as the robots on my chest. I sit, and am told a story by who I endearingly refer to as "Uncle George". I, along with my entire generation, have inherited my Fairy Tale. This generation was later to be called "Generation X". I prefer a different handle. I belong to the Star Wars Generation. The year I was born, Intel had invented the microprocessor. When I was a baby, men walked on the moon, and it wasn't even newsworthy. The US Savings Bond given to me as a gift from my God-Parents on the occasion of my christening, was also a "punch card" that was computer readable. This was the world that I was born into, and it was for those who would grow up in this world that a new Fairy Tale had to be fashioned. Uncle George's Fairy Tale shaped others and me in my generation. Lucas re-interpreted the mythology that shaped our society using symbols that we who were born into the world of microprocessors, punch cards, and rocket ships would easily grasp. Combining the familiar with the fantastic, Lucas gave us a vehicle that sparks the imagination, while teaching us as any good morality play would. Along with the familiar games of make believe or role-playing we played as children such as, "Cops and Robbers" or "House", my playmates and I would act out the fantasies of "Star Wars". In a short order of time, we had the toys made by Kenner to help us with these fantasies. It was these countless hours of play that I believe caused such an impact on those who were children when Star Wars was released. Lucas has said, "... it isn't particularly a bad thing to have kids go home and be able to simulate a fantasy world there and continue to work through whatever emotional needs have been stirred by the film." Through play, we as children discover things about the world around us as well as ourselves. It is a process of self-discovery as old as humankind itself, the only difference was the symbology used. For us of the Star Wars generation, the symbolic construct we had to explore these issues was that of Star Wars. This inner journey continued all throughout my childhood and into adolescence. Star Wars helped develop the tools I use to view and interact with the world. What begun for me in a darkened theatre over twenty years ago has continued, and I imagine will always continue. Star Wars came at a time in my development to be the first of many lessons that I was able to grasp. It gave me examples of many of the things we must deal with in the real world, made safe by being encapsulated in fantasy. I often dealt with my own emotions through the experiences of Luke Skywalker. The most vivid in my mind is when Luke discovers the charred skeletons of his Aunt and Uncle. That along with an episode of Mr. Roger's Neighborhood where a deceased goldfish is flushed down a toilet helped teach the child that I was with concepts of mortality. If I had not worked through some of these emotions, I believe I would have taken the death of Sesame Street's Mr. Hooper much harder than I did. Other basic concepts such as good vs. evil, self-sacrifice, and even monetary compensation were given a fantasy environment where I could explore these concepts safely. There was magic that summer. Theatres in some areas stayed open 24 hours a day to keep up with the demand. It was not unusual to have seen the film 10 or even 20 times (My father and I lost count somewhere around 23). Star Wars and people who loved it were everywhere. The showing that I remember the most, next to sitting in the theatre on opening day happened at a Drive In. The funny part of this story is that we did not go to see Star Wars at all. On that warm summer night, we bundled into the car and headed to the drive-in to watch "Smoky and the Bandit". During "Smoky" my father took me for a walk to a different screen. The Battle over the Death Star was about to begin. We wandered over, me in my pajamas, and stood outside viewing the Death Star Battle... along with 20 or so other people who had left their cars and their screens to do the same. Handfuls of people all sharing a common experience and a love for a film. I remember after the medal ceremony, my father talking with others near us, everyone making exaggerated "flying" gestures with their hands remembering the battle. It would seem that in the summer of 1977 there were adults who needed a Fairy Tale as well.
About the author: Tadhg "Christopher" Bird Cain is known to many by his persona of "Anakin Starkiller" that he uses to continue to explore the mythology of Star Wars on such newsgroups as rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc and alt.fan.wedge. "Starkiller" also maintains a website called "The Fourth Moon of Utapau" which can be found at http://www.MacroWerx.com/~jedi Starkiller can be reached via email at: jedi@MacroWerx.com |
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