Messing with it

LUKE10I have to admit something. I am a conservative–not when it comes to social issues or family values or even personal responsibility, but when it comes to Star Wars, I don’t want massive amounts of computer generated effects.

Some things are wonderful for what they are, not for what they could be. A few years ago, I was talking to Lee Killough, whose books I loved about ten years ago when I found them. She told me that she was coming out with electronic versions for the Kindle, and that she would update them, adding modern technology, cell phones and computer searches.

Part of me wanted to yell at her just like Luke Skywalker: Nooooooooo! Her books may have been set in the eighties, but to me that just added to their charm. I loved her novels so much, I didn’t want to see anything changed.

I had a similar feeling tonight when I was reading a thread on Reddit, asking people how they felt when Darth Vadar revealed he was Luke Skywalker’s father. The thought jumped into my head that I should buy bluray disks of all the Star Wars movies. Then I remembered the re-re-re-editing that George Lucas had done.

Don’t get me wrong. George Lucas owns Star Wars and he has the right to do whatever he wants with it. However, I have the right not to spend my money on his sad, bastardized, over-edited re-releases.

Okay, let’s drop the Star Wars rant–no matter how well deserved–and get back to my point.

A year ago, I read the Ray Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles. Were they dated? Yes. Were they irresistibly charming? Most definitely!

A while before that, I read Max Allen Collins First Quarry. Max set the story in Iowa City during the 70s, when he was at the Iowa Writer’s Workshop. He carefully researched it, not letting false memories get the best of him, and produced a work worthy of that era.

I guess what I’m saying is I love the nostalgia of bad predictions. It seems silly that an author would work hard to eliminate the markers of the era they wrote a story in. In my opinion, it does not add to a story but detracts from it. The futurism of 30 years ago can teach us much more than the futurism of today.

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