Website: Star Wars Origins
Owner: Kristen Brennan
Reviewed by ami-padme.
How did George Lucas create Star Wars?
The question is curious: on the one hand, breaking down his creative process into explainable pieces seems almost impossible -- on the other hand, most Star Wars fans can easily run through a list of obvious influences on the saga. Joseph Campbell. Flash Gordon. Lord of the Rings. Akira Kurosawa.
That nexus -- between unknowable thought processes, individual creativity, and literary inspiration -- is the focus of the website Star Wars Orgins (www.jitterbug.com/origins). Created and maintained by Kristen Brennan, it provides an in-depth look at the various influences George Lucas drew upon in creating the Star Wars story.
Starting with the Flash Gordon serials Lucas loved, Star Wars Origins presents detailed looks at each saga source. The site goes beyond explaing how Lucas used the material in his writing, beyond the "subtle lessons" from it that Star Wars incorporates, and provides a study of the background to these materials -- how they came to be, and how they influenced popular culture, entertainment, and modern mythology. Each page also features comparion pictures to provide visual support. Look at the original Cloud City from the Gordon series, see the evil robots from the film Metropolis (that led to the much more benign C-3PO), and see how the holographic communications from the movie Forbidden Planet resemble Princess Leia's plea to Obi-Wan in A New Hope. Several pages include tables for quick and easy comparisons, such as how Star Wars fulfills the Campbellian ideal of storytelling or how Lucas followed Frank Herbert's footsteps as laid down in the science-fiction classic, Dune.
Having compiled all of this information, Ms. Brennan then delineates the lessons in writing and storytelling she's learned from her research into Lucas' work, such as checking one's ego before putting pen to paper, remembering that entertaining the audience is at least 90 percent of the writer's job, and being unafraid to borrow from great works of the past.
The website offers an enjoyable way to explore the saga -- its layout is easy to navigate, the pictures are used to good effect, and Ms. Brennan writing is informative and personable. I recommend it to Star Wars fans looking to dig a little deeper into its origins. It’s a good read for fans of the saga, of Lucas, and of science-fiction/fantasy/mythology in general.
