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dragonlady7via http://ift.tt/2AXcXG2:
(no spoilers)
I have a terrible conflict of both wanting to talk about The Last Jedi and also not actually wanting to hear what most people have to say about it. LOL.
But I’m just gonna say again, people’s widely-varying reactions to it are so, so expected, and so normal. It’s not surprising. It’s okay, guys, this isn’t a cultural breakdown. This is totally precedented.
Listen, I just rewatched the original trilogy a couple of months back?
They’re awful. I mean, not to be a dick, but A New Hope is wooden and spare and has like, five spoken lines in it, the special effects are not phenomenal, the acting isn’t great anywhere. It’s a disaster, and it’s not even that beautiful.
But it’s magic. The magic of Star Wars is that it opens a portal of possibility. So much has been read into that world, and so much credit is given to it, but it itself has never been that much of a thing. It’s just that it kicked open a door and showed audiences, showed the culture, that there’s room for so much more, whole worlds of imagination. And it swept so many people along that now there’s real-world history, actual weight of culture and familiarity and real-life emotional connection along with that fantasy setting.
The movies themselves never have done the best job at showing that world to its best advantage. The bulk of the work has always been done in the minds of the observers.
So, there are always Problematic things to call out, there are dissonant notes that offend all kinds of people for all kinds of understandable reasons, but the point of the whole thing is that doorway of possibility. And TLJ did that well: that door is wide open, and we have a whole pile of new images and mythologies and worlds to build on. The door’s kicked open even wider and there’s expressly room for more people in this world, people who’ve fought to be included and now absolutely cannot be excluded again, can’t be gatekept out.
I was worried the Problematic shit would drag down my joy so I couldn’t enjoy this, but it didn’t. If it did, for you, I’m truly sorry, and that sucks. I’m not here to tell you you’re wrong, just to remind you that there has literally never been a Star Wars movie that good.
For me, the dissonant notes didn’t mean I couldn’t still enjoy the symphony, and if I compose new stuff I’m going to ignore the parts that I think sucked. (Oh yeah, there were those.) I feel like a key change would’ve fixed it, and I don’t need to dwell on it. If I hum it to myself, I’ll hum it in a key that works.
Because there’s a lot of baggage when you’re dealing with a cultural artifact of this breadth and longevity, and I genuinely think it went as well as it could. I have high hopes for the next one and won’t be wasting my time in trying to predict it.
(I hadn’t been trying to predict this one, and was stunned and pleased that in a few places, I actually had, quite well. Ha!)
So, anyway. There’s my Hot Take.
In the meantime I’m going to figure out how to incorporate Rose into my dorky modern fluff A/U.
(Your picture was not posted)
(no spoilers)
I have a terrible conflict of both wanting to talk about The Last Jedi and also not actually wanting to hear what most people have to say about it. LOL.
But I’m just gonna say again, people’s widely-varying reactions to it are so, so expected, and so normal. It’s not surprising. It’s okay, guys, this isn’t a cultural breakdown. This is totally precedented.
Listen, I just rewatched the original trilogy a couple of months back?
They’re awful. I mean, not to be a dick, but A New Hope is wooden and spare and has like, five spoken lines in it, the special effects are not phenomenal, the acting isn’t great anywhere. It’s a disaster, and it’s not even that beautiful.
But it’s magic. The magic of Star Wars is that it opens a portal of possibility. So much has been read into that world, and so much credit is given to it, but it itself has never been that much of a thing. It’s just that it kicked open a door and showed audiences, showed the culture, that there’s room for so much more, whole worlds of imagination. And it swept so many people along that now there’s real-world history, actual weight of culture and familiarity and real-life emotional connection along with that fantasy setting.
The movies themselves never have done the best job at showing that world to its best advantage. The bulk of the work has always been done in the minds of the observers.
So, there are always Problematic things to call out, there are dissonant notes that offend all kinds of people for all kinds of understandable reasons, but the point of the whole thing is that doorway of possibility. And TLJ did that well: that door is wide open, and we have a whole pile of new images and mythologies and worlds to build on. The door’s kicked open even wider and there’s expressly room for more people in this world, people who’ve fought to be included and now absolutely cannot be excluded again, can’t be gatekept out.
I was worried the Problematic shit would drag down my joy so I couldn’t enjoy this, but it didn’t. If it did, for you, I’m truly sorry, and that sucks. I’m not here to tell you you’re wrong, just to remind you that there has literally never been a Star Wars movie that good.
For me, the dissonant notes didn’t mean I couldn’t still enjoy the symphony, and if I compose new stuff I’m going to ignore the parts that I think sucked. (Oh yeah, there were those.) I feel like a key change would’ve fixed it, and I don’t need to dwell on it. If I hum it to myself, I’ll hum it in a key that works.
Because there’s a lot of baggage when you’re dealing with a cultural artifact of this breadth and longevity, and I genuinely think it went as well as it could. I have high hopes for the next one and won’t be wasting my time in trying to predict it.
(I hadn’t been trying to predict this one, and was stunned and pleased that in a few places, I actually had, quite well. Ha!)
So, anyway. There’s my Hot Take.
In the meantime I’m going to figure out how to incorporate Rose into my dorky modern fluff A/U.
(Your picture was not posted)
