If you know me, you know that Star Wars plays the the same role in my life that the bible does for some other folks... except that I know Star Wars is a bunch of made-up bullshit, and I'm not about to kill anyone over it. But it did give me a mythological backbone for my ideas about change and freedom and cooperation and good and evil and truth. The core story is a about a kid who starts out wanting to free his fellow slaves, then he's indoctrinated by a secretive and powerful cult that denies amorous love, then he goes ape shit nuts trying to figure out how to have it both ways, then he decides the only way to bring peace is to consolidate power, then his kids call bullshit and he kills the bad guy and is redeemed all in a 13 or 14 hour cycle with spaceships and laserswords and hairydog men. Change a few names and you've got Gilgamesh, or Dorothy, or Yi, Rupe, Ajax, Finn, etc.
Last time I went to a nerd convention I was really bothered by the triumphant "I am so great" attitude of the mouth of Lucasfilm, my P.O. Box neighbor, Steve Sansweet. Maybe I've been suckered by the geek solidarity that comes from seeing hundreds of Stormtroopers march in formation, or some guy in a Boba Fett costume fly over the LA Convention Center courtyard in an actual jet pack, or 4 year old kids saying "I'm not afraid of monsters, cuz I have a lightsaber," or the schmaltzy sentimentality of a giant toy maker producing an action figure in memory of a little girl that died of brain cancer; but it seems that Lucas has enjoyed some kind of reality check. The focus of this convention was the fans, and the creative careers and hobbies fans have built, from costuming, to fan films, to car mods, to those guys with that Robot Chicken show.
There is not a doubt in my mind that Star Wars is little more than a money pump for George, but I think he's definitely realized that if he doesn't let other folks play in the sandbox, he'll end up kind of lonely. That massages my wallet enough to keep consuming, plus the animated and live-action TV shows might be enough of a carrot to get me to write regularly and well.
