The Star Wars that Should Have Been

The incomparable John C. Wright pens a review of the Star Wars sequel the fans wish had been made...

The twin errors any sequel in any genre must avoid are these: first, the sequel must not violate or overturn anything established in the original, including taking care to continue with themes, story elements, characters and backdrops the audience expects; second, the sequel must not cling too closely to the original, nor be content merely to repeat story elements.

You cannot simply have the rebels still fighting the selfsame Empire they defeated in the last movie blowing up yet another iteration of the Death Star. That would be ridiculous! 

...It is something of a paradox, since the audience wants the same story that they liked the first time, but not done in the same way.

The cleverest and most satisfying way I have ever seen a writer answer this paradox was E.E. Doc Smith, when he opened GRAY LENSMAN with the startling revelation that the villainous space pirate king, Helmuth, slain in climactic combat at the end of GALACTIC PATROL, was himself merely an agent of a larger, deeper, darker group.

Now, of course, this tradition is not new to EE Smith. Beowulf, after slaying Grendel in the golden hall of Hereot, is permitted no long rest, but must descend into an accursed swamp to fight Grendel’s Mother, a monstrous hag tougher than the first monster.

In this way, the hero, or the hero’s heirs or disciples, is, in effect, fighting for the same cause and against the same foe, but the significance of the first victory is not diminished. Instead, the scope is larger, and the battlefield gets bigger.

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The Publishing Industry

Jon Del Arroz explains--probably a lot better than I ever could--why I chose to focus on self-publishing instead of trying to get in with big major publishers.  This is in regards to a memo DC comics sent out to their employees and freelancers regarding what was "okay" to say on social media.

Of course some people's mean spirited speech will be more equal than others.

DC wouldn't hire me in a million years, because I don't toe a company line, I am an independent thinker, and they don't allow those in t he comic industry. It'll be interesting to see how it goes later this year when my The Ember War adaptation hits amazon. If/when that sells well, what then?

Even a smaller publisher like Angry Robot doesn't care about anything other than their political signaling. They didn't even dignify me with a response when I emailed Mike Underwood about The Stars Entwined, which I'll be putting out March 20th. Of course, I'm blocked by him on twitter -- despite sharing a drink with him at a convention several years ago. It's all about the political signaling, even if I outsell the vast majority of their titles already...

This is why it's imperative to build your own platform if you want to have any semblance of free speech. You can't do it through these companies, they'll never let you. They hate you at the end of the day, and this is how they begin to show it.

"Build your own platform."  Excellent advice, and definitely worth listening to.

Vox Day commented on the same memo, and nailed down the problem; as usual, "what's okay for me is not okay for thee."

This is why SJWs always prefer nebulous Codes of Conduct and Community Police to clear, objective guidelines that can be impartially applied. You see, the "rules" are supposed to be applied only to those who violate the Narrative, while allowing complete freedom of action to the SJWs.

As a non-leftist, free speech and anti-censorship, straight white male, who has written for Lew Rockwell and works at the Mises Institute, I'm fairly well convinced that anything I did try to submit to the big publishing houses would hit the round file faster than you can say "censored."  I will continue to follow the advice of Jon and Vox and grow my own platform.

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