[thechat] Lucas' inspiration for Star Wars?

[Plunkett, Matt]

That article was terrible.  I read it yesterday from Slashdot.

The quote you have below illustrates exactly why the article irritates me.
The author has an axe to grind with both Lucas and Campbell.  So he attacks
Lucas for not being as academic as he wants to be seen as, and he attacks
Campbell for his "pseudo mythic hogwash".

The argument (rant) is ridiculous.  Campbell didn't invent the idea that
there are hero tales, he didn't even truly codify what makes a hero tale.  A
lot of that happened before his time, and the recognition of what
constituted a hero tale, has been understood (although not as precisely)
through our history.

In the article, the author suggests that instead of borrowing from the
Campbell-esque notion of a hero tale, Lucas takes ideas from various science
fiction sources...which are in themselves, classic hero tales.  The argument
is so weirdly circular that he says nothing.

	-----Original Message-----
	From:	Madhu Menon [SMTP:webguru at vsnl.net]
	Sent:	Thursday, April 11, 2002 8:53 AM
	To:	thechat at lists.evolt.org
	Subject:	[thechat] Lucas' inspiration for Star Wars?

	http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/feature/2002/04/10/lucas/index.html

	"Galactic gasbag

	Beneath all the pseudo-mythic Joseph Campbell hogwash, the roots of
George
	Lucas' empire lie not in "The Odyssey" but in classic and pulp 20th
century
	sci-fi."

	Madhu

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