The World According to Star Wars

Product Information

This guy messed up SO MANY names and places. It would be super easy to get them right, simply watch the movies or google how to say it. It was honestly inexcusable. A partial list of mispronounced words:

For anyone who loves the movies, or loves to think about how the world works, or simply loves their father, this book will provoke and inspire.”—Duncan Watts Enlightening...perceptive...Mr. Sunstein comes across as an energetic, friendly dinner-party tablemate.” ( New York Times)One of the book’s standout features is its exploration of the “Star Wars effect” on various aspects of society. Sunstein shows how Star Wars has influenced political debates, legal decisions, and even our understanding of behavioral economics. He argues that the franchise’s success can be attributed to its ability to appeal to our deepest instincts and desires, offering a timeless narrative that speaks to the human condition. This book is great for someone with a short attention span, topics are discussed only for a short amount of time so its impossible for them to become boring. Every chapter was interesting and detailed enough to be the start of it's own book, but the ideas were contradictory and confusing. It was nearly impossible to "get into" the book because of the regularly changing topic. It felt like someone took a bunch of online Star Wars fan theories, a sprinkle of fun facts and just a pinch of misleading chapter titles, shoved it in between two pieces of cardboard and called it a book.

I also loved the content. Sunstein's musings on the meanings of Star Wars make a perfect companion volume to Chris Taylor's excellent How Star Wars Conquered the Universe. Taylor's book is more detailed, and better for the "true fan." Sunstein's book is more tangentially about Star Wars itself and doesn't go into much behind-the-scenes detail about the films. If the Emperor is viewed as a relatively benevolent dictator, then it’s the Jedis and the Rebel Alliance that are causing all the trouble and violence. Star Wars also fascinates people by reflecting the real-world nature of politics and rebellions. Alright, let’s get this out of the way, which side of the fence are you on? Star Wars or Star Trek? Let’s not pretend that the world isn’t split into these two camps only, because if you’re a Trekkie then… The World According to Star Wars” is a thought-provoking and insightful exploration of the cultural and societal impact of the Star Wars franchise. Written by Cass R. Sunstein, a prominent legal scholar and author, this book delves into the vast and ever-expanding galaxy of Star Wars to discuss its relevance in our real world.

Review

In fact, Star Wars had started out very blurry in his head. When first thinking about it, he only knew he wanted to make a movie where the aliens were the heroes and the humans were the villains. He went on to write four different drafts of the entire film, until he had one that he was content with – just for the first movie!

Because I've spent so much of my life thinking about Star Wars, there are few perspectives I haven't thought of before. But Sunstein did help me see the movies from some different points of view. For example, I now see an interesting idea of government progressing through the trilogies that I hadn't noted previously. The prequel trilogy shows the failure of the Republic/Jedi. The original trilogy shows the failure of the Empire/Sith. And now Episode 7 shows a kind-of Empire and a kind-of Republic/Rebellion, which makes me wonder if the purpose of the new trilogy will be to say something much different about the ideal government. In these days as we see the European Union beginning to (perhaps) crumble, matched by dissension between states and the federal government in the USA, I wonder if Star Wars will become more relevant than I'd first thought as I watched (and was disappointed by) The Force Awakens last year. First of all, one of the central characters is very Christ-like: Anakin Skywalker was born to a virginal mother, and, by eventually becoming Darth Vader, he embodies and transcends the sins of others before dying a symbolic death to save his children. While Star Wars can be read many different ways, there’s no denying that it was made by a guy from the United States – a country known as “the land of the free and the home of the brave.” Indeed, those revelations that seem so integral to the mythology of Star Wars were all the result of brainstorming sessions between Lucas and his writers. No talk about a trilogy, let alone two. Many of the major plot twists that made the storyso great were also added much later, such as (spoiler alert) Darth Vader being Luke’s father or Luke and Leia being twins. In a later interview, George Lucas confessed that “he didn’t know where things were headed while making the first movie.”

Customer reviews

What’s more, the heroes and villains were clear and well defined, so, unlike the current political climate, everyone could happily agree about who the good guys and bad guys were.