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I think the secret to Star Wars is actually special effects. As Lucas going on to do ILM reveals. The story is bad, the characters are not fun, and plot relies on Campbell too much as a crutch. But special effects... amazing advance for its time.
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Replying to @kellydigges and @vgr
I'm having trouble with Star Wars, and wondering if you have to split it up by era in order to say anything coherent about it. The original trilogy is about cool spaceships, the prequel trilogy is mostly about politics, and the sequel trilogy gave up and is just about Star Wars.
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Nerd-outability as a reader filter. The right kind of reader will add to the source-abundance of the work rather than simply draw sustenance from it. I guess that’s the logic of fan-fiction/fandom. Splillover/surplus effect.
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Replying to @vgr
This is totally it. I feel like it's a filter. The author takes a risk - nerding out over something they're genuinely passionate about - and whoever sticks around through it will have buy-in. They'll be in-grouped. Value of appealing strongly to some vs trying to appeal to all.
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A good diagnostic question, in the spirit of Alan Kay “waste transistors” principle of personal computing is “what is this story willing to waste?” What is it willing to feature “too many” of? Culture = clever names.
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More examples: Futurama: Silly devices/gadgets/design fiction objects Simpsons: Arguably the couch gags+intro mini-story that triggers the main story, like “they go to the fair and Homer buys 1 dumbbell” South Park: “we learned something today” faux-morals
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What to call this principle? Spice-note?
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Replying to @vgr
This is nifty and needs a name, like “spice note” or something: the fun flavor element which does a lot of the story work Star Wars: spaceship design Superheroes: costume design aSoIaF: house banners & words Agatha Christie: etiquette Wuxia: special weapons & attacks twitter.com/vgr/status/133…
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Big mood? Generator? Flywheel? Root chakra? Idiopathy? Principle needs a clear statement too: “every successful genre story has an unnecessarily overbuilt world id-element.”
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I think it’s “leitmotif”. And then you have to break it down into the leit and the motif. The motif is the theme that people notice: eh pratchett’s puns and historical references. The leit is the motivating force behind them.
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Are leitmotifs necessarily overbuilt though? To me the overbuilding is the key part. In your case I don’t think it is computer science concepts. It is wordplay (not just dad jokes). Whatever you have “too much” of for story needs in a sense.
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I’d argue that the leitmotif is the reinforced “important” theme not necessarily the overdone abundance signal. Related but not the same thing.
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Sometimes they’re the same, but not always. In Rick and Morty I’d say the leitmotif is the nihilistic disillusionment bits scattered in every episode, but the id-element is “cheap universes”. Relationship: a multiverse where universes are really cheap induces nihilistic stories.
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I think the overbuilding or more precisely the over egging comes from success. I’m sure that by book 10 people will be grumbling about my puns.
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