Kathryn:
To your reader who objects to my Star Wars-ophobia (stellabellophobia?…
never mind), I say: Feugh! I wasn’t objecting to SW because it’s spaces
opera — for heaven’s sake, I put in an approving mention of Buck Rogers! –
but because it’s LOUSY space opera. Anything can be done well or badly,
including the lower types of entertainment, and SW is done really, really
badly.
And I can’t believe this droid saying “Escapism is not always a bad thing.”
Who ever said it was? Not me. I read very little but sci fi from ages 12
to 16, and don’t regret a minute of it. It did, though, give me a grounding
in the difference between good sci fi, bad sci fi, and puerile dreck. SW
is… guess which.
If we’re going to give escapism to kids — and I’m all for it — why not
throw in some plausible science while doing so? It doesn’t hurt. Neither
do a plausible storyline, plausible dialogue, plausible characters, etc.
Plenty of sci fi writers managed this. So did plenty of kids’ writers
(including, since your reader mentioned LOTR, J.R.R. Tolkien.) Why can’t
Lucas? Because he’s a clueless, talentless, imaginationless lefty, that’s
why.