Thursday, May 29, 2008

Interpreting Y-the Last Man part 2

The inspiration for the last post incase you didn't figure it out was actually the way Jules explains the Ringo Honey Bunny situation in Pulp Fiction.



Y is also as fond of Pulp Fiction as I am as you can see.



So where was I, STAR WARS! Why Star Wars for interpreting Y? If you look at the Matrix that is layed out with elements and story beats from all the faiths and philosophies of the world, it is easy to draw parallels and give a work of fiction emotional weight based on the strengths of other writings. Not only does it add weight but depth. So basically whenever I see a young writer try to tell a scifi coming of age story I have to draw as many parallels as possible from Star Wars. As I deduced last post, the Boba Fett of the story wielding the force is simply not a satisfactory ending. Hero does not deserve love, maybe it's because I read the series in a short span of time and not five years, the wounds of her first betrayal and murder still run deep for me.



Another beef I have with the story is the Sisko-ing of Yorrick. (Comic Book Weekness Made-up words: Siskoing is defined(by me) as the process by which a main character shaves his head in order to show maturity and growth. This is of course a reference to Captain Sisko of Deep Space Nine, who shaved his head halfway through the series run amking his character cooler more bad ass and open to debate on who is the better bald Starfleet Captain, but I digress.) So Yorrick at the end of his journey shaves his head, because he is going bald. He looks totally ridiculous to me with a shaved head and I'd imagine the Yorrick from page one of Unmanned would agree. Also the Sisko-ing just makes me draws parallels between Yorrick and Vaughn that I rather not make. As a fiction writer I feel like all my characters are aspects of my own personality, no one character can represent all that is me. So I really hope that Yorrick does not represent all that is Vaughn and he isn't a total surrogate for Vaughn in the story, because it makes me uncomfortable. Also making the trek move with character growth kills the Star Wars parallels and jumbles the message. If Yorrick is Sisko/Quark, the world without men is DS9, 355 is Casidy Yates/Bajoran Beliefs , Dr. Mann is Odo, Hero is the Klingon Empire/Martok/ Worf, Beth #1 is the Prophets, Beth #2 is Jake Sisko?, and Alter is Gol Dukat. Okay this doesn't work either because the Klingon Empire cannot becom the Emmisary of the Prophets.

I think what I'm trying to say is Star Wars is like the christianity of nerds and Star Trek is like the Judaism of nerds. In interpreting science fiction those are the two sources you go to for understanding and deconstructing story. Maybe I'll elaborate on this whole Christianity Vs. Judaism thing but not now.

By the way I'm a Trekkie, oy vey.

Just so you guys can prepare yourselves, next week is the debut of Y-movie lines day. Every thursday we will be looking at the best lines in Y-the Last Man.

1 comment:

Alex said...

wait...I LOVE star wars but I also like star trek a lot. What does that mean?