Comments on The Beauty of the Negative Star

Sorry, Chuck, Kevin Smith beat you to this in 1994.

Dude, stay away from the brown acid.

Actually, we see none of those things. Unless Lucas has released yet another "Special Edition" with boring scenes of Imperial Construction Workers.

channeling kevin smith charles?

(shit I'm late to the party again.)

The incomplete Death Star represents the ambition of evil, evil on the march; whereas the total Death Star represents the status quo of evil, a stasis of evil.

I believe Wookies did the legwork on building the Death Star, actually.

But then, the weird speciesism that pervades the Star Wars movies, and really any alien-oriented scifi, is a big subject, not worth getting into here.

I believe the Expanded Universe novels postulated that the Emperor was a xenophobe.

Also, Clerks

Blue-Collar Man: (paying for coffee) I'm alive because I knew there were risks involved taking on that particular client. My friend wasn't so lucky. (pauses to reflect) You know, any contractor willing to work on that Death Star knew the risks. If they were killed, it was their own fault. A roofer listens to this... (taps his heart) not his wallet.

you know this is fiction, right?

The Death Star represents a GIGANTIC SPACE STATION THAT BLOWS UP PLANETS.

Not everything has to be symbolic.

Star Wars is pulp sci-fi, and nothing more. And that's coming from someone who has a hand-built lightsabre.

Internally, the logo of AT&T, due to its visual similarity, is known as the Death Star. When political cartoon and comic strip creators learned of this, many references to AT&T used the Death Star analogy. It was widely seen in Doonesbury and Bloom County comic strips. This name was also given to the titanic former Bell Labs facility in Holmdel, New Jersey, now owned by Alcatel-Lucent

Charles, are you in a tub right now?

Who's "we"? Got a mouse in your pocket? Or do you presume to speak for others?

File under, who gives a shit.

There was an excellent Robot Chicken skit about construction on the Death Star.

"Ever had a caramel macchiado? It'll change your life."

Did you know that you can visit the Death Star? Go to SFM (and it's free to gaze and contemplate stupid shit like this post the first Thursday of each month)

Will someone give Charles an article to write he's bored again.

I like Star Wars content. Especially content that doesn't repeat the "wooden acting etc. blah blah blah" refrain. (We get it.) So, let's have more Star Wars content like this, or otherwise.

Charles, dude, now you're just lampooning yourself.

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, yo.

FUCK the Rebel Alliance!!! My buddies were on the death star (contractors) trying to make a few bucks to take care of thier wives and family and then some "rebels" come in and BLOW THE FUCKING PLACE UP!! With THEM inside no doubt!! That is just wrong dude, totally wrong.

As close to on topic as it's gonna be, but CHARLES, check the new Molecular Foundry building in Berkeley. Not groundbreaking, but pretty cool. Also, it's a FUCKING MOLECULAR FOUNDRY. You might hate it, I can't remember.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2007/07/03/DDG6TQOR2I1.DTL&o=0

@20 - looks like a sand-crawler.

This post serves what kind of purpose? No purpose you say?

Arguably, the Death Star would not have been constructed by humans but droids. It’s a politics of labor argument. The inexhaustible labor of the automaton, or robot, or droid, is more efficient from the imperial (evil empire) perspective than a “for hire” human labor work force. The subtext thread of the movie series is that the Empire is about the superiority of the human over the droid. The easiest evidence is that humans, not aliens and not droids, hold positions of decision making authority inside the Galactic Empire by its establishment in “A New Hope”. Aliens and droids, while influential in the rebellion, did not have much say in the running of the imperial government. The Galactic Empire was about bringing a social order to the galaxy through military battle and ultimately to acceptance by any given planet’s decision making authority.

The Empire of the movie was about the superiority of the “human” over the technology present in the clones, droids, and non-human races; it was an Empire supposedly based upon putting humans at the top of the social structure and the automaton at the bottom. An empire which places itself into the “superior” empire class does not use its own “upper strata” (humans in this case) population to further the end-goal of making the world (galaxy) a better place to live for the rank-and-file (human, aka: Us Vs. Them) citizens… it requires an “inferior” work force, placed squarely at the bottom of the social order, to do the hard, sweaty, dangerous and repetitive labor.

In addition to the automaton’s social “place” being beneath the superior human class in the Star Wars Galactic Empire , the automaton requires minimal basic physical support. Unlike the humans, who require “the support” of everything Mudede listed, the automaton only needs a machine shop and a few replacement parts, perhaps a power charge-up from time to time.

The Clerks-esque academic argument over a civilian construction work force toiling on the space girders of the Death Star during the day, only to go home to a family life after the shift, ignores the social mechanism used by the empire to gain acceptance before, during and after the collapse of the Republic. It doesn’t fit. No empire can win over the rank-and-file populace through guns alone: bread in the tummy and a promise of a better way of life secures it to the widest possible support base. The promise of a better life of eas(ier) living, for those willing to accept imperial rule and to accept there assigned place in the “order of the universe”, would include not doing work the social structure has assigned to the subservient class. /geek

Yes, I like to get sucked clean in the morning also.

The deathstar was a boondoogle on the empire's part. does the deathstar go to other solar systems? how much energy does that require to break orbit with the current sun? so on and so forth. total waste of resources and energy.

The empire was just too inefficient for it's own good.

@25: The Death Star does, in fact, have interstellar capability, since they blow Alderaan in an attempt to get Leia to reveal the Rebels' base.

We have no idea how the ships in Star Wars are powered*, so for all you know, they've developed an interia-less drive. Plus, we don't know anything about the physics of hyperspace.

Wow, I'm a dork.

*At least, not at the highest level of canonicity

Thanks for the information

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@23, your argument for droid labor is solid, but when Vader shows up for his surprise inspection at the beginning of ROTJ, Moff Jerjerrod pleads "I need more men" to finish the Death Star II on schedule.

Do I win the geek contest?

Someone has been reading too much Joseph Campbell.

Looks like the Death Star-building droid army has taken its revenge on this thread. Way to go, Mike@28. At least they won't tear your arms off...

I can't believe I'm replying to this... I can't believe I read the whole thing. Then again I'm a dork. Here, let me prove it.

Line 26 says "We have no idea how the ships (in Star Wars) are powered." Well "WE" do know how one was powered. The TIE Fighter used by the Empire is powered by a twin ion engine. Get it? Twin Ion Engine = Tie.

This coming from a schmuk who spent 8 hours in line for the opening of The Revenge of the Sith dressed as a Jedi.

I have now proved my dork-ness, back to my action figures.

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