I’m watching Star Wars: A New Hope with my family.
I’ve told my children what an influence Star Wars was on me, but I’m pretty sure they don’t fully grok it. How could they? They don’ t have the perspective.
But I remember how it exploded on my brain as a child. It was the first image I had of a strong woman in film. I mean here was this Princess that shot bad guys and bullied fools and gave orders instead of screaming and melting into a little cotton candy mess of tears when things went wrong.
Oh sure, there was Wonder Woman, but she was too clearly meant to be eye candy (and her fight scenes never looked convincing to my untutored eye). And there was the Bionic Woman. But she wasn’t in charge. Leia was the first female leader I encountered in fiction.
Certainly Star Wars is how I became a science fiction fan — that and a story by Issac Asimov in my fourth grade reading book called, “The Fun They Had”.
I have to wonder what will be the benchmark media (book, TV, movie, whatever) for my kids that exploded on their brains and made them think in a new way.
Oh, and I just gotta say:
The Fun They Had was seminal in my life, too. I was tormented at my school by kids who both envied and despised me for being American, pale, and bookish, and the idea of homeschooling with a computer connected to the web (well, it wasn’t called that, but still…) reminded me that things could indeed be otherwise.
My children grow up very differently; there is much less coercion in their life, definitions are not so rigid as in mine – but both have opted for schooling in a more traditional manner than what I yearned for.
Thanks for the post, and the flood of memories it brought back!