Eric Osterweil (eoster@blahdot), Chip Watson (gw@bridge.nyc.rox)
Abstract:
Star Wars is an iconic story for most Americans (especially
us guys). It is, ostensibly, a story about a far off
galaxy in which good and evil struggle with each other. The
movies paint an intriguing picture of fantastic battles,
engaging heroes, diabolical villains, and an epic
that weaves them all together. However, what has not
previously been observed is that the entire story is one of the
greatest allegories ever told. In this work we will show
evidence that George Lucas has cleverly scripted Jedis,
bounty hunters, Dark Lords, etc. to represent well-known,
and often highly disliked, figures common to all graduate
students' lives.
Introduction:
Star Wars is a saga that has captured people since the late 1970's. It
is clearly an icon for many generations, and at its face-value, it is
a masterpiece. We present the first in-depth examination of Star Wars
from the perspective that it is, more than just a set of movies, and in
this work we will show evidence of the fact that is an incredibly accurate
allegory for the timeless trials and tribulations of graduate students.
In this work, we have detailed the plots of the Star Wars
movies and shown evidence that George Lucas has cleverly constructed a story
that uses space ships, blasters, and futuristic samurais (with light sabers)
to thinly mask the horrors and struggles associated with going through
graduate school, and to some degree the "difficulty" our poor
advisors go through (though the authors are not buying that last part).
Some of the characterizations and observations
in this work may appear biased towards the authors' own experiences as computer science
and physics graduate students. However, we maintain that this
is incidental. Evidence shows that the Star Wars allegory is agnostic of which field
someone is studying. Great pains were taken to keep from biasing
the enclosed analysis towards any particular field, but
as one of our favorite Jedi's said:
"...many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view."
The rest of this work is organized as follows:
We show that the first 3 movies (Phantom Menace, Send in the Clones,
and Revenge of the Sith) are allegories about being an advisor, and the
last 3 movies (A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi)
all describe the life of graduate students. We go on to argue that this
makes a certain amount of sense considering George Lucas was a young
lad himself during the making of the last 3, and a more senior dude
for the first 3. I guess we all tell the stories we're comfortable with.
Now, without further adieu, I give you Star Wars:
- Episode I - The Phantom Menace - Release Date: 2029
- Episode II - Attack of the Clones - Release Date: 2032
- Episode III - Revenge of the Sith - Release Date: 2035
- Episode IV - A New Hope
- Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back
- Episode VI - Return of the Jedi
Dedication
This work is dedicated to all of those who are in grad school, those that survived grad school, those that
didn't finish grad school, and especially those of us that realize that no matter how it ended up for you,
we're all in it together (in a weird way).
If you thought this was good, or lame, or confusing, or you have comments, drop me a note here:
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