The importance of authentic excitement (Score 2)

I agree. We do have to create our own myths; I think it's very important that we learn to do this instead of accepting the ones other people try to feed us. I voted Deserved because I think the Star Wars hype is different from most movie hype in the sense that it's a myth that we really *did* create. I don't like movie advertisers telling me what I should be excited about, and it does make me a little sick to go to the store and see Phantom Menace characters plastered over every product. That kind of hype does piss me off, just as did the hype for Godzilla, Stargate, Independence Day, et cetera, ad nausem. Star Wars is different, though, because, unlike those movies, there's real, grassroots excitement for the movie as well as the corporate-produced hubbub. Years after the original Star Wars trilogy was released, and years before anyone thought that a second trilogy was a possibility for the near future, lots of people still loved Star Wars, not because a marketing campaign suggested that we should, but because we wanted to. The excitement that flowed through the people standing with me in the hour-long line for tickets last Wednesday was something that we had created in ourselves and in each other, something we could really enjoy as our own, regardless or even in spite of the corporate-imposed hype for the movie.

Like you say, there are so few things that can draw our society together today with any sincerity of emotion. Star Wars itself isn't, and shouldn't be seen as anything more than something fun and lighthearted, but that's a really important role for it to fill. I think it's wonderful that people around the country and around the world can get together for a couple of hours and enjoy themselves, sincerely and communally. With all the problems nationalist and religious fanaticism create today, it's good to know we still have the capability to get excited about something that is harmless.