jadagul reblogged
The power to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Narrative.
The more I think about it, the more I feel that Star Wars would be better if they called "the Force" instead "the Narrative." I'm not just making that same old claim that the Force is essentially a narrative tool that lets the writers handwave anything for any or no reason; I mean, literally, just find-and-replace "the Force" with "the Narrative" in the scripts. Here, let's look at the top Google hit for "star wars quotes about the Force":
- "I have no doubt this boy is the offspring of Anakin Skywalker... the Narrative is strong with him." Hoo boy, is it ever!
- "The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Narrative."
- "Remember, a Jedi's strength flows from the Narrative."
- "It is an energy field created by all living things." (Okay, this one's a stretch.)
- "The Narrative surrounds you, Rey." (Spoken at the narrative climax of a trilogy focused on her!)
- "Remember, the Narrative will be with you, always." Spoken to Luke, who is, indeed, dogged by the Narrative until and beyond his death.
- "My ally is the Narrative, and a powerful ally it is." (And Yoda continues on: "Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter." Spoken by a character who, at the time, was literally being projected onto a screen! Chef's kiss dot gif!)
Every once in a while we must reinvent "The Well-Tempered Plot Device" by Nick Lowe.
Here's the crucial passage of insight and revelation from The Wounded Land, in which Thomas Covenant in a flash of wisdom perceives the whole point of volumes four to six. I've changed just one word throughout; see if you can spot what it is. Covenant saw. The Staff of Plot. Destroyed. For the Staff of Plot had been formed by Berek Halfhand as a tool to serve and uphold the Plot. He had fashioned the Staff from a limb of the One Tree as a way to wield Earthpower in defence of the health of the Land, in support of the natural order of life. And because Earthpower was the strength of mystery and spirit, the Staff became the thing it served. It was the Plot; the Plot was incarnate in the Staff. The tool and its purpose were one. And the Staff had been destroyed. That loss had weakened the very fibre of the Plot. A crucial support was withdrawn, and the Plot faltered. Of course, the word "Plot" in all this replaces Donaldson's "Law" (with one of those significant initial capitals), and of course all Covenant has to do now, in a Lensmanesque escalation of the same basic routine he went through in previous volumes, is go chugging off to cut himself a new Staff of Plot from the jolly old One Tree. I don't know how he does; four volumes was quite enough, though I hear there's an amazingly silly bit with limpet mines in the fifth. Another fantasy first.