Customer Reviews

Star Wars: The New Myth

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Working from the idea that Star Wars is indeed a "new myth," authors Hanson and Kay offer readers a valid explanation of how George Lucas used the basic tenets of historical myth (allegory, ritual, hero, for instance) to craft stories that are universal to the human experience.

Yes, it reads like a college thesis (which a portion of it was), but that does not make the conclusions less valid. What does detract from the reading is the dozens of typographical errors that abound in the book! Some serious proofreading was definitely called for here.

Overall, I found it to be an interesting addition to the vast universe of Star Wars literature, fiction and nonfiction. I only wish someone had been paying attention to the spelling and punctuation errors.

The essays were interesting eventhough I have read similar arguements before. I found the book helpful in forming my own arguments for a term paper.
However I not only found dozens of spelling, grammer, and stylistic (for example after the sentence in bold, there is a summary in italics but not all of these are itlailized) errors. I also found at least one error dealing with the content in TPM at the bottom of p.97 and I quote "Back on Coruscant, Sio Bibble ..." however Sio Bibble is on Naboo and not Corusant, this is a big mistake. I found this error only doing a cursary reading so there may be more mistakes. I am a huge Star Wars fan and this simple error started to get on my nerves, it hinderd my enjoyment of the book. Hanson and Kay not only need to get a better editor, they also have to check their facts before printing and selling any book. If they were to write another book I would want to read it before paying anything for it.

This book reads more like a grad student's thesis than an actual book of study. And maybe it is, but why, oh why, is out there on the mass market? I was looking for deep insights and cross references to worldwide myths; but alas, nothing. Oh well, it was at least entertaining in that it had anything to do with the Star Wars universe at all.

This book is a unique insight into the myths behind the Star Wars movies. I consider myself an avid Star Wars follower, and this book blew me. I would recommend it to anyone.

I was assigned a research paper asking us to compare a modern movie/novel to Joseph Campbell's hero myth cycle. This is a popular topic for teachers, so make sure to get a copy of this book---it goes into detail on how Star Wars fits the hero's journey archetype.
BTW, I'm not under 13, but I just don't want to sign up.