By NEAL STEPHENSON – Published: June 17, 2005 – Seattle
IN the spring of 1977, some friends and I made a 40-mile pilgrimage to the biggest and fanciest movie theater in Iowa so we could watch a new science fiction movie called “Star Wars.” Expecting long lines, we got there early, and found the place deserted.
As we sat on the sidewalk waiting for the box office to open, others like us drifted in from the towns, farms and colleges of central Iowa and queued up behind. When the curtain in front of the big Cinerama screen finally parted, the fanfare sounded and the famous opening crawl appeared against a backdrop of stars, there were still some empty seats. “Star Wars” wasn’t famous yet. The only people who had heard about it were what are now called geeks.
Twenty-eight years later, the vast corpus of “Star Wars” movies, novels, games and merchandise still has much to say about geeks – and also about a society that loves them, hates them and depends upon them.
In the opening sequence of the new Star Wars movie, “Episode III: Revenge of the Sith,” two Jedi knights fight their way through an enemy starship to rescue a hostage. Ever since I saw the movie, I have been annoying friends with a trivia question: “Who is the enemy? What organization owns this vessel?”
THE NEW YORK TIMES
What did everyone think of the new Star Wars? I was highly impressed. Although, there were about 6 kids under the age of 10 sitting a row in front of me, I wonder what they made of Anakin’s body burning at the end?