I think I need to face the fact that I’m not going to finish my PhD in Star Wars-ology in four years. I think if I’m going to be realistic I’d say I’ll probably finish in another six, making it eight years to get through every bit of Star Wars related media: nearly a decade.
My only concern is what I’ll do when I finish. I have some ideas, but I’ll cross that bridge when I get there.
As it is, it’s been two years and I’m still going strong (and so are you, my reader). To be honest, it could take me twenty years to get through everything Star Wars and I wouldn’t care. I love what I’m doing.
Having a goal I think is good for me; it makes life make a little more sense. A few weeks ago my buddy and I were talking about The Road by Cormac McCarthy (My favorite author BTW). My friend made the observation that without a purpose people simply loose the will to live. Surviving for the sake of surviving is not enough, as was demonstrated by the wife in the story. Without a purpose, simply sitting there waiting to die, trying to eke out a living in the meantime, the wife/mother took her own life. The father, realizing he had to live for his son, decided they would make their way to the ocean. He gave them a goal for the sake of having a purpose. In the pursuit of that goal, their life, though terrible and tragic and desperate in that world, was more bearable, and indeed, made life worth living.
The Star Wars Chronology Project is my walk to the ocean. When I get there I know it’ll be anticlimactic. It has never been about getting there; it has always been about the journey itself and the friends I’ve collected along the way. To quote Ursula K. Leguin “It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end”
To those who have been with me from the start, thank you for all you have contributed – the Star Wars Chronology Project is better with you around – you bring it to its fullest potential. To those who have recently joined me in my quest, I thank you too, your contributions make sustain me, and I hope you stick around until the end.
Here’s to the continued journey!
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Good thing to know you are not quitting.
ReplyDeleteI will journey with you!
This has been a great journey for me as well. I found your blog a year ago and was intrigued about reading everything Star Wars. Since I have more free time I have passed you, but that's only a good thing since I can give my own thoughts now.
ReplyDeleteBut may the Force be with you when you soon travel to the Bog of Episode I material. My teacher has said that those who begin to read the Bible as a normal novel usually stop in the Book of Leviticus, which is just laws and ritual instructions. That is also the trap of 32 BBY. Hearing the same story, adapted a little differently or told from a different character's point of view, could become tiring. But I'm sure you'll walk onwards from the other end sooner or later, one landmark nearer the ocean.
I'm glad you've stuck with this so far. I started my own chronological journey through the EU in 2007 and I'm only now reading the ANH novelization, so I can sympathize with how long all of this can take.
ReplyDeleteAs for TPM materials, yeah, it can be somewhat draining while reading the 15th adaptation of the film. It's worth it, though. :-)