Most Citizens of the Star Wars Galaxy are Probably Totally Illiterate

[Agnosticsherbet]

Most Citizens of the Star Wars Galaxy are Probably Totally Illiterate
Not once in any Star Wars movie does someone pick up a book or newspaper, magazine, literary journal, or chapbook handmade by an aspiring Jawa poet. If something is read by someone in Star Wars, it’s almost certainly off of a screen (and even then, maybe being translated by a droid), and it’s definitely not for entertainment purposes. As early as the 1990s-era expanded Star Wars books and comic books, we’re introduced to ancient Jedi “texts” called holocrons, which are basically talking holographic video recordings. Just how long has the Star Wars universe been reliant on fancy technology to transfer information as opposed to the written word? Is it possible that a good number of people in Star Wars are completely illiterate?

To be fair, finding a science fiction or fantasy universe richly populated with its own indigenous art—and more specifically, its own literature—is rare. As Lev Grossman has pointed out, “No one reads books in Narnia.” Harry Potter himself doesn’t really have a favorite novelist, and most of the stuff Tolkien’s Gandalf reads comes in the form of scrolls and prophecies...not exactly pleasure reading. Fantasy heroes don’t seem to read for pleasure very often, but usually you get the impression that they can read.

Very popular science fiction does a little bit better here, with characters on both Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica being pretty into novels and poetry. Notably, both of these universes have some kind of news media (as does Harry Potter.) And it’s in this lack of news media where the possibility of widespread illiteracy in the Star Wars galaxy starts to become more and more likely....

This is one of those things i just never thought about, but the evidence is pretty clear.

It is also quite funny.

[Fumesucker]

1. iw;cr

It's written, couldn't read..

[bemildred]

2. They have droids for that. nt

[SheilaT]

3. Well, I don't know if I can think of a movie

showing a character reading, except perhaps very briefly. The same way in books. Only rarely does a character in a book read. Think about it. How interesting would it be to watch 90 minutes of someone reading? Or read 400 pages of someone reading? What makes us watch movies or read books is the action therein, even when the action is somewhat intellectual rather than physical.

[Agnosticsherbet]

4. Most movies don't build an entire universe from scratch...

Starwars did. As the article says, even their histories are videos of people speaking.

It was also a universe based on slavery. Droids, that are intelligent and even free willed creatures are actually a slave underclass that perform all labor. so their are illiterate slave overlords.

And I still love the universe.

[SheilaT]

6. So, movies grounded in our world

get a pass on never showing people reading, but Star Wars doesn't?

And in our current world, there's an amazing amount of video out there, including videos of history. Do you ever watch PBS? Any Ken Burns's specials?

Movies also rarely show people going to the bathroom, other than when it's needed for plot purposes. Same with sleeping or eating. Or working. Movies and books are always a particular version of life that is actually a lot different from the lives we all live.

The real problem is when people think something is true just because they see it in a movie or on TV.

[Agnosticsherbet]

7. Yes they do. A movie grounded in contemporary history works with the background we have.

So, you can criticize contemporary society because most people don't read enough, and that is OK because but contemporary society with its literature and its libraries and long history is built into stories set in contemporary society. Even if writing and books aren't part of a story, they are in the background. In most scenes set in houses, you will see books on a shelf. They are part of this world. Look at a scene set in a coffee shop, you will in almost every case see a newspaper, because that is valid and expected in a coffee shop. Luke has no books in his home on Tattonie. Obwan had none in his hermit's hut. Certainly there were none on the millennium falcon.

This is not true in Star Trek, where books were shown in the quarters of the officers and in scenes set on various planets. Picard loved reading real books, a fact repeated in many episodes. Even if literature wasn't what a story was about, it was there to set the scene.

Historical stories set in medieval societies have writing and literature as part of their background. There isn't much of it because that is a fact about medieval europe where libraries were rare and books treasures read only by a few of the learned.

Star Wars was an epic exercise in world creation, built from scratch. Somehow, they did not build writing into it. Their most ancient archives with the Jedi are video archives. There are no newspapers. People watch the news via video. If they need to know something, they don't look it up in a book, they ask a slave, i.e. a droid. In the background of a set there are not shelves of books.

Movies and books are about telling stories. Reading may not be a part of the story, but you will find it in the background of a scene because they create scenes in movies to reflect the character at home in that place. It is the same with books. If you are going to reveal a character in a contemporary society and you describe his home and no books or magazines are there, that says the character doesn't read. it is done that way becuse in books nothing wasted. We don't have to see the character reading a book, but if it is absent from the world shown in the story, it is characterization.

[Fumesucker]

5. The Neverending Story

All about a kid reading a book and actually shows him reading it fairly often.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088323/

[Agnosticsherbet]

8. In Star Trek, both Picard and Kirk read books and they were part of the background of their quarters

And I loved the neverending story, though the book was better than the movie.

[Javaman]

9. You know, from a filmmakers point of view, one of the most exciting things to depict in a film is...

someone reading. LOL I snark I snark!

Cheers!

[Agnosticsherbet]

10. Actually, that is exciting....

but the existence of a literature isn't handled by people reading, it is in bookshelves, it is in newspapers blowing down a dingy street, it is in background to a scene.

But, really, people reading is a great venue for interior monologue.

Doh!

Interior monologue doesn't work well in movies. It is a literate thing.