“Star Wars: The Triumph of Nerd Culture”, by Josef Benson

 

 

190 pages, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, ISBN-13: 978-1538116203

Star Wars: The Triumph of Nerd Culture by Josef Benson, an associate professor of Literatures and Languages at the University of Wisconsin–Parkside, is not a history of the Star Wars movies per se; their writing, shooting, releases and all that are discussed – as well as George Lucas’ other works, THX 1138 especially and even American Graffiti – but it is the following they created, the “Nerd Culture” of the title, that concerns Benson.

Well…officially, for Benson’s focus quickly switches not to the nerds who love Star Wars but to the man who created it, and Benson’s bias against Lucas informs damn near every sentence he writes and the way in which Lucas is depicted as some kind of latter-day techno-monk, obsessed with technology and emotionally – and sexually – stunted. All of which would have been fine if the subtitle to the book had been George Lucas on the Couch.

This long-distance psych-profiling of a man he doesn’t know (that he never even interviewed) undercuts most – if not all – of what he writes about, like when he says that while Lucas began life as a prototypical nerd in high school he then became a bully to all his fans when he gained power. Or when he writes that Lucas is “highly insecure about sex and sexuality in general”, all because he objected to a fanfic in which Darth Vader raped Han Solo. No, seriously.

His obsession with Lucas’ sex life doesn’t end there: Benson’s page-long description of how Lucas and his wife conceived their first biological child is outright disturbing and, of course, makes speculative leaps as to how Lucas needed technology to have a kid, seeing as how screwed up he is. This happens throughout the book as the main subject (Nerds) gets set-aside so that Benson can gaze into Lucas’ bedroom and describe what he thinks is going on in there

When he does return to the fans it is to insult and degrade them. He claims that they evidence religious-like worship of Lucas and his franchise by standing in lines to see his movies, that this was in fact a masochistic display of devotion to Lucas and that they were like “worshippers willing to make long and arduous treks to religious sites in order to experience their God” – OR…we had to wait in long lines because the movies were very popular and lots of people wanted to see them.

This is when these self-same nerds aren’t turning on their God and ripping his ideas and life work to shreds because of their betrayal by the same. Thus, any signs of admiration towards Lucas and Star Wars are treated as pathetic worshipfulness – while any signs of criticism towards George and his creation are treated as unhinged derangement. I tell ya the nerds just can’t catch a break, being either blindly devoted or abjectly hostile.

There’s more: Benson goes off on tangents unrelated to the subjects at hand, for instance Jim Jones, 2 Live Crew, Lucas the nerd-now-bully, and especially in regards to fanfic, devoting a chapter – “A Great Disturbance in the Force” – to the graphic depictions of what goes on in fan fiction. Also, while he goes into depth about The Clone Wars animated series, he says nothing whatsoever about Droids. And mustn’t forget the standard academic swipe against White Male Privilege.

Star Wars: The Triumph of Nerd Culture can best be described as speculative fiction in which Benson, intrepid discoverer of universal truths and sexual peccadillos, unmasks one of the most creative and driven – though flawed and controlling – men from the past 50 years. Oh, I’m certain that George Lucas has his quirks and demons – as do we all. I just didn’t have to read about them, especially in a book ostensibly about another topic by a man who doesn’t even know him.