The Eleven-ThirtyEight Gazetteer, Vol. III

Posted on December 24, 2014by Simple Tricks

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Reviews

This one is straightforward enough. The reason I have book reviews as a tag rather than a category like “Interviews” is because ideally even review are still framed more as standard editorials rather than just a rote “three out of five Hutts” kind of thing; the goal is to find something interesting about the book, good or bad, that could stand to be part of the conversation and discuss that thing—and then presumably the reviewer’s general opinion of the work will come out naturally in the course of doing that. I think we’ve been pretty successful so far.

So You Think You Can Internet

I didn’t set out to use ETE as a platform for commentary on internet culture as a whole—at least not beyond Star Wars fandom specifically—but I suppose it was inevitable that after the many years I spent on the news beat during the prequels, eventually the dam would break and I’d feel the need to start talking about it. With (theoretically) one movie release every year from now on, layman interest is only going to get more and more feverish, and a sort of “Imaginary Journalism 101” is suddenly more important than ever. I hope this series helps to refine the conversation over the next few years.

Space Race

Having completed his A Case For Starting Over series, staff writer Alexander Gaultier began Space Race, changing tack slightly while still working toward similar ends. In this series, he focused on six different forms of technology in the SW galacy; what they’re like, how they got that way, which parts make logistical sense and which don’t—and most importantly, which interesting areas are being neglected or overlooked entirely. My personal favorite is the piece on transportation, where he makes the case for greater use of trains and boats. Think about it—we’ve had more underwater battles in this franchise than genuine naval ones. Sure, logic and Star Wars may not always go hand-in-hand, but this series shows just how much untapped story potential remains in the universe, simply by reconsidering the technology.

Star Wars and Genre

As observant readers may have guessed, staffer Lucas Jackson has been on an informal leave of absence for the last few months; while he’s still in touch and hopefully has more coming down the pipeline soon, it speaks to the breadth and depth of his expertise that his series Star Wars and Genre—whose last new entry was in June—is still clinging to its top spot as the ongoing series with the most articles. It’s also one of only two series that I’ve already highlighted in Second Look, so if you’d like to read a little more about it you can check out that earlier entry here, or simply click around the list below. Here’s to more in 2015!

Tomorrow: I dive even deeper into the esoterica with The Expanded Universe Explains.