Yoda Is Dead but Star Wars’ Dubious Lessons Live On

We didn’t say “break the Internet” back in 1999, but if we did we could certainly say that science-fiction author David Brin broke the Internet when he wrote in Salon that “Stars Wars belongs to our dark past. A long, tyrannical epoch of fear, illogic, despotism and demagoguery that our ancestors struggled desperately to overcome, and that we are at last starting to emerge from, aided by the scientific and egalitarian spirit that [George] Lucas openly despises.” According to Brin, whose best-selling novels include The Postman, Earth, and the Hugo Award-winning Startide Rising, he received 900 emails on the first day his article appeared, many of which “had (ahem) very little good to say.”

Since then Brin has published a steady stream of critically praised novels, including his most recent, . He is also a planetary astronomer who serves on the advisory council of NASA’s Innovative and Advanced Concepts group. He has remained an ardent observer of the films—he is the “prosecuting attorney” in the book , a mock court case about the pros. In fact, Brin is on our minds at because he has just written an article for us, It’s suffused by his love and passion for space and adventure—both real and imagined—and it was apparent in our conversation.