Interview de l'auteur de
Jedi Path, il parle de ces inspirations, décrit le livre, et il laisse espérer un Sith Path
L'interview:
What inspired you to write The Jedi Path?
Think of the most popular, most enduring things that Star Wars has contributed to pop culture: lightsabers, "do or do not," the Jedi mind trick, "May the Force be with you." All of them center around the Jedi, and anybody who is as big a Star Wars fan as myself would trip over their own feet to work on a project like this. The Jedi Path is written as if it were a textbook taken straight out of the galaxy far far away, and therefore I had to put myself in the shoes of great Jedi Masters and explain how they saw the Force. This was intimidating and fascinating, since it involved uncovering -- or inventing -- a philosophical framework for everything that the Jedi believe. Including the uniforms they wear all the way up to their visions of future prophecy.
Who was your audience for this book? Will fans with no knowledge of anything beyond the movies -- or The Clone Wars -- enjoy it?
The audience is Star Wars fans. I want everything I write to appeal to both casual fans and superfans. The former group should never feel overwhelmed and the latter group should never feel ripped off. Hopefully The Jedi Path pleases both groups. The lore is presented clearly and straightforwardly, but superfans will pick up on the references and in-jokes. It also contains a decent amount of all-new material.
What were some of the chief sources you sought out in your research?
The movies. The Clone Wars series. The games, particularly Jedi Knight and The Force Unleashed. Ryder Windham's The Essential Guide to Jedi and the Force. Hundreds of little elements from the novels and comics. And the Star Wars role-playing materials developed by Wizards of the Coast and West End Games.
Outside of the scripts themselves, was Lucas asked to clarify any specific questions about his understanding of the Jedi and the Force?
I didn't consult with George Lucas directly, but his presence loomed large during the writing process. After all, he's the Maker. And something about the Jedi that George put into the movies, something that often gets ignored, is that the Jedi were deeply flawed. For example, the librarian in Episode II who is convinced that if the Jedi don't already know something, then it essentially doesn't exist. Or Obi-Wan's infamous "certain point of view." The Jedi Path was written by the Jedi in their prime, but between the lines you can see the things that led to their downfall.
About the annotations -- with the exception of Thame, all the previous owners of the book are familiar to fans of either the films or The Clone Wars series. For the uninitiated, just who was Thame?
Thame Cerulian was Dooku's master. Yes, Attack of the Clones implies that Yoda was Dooku's master, but Yoda seems to have trained everybody on some level -- remember that back in Empire, Obi-Wan introduces Yoda as "the Jedi Master who instructed me." Thame Cerulian is introduced in a series of young reader books so he's arguably the biggest tie-in to the Expanded Universe in The Jedi Path. Almost nothing about him existed when I started, so I enjoyed adding bits of color by writing his graffiti annotations and creating his homeworld, his personality, and hints of his prior adventures. The metal Jedi medallion that's included as one of the book's removable souvenirs belongs to Thame.
This is the first "in universe" book LFL has authorized -- do you have any plans for similar works "inside" the Star Wars universe -- a manual for clone recruits or even "The Sith Path"?
Let me just say that I'm in love with the fact that this is truly an in-universe book. I've tried to do in-universe perspectives before -- Star Wars: The New Essential Chronology is "written" by the New Republic Historical Council, for example -- but those books all have Star Wars logos on their fronts and UPC barcodes on their backs. The Jedi Path is an old weathered textbook with souvenirs tucked in its pages, as if it were plucked directly from Yoda's nightstand. I agree that it's a rich concept. I'd love to do "The Sith Path," or a smuggler's logbook, or a trooper's field manual.
Taking the in-universe idea one step further -- any plans for an all-Aurebesh edition? Or will you leave this up to the industrious fan sector?
That's a good one, but I'll see your geek and raise you. An Aurebesh edition written in Star Wars-y sci-fi lettering isn't necessary, since English already exists in the Star Wars universe! If the writing on the Death Star's tractor beam controls [in the pre-2004 version of A New Hope] isn't enough evidence, consider the silhouettes of X-wings and Y-wings. Shipbuilders love the A-B-Cs!
Finally, the torn-out pages -- will we ever learn what was contained in them?
Who can say? I do know that text exists for those missing pages about the Prophecy of the Chosen One, even though we decided fairly early in development that that section would be in tatters to emphasize that the book had been around the block a few times before coming into the reader's possession. The pages definitely did not say, "Be sure to drink your Ovaltine."