Page 46 - Star Wars Insider #188

THE GALACTIC ARCHIVIST

mythology, all these things he was able to pack 07
into the story of Star Wars as it developed. The
way the book edited together is that we have
elements of George talking about his background,
his philosophy on Star Wars, and then you have
an element about the making of it, then another
element that explains the philosophy, so that
it’s all interwoven and you understand why this
particular element is important. But it’s not to
say that it’s dry and po-faced. George is a funny
man, with a very understated sense of humor. I
thought it was important to show that, and I left
some of that material in the book so that people
understand he’s a real guy.”

Pure Idea

Following months of research trips, long-haul
flights, and armed with three days’ worth of
interview material from Star Wars’ creator, the
hard work was only just beginning for Duncan.
“When you’re turning research into a book, “When you’re
that’s when it becomes much more difficult,” turning research
he says with a voice born from experience of
writing more than 200 books. “That’s when into a book, that’s
when it becomes

08 much more difficult.”

you start hitting walls, 07 Sir Alec Guinness
because you’ve got rehearses his fight
scene for A New Hope,
a limited number of with director George
pages—604 in this Lucas watching.
case. You’ve got 1200
08 The storyboard that
images, and you’ve got opened a saga.
a limited number of
09 A design sketch
words, around 150,000.
working out how actor
Everything that you Kenny Baker might fit
have and everything inside the R2-D2 prop.
you want to say, you’ve
got to condense down
into the very essence of that project.”
The result of two years of research, collating,
processing, and contextualising film history, is

a beautifully packaged volume that places the
09 original Star Wars trilogy in a very specifi c space
and time, viewed from a modern perspective.
“Revisiting Star Wars in such detail has made
me appreciate much more the humanity that
went into the project and the ideas behind it,”
Duncan says, summing up the experience of
working on The Star Wars Archives. “I tell people
I’m working on a Star Wars book, and their faces
light up because it holds a positive message about
how we live our lives. It’s only now that I can
truly understand that, and I’ve tried to bring that
understanding to others whose lives have been
brightened by Star Wars. I found it to be very
moving that such a pure idea has endured for so
many decades, and remains pure to this day.”

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