Don’t get me started on the Horror genre…

I love HP and OG Star Wars! The problem with Star Wars became that George Lucas hit a point in his career where he was head of such a Huge empire and at such a status where i don’t think he has anyone in his life anymore who will honestly critique his work. He has been solely in charge for so long that he calls ALL the shots and surrounds himself with people who tell him what he wants to hear.

Just compare his earlier works to his later works. On Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi Lucas was humble enough to hire OTHER screenwriters to handle his dialogue, including Academy Award winner Lawrence Kasdan, and seperate Directors to direct the actors, Irwin Kirshner and Richard Marquand. Back then he hired other people to handle the things he was not the strongest at so he could focus on his producing and overseeing duties.
On the three Prequel movies Lucas wrote and directed all three by himself with NO help even though he hadn’t directed a movie in years and had NO experience directing actors in front of a green screen. The man is a genius as a producer and for coming up with stories but is terrible as an “actor’s” director and as a screenwriter of dialogue.

If you want any further proof research online the behind the scenes trouble surrounding Indiana Jones & the Crystal Skull. You will see that Lucas singlehandedly ruined that film. Once again he refused any help when calling the shots and completely disregarded anyone’s advice including Steven Spielberg, who he ran roughshod over during that film.
Go online and look up Frank Darabont’s original script for Crystal Skull before he quit over the changes Lucas wanted him to make to the film. Those changes including the idiotic scenes most if us remember from that film, the character Shia Lebouf played who wasn’t in the original script, and the removal of almost all Karen Allen’s wonderful dialogue turning her into a vapid zombie for the whole film. Btw, Darabont is the award winning writr & director of the Shawshank Redemtion and is one of the most repsected guys in Hollywood.
Don’t get me started on Lucas’s decision to take the 1st four episodes of the last Clone Wars animated series and make them into a full blown theatrical film that STUNK!

The moral of the story for creative types is: Know your own strengths and weaknesses and be confident and humble enough to ask for or accept help and criticism when you need it!

John Favreau, the Director of Iron Man, had his friend Vince Vaughn read the first Iron Man draft and showed him the rough cut before ANYONE to get another opinion of his dialogue and to make sure the jokes actually worked. More people in Hollwood should take his example.

First of all, I really can’t afford a hybrid either. I get paid fairly well for what I do, but I’m always speaking in terms of comparison to most other writers at my career stage. I’m not complaining about the money I make, but I live in a small apartment, drive a used car, don’t buy expensive items, etc., etc.

Secondly, while I agree that the industrial revolution did make a greener lifestyle more difficult, I think it’s a copout to say that this has rendered us incapable of destroying the environment. Specifically, I’m talking about energy technology advancement, which I feel is vitally important to helping us maintain a certain technologically advantaged lifestyle with minimal environmental impact.

We will always have an impact on our environment, and I’m not anti-technology. I just think that if we cared as much about our energy technology, were as equally obsessed with it, we’d have moved forward on energy alternatives.

The problem with having a broad focus on the environment is that it becomes overwhelming, confusing, and discouraging. That’s why I’m suggesting we focus on the one area of our technology where we really haven’t advanced much at all. It seems strangely archaic to me that we live in the information age and we still are burning things to meet our power needs.

I’m sorry I shouldn’t have made the attack. My harsh words, and accusations, put you in position to defend yourself. I shouldn’t have done that. The attack was meant to come second nature to my overall point, which I will now explain.

I don’t believe it is the ‘will’ that deters green technology and drives ipad sales. I believe that the industrial revolution, our need to escape farm and craft life, as well as the urban sprawl that followed it, has made it nearly impossible to live a sustainable green life.

As I previously mentioned, I attempted to become more green. When I attempted to go green, I encountered obstacles: snotty neighbors, the law, greedy landlord, exorbitant prices all around. As far as electronics go I only have the one thing, my laptop, because I need it for work. I do not have a television–I threw it out in 1996. My refrigerator is very small, because I believe that people without children shouldn’t exceed their needs. I think most people would call me a minimalist. But despite all this, I am unable to use my backyard for agricultural use, as are most people in the city, because it’s not cohesive to post-industrial revolution views.

The people I live amongst don’t even know how to cook. The get their meals via takeout and McDonalds and fancy restaurants. It would be irrational for me to expect them to understand the need for a garden or a rabbit hutch. It’s much more likely that I’ll have to leave my job, so I can leave this area, to find a rural area with limited job options and less pay, so I can pursue a sustainable green life. Of course, that option doesn’t seem to feasible or rational either.

I mean, we have a similar life arrangement (I think), what are you doing to become more green? Do you think our ‘will’ can reverse 150 years of the industrial revolution?

p.s. You should buy a hybrid. I think, unlike us, you can afford it. And, just on principle, I would hope that the people we pay care about us as much as we care about them.

p.p.s. If you respond, please stick to the issue at hand, and do not dote on my apology at the beginning.

Love

I usually find the fantasy Vs. sci fi label to be a distraction. Until we actually have faster than light travel or killer robots or telepathy, it’s all fantasy as far as I’m concerned.

The Ipad is an overpriced, marginal improvement on an already existing technology, yet we can’t wait to get our hands on it. My point isn’t that more efficient energy technology is going to be readily available and cheap at first, but it will only be so if we push it harder, faster. If we demand more.

No one needs an Iphone. We could get along just fine without them. By that definition, they are ridiculously overpriced and unnecessary. Yet you don’t see many people complaining about the cost of those devices. We site them as a bargain. We love them. Yet with energy technology, we constantly fight against change. And it’s not just us as in the consumers, I’m talking about here. It’s the technology developers themselves who refuse to push forward.

Let’s not get confused here. I know that, on paper, people would love cleaner fuel sources and a greener future. But there seems a profound absence of will on our part. And I am indeed blaming the common man as part of the problem. Obviously not the biggest part of the problem, but still, whenever I see people lining up for the latest electronic doodad that offers the most marginal improvement on their lives, I have to wonder where this excitement is for better energy technology.

To paraphrase John Lennon: “If everyone wanted greener energy as bad as they wanted an Iphone 4, we’d have greener energy.”

Rather than defending ourselves, we should take a good hard look at who we are and where our priorities are. It’s not about right or wrong. It’s about will. I just don’t see that will very often. Not in our manufacturers or consumers. There are rays of hope, and I am optimistic. But let’s not kid ourselves. Let’s not lie to ourselves. We are all part of the problem.

The documentary Who Killed the Electric Car? explored this subject in greater detail and criticism than I could. So I’ll just recommend people check that out to see where I’m coming from and how the system fails, at nearly every level, when it comes to breaking our fossil fuel dependency.

And for the record, I’m not suggesting that I’m any better than anyone else. I don’t own a hybrid. I don’t own an Iphone, but it’s not because of some high minded idealism. Rather, I’m just too lazy to get my old phone replaced. And I’ve never read Wired, so I don’t even know what ideology I’m supposed to be parroting.

What if we need to text you to come lift a car off someone?

Still, I agree with you, though I do know one line that everybody knows is from HP.

SNAPE KILLS DUMBLEDORE.

You may shoot me for that one.