purplecat

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Reading: I gave up on Philosophy and the Physicists and am now reading Splinter of the Mind's Eye. I'm not sure if this was the first Star Wars tie-in novel but it was the first I was aware of and I recall it being spoken of in hushed tones at school. I put it on the "to read" pile during the great re-decoration last year and am slightly surprised I've been living in a house with it for 20 years and not read it. So far, I'm mostly struck by how much of it has been subtly joss'd by later Star Wars films and the vague skeeviness of a lot of the descriptions of Princess Leia.

Listening: The normal Dr. Who podcasts - though I did listen to an edition of Throughline on Savarkar and the rise of Hindu Nationalism. Mostly depressing.

Watching: The last episode of The Avengers, A Funny Thing happened on the Way to the Station felt like a return to form. Meanwhile we have been enjoying Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego with the Offspring.

Crossposts: https://louisedennis.livejournal.com/616160.html

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From:

theandrewhickey

Yeah, Splinter of the Mind's Eye was the very first tie-in novel (not counting the film novelisation). It was originally written as a treatment for a film sequel -- before Star Wars became the phenomenon that it was, they thought they might be lucky enough to be able to do an extremely low-budget sequel reusing the props and costumes, and wanted something they could do on the cheap.

From:

ffutures

A big part of this was that Foster didn't know that Leia was Luke's sister etc., because Lucas either hadn't come up with the idea at that point or didn't tell him, so didn't know to write the characters appropriately.

From:

purplecat

I'm not so bothered by the Luke/Leia attraction since they're unaware that they are siblings at this point in time. Though I think Empire would go on to suggest that Leia was never that romantically interested in Luke while (at least at the point I'm at in Splinter) Leia/Luke is being strongly hinted at as the end game.

From:

purplecat

That's interesting, because there are definitely some bits early on that feel like they got recycled into the Dagobah sequence.

From:

daniel-saunders.livejournal.com

I think it is the first Star Wars novel, although I confess I'm feeling too lazy to cross the room and confirm by looking it up in the Unauthorised History of Star Wars-type book I bought cheap from The Works a few years ago. IIRC, there's suggestions of potential romance between Luke and Leia which would obviously not happen on screen.

EDIT: I got up and it is indeed the first Star Wars original spin-off novel, although there had been a novelisation first.

Edited Date: 2020-03-18 10:18 pm (UTC)

From:

purplecat

TBH, I think the Luke and Leia stuff is sort of fair enough, in that before they are aware of their relationship there is clearly some attraction between them - though even before they were revealed as siblings the films were leaning into Leia/Han (which suggested that Leia was never as much into Luke as he was into her). But more than that, there's a vague sense from the book that this universe doesn't really work in quite the same way that the Star Wars universe works - though both are so vaguely sketched out (at least if you're not into the expanded universe stuff) that I'm quite surprised I'm picking that sense up from it.

Over in t'other place, someone said it was based on a possible treatment for a second film from a point in time when they thought there might not be much budget. That's also interesting because there's some stuff early on that's very reminiscent of some of the Dagobah scenes in Empire Strikes Back

Edited Date: 2020-03-19 08:04 am (UTC)

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