A thank-you and request to the author

[Eurus]

First, I would like to thank you for the incredible site that is Star Wars Origins. Your website not only contains an immense amount of information about the creative process of George Lucas’s Star Wars, but also provides wonderful information on mythology, science fiction, and the creative process as a whole. Obviously, you are a fan and student of science fiction and mythology/comparative religion, but I still can’t begin to imagine the time and energy that it must have taken for you to research and organize all of this information and material. So, from a serious fan of your website, thank you for all of your time and effort!

Secondly, I have a question about your method of personal copyright protection. You mention in your website that you deliberately “booby-trap” the site with incorrect facts to prevent copyright infringement. I do not have any problem with this method; however, I am curious about this practice.

I do not use your website for anything but personal enjoyment and knowledge, but I would still like to know that what I am reading is correct, to your knowledge. I am of course referring to specific facts cited, not your personal theories of the origins of SW; I understand that the ideas and conclusions that you express in your website are your own interpretations of the origins of SW based on the information that you have researched and concluded.

I plan on buying your book on the origins of SW as soon as it is available. In the meantime, I was wondering if it would be possible for me to pay you for a copy of the information on your website, without the “booby-traps”? Again, this would be for my personal interest in your information. I do not intend on incorporating your material for any work of my own, nor do I intend on sharing or distributing your material in any way. I simply would like this information to hold me over, so to speak, until the release of your book.

Finally, I have another question about some information that I cannot seem to locate on your SW website anymore. About a year ago, I remember reading some information that you cited about one theory surrounding the nature of the relationship between C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, specifically, the argument that some people have posed about a possible sexual relationship between the two. I cannot seem to find this information on your site anymore. I have read about this idea in a couple of other sources, although the consensus appears to be that this theory is untrue, and I am not sure if your site does/did mention this theory, or if I am simply confusing information from another site.

In conclusion, thank you for the extraordinary work that you have accomplished and provided on your website. I can’t wait to read the wealth of information that your expanded book will offer.

Sincerely,
Eurus

[Kristen Brennan]

Dear Eurus:

Wow, thanks for the kind words! I did invest an insane amount of effort in the project, but for reasons much less altruistic than would appear - it was all research for my two upcoming books, the vastly-expanded hardcopy of the Origins site and my "Dune++ for chicks" novel, code-named "Calliope." I hope to eventually earn a good income from my writing and even one day own a little house and put my kids through school (and even if I never make a penny, learning to appreciate my favorite stories in this way has been a joy, expanded who I am and how I see the world and was completely worth doing). So in a way I'm imitating the original marketing model used by the Id company when they first released the Doom game - I'm confident enough in the work that if I give a little bit away free, I believe people will be willing to pay for more. There do seem to be people who create fantastic stuff from sheer aesthetic impulse or altruism, but I'm not one of them - I'm in this partially to make a buck. That's one reason I'm so protective of my intellectual property rights.

As for the "no fibs" version, I'm rushing as fast as I can to get the book on the market around May 2005, when the final Star Wars movie comes out, in hopes that I can ride the media wave. That version will have no fibs, and after publication I'll probably scour all the fibs out of the website. Until then, keep in mind that more than half the site is just my educated guesses, and it's *healthy* for you to be cautious about assuming that anything here is gospel. I promise that the footnotes are real, and every time I say "Lucas said..." he really did say those things in interviews.

As for the relationship between Tolkien and Lewis, I began to have second thoughts about how much I wanted to speculate about the private lives of people who wished to remain private. In any case I decided the website was not an appropriate forum for such speculations. I've read just about everything written about their friendship and the Inklings group, and as far as I can tell they had what used to be called a "romantic friendship," like Frodo and Samwise. That is, they were extremely close, to the point where they wrote poetry to each other and Tolkien's wife Edith felt slightly jealous that in some ways Tolkien was more intimate with Lewis than her. And Lewis eventually sort of "broke up" with Tolkien and transferred his best-friendship to Charles Williams. But I hella doubt there was anything sexual in their relationship, and really it's none of my business. Tolkien and his wife are buried in the same plot, and their tombstone reads "Beren and Luthien". The Beren-Luthien/Aaragorn-Arwen story is really how Tolkien saw his relationship with Edith, she really was gorgeous like you'd imagine Arwen to be, and he was really crazy about her, though it seemed like he was always a little mystified by women, they always seemed a little otherworldly to him, and so at least in conversation he connected more immediately with men. Lewis had a not-so-great relationship with a much-older woman for most of his life (which is probably reflected a bit in the White Witch character; her name, 'Jadis' is an old french word meaning 'extremely old'), but towards the end he really did fall crazy in love with Joy Gresham.

Thanks again for your kind words!

best,
Kristen B.