This battle station is not taking aim at pesky Rebel scum — but rather, at high art.
asserted
station → take → art
Astonishingly, a world-class art museum has been designed not for intellectuals, but for the masses.
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museum → design → masses
With his newly opened Lucas Museum for Narrative Art, the Star Wars filmmaker has championed the kind of art that ordinary people have embraced on a daily basis.
asserted
people → open → basis
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The collections on display include that of comic books, pulp novels, children’s books and of course — Hollywood blockbusters.
asserted
collections → download → course
It’s true: The complex, which opened last month to huge crowds, resembles a spaceship from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.
asserted
which → ’ → galaxy
And what can be found inside is a bold statement about what art is and which art deserves celebration.
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art → find → celebration
It’s clear Lucas and his wife, financier and former Dreamworks SKG executive Melody Hobson, have tastes that are vastly different from those at a typical museum curated by Ivy League-trained art historians.
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that → ’ → historians
From arresting novel covers to muscular superheroes darting through the panels of comic books, this museum features work that would be laughed out of the Louvre.
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that → dart → Louvre
The “everyman” treasures include the work of comic book illustrator John Romita Jr., known for his run on Spider-Man.
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treasures → include → Man
There are also the epic dreamscapes of Frank Frazetta, who crafted the covers of pulp fantasy novels, like Edgar Rice Burroughs’ ‘John Carter’ books.
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who → be → books
These John Carter drawings had a huge impact on many later sci-fi properties — ‘Dune’ and ‘Star Wars’ included.
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Dune → have → properties
Can anyone imagine McDuck, Donald Duck’s miserly uncle (and parody of Ebenezer Scrooge), in a fancy art museum?
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anyone → imagine → museum
Granted, the Lucas Museum does include traditional big-name artists among all the pop.
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Museum → grant → pop
It features respectable American pop art standard-bearers like Norman Rockwell and Thomas Hart Benton.
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It → feature → Rockwell
However, it’s the workaday artists that are the stars of the show.
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that → ’ → show
Many of these popular artists help fuel Hollywood’s dream factory — and Lucas’ own projects in particular.
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Many → help → factory
In Hollywood, where we often celebrate charismatic actors and visionary directors (like Lucas himself), the public rarely gets to know the work of all the talented craftspeople below-the-line.
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public → celebrate → line
As it turns out, movie-making is a team sport.
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making → turn → ?
And in the Lucas Museum, you can get a feel for Lucas’ team players — another cool departure from your typical high-brow museum.
Consider Lucas’ centerpiece Star Wars exhibit.
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you → get → exhibit
The room elevates the artists who made the sci-fi saga the iconic visual feast that inspired devoted generations of fans.
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that → elevate → fans
(They also inspired real-life empires, in terms of toy lines.)
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They → inspire → lines
Such figures include Ralph McQuarrie, who developed the original design concepts for iconic characters like C-3PO and Darth Vader.
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who → include → C-3PO
Also featured is the artwork of Doug Chiang, who conceived of many of the spaceships and gizmos in the prequel films like ‘The Phantom Menace
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who → feature → Menace
These prequels were hated by critics, but wildly popular in their own way.
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prequels → hat → way
Lucas couldn’t have done it without people like them.
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Lucas → do → them
He’s giving credit where credit is due — and showing fans how the process came to life.
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process → give → life
The unifying thesis of Lucas’ palace is the concept of “narrative art” — visual art that explores, as a museum press release put it, “how artists depict the essential myths that help us make sense of the world.”
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us → explore → world
People get that instinctively, if not conceptually.
asserted
People → get → that
And they connect with the museum’s down-to-earth sense of humor.
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they → connect → humor
Within the grounds’ public gardens, a statue of Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) throttling the slug gangster Jabba the Hutt instantly went viral, as did a neighboring bronze of Padme (Natalie Portman) battling an alien beast (from ‘Attack of the Clones’).
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bronze → throttle → Clones
And you’ll know it as soon as you arrive.
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you → know → it
When the docents scanned my ticket at the entrance, their device emitted the instantly recognizable sound of a Star Wars blaster (“pew-pew!”).
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device → scan → blaster
Shots fired.
asserted
Shots → fire → ?
I smiled.
asserted
I → smile → ?
The Empire had my attention.
asserted
Empire → have → attention
The Aporia
