How I Came to Write a Book About ‘Star Wars’
Like countless other people, I have long been obsessed with Star Wars.
A New Hope inspired me, and The Empire Strikes Back moved me, and Return of the Jedi captivated me. At every juncture, the Star Wars movies have been my guide — inevitably leading to my interest in constitutional law, my years in the Executive Office of the President, and my continuing focus on freedom and democratic self-government. This book was not exactly prophesied, but it was certainly foreordained.
It was because of Star Wars that I took so many political science courses in high school and college: The destruction of the Empire, and the noble efforts of the Rebellion, led me to think hard about what makes democracy possible, and what can help it to sustain itself.
It was only because of Star Wars that I went to law school: The Empire is a lawless regime, and one of the goals of the Rebellion is to “restore freedom to the galaxy.” The opposition between lawlessness and freedom haunted me; it defined my early career choices. (Need I add that my first girlfriend looked a lot like Carrie Fisher?)
It was because of Star Wars, too, that my highest goal, post-graduation, was to clerk for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, who seemed to me to be law’s Obi-Wan Kenobi, a fierce fighter for freedom and justice, a Jedi knight if there ever was one (in black robes, no less). At the Supreme Court, I thought, just about every day: I am actually working for Obi-Wan.
When it came to deciding on my first real job, Luke Skywalker’s personal choice — to fight for justice — was never far from my mind. I declined to work for a terrific law firm and chose instead the Department of Justice, filled with Yodas. There we attacked the remnants of the Empire in its multiple forms.
We didn’t have a light saber, but we had the Constitution, and that’s a pretty great weapon. In Obi-Wan’s own words, it is “the weapon of a Jedi Knight. Not as clumsy or random as a blaster. A more elegant weapon for a more civilized age.”
Inevitably my career path took me to teaching, and ultimately training (or so I hoped) thousands of young padawaan, equipped to challenge the Sith, wherever they might be. More recently, I was privileged to work at a high level in our real-world Republic.
As Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Star Wars again provided a set of guiding themes, orienting my own work. Openness and transparency, respect for the people, discussion rather than coercion, commitment to the sanctity of every human life — these are the lessons of Star Wars. Every day, I took them to heart. When President Obama asked me to serve on his Review Board on Intelligence and Communications Technologies, balancing personal privacy and national security, the connection with Star Wars, and my life’s obsession, seemed positively eerie.
It was all a matter of destiny. And so, you see, is my new book.
Actually that’s all made up. In my youth, I liked Star Wars a lot, but it did not have the slightest impact on my career (which is accurately described above, except for the Star Wars parts). I majored in English, not political science. In making career choices, I don’t think I thought about Star Wars even once — except when deciding to write this book. (My first girlfriend didn’t look at all like Carrie Fisher.)
This book is a product of serendipity, not planning. It was hardly a matter of destiny.
Here’s the real story. Less than a year ago, I was having dinner at some friends’ house, and one of the hosts pointed to an old DVD containing Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. She said that I should borrow it and show it to my young son, Declan. I hadn’t seen the movie for decades and had no particular desire to see it again. Declan was interested in baseball, not spaceships. So showing him the movie seemed pretty doomed. But on a lark, I gave it a try, and of course he loved it. I did too.
After seeing Episode IV, we promptly saw the five others, which made me wonder: How on earth did these movies come about? What accounts for their narrative arc? And why did Star Wars become the defining saga of our time?
As the book explains, the answers are surprising. They demonstrate, in a quite concrete way, the immense difficulty of advance planning, and the inevitable role of surprise and serendipity.
The Emperor, the Sith Lord, thinks that life’s trajectory is foreordained: “Everything is happening as I have foreseen.” Yoda, Jedi master, thinks differently: “Always in motion is the future.”
Yoda, of course, got it right.
Cass. R. Sunstein’s book, The World According to Star Wars, is out now by HarperCollins.
