Reading ‘Timeline’ has revealed a bit of a pet peeve of mine. Crichton almost immediately explains away some of the most interesting details about the time travel in a big info dump that is cool at face value, but I’m not sure I really enjoy it long term. I noticed he did this in ‘Jurassic Park’ as well, not just explaining how the dinosaurs were cloned, but also a crucial plot detail: how the dinos were reproducing on their own. In the book, Grant figures this out almost instantly, and I think it detracts from the mystery. I often see speculative stories where the magic or technology at play is explained right out of the gate, and while I see the appeal of making everything make sense immediately, I think there’s something to be said for keeping cards in reserve. It can keep a reader interested far longer than a few dumps of information for one, and for two, it makes the power at hand seem vast and complex beyond what it may actually be. In the movie, Grant figures out how the dinos are making babies while traveling back to the main building with the kids, much later than in the book, and importantly, after the dinosaurs have escaped their holding pens. I think it works better this way because the viewer has seen how terrifying the creatures can be, and therefore understands on a deeper level just how big of a problem their breeding is. It’s a subtle change that lets this subplot shine a lot brighter.

I’ve been thinking about how to keep certain parts of my novel mysterious too. Namely the magic. One example keeps coming to mind for me, the force. The original trilogy is an amazing example of how a mysterious power can be milked to keep the viewer interested. The viewer gets to know the force just a Luke does, little by little. Instead of dropping a million uses of it on your head, the story drip feeds the force to the viewer. When Obi-Wan uses the force to trick the stormtrooper (‘These are not the droids you’re looking for’) the viewer gets to think about that for a long time. Of course he also uses his lightsaber soon after in the cantina. This is great show over tell. Lucas could have explained away the powers of a Jedi in short order, but instead decided it would be best to have him demonstrate the abilities. And when he does explain the force a little later on the Falcon, it falls clearly within the scope of mysticism rather than a hard set of rules and regulations.

“The Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It’s an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together.”

What the hell does that even mean? How does it bind the galaxy together? Well I sure want to find out.

This doesn’t end with the first movie either. There’s the classic, “Do or do not. There is no try.”

When Luke fails to lift the X-Wing, the writers could have made up some rule as to why, but that’s not what the force is. It’s so pervasive and big that Yoda can’t give a hard and fast rule. “You held your hand wrong,” would ruin the mystique. Instead he gives Luke a philosophical stance, not just about how to use the force, but to do anything at all. The force is everything, so doing anything is using the force. Living life and using the force seem to become one and the same when Yoda reveals this little tidbit.

The psychic side of the force grants it a lot of mysterious power as well. From telepathy to visions of the future, the force seems to grant all kinds of secret or even forbidden knowledge. This was one thing I thought that the sequel trilogy did rather well, and didn’t feel the need to over explain. Not that I want to get into the habit of complimenting those movies, but this Sith thing on the planet Luke was living on is really cool:

Rey gets a vision similar to how Luke sees his own demise through killing Vader. The vision isn’t nearly as impactful on the plot or the themes as Luke’s vision was, and it’s completely drowned in other random Star Wars^TM stuff, so it gets kinda lost in the rest of the movie. That said, it’s still a classic plot point that harkens back to when the force was an ill-understood mystery of galactic proportions. I can’t fully explain how the mirror cave functions, just like I can’t fully explain how Luke saw those visions in the forest. It just works. Further more, it means I can’t fully explain how the force works either. It does things beyond our understanding, and that makes it powerful and mysterious and worth watching nine movies about it.

There’s one thing that doesn’t happen though, and that’s a really good, fleshed out explanation of the force and why it exists, where it came from, all that jazz. But wait, haven’t I been saying that would ruin it this whole time? Well, only if you want to make more movies. Once its explained, the force loses some of its staying power, but gains a big payoff for whatever movie explains the origins. It actually is explained in one of the cartoons, and probably several of the books, but I won’t get into it. The build up is there for the entire original trilogy. Leaving it unexplained still works because the force isn’t the main focus of the movies even if its a big part of the draw. For my novel though, I’d like to have it fully explained at some point. I think it can add a lot to the world and as long as the magic is still big and mysterious enough for long enough, it’ll feel like a big payoff rather than an annoying info dump about the contrived magic system. At least, I hope so.

Thank you for reading,

Benjamin Hawley