Star Wars as a Nō Play

I recently discovered the art of the Japanese Nō play. Nō is a highly stylized form of performance art, acted by skilled male artists. A Nō play is acted on a polished cypress stage of a specific size, with a "bridge" linking the stage to a curtained green room. The actors perform a sort of dance as they speak and sing their lines, each tiny gesture filled with meaning.

Nō plays traditionally involve an aspect of the supernatural, with ghosts or gods making an appearance in the play. At some point in each play, there must be a point where some character reveals himself to be other than he is, often a god or ghost posing as a man (or woman). These plays involve the use of masks to show that an actor is old or young, male or female, man or god.

So what does Nō have to do with Star Wars? As I was thinking about the idea of someone in a mask revealing their true self, I couldn't help but imagine an actor making that terrible revelation: "No, Luke. I am your father." At first it was just a comical extension of Star Wars into a place it didn't seem to belong. But then, suddenly, it wasn't.

You see, George Lucas loves to pull ideas from other cultures, including Japan. In large part, the original Star Wars film is based on Akira Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress. So why couldn't Star Wars show the influence of Nō?

As I pondered I came to my own revelation: Most of the big revelatory scenes occur during lightsaber battles, and most of the lightsaber battles occur on catwalks or in narrow hallways. This felt suspiciously like the revelatory bridge from a Nō play. I'll point out two examples:

1. In A New Hope, Obi-Wan battles Vader in a narrow hallway. As they fight, they reveal their past relationship. Then, at a key moment, Obi-Wan raises his lightsaber in a sort of salute and is struck down by Vader. But suddenly he is not there, revealing himself to be more than just a man, returning later as a "Force ghost."
2. Empire features the famous climactic scene scene in which Luke battles Darth Vader. They range all over a "stage" (the carbon freezing platform) and end up on a catwalk, where Vader gives his infamous pronouncement, revealing himself to be Luke's father (a man, rather than a faceless god).

A further bit of evidence relates to motions with the Force. Just as in Nō plays, a small gesture is intended to signify a larger effect - Obi-Wan moves his hand slightly to show that he is influencing someone's mind. A twitch of a hand can Force-push someone across a room. And what about Darth Vader's famous Force choke?

The more I look into this, watching scene after scene of the various Star Wars movies, the more I come to realize: It's not so much that you could adapt Star Wars into a Nō play, it already is an adaptation of Nō play. Bravo, George Lucas!

Writing Dialogue

Dialogue is always troubling to a grammar nazi. Since good dialogue imitates actual speech, it is rarely if ever grammatically correct. In fact, if you as a writer find yourself writing grammatically correct dialogue, it's time to start over.

Grammar nazis, pay attention here. Dialogue should be full of partial sentences, interjections, incomplete thoughts, etc. But you can't just record people talking and use that. Strangely enough, some real dialogue, when written, doesn't work at all. There's a strange distance between what people really say and what they think they say. Because of that disconnect, real dialogue often looks odd on paper.

The best bet is to write your dialogue, then read it out loud. If it sounds strange, revise, revise, revise. Read it out loud to people. See what they think. Have different people read different characters. Give the characters their own voices.  Don't be afraid to use slang. And write a lot of short sentences.

There is no reason to be afraid of dialogue. You use it every day. Just don't try to be Herman Melville.

The Bathroom Stall Dilemma

If you're anything like me, your mother always told you never to use the first stall in a public bathroom. There was never any explanation, just a statement of rule - as if it were written on a stone somewhere in the Universe by the hand of an immortal being.

Of course, there's a problem with this maxim - if everyone's mother tells them not to use the first toilet stall, then who is using it? Which stall SHOULD you use? In this odd installment, I'll outline the pros and cons of each toilet stall.

Stall #1: Your mother always told you not to use it, because logic would appear to dictate that, as the closest stall to the door, it would be the most used and therefore the filthiest. It follows, then, that the first stall is used by those who weren't warned away by their mothers. These are often children, who can be very messy in the bathroom. Also, the first stall is often the "emergency stall" for people who are having intestinal issues. So stall #1 may be a bad choice.

Stall #2: For those who automatically skip stall #1, stall #2 may be the automatic first choice. This means it is used at least as often as stall #1, but probably by more conscientious bathroom visitors. As such, it is likely to be cleaner at the very least.

Stall #3+: If the bathroom has at least 4 stalls, stall #3 may be the best bet. It probably gets used less than stalls #1 and #2, simply because it is further from the door. Any stalls between #3 and the last stall are probably okay to use without too much worry about how often they get used in a day.

The Last Stall: Always avoid the last stall, if possible. Just like the back seat of the bus and the last row of the classroom, the last stall is an invitation to troublemakers. The last stall is often where toiletgoers will find the most offensive graffiti and carvings in the entire bathroom. It is also the most likely to be the only stall in which the toilet paper roll has been torn completely from the wall, with any toilet paper perched precariously near the toilet and bearing suspicious-looking water stains. At all costs, avoid the last toilet.

And, now that this bathroom bit is coming to its conclusion, some simple words of advice: don't just blindly walk into a stall or skip a stall based on rules. Whatever the number of bathrooms, check each stall until you find one that meets your standards. And always, always make sure it has toilet paper before you sit down!