K. W. Jeter on Boba Fett: Part 1

I first saw K. W. Jeter at the World Fantasy Convention held in San Diego back in 2011.  He participated in a panel discussion on Steampunk, and the way he enthused over what he learned while researching that type of novel made me want to read a story he had written.  Each time I perused the bookshops, and saw the Boba Fett novels he had written, I thought it would be interesting to read one.  Here was a character that had always intrigued me, written by a novelist whose attention to detail had impressed me.  Eventually, it began to seem as if George Lucas himself was holding a blaster against my forehead.  Well, that being the case, I no longer had a choice, did I?

Having read and enjoyed the entire trilogy, it was a pleasure to speak with K. W. Jeter at this year's World Fantasy Convention in Brighton.  I told him I really enjoyed his Boba Fett novels, and his eyes narrowed for a moment.  Then he smiled and nodded.  "Ah yes," he said.  I can understand those books not residing in the forefront of his memory. After all, they originally came out fifteen years ago, in 1998, which means he wrote them well before that. As work-for-hire projects, it's unlikely he would still be receiving royalties from them, if he ever did. Nor would he be dealing with subsidiary rights issues, or attempting to resell them to another publisher, as he doesn't own them.  Nevertheless, J. K. Jeter went on to say that he had gotten some positive feedback from other Star Wars fans, and that he had enjoyed writing them.

I wondered if he had found it difficult to get into Boba Fett's mind. Remember, this was before "Episode 2: Attack of the Clones" came out, and he hadn't seen Boba Fett as a boy yet.  All he had to go on with the character were those few scenes in "The Empire Strikes Back."  As the bounty hunter always wears a helmet, K. W. Jeter hadn't even seen the character's face.  Yet he built three entertaining novels around him, portraying him as a fearless and complicated character who lives by his unique moral code.  He makes Boba Fett into the ultimate Dejarik player, a man who could easily sit down at the holographic game table in the Millennium Falcon and beat the pants off R2-D2.  That is, assuming the droid wore pants.*

K. W. Jeter shook his head.  Just like Boba Fett, he responded, "No, no problem."

What can I say?  The author breathed life into a character about whom he knew nothing--a monumental task--and spun out three compelling tales about him.  But then, if asked a similar question, I imagine Boba Fett would likewise reply, "No, no problem."

For my money, that makes J. K. Jeter the perfect person to write about the galaxy's most effective bounty hunter.

Dragon Dave

*As R2-D2 occasionally serves drinks, shouldn't he wear a nice dark suit?  Or better yet, a tuxedo?  "Your drink, master Jabba," he might say, in his electronic language of squeaks and clicks. "Now, if you'll excuse me for a moment, I'll just toss a lightsaber to Master Luke, so he can take over your barge, and end Hutt rule of Tatooine."

Those Utopian Dreams: Part 3

The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.

Isaiah 11:6, New International Version

Science Fiction authors have always dreamed big.  Whether in print, TV, or movies, they painted grand visions of the future.  As a child, I trusted that their promises could come true.  I accepted that the government, corporations, and even private citizens might soon be able to build spacecraft and launch them into space at a moment’s notice.  I accepted that, by applying the latest scientific research, and our willpower, that Humans could do anything.  Advancements in psychiatry would banish violence.  Herbicides and pesticides would banish famine.  Computers and robots would perform all the more mundane tasks for us. And of course, the House of Tomorrow would be maintenance-free.

Beyond all that, Humanity would restructure our societies so that no one would ever go hungry.  While we might still work, our shortened workdays would be less stressful.  Earth would become the paradise foretold by Biblical prophets.  To paraphrase Isaiah, peace, equality, and gentleness would reign. 

So much of science fiction, from Jules Verne to Gene Roddenberry, is driven by dreams of utopia.  Yet Science and Experience seem to have exposed such dreams as frauds.  We might have microwaves and smart phones, but flying cars, easily available space flight, stress-free workplaces and maintenance-free homes have been denied us.  People still lose their jobs, or fall through cracks in the structure of society, missing out on meals and health care.  Instead of fixing our bodies’ defects and living hundreds of years, cancer and disease still cut our lives short.

Yet those earlier dreams seem to be making a comeback.  Through the rising popularity of Steampunk, young people are looking back to the late nineteenth and early twentieth century for inspiration on how to enhance their lives.  They read Steampunk novels that envision futures based on the promises of writers a hundred years ago, or seek out the stories crafted by those long-ago writers.  They even seek out the works of largely forgotten writers.  At first I questioned the enthusiasm and excitement for Steampunk and such old stories.  But then I realized that most Science Fiction writers working today, whether in print, TV, or in the movies, are envisioning dystopian futures.  Instead of painting fictional worlds filled with hope and enlightenment, they are extrapolating from present technological and social trends and warning us that we face imminent enslavement, the disillusion of our societies, even the destruction of the planet.  Those are not the dreams I grew up with!

So perhaps the young people, who are returning to these older works, and outdated visions of the future, are really onto something.  Perhaps, in our progress through the twentieth century, we have missed a vital turning point along the way.  Perhaps if we backtrack to those grander dreams, if we spend more time studying the great thinkers and dreamers of that time, we may find where we went wrong.  Maybe we can still fashion a society more in keeping with our once-great goals.  I, for one, hope that the current generation, which seems so in love with Steampunk, can channel that ideology and lifestyle into remaking our world into one where wars are abolished, no one goes hungry, and every individual is treated with equal respect and dignity.  Where we don’t spend our days stressed out over making money, and trampling over other people in the process.  Where we address the issues in climatology, space flight, and genetics that are holding us back from achieving our grand visions of the future.  

History teaches us that Humans are incapable of creating a utopia, so perhaps it’s naïve for me to cling to such dreams.  Still, I want to believe that the current Steampunk movement, and the renewed interest in the literature of a century or more ago, is about more than dressing up and making things that look cool.  I want to believe that it represents something more.

Dragon Dave

Related Internet Links

A Brief Survey of Victorian Science Fiction