Karen Traviss made a truly interesting blog entry - Why maths is a slippery slope in the GFFA. I like it because it gives us an inside perspective to how Star Wars authors face what some perceive to be inconsistancies. More importantly, however, it's good sound advice. Karen has her own name for this syndrome, but I call it the "Sound in Space Conundrum".

Fans will often times get so caught up in the details, or more so that the details won't consistantly add up in their heads, that they call foul. The Super Star Destroyer argument comes to mind. But just because you aren't immediately handed an explanation of how the details could work, doesn't mean they don't work. There is one thing that George Lucas asks of you as a fan to get your mind around his creations: Use your imagination.

But so often, we as fans are lazy in this department. If we don't see a handy ruler next to a capital ship, if we don't see a manual on Jedi immortality, if we don't get to read Luke's or Leia's infant minds as they gaze on their mother, if we don't get to see the project plan for the 2nd Death Star...we shut down. We don't see past whats on the screen, or in the books. I've seen fans argue with each other until their faces or the air around them is blue with well-chosen monikers regarding heritage and integrity and body parts and such. All over things that perhaps they could just work out in their own mind.

Karen's blog entry reminded me of this. Basically, what she is saying is "if you can accept this problematic fact, why can't you accept the others?" The irony there is, of course, it's not fact at all - it's fiction, which means it's as maleable as your own, or the author's, imagination with limitations on the givens we already have. I'm not proposing that we can bring the dead back to life. But I am saying that if it doesn't have an explanation, maybe we're meant to find our own.

Why do I call it the "Sound in Space Conundrum"? Because if we're going to argue the physical impossibilities or exacting measurements of things, but never question the idea that in the Star Wars galaxy they apparently have sound in a vacuum and little green dudes that can levitate X-Wings, why question any of it? Some would say "well, there are just some things you don't bother questioning" ....

Egggggggz-
ZACKLY.

It's fiction. There are some things you can get past with your own imagination. We as fans should not become so lazy in such an amazing imaginary playground as to have left our imaginary sneakers at home.

The reason all this comes up is Karen posed a particularly interesting question about the math involved in creating the numbers of clones. She pointed out that, on the surface, it just wouldn't work. And she's right - absolutely. In the strictest terms, Kamino was insufficient in space and energy to produce the size of army that was needed to fill the ranks of the GAR, and later Imperial Army. Her point is, I believe, is that if you can get past this, but vehemently question some small detail like..I dunno...what the bulges were on SSD's, then you're perhaps answering your own question. This is something I touched lightly upon with much snarkage here in this blog entry awhile back. If you let one go in a logical universe, you have to let them all go. But that's not the point of Star Wars, is it? This isn't about logical contraints - it's rather the opposite, which is exactly what makes it so interesting to us.

Her point then, made me think. And I says to myself, I says:

"Wait just a gulldern minute. You can work that problem out. You just have to use yer melon and go outside the box."

The questions I've seen about clone numbers, for instance, go a little something like this:

1) "There aren't enough clones to take over and maintain military dominance over a galaxy"

2) "Kamino was insufficient as a facility to produce said clones"

I have a few automatic answers that really I provide myself. You know - from my imagination. Mind you, I'd never worry so much about it, but it's the persistant asking of other fans that makes you have to work these things out in your brain.

My first automatic answer for myself has always been (and yes, it's a stretch) Kamino is simply not the only cloning facility. No, I have no proof of that, nothing canon. It just makes sense to me that Kamino is the first of many facilities. It just happens to be the first one, which cranked out the initial batch, and the technology, of GAR clones.

One might say "but didn't Taun We tell Obi-Wan it would take time to make more?" Sure. But they weren't exactly being forthcoming with info. It may yet take time to turn out successive batches, but who's to say there are not concurrent, staggered batches being produced? We already saw at least 2 generations of clones during Obi-Wan's visit. The younger versions (see them in training at learning consoles), age-accelerated, would be ready in perhaps 3-5 years time. If those are there, what about other older or younger generations? And again - is Kamino the only hidden cloning facility, one of many that later won't have to be hidden?

Not to mention, it never hurts to remember this is a trumped up war (which brings us to my second answer) - one they were effectively losing by and large at the time of ROTS. As much as I like these guys, the truth is it wasn't the GAR that defeated the CIS 'droid army. It was Sidious telling them to flip the switch. In the meantime, the technolgoy has been internalized by the Empire from Kamino, and seeded cloning stations throughout the galaxy. In 10 years, they could have their billions - money and real estate is not as much of a concern in an Empire of thousands of systems. Not to mention the eventual admission of normal recruits to supplement the ranks.

My last point is something ...I almost hate to say, but in concept, on paper, it works - the "Rumsfield Doctrine" - a relatively small force, empowered by high-technology support and implements, can with some effort take and hold large amounts of territory. I almost hate to say this because I really love the clones and later Stormies, so I don't want to cheapen their "legacy" in the Star Wars universe, but they're a bit like Doritos. "Use em up, we'll make more."

This is, at least, what the Empire later made them to be - highly trained cannon fodder. At it's inception, before the political shift, the GAR was comprised of highly prized individuals, which is part of the shame of the rise of the Empire that they would become later so devoid of importance.

Anyway, I don't bring this up so much as a technical answer, but more of a plot resolution. We don't always know what's going on in the background, but it doesn't hurt to do some of the mental work as readers and movie-goers to fill in the blanks a bit ourselves and get on with our lives :0)

It sometimes annoys me we as fans get caught up on details that, if we just used our imagination, we could work out. Really, it just annoys me that we sometimes get so caught up so much in the detail and not the story, but that's me. Are my own personal answers to these questions the right ones? Nah - they're just mine. My point is, if I could come up with these, why doesn't everyone just come up with their own while they're getting popcorn?

Yes, it's part of the Star Wars experience is to flesh out the universe in exacting detail. But the point of that is not to create a universe of numbers and reality. We've got one of those, remember? I think it's that detailed part of it that allows you to believe the fantasy so much more. Not only is it important to know the value of reality, but on the flipside its best not to cheapen our forays into escapism by trying to make them exactly alike. I like the ambiguous nature of Star Wars. It tells me its a place where anything can happen.

Authors are often constrained by the Continuity Monster, and really, the whole retcon thing actually makes more stories - why? Because they use their imagination to solve interesting problems. I guess what I'm saying is we can sometimes make those logical leaps as well. They may be constrained by what is already explained, but we can fill in so many gaps ourselves and just...you know...keep reading or watching our movies and not have a seizure.

Now, I guarantee what happens next, and you know, it's OK. I won't reach everyone. Someone out there is going to miss the point of this particular entry and say "But....if you have x number of cloning facilities and the summer solstice isn't yet dawned with the allignment of Kamino and Tatooine, yada yada yada yada.... " I'm not going to make fun of you. It just means that you and I speak a fundamentally different language. It happens.

After all, I'm just a moose. :0) And everyone knows meese can't type.

DM out