From dlupher@ups.edu Sun Mar 21 12:46:16 1999 Received: from mxu4.u.washington.edu (mxu4.u.washington.edu [140.142.33.8]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW99.02/8.9.3+UW99.01) with ESMTP id MAA43236 for ; Sun, 21 Mar 1999 12:46:15 -0800 Received: from mail.ups.edu (mail.ups.edu [192.124.98.111]) by mxu4.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW99.02/8.9.3+UW99.01) with ESMTP id MAA30431 for ; Sun, 21 Mar 1999 12:46:15 -0800 Received: from [192.220.223.68] (aestivus.ups.edu [192.220.223.68]) by mail.ups.edu (8.9.1/8.8.8) with SMTP id MAA04597 for ; Sun, 21 Mar 1999 12:51:28 -0800 (PST) X-Sender: dlupher@mail.ups.edu Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Sun, 21 Mar 1999 12:48:37 -0800 To: classics@u.washington.edu From: dlupher@ups.edu (David Lupher) Subject: George Lucas & Robin Lane Fox Today's Sunday NYT "Arts & Leisure" section has a long article and interview of George Lucas by Orville Schell (wasn't he the NYT's China man years ago?). Those who use or allude to "Star Wars" in myth classes may enjoy references to Homer, Jason, and the inevitable C.G. Jung and J. Campbell, and they may enjoy such Lucasian gems as: "It really is interesting to be able to cut across cultures and then go back 3,00 years and find what the emotional driving points were then and realize that they're the same now, that they touch the same chords today that they did then." But what really grabbed my attention was the huge color photo of Lucas & Son on the first page of the section. I'm one of those people who studies ad photos to see what the Beautiful People in the ads have on their bookshelves. Usually, if the BP have any books at all, they are coffee table art books. (See, by the way, Nicholson Baker's delightful essay "Books as Furniture" in "The Size of Thoughts.") Well, lo and behold, the bookcase beside which Lucas was photographed is given over to Real Books! Judging by his shelves, Lucas actually has taste: he has a copy of Keith Thomas' superb "Religion and the Decline of Magic," Simon Schama's engaging (if sometimes frustrating) "Landscape and Memory," and a well-worn copy of "The Cambridge Companion to Aristotle." But what particularly delighted me was a prominently displayed copy of Robin Lane Fox's "Pagans and Christians." A couple of years ago I complained to this list that Harper Collins let LF's "Pagans and Christians" go out of print during their notorious "downsizing." No other publisher seems to have picked up this title. This book had been a mainstay of a class I teach called "Pagans and Christians." The book is tough going for the students (even though the class is limited to seniors), but I have evolved a pretty full set of notes to help them through it. There is simply nothing that quite plugs the gap left by its disappearance. I would very much appreciate suggestions for substitutes, for I'll be teaching that class again next fall, and book orders are due soon. But now that the NYT photo will no doubt be inspiring PhD theses on "The Influence of Robin Lane Fox on the 'Star Wars' Hexology," perhaps some enterprising publisher will be putting "Pagans and Christians" back in print. *Fast*, I hope. Those of you with contacts in the publishing world: pass the word, please! David Lupher Classics Program Univ. of Puget Sound .