Why Speilberg Sucks, and Why it Pays to Be Literate

Spielberg (along with George Lucas) made his rep on Star Wars of course--a rehashing of Campbell's work Hero with a Thousand Faces--and everyone who had never read mythology lapped it up. I sat in the theater in 1978 and thought "This piece of crap will never make it." The next day, I went to school and everyone was going on about "The Force." I haven't had a moment's rest from this corruption of Asian philosophy in thirty years.

But I guess the main reason I get tired of hearing about his creativity is that he isn't creative: he's a thief. Let me give you just two examples. If you read Science Fiction, and sat in the audience of the movie Gremlins, you experienced a twinge of pity for author H. Beam Piper, creator of an endearing chracter known as Little Fuzzy, who never received a dime. Why should he receive a dime, you ask? Check out Piper's Little Fuzzy:

Yes. That's a Gremlin, eh?

Another example. You recall the Ewoks, the baddass Alien Teddy Bears. Behold:

What is that--a badass Alien teddy Bear. Oh gosh.

So basically Spielberg just walked along the bookshelf of the fantasy and Sci-Fi section and thought "Hmm--There's a good character for a movie." But this is the way Hollywood does things. Ideas are stolen, retreaded, and then peddled as a "tribute" to the original. But in the meantime, the original author rarely receives any credit, or any money.

So why do we give them our money? Our we that desperate for entertainment? How about reading the works of the artists from whom Hollywood hacks steal.