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Revenge of the Sith was long but enjoyable. There was a lot of dialogue, but George Lucas had a lot of story to tell, and the movie itself was beautifully made. Here are some things that stuck out with the warning that there are possible spoilers (though, we all know what happens in the end, right?).

I was really struck by the agency and presence of the various droids. As always, their personalities and creativity drew some attention to the difficulty in judging their “livingness.” One particular instance was where one droid asked the other if he’d heard something and the other droid said no, a sort of self-doubt that I find altogether human. There was also another scene where C3P0 said he was getting the hang of flying, which was also interesting because of the attention it drew to the droids’ ability to grow by gaining knowledge and experience, further enhanced by R2D2 and C3P0s’ bemused expressions when they found that their “minds” were going to be erased.

Relatedly, another thing that I found interesting was the fluid nature between sentient beings and machine. For example, it took me some time to figure out that General Grievous was not just a robot, since so much of him was a machine. And in the end, Darth Vader was left without any of his natural limbs. What is interesting about this is that none of this was problematic. They weren’t considered to be impaired at all, but only because their limbs could be replaced. And while I don’t think that Darth Vader will become a poster boy for quadrapalegics anytime soon, it does at least draw attention to the contextual nature of what it means to be handicapped.

I was also struck by the many races that were present in the film. On the one hand, this was inspired by the question of how the presentation of other cognizant species resists racist notions. But also because each race must have represented a particular evolutionary trajectory, which, if the thought is fully addressed, makes salient the fact that our form as humans is wholly contingent.

The reason I went to see the film, however, was to watch Anakin’s struggle with the dark side of the force, which I perceived with Graham Greene-esque undertones and made me think of my own struggles with the difficulty of being “good.” Even though I knew that he would eventually become Darth Vader it was hard watching Anakin make this transition, but I was surprised to find myself feeling sorry for him. It is easy for me to cast aside a monster who vies for power simply for the sake of power, but in spite of the terrible things that Anakin did he was primarily motivated by fear and pain.

Some might feel that drawing a connection between this film and the work of Graham Green is implausible, since Greene’s struggles were with religion, but that is exactly what was going on in this film. The Jedi taught that it was best to accept the death of others as part of the natural course of things and that it was a product of greed to try and hold onto things we know will eventually cease to be, very much a Buddhist notion, as with the understanding that the Jedi fought to become selfless. If I had to assign an existing religion to the Sith then it would probably be Satanism or perhaps Objectivism, which is interesting since only they (supposedly) had the power to create and sustain life. I wonder how many would agree with the configuration of these opposing sets of values.

I spent the day reading. In the evening I went to see Episode III with Suzanne. Back at home I watched an episode of Desperate Housewives. At some point during the day or the day before I watched an episode of Lost.

I went to IHOP with Josh for a long time. Then we stopped by his place to check on his dog and went to Chumley’s for a long time. Chuck stopped by.

• At IHOP Josh and I went in circles talking about the “myth” of common descent. I advised him that it was empirical and based on consensus, but he was too critical of the industry of science to accept this. Later we talked about the issue he has with giving primacy to pleasure. I got teary eyed at one point thinking about the pain of others.

I had lunch at Blue Nile with Kate, Ted, Lorrell, Beth, Vere and Clara. Then I went to Stone for a while. At home I read a funny letter from my roommate to his ex-girlfriend. In the evening I went to Hookah with Lauren, Chuck, and Josh, then Chumleys, where Ryan later showed up.

• At the Nile Clara said she doesn’t like power.
• At Stone I stopped to talk to Dawn and Suzanne. Suzanne had just gotten back and said she has a job lined up at Cascade. Dawn talked about watching home videos with her grandmother; she had lost weight and said, about her old self, that she looked like she was “10 months pregnant.”
• I got my application signed then turned it in to the IRB.
• There were some girls from Georgia looking for pot at Hookah. I talked about development of brain-machine interfaces then my roommate’s hilarity. At Chumley’s we spent some time talking about Gwen Stefani’s repulsive usage of the Harajuku girls. To cap off the night we made exquisite corpses, but Josh had already left.

I woke up early when my mom called and got a ticket to Atlanta, then I spent some time working on my IRB application. Later I went over to Josh’s friend’s Chris’s house.

• Chris shaved Josh’s head. Then we played some Mortal Kombat, Total Carnage, and I finally got to see Katamari Damacy. Chris made some really good drinks and baked some oishii cinammon rolls.

I’m going to Tokyo and I speak (some) Japanese. That’s insane.

Sometimes the weirdest things pop in my head. Just now I thought of that old commercial for vegetables that always ended, “Ho ho ho! Green giant!” I wonder how many kids are familiar with that character these days.

I woke up at 11 a.m. and wasted some time. My mom called about her mother’s day card and gift, and I mentioned getting a ticket to Atlanta. I then called about my ticket to Japan — they gave me a price of around $800. And later talked to my dad some about his trip to Missouri. I was feeling really tired, so I went to Murky Waters to do some work (their ceiling was leaking). After a quick dash to Hicks to pick up Global Sex, I stopped by Borders and picked up The Elements of Style after running into Cathryn and Kurt — she couldn’t go to see Star Wars with him because he screwed up the dates. After that I talked to Michelle. I ended up staying awake extremely late but I did read some Altman.

• On the phone with Michelle I talked a lot about structure and exchange in communication. She told me that her dad was out of touch with her politics, once suggesting she read something by Ann Coulter.

Somehow, my roommate landed in jail after he started his girlfriend’s nose bleeding. He was worried the whole time because he didn’t know how he’d gotten in there. When he came home he found that his girlfriend had come and gotten all of her stuff. He’s trying to patch things up, but she’s going away for the summer, and there’s no telling what will happen. Initially, she was going to break things off outright, because he’s abusive, but he’s made some ground since then.

Anyway, the point of this is that today he told me I’m the best roommate he’s ever had. It was one of the single most strangest things I’ve ever heard, not because of the content, but because of the context. He listed off the bad roommates he’s had — like the guy that was gay, which he didn’t have a problem with until he came on to him, or the Indian guy that didn’t bathe and made smelly food — and somehow I came out on top.

It’s ironic because, while I haven’t had many roommates, he is the worst I’ve had, and probably will retain that position for some time to come. It’s also ironic because I complained to my landlord about him and will be able to get out of my lease early. All this means is that I’m way too easy. I’d like to think that I pick my battles. The bright side is that I’m sure this is preparation for something, the field maybe, and highlights my ability to roll with whatever comes my way. Chalk one up for nihilism, baby.

I woke up at a very early 10 a.m., did more work on my IRB application, took a nap, more IRB work, then met with Evie. I slacked a bit, went to Vienna to read, and then stayed up late wasting time on the Internet. Throughout the day though, it was hard to tell if I was really slacking, or if I was just sick or still tired.