SPECULATION "Will history repeat itself?" EW's Anthony Breznican Snoke article borrows from the Cantina!

Will history repeat itself in TFA? The filmmakers no doubt struggled with this question. On the one hand, they want to create a wholly original story. But they also want to perpetuate the saga as a trilogy. Perhaps multiple trilogies. This question of history repeating itself has been broached on this very forum recently (Nov. 1) and, later, discussed by EW's Anthony Breznican in the Nov. 12 interview with Andy Serkis regarding the past. But I'm of the strong opinion that Breznican, while addressing Serkis' comments of Snoke being aware of the past and what's gone on before, got that very idea about framing and interpreting those remarks from the Cantina. Consider:

In my Cyclops thread on Nov. 1 (page 5), I cited George Santayana’s famous quote:

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
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I used this quote in the context of a very interesting discussion with my peer @PlagueisLivesDuh. It was a direct reply to his comment "There is nothing new under the twin suns," a loaded comment that was also very cheeky and, in my opinion, quite brilliant. See the post discussion itself here or a partial excerpt in the form of a screenshot below:



Then on Nov. 12, the Entertainment Weekly articles hit. I was surprised to see Anthony Breznican used the same quote I had used in his exclusive EW article titled "Supreme Leader Snoke: Andy Serkis on the 'damaged' villain of Star Wars: The Force Awakens":



Breznican then gave himself permission to eat a "donut" on Twitter:



Hold on there, partner! I deserve a "donut," too, don't ya think? And others commenting on that thread, like @PlagueisLivesDuh and @Moral Hazard, right? And, heck, everyone here at the Cantina. You were obviously on the Cantina. You read the thread. How could you not have? I did a search on the Cantina for Santayana and a search on Reddit. My Cyclops theory post is the only place that search term was used in a discussion relevant to TFA.



I understand where you're coming from. You don't want to give credit to us. 'It's the free marketplace of ideas.' I get it. I do. I'm not accusing you of plagiarism. I acknowledge your job is challenging. It's also a privilege. Your focus as a journalist is Star Wars. It's your beat at EW. You've been trusted. You're clearly resourceful. So you go to the forums.

The forums help you piece things together because it's group-think, and you also know the limitations of group-think. You know the challenges of extracting information from celebrities since they hold back in interviews; they only give you so much. And yet deadlines loom and the need to render compelling stories to your readership remains. Your tact with celebrities is undeniable (it's part of your job; you've been successful at it). And you've developed deep relationships within the industry.

You hosted Star Wars Celebration last April. It was awesome. You've given lip service to the celebrities. To the fans. But what about your relationship with us, the forum "people," the supposedly hyper-nerdy brainiacs arguing about what is and isn't canon (I'm not that guy, but I acknowledge we need that guy here on the forums [especially K. Harloff ])? Where is lip service for us? Are some ideas here not valid? Some aren't, sure. But others are gems. Your usage of that quote is circumstantial but also likely evidence you mined something you deemed valuable. From here. From me. I'm thrilled you used it, but disappointed you wanted to hoard credit in the form of a "donut." That's cute and all, but it's also a little weird because you're getting compensated monetarily and we're not.



My point is this: The Cantina can be a valid source of speculation, so please cite us where we deserve it. Not merely quoting us, paraphrasing us, but crediting us as a source of ideas. Ideas cannot be patented or trademarked (though their representation can). And perhaps that's what makes them powerful. But acknowledging the source of an idea is important. It's what I've attempted to speculate on with my observations of potential mythological links with TFA. Please don't reward only yourself with the pat on the back, the cake, the "donut." Many deserve credit. Disney and Lucasfilm deserve credit. So do we. Failure to acknowledge breeds resentment, don't ya think? We're acknowledging what you're doing for the franchise, to cover it with journalistic integrity. But there's something even deeper. Community. True Star Wars Celebration is unity, as you should know. The story of Star Wars itself is family. Leave no one behind. And what Dash Star says all the time at the end of his videos is, although cheesy, actually true: our love for Star Wars binds us together.



Anthony, just share the "donut." Especially since excess sugar is converted by the body into fat in a process called lipogenesis. Oh, and doesn't the Associated Press style guide recommend "doughnut"?

 

Yep

 

Love it. The Donut Master.

 

Oh, so you want me to be a nobody? Well, that's my name: Noh-Wan Kenobi.

I am someone. Someone who Anthony Breznican drew from. Honestly, what triggered me to create this thread was because he bragged about managing to include the quote by saying he was deserving of a "donut" for that. When I saw that on Twitter, I immediately thought, "Right. Like you deserve all the credit, dude," with a smile. Anthony Breznican knows I'm a fan of his, that I think he does a great job (he's getting questions fans want answered actually answered) that I'm not slandering him and I'm not accusing him of plagiarism nor am I calling for his job. But I am pointing out very interesting and valid correlations with posts from the Cantina and his reporting. The Cantina deserves attention, not just WeWhoSurvived. If I were out for attention for myself, I'd be advertising my real name. I'm not doing that. I'm a Cantina guy and I want to draw attention to that.

Entertainment Weekly is like the NY Times of the Entertainment world. Regardless of the publication, journalists have an obligation to be accurate and source correctly. He's no exception. As a whole, the media have both the right and obligation to keep the world in check. Government, businesses, citizens. And above all, the truth is the priceless fleece. Sure, entertainment journalism is a "softer" type of reporting done in feature style and bios and sketches and fragments. It's soft in subject matter, too. Entertainment journalism requires the same accuracy and integrity and accountability to the public at-large and its readership as Entertainment Weekly knows just as well as The Enquirer. Journalists are certainly not exempt from criticism and must also be kept in check. I knew it was quite likely Breznican did in fact come here for all the reasons I described in the thread post. In fact, I would've done the same thing.

But I also knew the moment I saw him bragging about the Santayana quote that a respectfully cheeky repudiation was in order. I knew I had the proof that I quoted Santayana days before him in a Star Wars forum where he likely frequents on a daily basis because 1) he's a Star Wars fan just like us and he's genuinely curious about what people think, and that 2) it's a useful place to tap the pulse of the SW community, and 3) to stay appraised of fan theories that could inform his work (the direction of his interviews and his stories). Die hard fans like us on the Cantina are part of his prominent readership and a vocal audience (he knows now we're even more vocal than he bargained for). I backed up my assertions by performing multiple literature searches to make sure he didn't use that quote in other publications that could demonstrate he had used that quote before or similar ones, and that he was a Santayana hippie and Santayana quote trigger happy—my argument wouldn't be valid if he had been. Interestingly, I discovered it's a quote he has never used before in any of his publications, articles or books. It's a quote other Entertainment Weekly writers have very seldom used and in isolation in other genres not remotely related to Star Wars. And it's a quote I used on a thread that's been popular on the Cantina now for the past 2 weeks that sprung out of discussion on a prominent theory I developed, one that continues to get views and comments here and Reddit. If you look at how he used it, you can see that he just threw it in to precipitate the conclusion of the Snoke article to indicate the character was aware of past events, and to tie up the article in a nice little bow. It came across contrived, however, like he was looking for a place to use it. "So much for George Santayana's famous quote," eh? Yeah, so much for it.

Breznican knows about my research potentially linking TFA with mythology, Homer's Odyssey and Cyclops (where he found the quote) and my first post ever discussing, among other things Ovid's Metamorphoses and Homer's Odyssey, which has been applauded by many others here and in other forums. Breznican likely knows about my other posts: my thread on eyes as a prominent Disney marketing tactic (a central theme in his Lupita Nyong'o and JJ's interviews and both were keen on emphasizing eyes as integral to the story, further supporting my Cyclops theory), my Starkiller thread on potential sources of inspiration from science fact and stellar evolution (the science of which was conspicuously addressed in surprisingly scientific terms in his Nov. 13th article on "Starkiller Base and General Hux" keenly observing this: "Stars that don’t end their lifecycles in supernovas can become a red giant, consuming everything in their orbit in a colossal, crimson expansion of energy before collapsing again into a white dwarf," something that MSW scoffed at in a prior podcast ... something like the "Star Wars-is-just-science-fiction-and-we-probably-won't-be-going-too-much-into-the-science-fact-part-of-it type thing. Well, we were gonna get into that, and I predicted it. And he likely knows about my scoop in Oct. following the release of the "final" Trailer (#3) where I found the Lobot-like character even after hundreds of millions of people had seen the trailer and overlooked this.

Breznican is so resourceful, in fact, he likely knows who I am, my academic background and experience in journalism. And so he also knows I'm a fan of his, that I'm not malicious and that I'm all about validity in telling a story as well as validity in criticism, that I'm a particular character who is enjoying the marketing and will enjoy the film, and that I'm also keen to aptly communicate what I think and how I think it, that I also revel in the details and love to contribute what I think about them, like you. It's all in good fun under the sun of the First Amendment. And there are benefits to it. We're talking about the film extensively, which Disney, Lucasfilm and Bad Robot are loving, and we the fans are commenting on the reporting of the film, as well. The devil is in the details. And as I've shown, ultimately nothing new can be hidden for long under the twin suns.

 

No, Anthony Breznican is responsible for his own stories. It's his byline. THAT'S how journalism works buddy. And what should I regret? For being myself? Calling out what I see? Look, I'm not saying the F-word every other sentence like MSW podcasts, and they're being themselves. I accept them just the same. Just like I accept you. "Some wave their hats, some turn their backs." And the Santayana quote on the past, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,”—it's an interpretative quote. The writer's style. And I like his style. Disney, Lucasfilm or Bad Robot would never slide into a press release an essentially synthesizing quote regarding history repeating itself (or not repeating itself) as a lens to view the film. If it did happen, JJ or Andy told him. But I doubt that. It's on Anthony Breznican.