The Legacies of Darth Vader

1. Forensics

"[The patient's] spinal injury also leaves him unable to breathe unaided. It severs the connection between the lungs and the medula oblongata. A person requires a respirator if the spinal cord is severed at any of the first three cervical vertebrae. At the fourth vertebra (C-4), a respirator would be beneficial."

- from a website dedicated to medical analysis of the injuries of Darth Vader, based on x-ray evidence and professional medical opinion

2. Histrionics


- a postcard submitted to the confessional blog PostSecret

3. Plastics

"The Darth Vader helmet is not just ludicrously well made, but is the first of its kind that has an integrated voice changer and sound effects box. Become the most evil man alive! Pre-order yours now."

4. Polemics

"What was deemed suitable fare for children or teenage audiences in 1977 has
become the dominant entertainment genre for the American adult in 2005. Slowly, inexorably a kind of backward-hurtling, intellectually arrested development has devolved and coarsened populist tastes to the most undemanding, least sophisticated level, content with funny costumes and spectacular explosions. Why read Dickens or listen to Mozart when you can smirk with Adam Sandler or tune in to The Bachelor? Even the dumbest American can watch Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie and feel superior."

- from Lawrence A. Johnson's op-ed on Star Wars, in South Florida's Sun-Sentinal

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