Gib Van Ert's Blog
February 15, 2013
Great review from Cory Doctorow on Boing Boing
From Boing Boing, 15 February 2013:
A Long Time Ago, Gib Van Ert's memoir about growing up with Star Wars became news last Christmas, when it disappeared from Amazon following a bogus trademark question. It's been back for months now, and has been in my to-read pile for much longer, and I've finally had the pure pleasure of reading it.
A Long Time Ago is a thoughtful, funny, and beautifully written story of the role that Star Wars played in Van Ert's life, shaping his destiny as he was raised by a USMC-deserting draft dodger and a runaway Texas beauty queen in small town British Colombia. Like me, Van Ert saw the first movie as a small boy, and thereafter principally experienced it through toys, records and merchandising tie-ins. His critiques of the Kenner action figures are both scathingly hilarious and bang on, and that's pretty much a microcosm for the whole book.
By Van Ert's own admission, he's not the biggest Star Wars fan that ever lived. But Star Wars was a gateway into other nerdy passtimes -- comic collecting, Atari home systems, coin-op video games, Dungeons and Dragons -- and he does an excellent job of tracing the curious ways that the specific nerdiness of his (and my generation) shaped his intellectual and personal pursuits.
He explains how he fell away from Star Wars fandom after the third movie, forgot about it until the "special editions," and experienced his first rumblings of anxiety about the destiny of his nearly forgotten but warmly remembered passion. He nails the prequels -- fish in a barrel, but still -- and then ties it all into a story of personal development that's sweet, hopeful and wistful.
It's a short book and a quick read, and it rewards the reader with an echo of the excitement, disappointment, anger, delight, and, ultimately, love, that Van Ert feels for the franchise.
A Long Time Ago, Gib Van Ert's memoir about growing up with Star Wars became news last Christmas, when it disappeared from Amazon following a bogus trademark question. It's been back for months now, and has been in my to-read pile for much longer, and I've finally had the pure pleasure of reading it.
A Long Time Ago is a thoughtful, funny, and beautifully written story of the role that Star Wars played in Van Ert's life, shaping his destiny as he was raised by a USMC-deserting draft dodger and a runaway Texas beauty queen in small town British Colombia. Like me, Van Ert saw the first movie as a small boy, and thereafter principally experienced it through toys, records and merchandising tie-ins. His critiques of the Kenner action figures are both scathingly hilarious and bang on, and that's pretty much a microcosm for the whole book.
By Van Ert's own admission, he's not the biggest Star Wars fan that ever lived. But Star Wars was a gateway into other nerdy passtimes -- comic collecting, Atari home systems, coin-op video games, Dungeons and Dragons -- and he does an excellent job of tracing the curious ways that the specific nerdiness of his (and my generation) shaped his intellectual and personal pursuits.
He explains how he fell away from Star Wars fandom after the third movie, forgot about it until the "special editions," and experienced his first rumblings of anxiety about the destiny of his nearly forgotten but warmly remembered passion. He nails the prequels -- fish in a barrel, but still -- and then ties it all into a story of personal development that's sweet, hopeful and wistful.
It's a short book and a quick read, and it rewards the reader with an echo of the excitement, disappointment, anger, delight, and, ultimately, love, that Van Ert feels for the franchise.
November 15, 2012
Nice review on Amazon.com
Reader Tom Dyer gave A Long Time Ago a five-star review on Amazon. Here's what he said:
I fall into that category of the lucky Star Wars fan. I was 6 years old in 1977 when the the movie came out, and the prime ages of 7-8 for the toy bonanza between SW and ESB. The passage of time hasn't been the kindest for my own recollection of my childhood, and many of my memories of Star Wars back then are snippets that I either remember distinctly, or remain hazy to this day. However, it's books like Gib van Ert's 'A Long Time Ago: Growing up with and out of Star Wars" that jar those bits of memory that have remained tucked away, waiting for that impetus to be recalled to my consciousness. Gib so accurately captures the nostalgia of making the trip with our moms to the one store that seemed to have THE definitive action figure inventory, the confusion around images in the storybook that weren't in the film, and devising the wildest theories as to what it all meant. His experiences with the excitement around the releases of ESB and ROTJ were no doubt eerily similar to those of every other kid going through elementary school. We all eventually grew up however, became more interested in girls and sports than our action figures, and subsequently packed away the toys for goods, or in some our cases, threw them out. What I didn't expect from this book was the little tug of emotion I felt as the author boxed his away and moved on. Gib's disappointment with the prequels is spot on with my own, and very accurately depicts the opposite in which, as adults, Star Wars had become part of our lives. We lived and breathed it as children, but merely watched it in our older years. The original trilogy era was a time that to varying degrees left an indelible mark on our lives. Now as a 41 year old with my own 6 year old daughter, I'm excited to be able to take her to see new Star Wars films in the coming years. I can only hope she recalls her own experiences better than my own, or that she has books like Gib van Ert's to help her relive hers. A Long Time Ago: Growing Up With And Out Of Star Wars
I fall into that category of the lucky Star Wars fan. I was 6 years old in 1977 when the the movie came out, and the prime ages of 7-8 for the toy bonanza between SW and ESB. The passage of time hasn't been the kindest for my own recollection of my childhood, and many of my memories of Star Wars back then are snippets that I either remember distinctly, or remain hazy to this day. However, it's books like Gib van Ert's 'A Long Time Ago: Growing up with and out of Star Wars" that jar those bits of memory that have remained tucked away, waiting for that impetus to be recalled to my consciousness. Gib so accurately captures the nostalgia of making the trip with our moms to the one store that seemed to have THE definitive action figure inventory, the confusion around images in the storybook that weren't in the film, and devising the wildest theories as to what it all meant. His experiences with the excitement around the releases of ESB and ROTJ were no doubt eerily similar to those of every other kid going through elementary school. We all eventually grew up however, became more interested in girls and sports than our action figures, and subsequently packed away the toys for goods, or in some our cases, threw them out. What I didn't expect from this book was the little tug of emotion I felt as the author boxed his away and moved on. Gib's disappointment with the prequels is spot on with my own, and very accurately depicts the opposite in which, as adults, Star Wars had become part of our lives. We lived and breathed it as children, but merely watched it in our older years. The original trilogy era was a time that to varying degrees left an indelible mark on our lives. Now as a 41 year old with my own 6 year old daughter, I'm excited to be able to take her to see new Star Wars films in the coming years. I can only hope she recalls her own experiences better than my own, or that she has books like Gib van Ert's to help her relive hers. A Long Time Ago: Growing Up With And Out Of Star Wars
November 3, 2012
Listen to my interview on CBC radio
Follow this link to listen to my interview on CBC Radio One Vancouver. I talk about how Star Wars affected my life and our generation, and what Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm may bring.
http://thissortofthing.com/index/2012...
http://thissortofthing.com/index/2012...
September 26, 2012
A Long Time Ago reviewed on Wired.com
I'm delighted to share with you my first non-customer review. Wired.com's great GeekDad blog has dubbed A Long Time Ago "geekdad approved" in a review by Dave Banks. From the review:
Reading through the pages, I found myself smiling and nodding my head along with Van Ert’s memories, which were incredibly similar to mine even though I experienced them half a continent away. However, that’s not to say he doesn’t have some personal observations in this thoughtful narrative...
At the end of it all, they are just movies. But for people like you and me, they meant a lot more; each film was a meaningful mile marker on our childhoods. A Long Time Ago captures those memories and transports you back to the living room floor, when the shag carpet was the Dagobah swamp and the gap between the couch cushions was the Death Star trash compactor. These are times worth revisiting and this memoir helps to bridge the gap. If you’d like to revisit a galaxy far, far away, give A Long Time Ago a look. As Van Ert’s daughter says, “It’s a good story, uh?”
http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2012/09/...
Reading through the pages, I found myself smiling and nodding my head along with Van Ert’s memories, which were incredibly similar to mine even though I experienced them half a continent away. However, that’s not to say he doesn’t have some personal observations in this thoughtful narrative...
At the end of it all, they are just movies. But for people like you and me, they meant a lot more; each film was a meaningful mile marker on our childhoods. A Long Time Ago captures those memories and transports you back to the living room floor, when the shag carpet was the Dagobah swamp and the gap between the couch cushions was the Death Star trash compactor. These are times worth revisiting and this memoir helps to bridge the gap. If you’d like to revisit a galaxy far, far away, give A Long Time Ago a look. As Van Ert’s daughter says, “It’s a good story, uh?”
http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2012/09/...
