Before The Rain - Thoughts on Andor, art, and the power of fiction
Die Barrikade, Otto Dix, 1922
Today–before the final three episodes drop, before I mute every Andor-related word I can think of and take a break from what will be breathless and annoying social media discourse–I thought I might just drop an essay with my thoughts on the Andor series and explicitly “political” art. Originally these were going to be posts, but I realized I should take my own advice and write an essay instead of feeding someone else’s beast. How rebellious.
At first I thought maybe I should wait until I watch the whole series. I’m usually not so self-assured or trusting as to jump the gun, this is a rare case. Yes, the final act of a story is important to its overall effectiveness, how themes and plots are wrapped-up (or not) often make or break a story. But because of the construction of this particular story, at this point, it doesn’t really matter if the last three episodes will be as good as the rest. (Though they will probably be very good.) Not only do we already know the trajectory of the main character, between Season 1 and this point, the series has packed in so much incredible storytelling that has already wrapped up. Something more cell-like than hierarchical (an appropriate form for the content), where the parts retain an independence from the whole, even though they work together to make something bigger than their sum.
I feel confident. Maybe that’s foolish. We’ll see very soon.
In an effort to get this out of my head, and having noy written anything longer than an email in over a year, I’m not going to attempt a perfectly constructed essay. Something more like a list works better with my current bandwidth. I hope you’ll enjoy these errant thoughts, in no particular order:
Persuasion Doesn’t Yell
Andor’s storytelling has not been subtle in its point of view, but at the same time, has not veered into the safe and stagnant confines of morality play. This is what makes it powerful. Its persuasiveness at points veers close to propaganda, but it doesn’t feel like that; why? Because while it seeks to persuade you to its point of view, it doesn’t tell you what to think, but lays out a path that leads to certain conclusions. And it does this deftly. It leads you up a staircase where no step is missing. No leap of faith or logic is needed because time and effort has been taken to construct fictional scenarios that are realistic in how they play out. It’s the same for the characters, in that they feel realized, they feel of themselves in their world, that is, they have been given a point of view and their actions radiate from that POV and react to their environment, rather than changing arbitrarily in service of easier plotting or clumsy signaling.
I can almost hear some folks saying “well, that’s writing!” and yes, it is; it’s good writing. It’s probably not well known to folks outside of certain circles, but there’s been a growing demand that artists and writers make every subtext plain and every character a paragon. It’s sometimes said that not doing so means they believe in and think correct every horrible thing in their art. It is also proposed that audiences are simply too dull or lacking in interest to pick up on any subtlety in storytelling. Perhaps you’ve seen it mentioned in discussions of “media literacy” if you’ve seen it at all. It is a very real and cynical trend and has led to uninspired writing and a growing malaise among audiences. There are many works that defy this, but it’s nonetheless nice to see one so popular and “low brow” refute what sometimes feels like an overwhelming push to flatten & smooth stories.
Star Wars Isn’t Real
The World of Andor is fictional. Nonetheless it wants you to feel it like it’s real, because, among other things, it seeks to shape your reaction to authoritarianism. It wants you to recognize it and reject it, in its explicit agressions, media manipulations and its precursors in ostensibly liberal democracies (Cassian’s home, Global-South-coded, was destroyed by mining during the Republic, as Gorman, Western-European-code, was by the Empire in an obviously intentional parallel). Its method is to riff on real events without copying them wholly. It is in this way it becomes more widely applicable, a classic tale, one that may help you recognize what has happened, but may also create a yet uncompleted connection with what is to come.
This is true of Star Wars from the beginning (and much of Sci-fi/fantasy in particular) in the way it mixed creative elements with inspiration from history and human culture & society to create narratives that we can connect with intuitively without the speed bumps of historical fact. And because we connect on many levels, those narratives can significantly shape our points-of-view.
Art Isn’t Like That
I think many people will dismiss Andor and contemporary works like it (and perhaps already have) because it hasn’t inspired some arbitrary level of resistance or awakening to current events. But that’s not how art works, now is it? It shapes you, rewires your brain; it’s quiet work, and it won’t do the thing for you.
Others, along that same misunderstanding of art, no doubt will confuse watching, talking about and consuming merchandise/etc associated with Andor as acts of resistance, perhaps the only ones they need to make. Again, art won’t do the thing for you.
“Art is not a mirror; Art is a hammer.” A truncated version of Brecht’s famous quote, It’s easy to misunderstand, especially with the juxtaposition of mirror & hammer. It invites you to think of art as smashing the mirror, as a much more aggressive force. But the full quote is better: “Art is not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer with which to shape it.”
Mandatory Part About Capitalism
I know some folks dismiss nearly any work’s attempt at pushing back against the various crimes of acquisition, exploitation and creeping authoritarianism that are wrapped up in our capitalist status quo. “All critiques of capitalism become consumed & co-opted by it.” blah blah blah, I’ve heard all the takes and I just don’t buy it. Despite being used and abused regularly to further destructive goals, art’s ability to be used otherwise is not automatically nullified or co-oped by simply existing under capitalism. That so many can’t separate the human functions of art from the capitalist forces that squeeze money out of it is a problem of the imagination. It is a symptom of a mental block, of a kind of brainwashing, not actually impossible. The need for so many people to repeat this feels more like an excuse than a hard truth. We seem well-versed in the dangers of false hope, but there’s always a market for pessimism, especially when things are rough. To deny hope is as delusional as to deny doom when what you are really denying is the existence of possibility.
It feels obvious to me that art can function in and even use capitalism in a kind of underhanded, viral way. And I know much of that is due to me being an artist, having worked in marketing, journalism, adjacent fields. It all feels different when you know how it works, when you know what to look for. It ruins some stuff, but mostly it makes everything better. I can’t, in a few words, teach everyone how to see through it. But, you can start by simply asking “what is this really saying?” Not just what’s being said, but how? and by whom? Pay attention. Good art is worth focusing on; if you want to “get something from it” you’ll have to give a little. And if you see meaningful art being co-opted for some bullshit, the best thing you can do is not buy it.
Consumption of merchandise in lieu of action is not revolutionary. And this is the best move to diffuse radical art, to commodify it. But just because something can be commodified doesn’t destroy its essence or its message; it doesn’t undo the way it shaped you before it was a bauble, when it was a wild thought running through your headspace. Humans can be commodified, and have been, and are, but we, at our best, recognize the artificiality of this, that something has gone awry. And that is key, an awareness of what is really happening.
The Inevitable Backlash and other random asides
Andor is too popular and too beloved, so inevitably some people are going to get cranky, because some folks always do. They will be in their bullshit and probably say some wild things they’ll maybe later delete. I’m not going to engage, I think that’s the best tactic, just let them be cranky and as long as it doesn’t start spilling over into antisocial actions.
People are going to go on and on about what this means for “Adult Star Wars” and whatever. Honestly I don’t care. I do think we often misuse “adult” to mean “complex and well written” which is a disservice to kids' media, which deserves complexity and care just as much as adults do, probably more. But that’s a whole other essay.
Andor has taken a thoughtful approach to its storytelling, what some call “realistic” I think of as less abstracted. But like all art, it’s still framed, choices are still made in what is made explicit or just implied. There are far more “realistic” depictions out there, and whether we all realize it or not, Andor is still sparing our feelings a lot (for one note the lack of children in scenes of violence). There’s no morality in this, it’s an artistic choice in how you want to balance showing disturbing material to an audience; in what you want to accomplish. It is also a whole other essay.
Please watch The Battle of Algiers. Please watch The Battle of Algiers. Please watch The Battle of Algiers.
I think at some point, and ironically Andor may be that, Star Wars is going to implode from the weight of itself and its lack of focus. There is a kind of two-tiered thing that goes on with these big franchises: The “mainstream” media (usually TV & movies) and the core fan media (comics, books, games, etc). In the core fan media it’s usually more expansive, ideas get tried and thrown out of canon, and put back in, but it’s a non-casual crowd, so no one is confused because they stay engaged. With the mainstream media, you have a lot of casuals, and part of the reason to maintain a “canon” is to let them drop in and out and not get too confused.
What we’re experiencing right now, in many big franchises, is an ever-growing mainstream canon that makes balancing the needs of a casual audience near impossible. Star Wars feels particularly vulnerable here due to spreading its “canon” across many different shows and movies with wildly varying tones and target audiences. If you are going to have this all be connected (not just shared universe, connected) you are going to have a problem going forward.
In fact, I would say the problem has been here, but certainly Andor has made it worse. The themes of freedom, oppression, truth, violation, etc. have become so tangible as to be near impossible to ignore (they were always there, but there was more room to gloss over it). Certainly it’s possible to make kids’ shows that present this in age appropriate ways (Clone Wars had some quite good episodes exploring PTSD & war, for example), but is it likely?
I think it’s fairly obvious that there is not the level of respect for art as something beyond commodity to make sure stories are thoughtful going forward. Our media is filled with monsters that feed on money sausage; and they don’t care how it’s made. I’m sure even the Andor production made choices influenced by this. It won’t stop. But I do think nostalgia-mining, uninspired work will look even worse in Andor’s shadow. And honestly, I’m okay with that. I’m good with it. I like Star Wars, but I don’t love Andor because it’s good Star Wars, I love it because it’s good art.
