Intertextuality and my Influences

First and foremost, 'Intertextuality' is a way of crafting an understanding of another work of literature, using another piece of work that is similar or related. Thus creating a interrealtionship between the two works and understanding in another form.

What pieces of work or artists have influenced me? A very complicated question when asked, even now I am not very sure if they are what have influenced me the most. But in saying, they are relatively interesting to me and have influenced who am I today. I would say the major influence of my life, is the well known and loved Star Wars series. They have done more than roped me into the universe of the series, but have brought me to an interest of our very own universe. I have never been so interested in something before (besides game development of course), I have to see anything and everything space related to learn more about the place we live in. My second choice may seem a little childish and possibly even weird, but it is MineCraft. Not so much for the game itself, but from the design perspective of the game. For example, the infinite sandbox where you can create and destroy everything! Or even create a complex circuit that can even become a working computer within the game. Lastly my third choice is very close to MineCraft (not so much now) but it is Notch, the creator of MineCraft. I feel as if I am very similar in a way to him, in the sense of we like creating our own games and many games even if they don't become anything more than a test. Although they might not seem to be as influential, they have been for me in the not too recent past, and they may change soon but I'll guess I'll see when it happens.

 

I know I have talked about star wars quite a lot, but I honestly enjoy talking about it and it has had a fair few influences on it. One influence George Lucas had while creating Star Wars, in 'A New Hope' it includes various aspects from a show Flash Gordon Conquers Universe. George had planned to license Flash Gordon before making Star Wars. The plot included two characters who had to infiltrate an Emporer's fortress, which George filled those two roles by Luke Skywalker and Han Solo. He had gained a lot of inspiration from the plot, closely following it with the respected characters from Star Wars. Another thing to note, that the style of the text crawl of flash gordon, was also used which opened each chapter.

 

A well known character of the star wars universe, had their costume designed after a character from the show 'The Fighting Devil Dogs'. 'The Lightning' as the character was called, had a very related design with their costume. If an image of Darth Vader and The Lightning were placed side by side, you would easily see the resemblance between the two. George also thought of the use of Stormtroopers from The Lightning's white armoured troops. 

I have an understanding that influence can be drawn from anywhere and everywhere. Researching the influences george lucas had in creating the series, has expanded my knowledge on the development of the movies. Although the similarities in the influences are closely related, I believe he had chosen the best qualities from the movies/films and created something of his own from it. I now see that even our own big influences can gain influence from anywhere and even what we see as masterpieces weren't just a brilliant idea from the blue, they have been formed from many ideas along the way.