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Comment by juliangamble | Hacker News Reader

I love that Paul Krugman implies that Foundation copied Star Wars. (Ie Foundation was the original Empire Space Opera from which many Sci Fi authors cribbed including George Lucas)

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I read it completely differently. To me it seems he’s saying the show Foundation is copying Star Wars, which in his opinion is completely antithetical to the novel and so therefore he’s stopped watching the show.

That is indeed what Krugman is saying. It's pretty clear:

> "How does the Apple TV series (of Foundation) turn this (the novel, Foundation) into a visually compelling tale? It doesn’t. What it does instead is remake "Star Wars"

And having seen the Foundation show, having read the Foundation book and seen the Star Wars movie, I think he (Krugman) has a point.

Nope. Foundation was first published in 1942, and is something of an alternate take on the Space Opera w Evil Empire genre, which came earlier, with the first prominent example being E.E. "Doc" Smith's Galactic Patrol in 1934. Smith previously wrote the Skylark series of space opera stories, first published in 1928.

And while not identical, Smith's Lensmen and Lucas' Jedi Knights have a great deal in common.

No, he is implying they "Star Wars"-ified it; that they made it a show that is 'good vs evil' and all problems are solved by laser guns.

I don't see how he implies that at all.

Is it? There was a lot of space opera and space adventure and space imperialism in the 1940s and 50s. Claiming to be the original is a big claim.

Mind you, Lucas cribbed from everything in sight; samurai movies (Hidden Fortress), Westerns, war films (the trench run is from 633 Squadron). Partly why it was so successful.

> Mind you, Lucas cribbed from everything in sight;

Cause in point, Lucas cribbed Coruscant from Trantor

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