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I'm readin the novel of AOTC right now. It's kinda interesting to read that even the Jedi have no clear idea what "bringing balance to the Force" means...
Looks like GL has returned from a little over explanative mode in TPM to a more mystical, vaguer approach of the Force.
I even haven't come acroos the word "midichlorians" yet.

that sounds good to me. some things are better left unsaid. and some forces are better left mystical.

Certainly.

Lao Tzu ( Chinese Mystic ) : " Those who know, tell it not, and those who tell, know it not ! "

But then, who believes a Chinese mystic?

Hmm...makes sense...

Midichlorians is a weird word anyway, like carbohydrates.

I think GL is rethinking very much stuff he used on TPM.

everywhere I look, threads from queeq saying he's reading it all

btw, midichlorians is based on a RL bio fact... check the EpI, IV-VI section... name: midichlorians...

I hope the ways of the Force and the Force will not be totally explained!

May I remind people that midichlorians were not in any way meant to distract from the mystical nature of the Force.

no, you may not
you didn't said the magic word!

You mean "Yerssot is the King of the Wackos?" That's 7 words.

One of the precepts of the zen way of thinking is that the direct experience of the ultimate reality cannot be described in words ... essentially because the ultimate reality is a state of unity or oneness ... and the physical universe, and our minds etc. are based on variety or " many " ... more than one. So whenever you try to bring in language, to describe a state of unity, you'll never succeed, because diversity cannot convey oneness. Language stems from the intellectual mind, and the mind always seeks to break down and analyze by an intellectual process of logic the ONE, into the many ... that is it's fundamental nature. Hence language cannot be used to describe or convey the direct experience of oneness. The aim of zen is therefore to break the tendency of the mind to intellectually analyze and break down the universe and events in a logical process.
The first and probably most important zen koan ( or riddle ) posed by the master to the new zen student is : " You have heard the sound of two hands clapping ... what is the sound of one hand ? ". The thing is, this riddle has no logical answer ... the neophyte student spends many hours meditating on this riddle, and the natural tendency is to intellectually try to FIND a logical reply, where there is none .... it is precisely this way, that the normal logical intellectual / mental processes are broken, because the mind is made to constantly think logically, analytically, in an attempt to find a logical answer which does not exist, and in the process ... the tendency of the mind to analyze and break down .... BREAKS DOWN .... especially if the meditative process is strong and concentrated ... sort of like a computer malfunctioning.
Once that happens, there is a sudden illumination ... an experience of unity, which is beyond the mind, or the senses, and consequently words. It can only be experienced.

The force is something like that .... it can be vaguely described in terms of midichloreans or whatever ... but ... it's ultimate reality can only be experienced not described in words, or understood in a theoretical intellectual way by means of analysis or logic ..... it is the " sound of the one hand " ! There IS an answer to the question, what is the sound of one hand ... only ... it cannot be said in words, because it's not a logical or analytical answer ... the answer can only be EXPERIENCED. That's where Lao Tzu's statement : " Those who know tell it not, and those who tell know it not." is coming from.

Lucas has used a lot of influences from eastern religions and philosophical concepts in Star Wars.

Yoda : " Don't THINK ! Feel ! ..... "

Incidentally, these same words were said by Bruce Lee in the move Enter The Dragon. Bruce Lee, apart from being a great martial artist, had a profound knowledge and understanding of zen and taoist concepts

But midichlorians aren't really an attempt to explain the Force at all. They are a bridge, a means via which the Force can be accessed, the unlocking of the potential of a Force adept, a mysterious race in ther own right...

... but they are NOT the Force! That is as ineffable as ever.

So your saying it's just part of it, part of the Force. Cool.

the symbiotic theory, kinda like mitochondia and chloroplasts. ush, i agree with you about being a bridge and not the force itself. i just liked not having such a scientific view, with blood samples and microscopic organisms, and symbiosis. i liked it better when it was "the force is strong with this one" as opposed to midichlorian levels. that may not be explaining the force itself, but it is giveing more detail to how it is utilized and known about. which de-mystifies the force a little. there, i think that is the argument against them. not that i wholly agree or disagrree with it. being a biologist, i kinda liked the idea at first, but now i skate the fence.

Well, GL just liked the idea via which someone's force potential could actually be quantified. I guess the whole structure of Force adepts becoming Jedi did not work otherwise, because the Jedi cannot possibly scour all the worlds trying to sense force adepts; there has to be a 'mundane' means of detecting it that is a standard medical test for new-borns.

Or, they can go scour worlds for Jedi.

thanks ush, i never really thought of it like that before. but it still doens't change the fact that i had a feeling of the jedi/force being de-mystified. in the ot, the force just seemed to be something that couldn't be quantified. you couldn't see it or study it, just feel it. it was a matter of faith vs. science and now they've brought in science to explain faith. but i see your point that a quantifiable (and heritable for the skywalkers) trait would be necessary to be added, at least for the indentification process.

Yeah, I can see how that might disappoint some people. But it isn't as bad as some people make out; it wasn't an attempt to simply reduce the Force to little bacterial things in the bloodstream.

Rex, do you mean the Jedi should find new Jedi? That woukd be logisitically impossible.

I ment to put a after the sentence.

Well, I'm still happy that does not return in the story.

I finished the novel and I must say: it makes me feel very happy. The humour's pretty good again and for the first time since ROTJ I feel that something's at stake again: TPM did NOT give me that feeling at all.

the damn book has not come out in Norway yet, god damn slow book stores

I got it via Amazon.co.uk, on Express delivery. I finished reading it in two days.