Disclaimer: The Organa family and the Galaxy Far Far Away are a part of Star Wars which was created by George Lucas. I am taking his characters out for a spin without his prior approval. I assure you, George, that I'm not making a dime from doing this. Also, the grass painting mentioned in this fic, and the Emperor's reaction to it, is a modification of the story of Ob Khaddar, an artist that offended the Emperor so badly that he had to flee Alderaan with a death mark on his head. You can read more about it in Tatooine Ghost and The Illustrated Star Wars Universe.
Notes: This piece was written for JediRita as a birthday gift back in February of 2005.
Art and the Law
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"How is my Princess?"
"Daddy!" Leia dropped her book to the desk. "When did you get home?"
"Just this minute." Bail met his daughter halfway, swinging her up into his arms for a kiss. She threw her arms around his neck and snuggled into the soft fur of his long coat as Bail walked across the room to sit on the couch. He plopped Leia down beside him. "Have you been studying hard while I was away?"
Bail was surprised to see his daughter pout in response to his question. Her little lower lip pushed its way out and her mouth turned down in a frown. "I don't like the new tutor. He's mean."
"He's mean? How is he mean?"
Leia huffed. "He won't let me draw! All we do is read boring books about laws. I hate laws! I want to be an artist, Daddy. Artists don't need laws!"
"Oh, they don't? Well." It was all Bail could do to suppress the laugh that tried so hard to escape him. Leia was the picture of disapproval with her face screwed up and her hands balled into tiny fists. He schooled himself to a serious expression. "Hm. That's a mighty big thing to say. I tell you what; I'll make you a deal. When you finish your boring laws today I'll take you to the museum and if you still think that artists don't need to know laws by the time we leave then I'll talk to your tutor."
"Really?" Leia's eyes widened in surprise.
"Yes, really." Bail bent down and kissed Leia on the head. "Now back to your studies. I need to change and go see your mother."
Leia hopped off the couch, excited. "I love you, Daddy!"
Bail finally allowed himself the laugh. "I love you too, sweetheart."
Bail listened to his daughter chatter as they moved from one room in the museum to the other. Leia was a precocious child with a charming and feisty personality that often reminded Bail of Padmé. There were hints of Anakin too. Leia's creativity in design also extended into an uncanny knack with all things mechanical. In fact, her natural talents in that area were what lead Bail and his wife to change tutors. While they didn't want to squelch Leia's dreams of art or put a damper on her creativity, they felt that changing the focus of her studies toward the abstracts of law, history, and economics might be wise. As the heir to House Organa, the responsibilities of rule could not be shirked and Bail felt it best to begin relegating Leia's artistic pursuits to activities outside of study.
"Time for a rest?"
Leia nodded, her head bobbing up and down at a rapid pace. She insisted on walking the galleries herself but her small legs wore out long before she was ready to leave. Bail had come to know the warning signs that his daughter was tiring and had devised a pattern to their walks that included rooms with benches at regular intervals. Today, however, Bail was modifying their normal routine. He took Leia's hand in his and tugged toward a pair of closed doors. A sign above read: 'Special Collections.'
"Let's take our rest in here today. I'm in the mood for a nice long sit."
"But, Daddy, you said I'm not supposed to go in that room."
"That's true. I did say that. But today is a special day." Bail knelt down to put his face level with his daughter's. "Leia, I think you're old enough now for us to talk about the art we keep in this room and to understand why it's important. I still would rather you not go in this gallery if your mother or I aren't with you. I feel that way because the things exhibited inside change on a frequent basis and you may have questions about them that you mother or I can answer. Understand?"
Leia put on her thinking face - it was a serious expression that made her look much older than her five years. It always tugged at Bail's heart, that expression, because it reminded him how quickly Leia was growing up.
"I think so, Daddy. I can go in the gallery now because I'm a big girl but I shouldn't go without you or Mother."
"That's my Princess." Bail smiled and tapped Leia on the nose with a finger. "Now, let's go in. Daddy's getting too old to kneel on the hard floor."
Bail sat on the bench absently gazing at the huge painting displayed on the wall across the room. The canvas, four meters wide and six meters high, seemed, at a distance, to be nothing more than a portrait. However, on closer inspection the painting revealed much more. Instead of simple brush strokes, the artist had meticulously painted thousands of scenes creating a complex composition from which his own face resolved. Titled What's In My Head, the divisionist images ranged from the benign to the shocking. A small pittin was placed between images of naked bodies. A dismembered thranta and the head of a stormtrooper shared space with fire lilies. It was a work Bail admired both for the skill required to execute it and for the guts it took to display it. Every time he looked at it he found another image that made him think - another bit of the work that shocked or provoked him in some way. It presented all that was good about sentient nature, and all that was abhorrent, in one climactic sweep.
In spite of his appreciation of the piece, Bail's attention was not really on the painting. It was on his daughter. They had walked the gallery for an hour before settling on the bench. Leia's eyes were huge as her mind attempted to take in everything at once. Bail knew that what he was doing was risky but he was counting on his daughter's inquisitive nature and maturity in this circumstance. Not many fathers would take their five-year-old daughter into an art gallery filled with images of sex and violence. Every work in the special collections was banned in some part of the Empire for content and while a few -- like the holorepresentation of a controversial grass painting that had offended the Emperor -- only had the distinction of making political statements that weren't currently in vogue, the majority of the works were definitely of a mature nature. Bail had spoken to the curator to ensure that two of the holoprojections that contained explicit sexual content would be deactivated before their arrival, but short of that, he let his daughter wander the area freely. Now they sat in quiet contemplation and it was time for Bail to explain why they were here.
"Leia, what do you think about the art in this area?"
Bail watched as Leia's legs kicked back and forth in the air. She had a nervous habit of fidgeting when under stress and since she was still young enough that her legs didn't reach the floor when seated, her preferred unconscious fidget was leg kicking. Her other was twirling her hair. Leia was currently twisting a lock over and over on her index finger. It wasn't a good sign.
"I don't know, Daddy." Leia frowned and stared at the floor. "It makes me feel funny."
"Funny how?"
Leia shrugged. "Well, some of it makes me sad."
"Which ones?"
"The grass painting."
"Why?"
"It was so beautiful and full of color and then, suddenly, everything withered and died and it all turned black and horrible." Leia looked up at her father. "Why would the artist do that? Why would he want to kill everything?"
Bail nearly sighed in relief. Leia was asking the right kinds of questions. Now it was up to him.
"The artist was using the field to say something about politics. You see, the land was beautiful but he timed the plantings so they would die off like that when the Emperor was scheduled to visit Alderaan. So beings from all over the galaxy got to see this beautiful art and when the Emperor showed up it turned to dust. This is how the artist feels about the end of the Republic and the rule of the Emperor."
"Oh!" Leia's eyes widened with understanding. "Didn't that make the Emperor mad?"
Bail nodded. "Yes. He was very upset. In fact he wanted me to arrest the artist and have him executed."
Leia gasped. "But you didn't did you? He's still alive, right?"
"No. I didn't, and yes, he is." Bail turned to fully face his daughter. "You see, we have laws on Alderaan that protected him. You've been learning about some of them while I was away. Here on Alderaan you can't be executed for a crime, no matter how serious it is. We respect life and the uniqueness of each individual. An offender might spend the rest of their life in a correctional facility, but we don't kill sentient beings. So, when the Emperor wanted me to execute the artist on a charge of sedition I had to explain that our laws didn't allow me to do that. In fact, I had to explain that the 'Rights of Sentient Beings' clause of our charter wouldn't even allow me to arrest him."
"What did the Emperor do?"
"He got very angry, called me a rebel sympathizer, threatened to have me ejected from the Senate on grounds of treason, and wanted to send stormtroopers to Alderaan to help enforce his will."
"But you're still a Senator and we don't have stormtroopers on Alderaan."
"That's right. What I did, instead of what the Emperor wanted, was censure the artist." Bail lowered his voice and brought his face close to his daughter's. "Leia, I'm going to tell you a secret. I agree with that artist. I think the Emperor is a horrible man and that the Republic should be restored. However, because I rule Alderaan, I can't say that. If I did, the Emperor wouldn't just be angry with me, he would be angry at our whole planet and I want to protect our people from his wrath. Perhaps one day I will be able to tell the Emperor what I think of him -- that I think he turns everything he touches to evil -- but I can't right now. I was very unhappy that I had to reprimand that artist, but I did it. I did it so the people of Alderaan could continue to live their lives without interference. All of them but that artist. He had to leave Alderaan and the Emperor still hates him to this day."
"I don't like the Emperor. He's a mean man if he doesn't let people say what they think!"
"I agree, Leia. But you must never say that to anyone but me." Bail held out his right hand with his pinky up. He said in a deadly serious tone, "Pinky promise me."
Leia put her tiny pinky up in the air and hooked it in her father's large one. They shook on it. "Pinky promise, Daddy."
When they were done, Bail reached out and gathered Leia in his arms. He turned her so they both faced the painting and he rested his chin softly on his daughter's head. "So, what other things in here make you feel funny?"
"Mmm. The ones when we first came in."
"The black and white stills?"
Leia's hair rubbed against Bail's goatee as she nodded.
"Why do you feel funny about them?"
"They're naughty!"
Bail had to bite his lower lip keep from laughing. After a moment, he mastered himself and got back to the business at hand. "Why do you think they're naughty?"
Leia turned in Bail's arms and looked up at him. Her little face was pink with embarrassment just as it had been when she first realized what she was looking at. "They show people's private spots," she said in a hushed voice.
"Yes, they do. But that doesn't make them naughty."
"Mother told me that showing your private spots in public is wrong!"
Now came a tricky thing. Bail had to find a way to explain erotic artwork while dancing around the subject of sex. The prints in question were a huge collection of stills shown in a group called, Beauty Exposed. The small images took up an entire wall and artistically depicted the genitals of nearly every sentient species in the galaxy. "What your mother said is true. Here on Alderaan it is our custom to keep our privates private. But that's not true everywhere. I know you've been studying world customs with your new tutor. You know how different worlds celebrate birthdays in different ways?" Bail watched his daughter's head bob up and down before he continued. "Well, lots of cultures celebrate their bodies. Some don't wear clothing unless they are going to be around outsiders. Others, like Wookies, are covered in hair and don't wear clothing at all. Some have ceremonies where they don't wear clothing because they think that the naked form is sacred. Even here on Alderaan we admire and celebrate life and individuality by appreciating our bodies. The difference is that we think of our nakedness as a gift."
"A gift?"
"Yes. To us, our bodies are our most treasured possessions. We cover them to protect them, to enhance them, and also because it means that when we take the covering off that we trust and care for someone. That's why your mother and I dress differently around one another than we do other people -- why we show one another our skins -- because we're giving one another something we don't give to anyone else. It makes it special that only I get to see your mother like that."
"Well, I've seen you and mother without your clothes and you see me without mine."
"That's right. You're our child. We trust you and you trust us. And our body servants see us without our clothes because we trust them. But the only man other than me that's seen your mother without her clothes is her father."
"Is Mother the only woman that's seen you without your clothes?"
Bail wondered silently how it was that children always asked the most pointed questions. He had no one to blame but himself; he'd opened the door wide for that one. If he skirted the issue or lied, he ran the risk of being found out later. With the kind of image he'd promoted during his early years in the Senate, Leia was sure to have questions later on. However, addressing the issue now might send mixed signals about sex. Bail suppressed a sigh and tried to find the right words. "No. My mother and my sisters all have seen me without my clothes on. Also, when I was at university, there was a young woman that I gave that gift to."
Leia blinked. "Why?"
"I cared for her very much and I thought that I might marry her."
"But you didn't. You married Mother."
Bail nodded. "That's right. But I didn't know your mother then. I didn't meet your mother until I was much older."
The answer seemed to satisfy Leia and Bail was relieved. He knew he'd likely have to answer questions about sex today but his reasons for doing this were more about law than sexuality. He waited to see if Leia had any more questions and then tried to redirect the conversation back to his topic. "So you see, Leia, those pictures aren't necessarily naughty. They're about the artist wanting to celebrate creation. To show that the naked form is beautiful. And it is. Very beautiful. But lots of beings feel uncomfortable when they look at the stills - just like you did. They think the pictures are naughty and that they shouldn't be shown in a place like this. That's part of the reason the artist made the pictures. He wanted to make people see that no matter what species or gender you are, no matter what size or shape you are, there are things about us that make us the same."
"Like having private parts?"
Bail couldn't stop the smile that came. "Yes. Like having private parts." He turned his attention back to the huge canvas across the room and pointed to it. "And this painting. It seems to be one thing when you sit back here but it was very different when you got up close, wasn't it?"
Leia looked at the painting and nodded.
"There are things in that painting, when I stand close to it, that bother me. Images that make me feel funny. But just because something makes me feel funny, or because I might think it's strange or naughty, doesn't make it any less a work of art. There's a saying: 'Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.' Do you understand what that means, Leia?"
Leia began to twist her hair again. "Mother taught me that! It means that I think pittins are cute but Auntie Tia thinks they're ugly."
"That's a good example." Bail knew the fidgeting meant Leia was ready to leave so he needed to make a final push. What he was trying to explain to Leia was difficult to understand, even for some adults, and he could only hope that it would work. "And just like Aunt Tia doesn't like pittins when you do, so lots of people think that the art in this area of the museum is ugly. They don't like it and they think that it shouldn't exist. Just like the Emperor being mad because that artist did what he did, other people with values different from ours either like or dislike things like that painting over there. But on Alderaan, just because you don't like something doesn't give you a right to destroy or make it go away. Here, our laws protect things -- even things we think are ugly -- because they are all a part of life. We value debate and controversy on Alderaan because we believe that it fosters tolerance. That means that we like to discuss things and disagree because we learn that way. Understand?"
"I think so, Daddy."
Bail picked Leia up off his lap and the pair stood up. He took Leia's hand and slowly started back to the entrance of the special collections. "I wanted to bring you here today, Leia, because you said something that worried me. Do you remember what you said?"
Leia shook her little head no.
"You said, 'Artists don't need laws.' I don't think that's true. Without laws that protect freedom of expression, none of the artwork in this area of the museum would be here. Without laws, the artist that made that grass painting would have been killed for what he did. Artists need laws, Leia, because beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all things are not the same to all beings. We all have different things we like -- be it because of personal taste or because of differences in culture -- and laws ensure that we respect our differences and celebrate them instead of use them as reasons to be disrespectful and cruel."
Bail glanced down at his daughter. She had her thinking face on again as she considered what he said. It was a good sign. "One day, Leia, you will take my place as Viceroy and First Chair of Alderaan. When you do, you will need to help and protect other artists by upholding the laws of Alderaan. That's why your tutor makes you study law and culture so much. He wants you to know your rights and the rights of others so you can create what you want and make it safe for others to do the same."
Leia said nothing until they reached the huge door that separated the special collections from the rest of the museum and Bail started to worry. He held the heavy door open as Leia exited but she turned in the entryway before she got all the way out. She looked up at her father. "You're right, Daddy. Artists need laws. But I still think they're boring and I still think the tutor is mean!"
With that, Leia turned on her heel and flounced away. Bail followed behind her, laughing.