Project: The Jedi Path – an exercise in distressing

One of my eventual goals for my NRAC impression is to attend an event and publicly ‘interpret’ a collection of in-universe artifacts from the Star Wars galaxy in first-person. While I’m always on the lookout for such items, it is especially fun when one comes along that seems tailor-made for this purpose.
When The Jedi Path was first announced, I was very excited to hear about it, and found the inclusion of removable ‘artifacts’ especially intriguing. However, as I followed its release in subsequent years, I learned that—in true Star Wars fashion—there were a number of changes, edits, and revisions that needed to be made (these are documented by author Daniel Wallace in his end notes).
With these corrections in mind, I knew that if I was to use The Jedi Path for interpretive purposes, I wanted it to be the most up-do-date, ‘definitive’ edition without inaccuracies. This meant I would have to track down the updated-but-bare-bones trade printing. However, unlike the premium ‘vault’ edition, the hardcover mass-market edition comes branded with a big ol’ STAR WARS logo on the front cover and spine:

As I’ve explained before, the term Star Wars would be meaningless to a resident of the Galaxy Far, Far Away (doubly so for an educated, historian-type individual), plus I knew that an in-universe textbook published by or for Jedi students would definitely be logo-free. Since I needed the updated text of the trade edition, I knew I had two options:
1) I could buy both editions (spending an outrageous amount of money for a ‘vault’ edition with extras), cannibalize it for its logo-free cover, and bind the updated text inside.
2) I could buy the trade edition and then creatively distress the ever-loving Sithspit out of it to remove the logos!
Since the book already had a built-in backstory of abuse and was described by Skywalker as “heavily worn”, my path was clear!

While the specific copy this book purports to be was passed down from master to apprentice from 115 to 19 BBY, its various owners were not in possession of it during this entire period. According to the timeline given in Wallace’s endnotes, the various Jedi owned this copy for about 55 combined years…which is a long time for an individual textbook to survive. Add to this the fact that the final owner (Luke Skywalker) acquires it in 24 ABY from garbage salvagers near the ruins of Byss (destroyed in 11 ABY)…which means it spent over a decade floating around a planetary debris field.
We can assume that any extended period in space is tough on objects—especially something as fragile as a book—so I would need to suitably distress it. To this end, I let myself really go all out and get creative:

-The covers were smacked with chains, rasps, files, and whatever else I had handy that would give interesting patterns.
-The edges and corners were hit up with various sandpapers.
-Pages were thumbed through with muddy fingers. Dusty fingers. Oily fingers. Cheeto fingers.
-Pages were dog-eared. Covers were bent back and forth to simulate years of reading.
-Water, (blue) milk, and various juices were spilled on pages.
-Select places and edges were carefully singed with fire.
-The offending logos on spine and cover were scratched off carefully.
-To try and simulate a decade of abuse in the Byss system, I whacked it on a pile of gravel.
-After all that, I wanted to simulate the book being pounded (unshielded) by cosmic rays, so I left it sit under my car’s windshield for several months.

One of the most interesting features of The Jedi Path is a letter from Master Skywalker “(on official Jedi stationery!)” that explains the book’s in-universe provenience and its history. In the ‘vault’ edition this was included as a removable artifact, but the revised trade edition has it printed on the front endpapers. To help sell the in-universe angle, I wanted to have it tucked inside somewhere, so I would have to replicate it myself. I digitized the letter, sent it to my local copy shop, and had a few copies—to give me some options with distressing—printed off.
Finally, I removed the front endpapers, and glued down the back endpapers to hide the modern publishing information.

I have to say, as a lifelong book lover it took a lot of willpower and went against everything I know to begin deliberately abusing this book! In the early stages I had to keep reminding myself that I was doing so for a Purpose! While I feel that my attempt to remove the main Star Wars logo was only somewhat successful, in the end, I think the sum of the distressing steps really helps sell the book’s unique history, and I’m pleased with the final result of how this project turned out.

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