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In Light of Steve Perry's Comments on Teräs Käsi

Taigei - June 19, 2005

Many have contributed to the development of teräs käsi in the Star Wars universe. So it is with anything in George Lucas's sandbox: You can bring your own toys, but have to leave them for others to play with.

Point made in conversation with Perry:

Perry: Yeah, since GL owns the whole shebang, our characters get moved around as Lucasfilm wants. Couple of times, I've asked other SWs writers if I could use some of their guy, and same with me, but a couple of my folks have taken on new histories. Guri, my human replica droid got a background elsewhere, and I don't have a problem with stuff like that if they do a good job. Xizor shows up several other places, as does the criminal organization Black Sun. If somebody contradict[s] what I've laid out, that bugs me a little, but it happens. Gotta shrug that off. 

I was a little dismayed to discover there isn't a backstory to teräs käsi. I imagine writers having Tolkienesque stacks of notes about everything they include in a story, and thought there must be something more about teräs käsi Perry has filed away somewhere. There is, of course, but not in the literal sense I was thinking: Notes on teräs käsi genesis and development are filed away in Perry's experience with martial arts and understanding of how martial arts generally come to be:

Perry: I figured that teras kasi came to pass by somebody trying to come up with a more efficient fighting art, probably as an answer to one that was already around, which is how most of them seem to be created. The originator (whom I haven't thought about, really) would have been an adept in other arts, and he (or she) would have looked for holes in those and devised ways to fill them.

Got your butt kicked by a Jedi, you'd want to come up with ways to keep that from happening again.

So an outline of teräs käsi genesis is a bit like fill-in-the-blanks: Teräs käsi came to pass when [originator], master of [existing art], tried to come up with a more efficient fighting art, as an answer to weaknesses in [existing art] which [originator] discovered when he/she got his/her butt kicked by [Jedi]. This irked [originator], who perfected teräs käsi against Jedi fighting arts through frequent contests with [Jedi].

An outline, as above, inspires natural offshoots, such as: Because of [Jedi's] contests with [originator], [Jedi] was able to improve the unarmed fighting art of the Jedi by integrating principles of teräs käsi. Thus in each art can be seen a little of the other.

Throughout Perry's responses, it is evident he assumes what applies to most martial arts applies to teräs käsi. But, of course, we want to know what makes teräs käsi unique.

Thankfully, Perry gives us a specific model of influence that satisfies our desire to have teräs käsi be something unusual, but with clear principles: Pentjak Silat Serak. When asked how teräs käsi practitioners move and fight, Perry says a lot of what he was seeing for teräs käsi was similar to silat. He also says Phow Ji's match in MedStar I: Battle Surgeons (2004. Del Rey.) is typical of silat matches. So, from the first appearance of teräs käsi in Shadows of the Empire (1996. Bantam.), to its appearance in MedStar I: Battle Surgeons, silat has been an influence on Perry's image of teräs käsi.

Steve Perry (top row, second from right) and Steven Barnes (bottom row, first on left) photographed together with Silat Guru Stevan Plinck (top row, third from right). [Photo used with permission from pencaksilat.com.]

Perry practices Silat under Guru Stevan Plinck, who has a website dedicated to him with a Principles section of particular interest to TK fans.

For a true sense of Silat movement and fighting, Perry recommends the videos offered on the website. You can find a Pencak Silat fighting game, playable in your browser, at miniclip.com.

Star Wars novel readers may recognize author Steven Barnes in the photo, right, who wrote Cestus Deception (2004. Del Rey.). Barnes's book was of particular interest to me because of his devotion to martial arts, and because he wanted to show how Jedi move in his book. Barnes maintains the website, lifewrite.com.

I recalled Barnes mentioning Guru Stevan Plinck, but didn't know whether Perry had ever run into Barnes:

Perry: Well, yeah, Barnes and I tend to work up a sweat now and then. He lived in Vancouver, then in Longview, WA, for ten years, and pretty much all that time, we bumped into each other once or twice a week at Guru Plinck's silat class. Since we both have deep roots in that art, it naturally shows up in our writing. He's living down in L.A. now, doing movie stuff.

Here again, Perry illustrates that we create from our experiences. In fact, we cannot create something completely alien to us at all. Ideas form from experience like stars ripening in branches of galaxies. We sometimes discover well-formed ideas as if we had nothing to do with their creation. Perry didn't need to give much thought on teräs käsi genesis because most fighting arts begin and evolve similarly. He didn't need to make up the stances, movements and attacks for teräs käsi because, in so many words, his teräs käsi characters are born fighting. Essentially, the art was already formed, Perry just put a name to the thing.

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