Scalzi is clearly talking about the principle purpose of the work. The principle purpose of, say, Toy Story 3, is to be entertainment. It does a fantastic job of this, and includes morals, good dialogue, wit, humour, etc. to that end. However, it could have been good entertainment without the morals, if they'd decided that putting the morals in was contrary to their purpose (entertain the audience).
Star Wars is myth building. It happens, sometimes, to be entertaining too, but that's not its purpose. When it's at its most entertaining (Empire), it's because other people have been handed the myth framework and been given enough leeway to make it entertaining. But its primary purpose is not to be an entertainment, and if that got in the way of the myth-making, the myth-making won.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Star Wars is myth building. It happens, sometimes, to be entertaining too, but that's not its purpose. When it's at its most entertaining (Empire), it's because other people have been handed the myth framework and been given enough leeway to make it entertaining. But its primary purpose is not to be an entertainment, and if that got in the way of the myth-making, the myth-making won.