ATTN JMS *and* everyone else!: Thanks

[B5JMS Poster]

Subject: ATTN JMS *and* everyone else!: Thanks
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 No. | DATE        |  FROM
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+  1: Aug 20, 1996: garth at garlic.com (John M. Garth)
*  2: Aug 20, 1996: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)

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From: garth at garlic.com (John M. Garth)
Lines: 40

While watching Passing Through Gethsemane again last night, I decided I had
to post this.

Over the course of the first two seasons I'd watched B5 just like I watch
other SF TV shows ... while reading or doing something on my computer.   
After all, on most shows you don't need to see every episode, and if you 
miss something because you're not paying attention it doesn't really make
any difference because it won't affect next week's show anyway.

When I saw Severed Dreams, though, I realized what so many of you had
already done, that this show was different.  I stopped doing other stuff
during the show and paid attention.  I also sought out this newsgroup
and started learning about everything I had missed.

I'd like to repeat the thanks so many other people have expressed to JMS 
for creating such a fascinating show, but also to thank the people who 
moderate and contribute to this newsgroup, who (with the help of the 
lurker's guide) have caught me up enough on the show that I can now 
attempt to explain (only during commercials, though) to my wife what's 
*really* going on.

Finally, one last comment on paying attention to the show - the writing
is "information dense" (showing my scientific training, I'm not sure 
what term you literature majors would use).  Every line *means* something,
there's nothing wasted, nothing thrown away.  If you miss a line, you've 
missed an explanation for something you've been wondering about, or a 
clue to something that you'll need next week (or next year).  In my 
experience the only work I can compare it to in terms of its information
density is "The Feynman Lectures on Physics", which can be read even by
non-scientists for pleasure, but which contains a wealth of information
in every paragraph (I well remember discovering that what I'd thought 
was just an offhand remark was the focus of a final exam question ... and
I've really enjoyed reading some of the "final exam" type essays written
on similar B5 "offhand remarks").

-- 
John M. Garth                                 garth at garlic.com
South Valley Internet  =  garlic.com  =  http://www.garlic.com
Gilroy, California, "The Garlic Capital of the World"


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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Lines: 12

Thank *you*...the pleasure is entirely mine.

Re: information dense, that's about right.  I believe in writing fairly
lean; if it doesn't belong there, it shouldn't be there.  Thanks for
noticing.



 jms



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