JMS on CompuServe (Sep 05, 1996) *POSSIBLE SPOILERS*
Brent Barrett
bbarrett at speedlink.com
Thu Sep 5 17:56:20 EDT 1996
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WARNING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The following posts may contain SPOILERS for
upcoming Babylon 5 episodes.
Continue at your own risk.
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THE FOLLOWING MATERIAL IS THE COPYRIGHT OF THE
RESPECTIVE MESSAGE AUTHORS AND CANNOT BE
REPRODUCED IN ANY FORM WITHOUT THE EXPRESSED
PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR.
Note that JMS has expressed his public permission
that all of his messages may be reproduced freely.
I give permission for my summaries to be reposted in
any form, however I reserve all rights to them and
the right to revoke this permission at any time.
[ Summary of subjects in this section: ]
Sb: #571774-Hugo Awards
Sb: #571740-Post-Product Question
Sb: #571908-B5 CLUB Email address
Sb: #572119-#Writers and Valen
Sb: #572196-#Kick Butt Pt.III
Sb: #572381-<<Grey 17 is missing>> [ Not a spoiler -- BB ]
Sb: #572467-<Rage's Thots: JMS' Lit>
Sb: #572584-Hugo Awards
#: 571774 S5/Babylon 5: General
03-Sep-96 20:19:57
Sb: #Hugo Awards
Fm: [name withheld by request]
JMS,
I know everyone else is saying this too, but congratulations on the
Hugo! You guys really deserve it!
Now a question (to anyone, really): Which DS9 episode is "The Visitor"? I
don't seem to remember that title.
Tracey
#: 571823 S5/Babylon 5: General
04-Sep-96 00:00:23
Sb: #571774-Hugo Awards
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
I'm reasonably sure that's the one where Sisko's lost in time and his son
saves him.
jms
#: 571740 S5/Babylon 5: General
03-Sep-96 19:23:55
Sb: #Post-Product Question
Fm: REBECCA ESCHLIMAN
In your breakdown of the time required to accompish an episode, writing to
airing, you mentioned, if I recall correctly, 52 days of post-producton work.
It struck me as surprising that the post-production pretty much equalled all
that had gone before. Is this length of post longer because of CGI? In other
words, how does this compare with a series such as "Murder She Wrote?"
(And, of course, absolute congrats on the absolutely-deserved Hugo win.)
- rje -
There are times you remember and times you forget, but your life is made up of
the times you remember.
#: 571824 S5/Babylon 5: General
04-Sep-96 00:00:26
Sb: #571740-Post-Product Question
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
No, that's pretty much uniform whether it's a big CGI episode or not. You
need time to edit it, do all the sound work, whatever EFX are needed, do your
final color-correction, mixes...on and on.
jms
#: 571908 S5/Babylon 5: General
04-Sep-96 09:00:06
Sb: #B5 CLUB Email address
Fm: CATHERINE BECIC
I was searching for the email address for Jim and haven't been able to locate
it. Could you refresh our memories.
My problem I wish to send to him is that both my husband and I rec'd our
newsletters about 6 weeks ago, but still no kit.
Thanks for your time,
Catherine
#: 571967 S5/Babylon 5: General
04-Sep-96 11:41:26
Sb: #571908-B5 CLUB Email address
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
It's jplb5 at aol.com.
jms
[ Summary: Asks if the Minbari have legends about Valen coming back when
he is needed (ala "Comes the Inquisitor"). ]
#: 572260 S5/Babylon 5: General
04-Sep-96 22:11:12
Sb: #572119-#Writers and Valen
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Yeah, there are some legends about Valen returning someday, but so far
they've been only legends, nothing more.
jms
[ Summary: A poster who's ruffled feathers in the past claims to be using
wit and accuses everyone in the forum of being "yes men and women" who
can't handle the truth about Babylon 5's problems.
NOTE: I'm being very, very kind to this guy. Must . . . Not . . .
Insult . . . Poster! -- BB ]
#: 572283 S5/Babylon 5: General
04-Sep-96 23:00:00
Sb: #572196-#Kick Butt Pt.III
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
"I'm here to express opinion like it or not."
Peter, I was trying to ignore this whole last thread, but you're really
becoming a pain in the ass.
Lemme explain a few facts of life to you.
EVERYONE is here to express an opinion. What happens here is that every
once in a while, some bozo (insert your picture here) comes riding in here and
has the notion that nobody else here is objective, that he and ONLY he dares
say anything negative, and puffs up like a pouter pigeon as proclaimer of
Truth, Justice and Objectivity, and all you poor saps out there just dang well
better get used to it and get over it.
Seen it.
There's LOTS of positive AND negative opinion expressed here. It didn't
spring suddenly into being when you materialized in our midst, Peter. Check
out the Grey 17 thread. A number of people were iffy on it, or downright
negative. I said they had a point, and agreed with much of it. So right off
the bat, you are proceeding from a false assumption, that nobody else here
critiques the show. So you're wrong on the face of it. Don't believe me?
Check the threads. It's there. And elsewhere. Always has been. Always will
be.
But for you, it's necessary to think, for your own ego, that you and ONLY
you DARE to stand up and speak ***THE TRUTH***. It's how you make yourself
feel important. And the next phase of that is that you must now put yourself
in the position of feeling persecuted for your statements...it's not enough
that you must criticize, you must feel *special* for doing so, reinforce your
own sad notion that only you are the Visionary One here. So you come in and
you insult people, deride them...indicate that anyone who takes issue with your
hamhanded and abusive messages is a nut, or an idiot, or a blind, ass kissing
fool.
Then you go to phase three. It's all right in line with what we've seen
here a thousand times before. You may think you've invented this little dance
of yours, but we've seen it before you, and we'll see it after you. You've
practically become a cliche.
Phase three, when people take offense at what you say, is to shrug and say,
"hey, it's just wit," and "chill out." Yessir, that'll work.
There's a particularly offensive sort of netjerk who thinks that as long as
he says what he says in a calm, flip fashion, he can say any stupid, offensive,
chowderheaded thing he so chooses...and if someone gets upset about it,
heyyyyyy, chill out, look how angry you're getting, you're shrieking, when I
was just calmly talking about how your mother works the corner of Sunset and
Vine for twenty bucks a pop, there's nothing wrong with that, hey, it's the
world's oldest profession, why're you being so defensive....
That's the game you play. And it is a game, make no mistake. Difference
is, some of us have been around long enough, and seen other yahoos like you
come storming in here doing the same thing, to *recognize* that it's a game.
And the rules of the game are as follows: "I can say anything I want, and
that's great, but if you get upset in response, then that's wrong, and bad."
You want to believe that you're the Last Bastion of Persecuted Truth, the
only person who can look at things calmly, so you get other people upset to
prove your point...it's a very nice, self-contained little mobius loop designed
specifically to reinforce your own self-image.
If you say something, that's your opinion, and you're damn well entitled to
spraypaint that opinion all over the walls, and if anybody doesn't like it,
screw 'em...but if the other users here exercise THEIR right to hold an opinion
about your boorish behavior, somehow THAT'S wrong, that's shrieking and
screaming and being an "idiot."
I would suggest that it's you who can't take criticsm, you who can't abide
people having an opposing opinion, on one level, because you need to deflate it
or deflect it or deride it...but at the same time, you *need* it, you batten
off it like a blood-swollen tick, you respond to it with glee, because you
think it makes you important in their lives, or at least your own. It's like
the ten year old kid sitting on a fence firing a slingshot at a horse, you
think that because you got a reaction, it *means* something.
And as for saying "it's just wit," there are two primary requirements for
wit: 1) it must be funny, and 2) it must not proceed from maliciousness.
Neither of those conditions is operational in your messages. They are mean,
venal, petty, self-indulgent, self-congratulatory, derisive, ill-mannered and
offensive.
But they're not witty.
That's just what you hide behind, you think it excuses any stupid, hare
brained thing you choose to spout...it's just wit, just bein' funny.
Like I said...seen it.
Finally, for this:
"Joe, you comments are cute at times, but remember I tell it like it is. If you
want to talk to just yes men, and women then they're all yours. Fail them, and
they'll east you alive."
No, you don't "tell it like it is." That's more of your ego, your sense of
god-given mission, that somehow you know the Truth and nobody else here has
sufficiently evolved to your level yet. Nor do I talk to just yes men and
women. That's again your way of dismissing other people here, writing off
their opinions as "yes men" while insisting your own is more valid because
you're "objective," when you're really just being boorish. Nobody here is a
yes-ANYthing. There's disagreements, criticism, even some outright
knock-downs. But you don't see them.
Because the universe of Peter Stathis is *just* big enough to contain Peter
Stathis, and nothing much more than that. Your messages are intended for the
greater glorification of Peter Stathis, to elicit persecution for the poor,
embattled Peter Stathis, so that you may be crucified on a cross of your own
making because you need the pain and the glory and most of all you need to be
*right*.
Because you are none of those. You are, simply, ill-mannered and in the
final analysis utterly irrelevant. The only thing more irrelevant than you, is
your opinion. But only because it rides into this forum stapled to a horse's
ass.
jms
#: 572381 S6/Babylon 5: Spoilers
05-Sep-96 03:49:36
Sb: #571560-#<<Grey 17 is missing>>
Fm: SIMON PALLETT
Joe,
After reading that post, I now wish even more that I had been able to attend
WorldCon. <g>
Oh yeah, I was wondering: do you have any special provisions for feline
viewers of B5? You might not believe it, but I'm certain my cat is a fan.
Every time it gets to 18:05 on Sunday, and B5 comes on, she wanders into the
room, takes up position on a chair near to the TV, and keeps one eye on the set
whilst pretending to wash herself.
I'm serious, she does this without fail, every Sunday! <g>
Perhaps you need to set up a B5 Feline Fan Club...<g>
Simon Pallett
#: 572636 S6/Babylon 5: Spoilers
05-Sep-96 14:01:48
Sb: #572381-<<Grey 17 is missing>>
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
I'm not suprised...the cat's probably keeping an eye out for shadows.
Cats are well-known shadow-detectors, you know. Whenever you see one looking
up into a corner of the room, and you don't see anything there, now you know
what they're *really* seeing....
jms
#: 572467 S5/Babylon 5: General
05-Sep-96 07:43:36
Sb: #<Rage's Thots: JMS' Lit>
Fm: CHAD UNDERKOFFLER
Hiya Joe...
Howareya?, congrats on the Hugo and starting production of season 4, etc.
While I was home a couple few weeks ago, I found a hardcover of DEMON KNIGHT.
Instantly, I snatched it up and devoured it. Here's a little of Rage's Thots
on the work.
*The first few chapters were very King-y (meaning you do that small
northeastern town thang well) save for the obvious product-placement sort of
thing SK does, which shades into (plotwise) a Barker sort of conflict. There
in the middle, and the middle-end & end-end, we get a real good dose of your
'unadulturated' voice. This all is just how the book felt, and it's meant as a
compliment, so far as that goes.
*You've used a great set-piece that I've also written myself, the
telekinetic trashing his room in his nightmares. I just gotta find a story
where my scene will work. <g> It's a cool concept... these greatly-powered
people *not* having absolute control of themeselves, just like the rest of us.
Make me think of various Superman-ish stories where Kal wakes up amidst the
wreckage of his bedroom.
*I like the way the priest (and the crucifix & holy water) were
actually useful and potent, and how you could see that this was sorta one of
the only times in which they could have been potent.
*The last (very very last) scene with the priest was BEAUTIFUL. Well
worth the price of admission.
*Lots of neat Shadow imagery, but I may be reading too much Bab5 into
it. Still amazingly cool, tho.
*I think you bobbled the ball upon occasion... and they were mostly
sins of ommission, things I think could have been further developed. The only
example that springs to mind was Mavis(?) town-gossip and eavesdropper on the
party line. I was expecting/hoping for a fate in which her nosiness fried
her... but you didn't really do it that way, and also you didn't go for the
reversal. Eh. Maybe I was reading too far into it.
All-in-all, a fun read.
And-- knowing full well you are busy as heck and have better things to do-- if
I may impose some (it is to be hoped) minor impositions upon you...
* A few months ago, in a Comes the Inquisitor thread, you mentioned the
Synanon game. I can't find anything on it. Ok. I admit it. I'm pathetic.
Can you point me to where I can find out more info on this?
*I just bought and consumed the paperback of CITY ON THE EDGE OF
FOREVER. If the next time you see Harlan, could you please tell him I think I
got blisters on my *eyes* from the first two pages, I'd be much obliged. <g>
[Damn, can he WRITE!]
Rage
Ranger of Washingdome
"There is no [good quotes], only Zuul!"
#: 572637 S5/Babylon 5: General
05-Sep-96 14:01:50
Sb: #572467-<Rage's Thots: JMS' Lit>
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Thanks.
The Synanon game is (more was than is, but that notwithstanding...) used
in drug and alcohol counseling programs. If you'll check the psychology wing
of your local library, you'll probably find information on it there.
Re: the scene you mention you'd've liked to have seen...it was there,
actually. The editor of the book snipped it for length. (I think there were
about six or seven substantive scenes deleted to bring it under 100,000 words,
which was about right for them size-wise.) With most of them you don't feel
the absence; with some, you do.
My appraisal: it's a decent enough first novel. It was strictly
learn-as-you-go, having never done it before, and really only doing it to see
if I could do it, and because I couldn't find the book I wanted to read, so I
wrote the darned thing, never really figuring on selling it. It sat in the
closet for something like 2 or 3 years before my agent bugged me into letting
her read it. The second novel, OtherSyde, is something of an improvement, I
knew a little better then what I was doing. And the next novel, whenever I
have the chance or time to write it, should be even better. It's going to be a
long one, a 1,000 page contemporary dark fantasy with some interesting edges to
it. Got a great title for it, it's all outlined, just gotta find time to write
it.
jms
[ Summary: Offers congratulations for the Hugo win and comments that she
offered them in person, but JMS didn't seem to hear her that night. ]
#: 572639 S5/Babylon 5: General
05-Sep-96 14:01:55
Sb: #572584-Hugo Awards
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Thanks...I'm not sure I heard much of anything that night....
jms
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