JMS on CompuServe (Sep 10, 1996) *POSSIBLE SPOILERS*
Brent Barrett
bbarrett at speedlink.com
Wed Sep 11 02:23:37 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.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Archives of this material may be found at:
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[ Summary of subjects in this section: ]
Sb: #574660-HUGO Award
Sb: #574716-#Babylon Project and LOAC
Sb: #574863-I Found Demon Knight!
Sb: #574905-Kick Butt Pt.III
Sb: #575095-Questions
Sb: #575153-Religion ??
Sb: #574985-<<best CGI>>
[ Summary: Congratulates JMS on the Hugo win, especially for "The Coming
of Shadows." ]
#: 574740 S5/Babylon 5: General
09-Sep-96 18:01:22
Sb: #574660-HUGO Award
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Thanks; that was the one where we felt we really hit our stride.
jms
[ Summary: Asks if there was no interstellar/interplanetary law prior to
the Babylon Project. ]
#: 574741 S10/INDEPENDENCE DAY
09-Sep-96 18:01:23
Sb: #574716-#Babylon Project and LOAC
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
No, there were certainly agreements and regulations between the races
that had contact with one another, governing crimes and customs and the like.
jms
#: 574863 S5/Babylon 5: General
09-Sep-96 21:07:57
Sb: #I Found Demon Knight!
Fm: DAVID BELT
Joe,
I have finally found a copy of Demon Night! Or rather a book search found a
1rst edition copy with the dust jacket intact. They are still searching for
Othersyde, but said they do expect to find it. I am going to give them to my
wife for Christmas. If I were to send them to you, could I impose upon you to
sign them and send them back? (I would pay postage both ways, of course.)
Dave
#: 575246 S5/Babylon 5: General
10-Sep-96 15:33:30
Sb: #574863-I Found Demon Knight!
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
If you sent it with a self-addressed, stamped envelope or mailer, yes,
otherwise it'll sit here and I'll forget to get around to sending it back.
jms
#: 574905 S5/Babylon 5: General
09-Sep-96 22:39:49
Sb: #573871-#Kick Butt Pt.III
Fm: MICHAEL W. MAHONEY
Joe:
You are right. With Stathis, the information superhighway is one
tremendous opportunity: a chance to play his favourite game and receive
instant gratification. I understand him -- 'done much the same thing myself,
on occasion. But there are places for that sort of thing, alt.flame and such,
and ways to do it: for fun on both sides, not pure irritation. There is great
fun to be had by verbally sparring with like-minded, witty people over the 'net
-- being cleverly insulted is at least half the fun, and the best spur to
creative and pointed repartee.
I remember a month-long exchange with someone called POLARIS.... Ahhh,
the memory still warms my heart and brings forth a chuckle. The struggle for
the precisely placed barb-- the multithreaded rejoinders--- we got nasty, and I
put out some of the juiciest invective I've ever seen, anywhere. So did he.
We traded insults worthy of Winston Churchhill and Bernard Shaw. I tell you,
we were *literary*.
A well-crafted insult isn't irritating. A witty, well-written,
pointed, and clever flame is a pleasure to read -- it leaves readers wincing
and saying "Owww!" between coughs of laughter. (If you've read *The
Fountainhead* you'll know what I mean). Good insults incite response. And a
flame war between talented masters of invective can have me following the
thread just to laugh, wince, and appreciate good-natured cleverness and
creativity.
The problem with Stathis is that he is incapable of holding his own in
a verbal free for all with a talented opponent. He is not a talented, or even
intelligent, writer. You are a professional -- look at his posts. His
messages are filled with childish errors -- someone who takes pride in good
invective doesn't leave himself open by leaving spelling and grammatical errors
in his posts -- it's a classic boob. Stathis tries to put himself across as
calm, intelligent, and reasoned; I assume in order to keep himself on the
moral high ground. There is nothing better than to reply in a scholarly tone
while one's opponent rails away with obscenity after insipid obscenity. But
Stathis isn't credible here, either. Not only does he lack the vocabulary to
pull it off, but his messages regularly degenerate to the very common.
Unprofessional. He tries to be flippant, but he fails to pull that off, too.
Stathis' messages are garbled, pointless, and show too much of himself to be
entertaining. In short, his writing is inferior.
Stathis would be well-advised to buy a dictionary, thesaurus, and spell
checker; then learn English, watch Monty Python, and come back. If he's very
lucky, he might drop into some of the .flame bases and actually catch some good
invective -- but that isn't likely, as net insult has degenerated into the
stathisesque in recent years -- petty, childlike, obscene bickering with no
value, literary, entertainment, or otherwise. Pity.
And that is the root problem with Stathis. Not that he enjoys an
exchange of insults -- many talented, intelligent, interesting, and
accomplished people have a great time trading good nastiness. No, the problem
with Stathis is that he has no talent for it -- thus, he is annoying.
Instead of the large-caliber, high-velocity, explosive-tipped insults I
see occasionally on B5; (Pinata! HA! Good one!), you know, the kind that make
me wince, and say "Owww!" between coughs of laughter; instead of an
entertaining flame war to make me look forward to logging on every day;
instead, we have Stathis. An irritating little twit, trying to ingratiate
himself to those he scorns, without knowing how. English may not be his first
language, or he may be very young, and without his full language skills or
education: I don't know, I don't know him. But these are the only excuses for
his unskilled intrusion on my consciousness. He is not only a twit, he is
worse: he is incompetent.
Good insult is fun. Good insult incites response. A flood of good
insult is an insult's reward. Some of us, Stathis and myself included, like
insults. Even more, response. When you get response, you know you're good.
The more you get, the better you are. And that is why Stathis is here. He
can't hold his own with a good, witty flame. He can't get reams of replies
because of his skill. He has not the talent to illicit a satisfactory response
on his own. So he hangs out here. This is not a flame base. Here, he can
sound off in his pathetic little way, and even his sorry little messages cause
a veritable storm "...of sound and fury..." unleashed by an idiot, and
signifying nothing. Here, he can get response without having talent -- he can
irritate no less than an executive producer himself, and get a genuine
well-built flame in reply to his sad little rant. I laughed myself silly over
some of the psych stuff you hit him with, Joe: I don't doubt that Stathis
chortled with glee when he saw your name in his mailbox. The response makes
him feel good. He's just dull enough to convince himself that he's witty:
"See all the replies I got!?!"
I hope he enjoys this post: maybe it will inspire him to learn to write
coherently.
No, Stathis is good for only one thing. Sad as the small, sorry little
twerp is, he does have a purpose. He exists to inspire you and me to
creatively insult him. I enjoy your posts, sir: even your hastily scrawled
messages to Stathis, putting him in his place at the bottom of the verbal food
chain, to put it simply, crack me up. Please, if you find yourself with a few
free minutes, or need to unwind, consider turning all your talent to insulting
Stathis, just once. He isn't worth the expenditure of creativity, I know, but
please, consider whacking the little bastard *BUT GOOD* for all the fans in
this forum -- those like me, who appreciate good flames for their own intrinsic
beauty. Stathis, the sorry prig, makes me jealous. *I* would be *honoured* to
be in a flame war with the guy who came up with the Pinata! (I still chuckle
when I think of that one -- and Walter Koenig did it so well!)
Every one of us has his or her cosmic purpose. Each one of us effects
every other. What I write now effects you, which might effect what you write
next year, which effects millions who watch B5...... Even such as Stathis have
their cosmic purpose, no matter how humble. In this case, he exists to inspire
us to insult him. His entire purpose in life, his pride, and his very identity
-- exist only to be verbally kicked by his betters. And he's not even very
good at that.
Michael W. "Cranar" Mahoney
Spectrum Weapons Corporation
Lyndisty-- "If you give me a chance, I promise that when we cross beneath the
swords and boughs, it will be for love."
Me-- "Never mind. That did it."
#: 575247 S5/Babylon 5: General
10-Sep-96 15:33:31
Sb: #574905-Kick Butt Pt.III
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Thanks. Me, I don't much care for flames or insults...it's something I
try and avoid where I can. It's just not worth the hassle or the bile or the
angst. You've gotta *really* provoke me to push that particular button. I've
gotten decent at it out of survival, and simply because I'm a writer; you've
gotta be out of your *mind* to go up against any fairly decent writer in a
written medium. You won't win.
But for folks like the one you describe, they're not out to win, only to
validate their existence by generating a response, proving they exist by the
echo produced by their voices. So in that, I agree wholeheartedly with your
analysis.
jms
#: 575095 S5/Babylon 5: General
10-Sep-96 10:33:28
Sb: #Questions
Fm: RICHARD WAKEFIELD
jms,
Are there any plans for any books covering the technical aspects of Babylon 5 ?
Like the Star Trek : TNG Enterprise tech. manual ?
Who's been "spacefaring" longest the Minbari or the Centauri ? I say this
because someone said the Centauri had an enpire for "a thousand years".
Richard, UK Fan.
#: 575250 S5/Babylon 5: General
10-Sep-96 15:33:36
Sb: #575095-Questions
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
No immediate plans for tech books; the Minbari have been out and about
much longer than the Centauri.
jms
#: 575153 S5/Babylon 5: General
10-Sep-96 13:23:37
Sb: #Religion ??
Fm: ALAN MULVIE
Hi Joe,
I've noticed that Babylon 5 seems to pull a lot of ideas from religion. You
know Vorlons as angels, probably shadows as demons etc.
I also notice that The great war will not bring peace, but only 1000 years of
peace, as many cristians beleive will come after armageddon.
I have 3 questions-
1) I wonder how much of the main arc is Religion based?
2) We also have 6 players in babylon 5. The shadows being the sixth. Will the
"enemy" be one of these or a 7th? As many religions have a great significance
on the number 7, (such as Trithemius's seven Angels and seven ages)
3) Are the three ages of man kind based on a religious premise, such as the
three ages of History according to Joachim?
BTW trying to figure out how your brain works is a great way to quit smoking,
21 days and counting :-)
Mlv
#: 575253 S5/Babylon 5: General
10-Sep-96 15:33:43
Sb: #575153-Religion ??
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
No, the arc isn't religion based, though it does have mythological
underpinnings. No 7's planned, and no, the ages of man aren't based on a
religious premise either.
jms
#: 574985 S7/Babylon 5 in the UK
10-Sep-96 04:51:27
Sb: #574620-#<<best CGI>>
Fm: CAROL NAYLOR
Hi Ruth
>><< He's about 6'2" or so, and totally a live wire. Very, very attractive, in
my opinion. >>
>>OK, now you've got us single women all interested ... do tell :-)
Any pictures of this vision around ?<<
Yeah - I got one, albeit slightly out of focus (which may be a blessing given
my photographic abilities ). Mojo runs a stonkin' good rave which probably
accounts for Anne's fond memories. Essentially he's hysterically funny, tall,
cuddly and deeply cute.
Much like a young version of JMS, I suspect
(Joe - you come any closer with that baseball bat and I'll set Da Bearz on
you!)
So do you want the photo? - I suspect Anne's got better ones but _I_ have the
scanner!
Carol
[(Library Section 5: BABEARLN.GIF - 157 downloads can't be wrong)<g>]
#: 575260 S7/Babylon 5 in the UK
10-Sep-96 16:00:40
Sb: #574985-<<best CGI>>
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
As long as you don't apply that cuddly description, I'll let you live.
jms
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