ATTN JMS: possible link between bab5 and dune

B5JMS Poster b5jms-owner at shekel.mcl.cs.columbia.edu
Fri Sep 27 06:25:29 EDT 1996


Subject: ATTN JMS: possible link between bab5 and dune
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 No. | DATE        |  FROM
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S  1: Sep 26, 1996: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
+ 21: Sep 26, 1996: sinboy at netcom.com (Joshua Jasper)
* 22: Sep 26, 1996: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)

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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Lines: 53

"Is G'kar a Paul Atreides type character. in fact is the whole Narn race
based on the fremen?"

No.  This is the difference between fanfic and fiction, where you create
something on your own.  Were the fremen based on a race Herbert read about
in someone else's novel, or did he come up with them on his own?  (Granted
using lots of historical notions.)  He came up with them on his own.

But TV people are always asked whose world they borrowed for their
material.  This is not a flame, only an observation.  If I'd written this
as a novel, no one would be asking these questions.  It doesn't
particularly upset me...I simply consider this as part of the ongoing
educational process about how TV is made.

Yes, we do come up with our own ideas sometimes.

"he facts that made me think of this are: The sword in the 3rd episode
which must have blood on the blade before it's sheathed."

Some samurai have this tradition; that's where Herbert got it.

"The Dust and what it does to G'kar (from this it seems that the dust is
very like spice)"

Some say they get the same effect from peyote.

"The whole religeous thing that the Narns love so dearly."

Religion predates Dune.

"Now maybe i think this because Dune is one of my favourite books, and I
want to see a connection with it and Bab5."

Bingo.

This is what I've said for a long time...lots of people tend to view B5
through whatever book or saga they're most familiar with, or which means
the most to them.  Somebody says it's Dune, somebody says it's Lord of the
Rings, or the Prisoner, or Blake's 7, or Star Wars, or something
else...not because that's what it IS, but that's the filter through which
they *perceive* it.  It's a frame of reference issue.

There's nothing wrong with it, it doesn't bother me, like I said...but the
problem really is with what's perceived, not with what's written, or how
it's written.

Sort of a case of Shroedinger's Saga.


 jms




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From: sinboy at netcom.com (Joshua Jasper)
Lines: 19

In article <52eagr$vtq at marvin.deepthot.cary.nc.us>,
Jay Denebeim <denebeim at deepthot.cary.nc.us> wrote:
>In article <324A8EEB.3864 at intr.net>,  <root at newsb.att.com> wrote:
>
>>Translation:  there are common elements in all well-loved literature 
>>and that is as it should be.  The most significant aspect of this kind 
>>of speculation is the nature of the works with which comparisons are 
>>made.  Seems to me, JMS is in awfully good company!
>
>Don't make me do a 'Babylon-5 is really Plan 9 from Outer Space with
>the serial numbers filed off' post...
>
>Jay

	I dunno, have you ever seen JMS in a room with Ed Wood together 
and at the same time? Just how many angora sweaters _does_ the great 
maker own anyway?
							Sinboy


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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Lines: 9

Comparisons are fine and inevitable and a good grounds for discussion.  I
was only pointing out the distinction between a comparison and a point of
origin.


 jms



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