JMS on CompuServe (Sep 01, 1997) *POSSIBLE SPOILERS*

[bbarrett at speedlink.com]

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 [ Summary of subjects in this section: ]
    Sb: #696394-Indigo Slam
    Sb: #696959-JMS on SFVortex
    Sb: #697057-Claudia's Leaving?
    Sb: #697126-Season 5 Main Title
    Sb: #697128-Hemi-Demi-Semiotics


 #: 696394 S5/Babylon 5: General
    29-Aug-97  05:33:39
Sb: #Indigo Slam
Fm: RUTH SPRADLIN

Are you a mystery fan? On page 105 of Robert Crais' ''Indigo Slam,'' private
eye Elvis Cole envisions his girlfriend's young son as: on the floor surrounded
by Incredible Hulk comic books while he watched ''Babylon 5.''    You've hit
the big time! Oh, btw, great show!


 #: 696515 S5/Babylon 5: General
    29-Aug-97  15:18:46
Sb: #696394-Indigo Slam
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI

      That's funny, I hadn't known Bob had done that.  (Bob Crais is a friend.)
Gotta remember to thank him next time....

                                                                    jms



 [ Summary: Comments on Harlan Ellison's appearance on an older episode
   of SF Vortex on the Sci-Fi Channel. ]

 #: 697137 S5/Babylon 5: General
    01-Sep-97  19:47:24
Sb: #696959-JMS on SFVortex
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI

      That's Harlan...that's how he is most of the time.  And yeah, I got in my
stuff earlier.  When Harlan gets a full head of steam going, best to just get
out of the way and watch with wonder.  I think it's a couple of months old,
though I don't know if this is a first or second run of it.

                                                                    jms


 [ Summary: Asks what was up with Claudia Christian. ]

 #: 697138 S5/Babylon 5: General
    01-Sep-97  19:47:27
Sb: #697057-Claudia's Leaving?
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI

      She asked for things that were not in our power to give, and when they
were not received, she passed on the offer to return.


                                                                    jms



 #: 697126 S5/Babylon 5: General
    01-Sep-97  19:03:47
Sb: #Season 5 Main Title
Fm: STEVEN K. ANDEWEG

I have always enjoyed your main titles, as they are great to watch, and each
one has set the mood for the season it highlights.  Have you finished the
Season Five one, or is it too early?  Have you saved the best for last?

Steve A.


 #: 697139 S5/Babylon 5: General
    01-Sep-97  19:47:29
Sb: #697126-Season 5 Main Title
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI

      No, I'm in the process of designing the S5 titles now.

                                                                    jms



 #: 697128 S5/Babylon 5: General
    01-Sep-97  19:18:07
Sb: #Hemi-Demi-Semiotics
Fm: REBECCA ESCHLIMAN

jms -

Of course, well-deserved congratulations on the second Hugo.

This may be a hard question to formulate as it arose from stream of
consciousness.

>From the starting point that the Princess of Wales was defined by semiotic
accretions from the moment she stepped into the spotlight and became a story,
and from seeing how some series like ROAR seem to have a semiotic starting
point, and from the fact that part of the appeal (for me, at least) of B5 is
that it has semiotic richness in that actions have echoes of myth and imagery
and historical parallel...

does a storyteller such as yourself or others you admire ever start from the
semiotic and discover characters that can express it, or is it the more natural
process to have the characters tell their stories and later find out that they
have semiotic resonance simply because the storyteller has read enough and seen
enough that the semiotic bit comes without thinking? (Does the question even
make sense?)

-rje- But then there was a star danced, and under that was I born.


 #: 697140 S5/Babylon 5: General
    01-Sep-97  19:47:32
Sb: #697128-Hemi-Demi-Semiotics
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI

      I really don't think you can think in those terms, either way.  You pick
up the tools of the *story*, not the tools of the *analysis of the story*, and
as you begin to line them up, you may have a sense of, "Okay, this character is
something of an archetype, so I need certain elements to come into this, but
only in service of the story."  I find that what truly makes for myth does not
come from conscious effort, but from *unconscious* effort, this is where Jung's
notion of a collective unconscious comes into play.  We may not know *why* a
sword raised by a bloodied soldier over a battlefield strewn with bodies has
power with us, it's enough to know that it *does*.  When you ride a bicycle,
you're not thinking about pressure vs. force or force = propulsion, or how many
cycles per minute equals X-speed, you're just Riding The Bike.

      I just Write.

                                                                    jms



[END]

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