SFX Magazine, JMS and Double Standards

[B5JMS Poster]

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From: paul at harper.net (Paul Harper)
Date: 21 Nov 1999 21:43:03 -0700
Lines: 52

Good to see the excrable SFX is going from strength to strength.

In the Paul Cornell page this time around, referring to a JMS piece at
the Gallifrey con in LA (quote) : "A guy near the front asked a fanboy
question, something very sad but within the realms of the reasonable.
JMS answered with a little sigh. Then he turned to the rest of the
crown and made the universal gesture of "wanker", a toss of the hand
that sent the audience, including the poor guy, in to ecstasy".

He then goes on to recycle old critisisms of B5 and JMS that we've all
seen many, many times before. Finally, on the same page, and by the
same author, we have the following requests: (quote again) : "Have you
ever copped off in costume? I want to hear who with, when and how. And
if SFX can legally print the photos, we will. Been to the bathroom
with an SF celebrity? Details please. Do you own telefantasu Pets?
We'll print the photos of Judge Fish and Londo the Hamster. Do you
write Slash Fiction? We'll print credited snippets from your
homoerotic telefantasy romance without comment (or payment)" (end
quote).

To me it seems clear why Paul Cornell is so sensitive about JMS'
"wanker" gesture - he has clearly been the recipient of many in his
lifetime - a process that judging by this column is unlikely to stop
at any time soon.

Curiously, the letters page in the same issue does pretty much what
Cornell objected to. Phil Packer from Borehamwood wrote in suggesting
a harmles little game called "six degrees of SF separation" where you
start with two words or phrases both within the realm of SF but on the
surface unralated. You then need to start building linke between them
so they connect. SFX's considered response to this harmless little bit
of fun? (quote) : "...try this one: Piss and Off. Stephen".

Well - good to see they didn't actually call Mr. Packaer a "wanker" -
just told him to piss off. Well that's OK then.

Would it be remis of me to describe the issue, the magazine and the
staff "wankers"?   I believe not.

(ps SFX - this posting may not in any way be reproduced in print, so
don't even bother thinking about it.)

Cheers,

Paul.

(c) Paul Harper, 1999
--
A .sig is all well and good, but it's no substitute for a personality

ICQ Number: 45462113


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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Date: 22 Nov 1999 07:10:12 -0700
Lines: 21

I think that we have a British/American misunderstanding here, because the
gesture reported is not designated as one that calls the person asking the
question a "wanker," at least not in this country, though it may be in the UK. 
It's more meant here as indicating that the person talking doesn't have a clue
and is just jerking around with the answer.

Though it's a moot point, since SFX is a fairly useless publication on just
about every imaginable front.  Never have so many jumped-up fanboys done so
little, with so much, for so long.

Wankers.

 jms

(jmsatb5 at aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com




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