JMS Usenet Posts - 11/22/2002
Dirk A. Loedding
>Once again, I apologize for the length of time between editions.
>JMS quotes and answers, in response to comments about AOG losing its
>license to produce the B5 Wars tactical starship combat game:
:I will not support,buy or endorse any new B5 product IF it was produced
:at the expense of a long time B5 supporter (ie AOG). Cool or not
The one has never had anything to do with the other. I think WB's
decision, and it was their decision, came down to a sense that the
license was just sort of dormant and not growing over at AoG, and that
the time and resources involved were not equal to what was coming back
financially.
But the licenses are non-competitive; one doesn't preclude the other
since, as you note, one is an RPG and the other, AOG game, is a
tactical starship combat game. You don't have to cancel the one to do
the other, one has nothing to DO with the other. You could have both
going at the same time, or one, the other, or none.
My comment was in response to the statement that NO new licenses are
being given out, which is patently false. In addition to the RPG,
there are other licenses also under current discussion.
jms
>JMS quotes and answers:
:Some interesting news, folks. Sean Astin to join the cast, among
:other things.
Here's the funny thing, and how I knew that Sean would be added to the
cast the moment I heard his name in the running.
Understand that I have not only never worked with a Sam before, I've
never even MET a Sam prior to the past year. Never used anyone in a
script named Sam (once a Samuel, but that's about it).
I wrote a character named Sam into the Jeremiah pilot.
Next thing you know we hired Sam Egan.
Now on board comes Samm Barnes.
And who does Sean play in LoTR? Sam.
I'm up to my ass in Sams here.
jms
>JMS quotes and answers:
:Joe, if you're reading this, my question is this: What was the first
:comic book you wrote that was published? Was it Teen Titans Spotlight
:on Cyborg issue #13? Do you have a list of all the comics you've
:written over the years?
Yeah, Titans for DC was the first, then an issue of the Twilight Zone
comic for NOW, a story for the Ghostbusters comic also from NOW, then
an issue of the Star Trek comic for DC, then a number of the B5 issues
for DC, then Rising Stars, Midnight Nation, Delicate Creatures, and
now Spider-Man.
I'm pretty sure that's the whole of it.
jms
>JMS quotes and answers, on 10/30:
:I was just wondering if you could give us a status report on all your
:projects?
Jeremiah: shooting 201 currently.
Spider-Man: writing issue 49.
Midnight Nation Trade: supposedly out shortly.
Polaris: news could come soon, things are looking very positive.
Squadron Supreme (retitled Supreme Power): script 1 in, writing 2 now.
Other coolnesses in the works...more soon.
jms
>JMS quotes and answers:
:Thanks for the update, but what about Rising Stars? The story really
:seemed to be gaining momentum over the last few issues, and I for one,
:am going nuts waiting for the end of this story. BTW, I loved the
:ending of the last issue #20. "That man is a liar, and I can prove
:it!" WOW! What a kick!
Thanks, it's a good one. The color jpgs are just coming in for
approval (I think it was almost 3-4 months ago that I turned in the
script), and that usually means that it should be coming out in the
next couple/three weeks.
And "Dream Police" was turned in over a year ago, but there have been
lots of delays on that side of things, so I have no idea when that's
coming out.
jms
>JMS quotes and answers, about a documentary on the new Spider-man DVD:
:Hmm, just wonder, JMS doesn't happen to appear in that documentary,
:does he? Anyone know?
They kept asking, but I was in the midst of heavy work on Jeremiah,
and wasn't able to get out for it. Besides, I'd think that lots of
video on me would just drive sales down across the board....
jms
>On 10/30:
BTW, just noticed that the last surviving piece of Babylon 5 (a piece
of the set from Babylon 4's security room) is back on ebay.
jms
>About Sleeping in Light:
The sad truth is that we die. That is not a happy ending, not a sad
ending, simply a fact. Whether we die alone, or die among friends and
family; whether we die in the pursuit of happiness or at the end of a
life of frustration, we die.
The question is what we accomplish during the days and months and
years preceding; do we leave the world a better place or a worse
place? If we have left the world around us a better place, as these
characters did, then it's a happy ending.
Because what constitutes a happy ending? If a character dies happily,
among loving friends, but pulled an Enron on the rest of the planet,
is that truly a happy ending? Or is a happy ending the man who frees
a nation at the cost of his own life? Is the end of Bravehard a happy
ending? Or is it the story of a man who lived deeply, fought bravely,
kept faith with his dreams and achieved something of note thus that
happy doesn't enter into it?
The poem "Ulysses" by Tennyson crops up a lot in B5, and some have
made it a point to note the last few stanzas. But that poem is, to
me, the summation of the power of human will. Its ideals echo through
the B5 storyline. It's one of the bravest pieces of writing I've ever
read, and its effect on me was profound. Still is. Read it here,
below, and think of B5, and you will see the resonances in terms of
theme and the end of our story.
Ultimately, for me, the end of B5 is neither a sad ending nor a happy
ending; it's not an ending at all, since the universe carries on.
But if I were to describe what kind of ending it was, I'd say it was a
graceful ending, a dignified ending, an ending that said individuals
can effect profound change, if they are willing to put their own lives
and happiness on the line; not happy, not sad, but a testament to the
idea that you have used your time here well.
Everything else is ephemera and coffin-cloth.
jms
Ulysses
It little profits that an idle king,
By this still hearth, among these barren crags,
Match'd with an aged wife, I mete and dole
Unequal laws unto a savage race,
That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.
I cannot rest from travel; I will drink
Life to the lees. All times I have enjoy'd
Greatly, have suffer'd greatly, both with those
That loved me, and alone; on shore, and when
Thro' scudding drifts the rainy Hyades
Vext the dim sea. I am become a name;
For always roaming with a hungry heart
Much have I seen and known,--cities of men
And manners, climates, councils, governments,
Myself not least, but honor'd of them all,--
And drunk delight of battle with my peers,
Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.
I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethro'
Gleams that untravell'd world whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use!
As tho' to breathe were life! Life piled on life
Were all too little, and of one to me
Little remains, but every hour is saved
From that eternal silence, something more,
A bringer of new things; and vile it were
For some three suns to store and hoard myself,
And this gray spirit yearning in desire
To follow knowledge like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bounds of human thought.
This is my son, mine own Telemachus,
To whom I leave the sceptre and the isle,--
Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfil
This labor, by slow prudence to make mild
A rugged people, and thro' soft degrees
Subdue them to the useful and the good.
Most blameless is he, centered in the sphere
Of common duties, decent not to fail
In offices of tenderness, and pay
Meet adoration to my household gods
When I am gone. He works his work, I mine.
There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail;
There gloom the dark, broad seas. My mariners,
Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me--
That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
Free hearts, free foreheads,--you and I are old;
Old age hath yet his honor and his toil.
Death closes all; but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks;
The long day wanes; the slow moon climbs; the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down;
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are--
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Alfred Lord Tennyson
>JMS quotes and answers:
:Could a lightsaber hurt a Shadow or Vorlon? :D
If it could make it past the plot-barrier at the edge of the B5
universe, maybe....
jms
>JMS quotes and answers, about Jeremiah:
:Now that filming is underway, when will we start seeing the new episodes?
It's not official, but from what I've been hearing it'd go after
February sweeps, so figure somewhere around early March. And as
before, the plan is to air all the shows straight through.
jms
>JMS replies to someone who offered his services to create "cool DVD
>menus" for the next season of B5 on DVD:
All this stuff is done by WB in-house.
jms
>How are sales on the S1 DVD?
All I'll say is that Warners is, apparently, stunned.
jms
>JMS quotes and answers:
:Great! While WB is in this condition, do you think you could take
:advantage of them and get them to move up the release date of Season 2?
I don't know if they'll be able to move up the date, which last I heard
was about April, but I did hear the other day that they want to get the
next set up and running asap. It's suddenly become a priority item.
Who'd've imagined?
jms
>JMS quotes and answers:
:You probably have too much class to march over to WHV and loudly say,
:"I *told* you so!"
We've never actually *met*, have we?
jms
>JMS quotes and answers:
:In B5, Santiago's murder is obviously part of a coup conspiracy. Do
:you feel the same way about JFK, or does the parallel extend solely to
:the events of that day?
If Oswald acted alone, I'm a Martian panda bear.
:P.S. Congrats on killing off Doug Netter.
Someone had to do it.
jms
>JMS quotes and answers:
:Mr.Straczysnki, I am currently reading your novel "Othersyde". It is a
:wonderful novel, are you going to write anymore in the near future? I
:will try to read the other ones, if I can find them.
The drag is that I was a couple hundred pages into a new novel,
mainstream, when the events of 9/11 happened and I had to spike the
novel because everything that happened since that day (with a few
minor variations) lined up pretty much with my book, which kills any
chance of publishing it.
Takes a while to come back from looking at two-hundred-plus dead pages.
On a happier note, I'm in the process of signing a deal that will put
all three of my novels, plus my anthology, back into print early next
year.
jms
>JMS quotes and answers:
:I was reading through the Official B5 Magazines recently and took the
:opportunity to read through your "Last Word" columns again. I
:remembered how much I enjoyed reading the column you wrote online for
:a while, too. Would it be terribly impertinent of me to ask you to
:write the occasional 'column' here? Anything you feel like saying in
:between pay copy about anything at all? Obviously the pay sucks but
:at least here you'd be able to see what bar fights you start. ;-) Oh,
:and no deadlines - surely that's worth something?
It's a lovely idea, but the stark reality I have to contend with is
that I'm so thoroughly up to my ass in alligators that parsing out
time for the newsgroup in any way, just to reply to messages, is
becoming increasinly difficult. I'll sometimes go days or even a week
or so between messages. (I have a brief break tonight so I'm trying
to catch up on a few items here.)
This is pretty much the busiest I've ever been in terms of multiple
projects, and I'm managing to keep my head above water, but anything
else at this point could be the proverbial last straw on the equally
proverbial camel's back. Every minute not spent producing on Jeremiah
is spent strapped to the keyboard.
(Speaking of handling so many multiple projects, the in-house magazine
of the Writers Guild of America just published a piece on me headlined
"The Amazing Super-Writer," which you think, "Oh, well now, that's
pretty cool," and it is, overall, very laudatory, covering it all,
though of course the first line describes me as a "four-eyed,
follically challenged, overgrown gnome."
Just wish I could find some way to disagree with the characterization.
jms
>JMS quotes and answers:
:JMS before Jeremiah started up, you said that it would probably be
:going into syndication the following season. Is it still going to be
:syndicated?
No, I said it'd go international a year later; the syndication aspect
in the US won't happen for, I think, 3 more years, to give Showtime
the maximum window on it.
jms
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| Dirk A. Loedding <*> ju...@america.net |
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