based on the bestselling novel

[sab]

Hey you, I miss you, man, I miss you so much.

We're at Lucy's, the laundromat-nee-WiFi hotspot, because it turns out Comcast wants $250 from us and a blood commitment not to steal their cable boxes, and we're not in a position to help them out until after many, many more people pay us. Like Alanis "Ironic" Morissette, we're broke but we're happy, we're brave but we're chickenshit, &c &c.

Dire economic straits have separated me from my last remaining DVD boxed sets (thank you, Amoeba Records, for your generous trade-in policy) and now the ONLY DVD I have left is Starship Troopers, awaiting a video night with thassalia and lizlet. We propose, um, any night this week after 9 pm, preferably at Thea's place because of the Great Big TV. You two hit me with some weeknight options and we'll organize, yes?

After that, the deluge!



Before I sold 'em back, I watched the full runs of Seasons 3 & 4 of Babylon 5, and then the handful of S5 VHSs I still own to round out the series, through "Sleeping in Light." Some things to note:

1. Now when I see Londo Mollari on screen I feel a strange, romantic, physical, almost erotic pull toward him, which is totally twisted and perverse considering he's a middle-aged paunchy pasty Centauri with some severe psychological issues and a very literal monkey on his back. Still, I found myself SO drawn to him, and I can only blame selenak for it. I've said it before; she makes me wanna be a better Narn. Anyway, if you or Kako or someone can tell me exactly where we've left G'Kar right NOW, I will try and hop on and make an appearance on TM. G'Kar feels the same way I do, and we are going to try and earn back Selena's Londo's love if it's the last thing we do.

2. It turns out B5 has some of the strongest, most intelligent, most complicated female characters on TV. I'm sure I always knew that, but it hit me during this last farewell tour somehow more than ever. I mean, dude. The girls run the gamut from girly to butch with no particular bias placed on either end of the spectrum -- essentially the show tells us that there is no "right" way to be a woman, that women come in all forms, with a whole arsenal of different methods of control, power, manipulative ability, strength and smarts. You've got Talia, who's a coiffed femme fatale on one end, and Susan in her practical braids and ass-kicking uniform at the other, butch end. Both equally feminine, both equally strong. In between, there's Delenn, who's gentle one minute and full of PHENOMENAL FURY the next, both a woman and a wife and a LEADER of NATIONS -- and Lyta, who is, in her own way, much the same. Lyta's independent but still gets lonely, a DOOMSDAY MACHINE with all her strength but still looking for a way to belong, looking for someone to answer to. Na'Toth, Adira, Tessa "Number One" Halloran, even Lise are all far from stereotypical, they're all SMART, they have AGENDAS and MOTIVATION and they do what needs to be done and use the characteristics and weapons in their personal arsenals to get things done. It's sort of unreal how awesome these women are. Sorkin could learn a lesson from JMS. Every TV auteur could.

3. This is kind of a touchy one, mostly for hobsonphile if she doesn't mind responding to it, and I absolutely understand, Hobs, if you don't. The question is this -- as it's a natural state of mind when I'm working my ass off for the DNC by day and watching B5 by night -- tell me. If you're a B5 viewer who's voting for Bush this year -- do you, then, not support Sheridan's fight against Earth? Do you support NightWatch? Do you agree with, say, Elizabeth Lochley when she said it wasn't one man's place to stand up against the government he was part of? Clark's political goal -- Psi Corps aside -- was to rid Earth of the alien influence it had fallen prey to since the Minbari war and also rid Earth of subversive and dissident elements within the Human population by, say, tapping phones, having folks turn in their friends who'd had "suspicious" behaviour, essentially, the Patriot Act. Do you feel this is a good idea? A good way to run a country? This is actually a legitimate question, and I'm curious, because I feel that the war against Clark on B5 must read quite differently to someone who is voting for Bush this year and someone who believes in our current form of government. Let me say one more time, to Hobs, Hoss, the rest of you, that I really do like you guys and respect you and your opinions, and I think you're smart which is why I want to hear your response to this. What DOES the B5 Earth war look like to a Republican?





1. This journal is totally spoiler-friendly, especially since I don't have TV and I am deeply curious about what's happening on my shows. Anyone want to catch me up on Scrubs? Nip/Tuck? What else is good and new this year? Tell me all.

2. Except for Smallville, in deference to runpunkrun. For Punkfish's sake, I ask that you refrain from SV spoilers. Thanks.

3. And, for MEEEE, I ask please no spoilers for Stephen King's last Dark Tower book. I am so spoiler-friendly I know it seems counterintuitive, but this is the LAST BOOK, dude! I'm okay with moderate squeeish spoilers, I just mostly don't want to know who lives and who dies and so forth. Iffen you're reading it right now -- how is it so far? Exciting? Scary? Sad?



Eh, fuck it, I think that's it. Am I forgetting things? If you have questions for me, ask them. I will answer them. And here's hoping for Internet access at the Hostel some time soon.

In the meantime, runpunkrun, selenak, _maayan and wearemany, fucking A do I ever miss you SO MUCH. And all the rest of you folks too, 'Raste and Hobs and Kerne, QOWF and Luna and Shaye and teeny Dawnlet Pares, my girl STEP and my girl PENE. And, you know, YOU. And YOU, and YOU GUYS, and HER over THERE. And JACOB, who, incidentally, is writing an awesome novel that should be read by all of you over at likely2. Jacob, I *still* owe you an e-mail. Tell me, are you voting for Kerry?

Comments

[bexxa.livejournal.com]

What DOES the B5 Earth war look like to a Republican?

Well, to this Republican-leaning Independent, it looks like what it is presented to be - a Bad Thing, which no decent self-respecting person would allow to continue if they could possibly help it.

JMS did not attempt to present a fair and balanced view of the political situation in the B5 'verse. Clark was in office because he had President Santiago assassinated. (That was the name, right? Santiago?) Clark's every action was seen through that filter - nothing he did before or since could be seen as anything other than Evil.

IMO, YMMV.

I do not accept the (implied) proposition that Bush=Clark.

Bush didn't "steal" the election from Gore. The popular vote and the Electoral College usually correlate, but not always. Ballots have been spoiled and thus not counted in most elections. Selective recounting and rerecounting of votes in only a few counties in one state would not, in my opinion, have made Gore a "legitimate" president.

You want to recount ballots? Try to interpret what hanging and dimpled chads signify? OK, fine, but recount every damn ballot, then, and not just the ones that would likely favor one candidate over the other.

This maybe isn't your point, but that's the first point I have re your question about how the B5/Earth war looks from the Republican side of the fence.

You mention the Patriot Act, and Nightwatch. Again, I believe that JMS very deliberately designed Nightwatch and Clark's other initiatives to evoke a negative response from the audience. No attempt to show other interpretations.

I have reservations about the Patriot Act, but Bush did not single-handedly cause it to exist - Congress had a bit to do with that. Which doesn't make it Revealed Truth, or Divinely Inspired, but let's not put all the blame on Bush. And for it's shortcomings, the act does have a sunset clause - it will not live on for ever without reconsideration by (presumably) calmer and clearer-headed people of good will.

My take on the B5/Earth war in comparison to the current US political situation is that it's apples and oranges.

JMS did, I think, do a good job of storytelling, of setting up the good guys to battle valiantly against multiple bad guys, and stacking the deck so that victory was not inevitable, nor without consequences. But as a storyteller, he manipulated the story elements so that they supported the story he chose to tell.

The current US election isn't so synoptic as that. It is possible to look at it through Kerry-colored glasses *and* Bush-colored glasses. It is possible to see overlaps and contradictions, and to weigh the trade-offs in deciding which candidate to vote for.

Here's the main reason why I will not vote for Kerry: his campaign has said zip, zilch, nada about his 20 years in the Senate. Or if they have, I and a lot of other people have missed it. If all he can point to is four months from 30 years ago, I have to wonder what in hell he's done since then that earns him my vote to be POTUS now.

If that seems as though I'm chosing the devil I know, well, yeah, that's some of it. But Kerry has not earned my vote, and I cannot in good conscience vote for Anybody But Bush.

I hope this is an appropriate response to your question.

[kakodaimon.livejournal.com]

Your pardon, but: yes.

One of the neatest things about Babylon 5 seems to be, indeed, that it somehow gives such a strong impression of a historical drama. We don't necessarily trust the narrator at all; certain bits of cloth, when tied around the arms of people, forces us to accept them as bad.

Which is why finding alternate explanations is just so fun. My pet one is "the Warrior Caste can hardly be blamed for everything," championed by deborah_judge and eye_of_a_cat, but there's a beautifully paranoid "Sheridan really didn't come back from Z'Ha'Dum, or if he did, he was controlled by the sinister Lorien" scheme one greatringmaster is developing. And oh, how I'd love to see that fleshed out.

After all, some of us left-wingers wouldn't mind associating Sheridan with George Bush, assuming the situation is indeed parallel (and I'm not convinced either way yet).