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5511 discussions

Re: [B7L] Fanfic: Posthumous Memoirs of Secretary Rontane
by Jenny Kaye 02 Apr '01

02 Apr '01

Stephen wrote: >--- Fiona Moore <nydersdyner(a)yahoo.co.uk> wrote: > > > > > > THE POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS OF SECRETARY RONTANE 8.5: HOW > > I LEARNED TO STOP > > WORRYING AND LOVE THE LYST > ><snipped to avoid repetition> > >Ah, the voice of sanity ! > >Stephen. Yes, lol! More of same, Fiona, please! Jenny _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.

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Ethics and Hal Mellanby
by Dana Shilling 02 Apr '01

02 Apr '01

Hmmm---there are plenty of "Tempest" echoes in Aftermath anyway--Lauren as Caliban ("This island's mine"?) -(Y) "You have taught me language, and the profit on't is, I know how to curse"

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Re: [B7L] Re: Ethics and Hal Mellanby
by Jenny Kaye 02 Apr '01

02 Apr '01

Mistral wrote: > > > > >and if he was that tender-hearted and they did expose their superfluous > > >girls, why didn't Dayna have *lots* of little adopted sisters?< > > > > > >Possibly Lauren was the only abandoned girl in that whole generation. :-) > > > > Maybe one of the people who knows more about social sciences than I do could > > say something, but it sounds a bit weird to me to just abandon one girl in > > twenty years? > >Perhaps Lauren was orphaned and subsequently abandoned because none of >her own people wanted the responsibility of taking care of her (another >mouth to feed on limited resources, etc.) There's no reason to think >that there would be lots of Sarran girls who'd lost their entire >families. It still seems odd to me. IIRC neither of the Mellanbys seem too interested in how the Sarrans live, and if Lauren is close to Dayna's age she'd have to have been adopted soon after they got there, which doesn't give them much time to find out. It doesn't seem likely that he'd have been going for long rambles in the hills near the Sarran villages :-). Actually, that's also strange. They land on the planet, sink a spaceship into the ocean, and they spend a lot of their time zapping the Sarrans to keep them away-- and then they suddenly pick up this baby girl, we don't know where from but she's close to Dayna's age. It does sound more than a little bit colonial to me. Jenny _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.

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Re: [B7L] Nonfic on the Lyst
by Marian de Haan 02 Apr '01

02 Apr '01

Fiona suggested: >Say every month we pick a B7 episode, and people who feel like talking about it, do.< I'd like that. For one thing, it won't leave anyone out because we've all seen the episodes (or can go and look up the transcripts). And it would be very interesting in the light of the recent discussion about how every fan has his/her own interpretation. I love to read episode reviews precisely for that reason and wish there were more of them available. Marian

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anti-deps
by Roger the Shrubber 02 Apr '01

02 Apr '01

Ross wrote . I remember we had a whip around a while back, and it seems that enough b7fen had taken antidepressants to start their own list. Welcome back to Lyst and Life Jacqueline! ********** Ah yes, that would be the Pylene-50 list. Never very exciting but a moderator's dream. :-) darren r Ebook - "How To Start Your Own Internet Bookshop" For info, send blank email to bookshop(a)fastfacts.net ------------------------------------------------------------- Opportunity Knocks Bookshop http://www.abebooks.com/home/POWERPLAY/

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FW: Review of "ttba"
by Tavia 02 Apr '01

02 Apr '01

Date: Sun, 01 Apr 2001 17:10:47 -0600 From: Penny Dreadful <pennydreadful(a)powersurfr.com> Subject: FC: Review of "ttba" Tavia, you can forward this to the Lyst if you think it would do more good than harm (assuming you're subscribed). [[& you think I'd pass up an opportunity like that? -- Tavia]] - ---------------- Review of "ttba" - ---------------- What with Tavia having gone and said such nice things about my stories in FS3 (small unmarked remuneration will be left in a duffel bag behind the usual dumpster at the usual time), I now feel obliged to at least try my hand at reviewing "ttba". I've never reviewed a Zine before and have only ever actually seen three examples of the species including this one, so I hope this comes out all right. 1. Presentation I like the plastic front and back. Makes a nice noise when I tap my fingernails on it. Repels coffee, baba ganouji, and much much more. I also like the binding, no idea what it's called--the kind that allows one to fold the book backwards so the front and back meet. Handy because--no offense intended, seriously!--if one is reading it in a public place it allows one to maintain the pretense that one is reading something Important and possibly even Educational. Note I am not advocating outright deceit--the one time I was confronted I freely admitted to what I was reading: Ruthless Interrogator: So whatcha readin'? Me [mutters]: fnzn. R.I.: Come again? Me: i sd FNZN! R.I.: I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch-- Me: I'm reading a fanzine, all right? An unauthorized non-profit amateur anthology of fiction based on a long-defunct television show AND IT'S GOT DIRTY BITS TOO! ARE YOU HAPPY NOW? Hey, where ya goin'? Come back here, you coward! [hurls "ttba" at the retreating figure, but it stays nice and clean thanks to the lovely plastic front and back] But I digress. 2. Art Well, there's mine, upon which I won't comment except to say the excellent quality of the reproduction captures my obsessive-compulsive cross-hatchings in admirable detail. And there's Firerose's, which are those neat kind of tracings or something...is there a name for that technique? Lots of pretty pictures! I like that in my grown-up literature... Front cover probably best left to be commented on by someone with a proper appreciation for Val Westall's work, which I know is immensely popular and acclaimed, lack of taste on my part rather than lack of talent on hers. 3. Literary Content I can't speak for anyone else but I know my story improved greatly through being actively "edited" by Tavia (as by Judith in her Zines). Other than that I can't comment on my own literary contribution--tastes like truffles or tripe depending on my mood. I've had some positive feedback, though. So, aside from that... I read every story, which says more about the quality of them than you might think, as I am not a "voracious" (or as I prefer to put it, "indiscriminate" ;-p) reader of fiction. So if I don't mention it by name that doesn't mean I think it sucks. If an author wonders e can ask me and I will comment, although I can't promise anything more insightful than the following: I think the editor made a very good choice in strategically distributing Belatrix Carter's brilliant "Seven Deadly Virtues" throughout the Zine. "Awake and Find No" by Ika is really good, awesomely well-written in my opinion. I find much of Executrix's fiction intimidating--her prose is perfect and prolific and leaves me feeling utterly illiterate culturally and otherwise--in light of which she might not consider it much of a compliment when I say that I greatly enjoyed her "Not Our Kind, Darling". But even Shakespeare throws a bone to the proles on occasion, n'est-ce pas? To mix a metaphor... "Privilege" by Susan Cutter, which appeared on the Space City list I think, is still excellent and still makes me think of Bukowski. But only in the most positive possible way. If you know what I mean. "Ash Wednesday" by Firerose highlights for me one of the advantages of paper over electronic media in certain circumstances. At 32 pages it's not really that long in the universal scheme of things, and kept me reading with interest all the way through, whereas in its original electronic incarnation I found its length unwieldy and I think I skimmed a lot, which naturally left me feeling confused. Very good long-short story. "Inga" by Judith Proctor and "The Sleep of the Dead" by Hades are both very original and insightful I think. 4. In Conclusion... I think "ttba" is extremely good value for the price it's being offered at, and I would love to see it sell well and thus encourage more of its kind. I like the fact that the "Descriptive Contents" page gives violence as well as sex warnings. If it were up to me I think I would distinguish between explicit and nonconsensual sex...but then I probably would not distinguish between heterosexual and homosexual...but of course it's NOT up to me so I'll shut up now. Thank you, Tavia, for your effort in producing "ttba". I really think it was worthwhile, and hope the experiment succeeds! - --Penny

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RE: [B7L] surveillance cameras
by Louise Rutter 02 Apr '01

02 Apr '01

Una wrote: >Issuing fines for speeding is lucrative, however. Isn't there surveillance >technology that can take a picture, recognize your registration plate, and then >issue a fine accordingly? What worries me about this particular technology is >that it can monitor your movements as you travel. But at least the damn things only take photos if you _are_ speeding. Be grateful for our toll-free roads. On the French autoroutes, they can issue you with a speeding ticket if you get from one toll booth to the next too quickly, which means they must routinely register which vehicles go through and when. Louise

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Re: [B7L] More thoughts on Mellanby
by Fiona Moore 02 Apr '01

02 Apr '01

>From: Mistral <mistral(a)centurytel.net> >Fiona Moore wrote: > > > But *does* Avon like him? He's polite to him, yes, but so would you if you > > were somebody's guest (at least I'd hope). When Mellanby dies, Avon's hardly > > shedding any tears-- his response is a bit callous even by Avon standards. > >Avon goes past polite - he's interested in Mellanby (and not just those >bits that might help him survive). Hm, really? He doesn't particularly ask Mellanby about his past or political affiliations-- Mellanby volunteers everything, almost as if he's trying to ingratiate himself with Avon. Avon's impressed by the gun-- but then, Avon would be :). He asks about the image amplifier, but nothing in that exchange strikes me as more than polite ("I'm sorry" *is* really the only civilised response under the circumstances)--also given that Avon is a computer programmer before anything else, his interest might well be professional. His "I never comment..." still strikes me as a little bit pointed, sort of an "I plead the Fifth," as it were. >Expecting him to shed tears over >someone he's known only a day is a bit unrealistic IMO, particularly >since he appears to be the type to shut off his emotions in a crisis. True, but what happens is, he comes in and finds Mellanby dead, and upon ascertaining that this is so, his first response is to shout "Orac!"-- he seems more concerned about getting Orac back than taken aback at Mellanby's death. His one comment on Mellanby is "He got away from here after all"-- which is a little bit sarcastic under the circumstances (frankly, I'm surprised Dayna didn't clock him one for that). >I think not only did Avon like Mellanby, but also that Mellanby was >exactly the kind of person Avon might have been friends with in better >circumstances. Leaving aside the question of whether or not Avon does have friends :) (channelling Killer here), at best Mellanby is like Blake-- and at worst, Mellanby is the anti-Blake; a man who started a revolution, then sold it out, and spent the rest of his life hiding. In the first instance, he and Avon would have been at each other's throats all the time :)-- and in the second instance, I don't think Avon would have been too sympathetic-- dishonesty is unlikely to be a sin in Avon's book, but he doesn't seem to suffer hypocrites gladly. Remember, too, Avon doesn't get the full story about Mellanby-- he never witnesses the scenes betwen Servalan and Dayna, and Servalan and Mellanby, that reveal the most detail about his history and suggest that there's more to it than he tells Avon. Fiona The Posthumous Memoirs of Secretary Rontane Hiding from a bunch of angry revolutionaries at http://nyder.r67.net _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com

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Re: [B7L] Re: Ethics and Hal Mellanby
by Marian de Haan 02 Apr '01

02 Apr '01

Jenny wrote: >Marian wrote: >>Jacqui wrote: >> >As I said once before, taking one of the 'natives' as a playmate for his daughter, knowing the girl's likely fate, is debatable ethically.< >> >>But we don't know the circumstances of him adopting her. If he'd found her abandoned - the Sarrans seem savage enough for the practice of ridding themselves of superfluous baby girls - then taking her in would have been a charitable deed.< > >Good point, Marian-- but I'd like to say that while that could be the situation, but the girl's the same age as Dayna,< It's some time since I watched Aftermath, but do they say there that she is Dayna's age? (I'm hopeless at estimating people's age but I think she may be a few years younger than Dayna, who must be twenty at least.) >and if he was that tender-hearted and they did expose their superfluous girls, why didn't Dayna have *lots* of little adopted sisters?< Possibly Lauren was the only abandoned girl in that whole generation. :-) (IMO one of the most silly claims in Power is that the Hommiks abandon all their new-born daughters. That would bring the tribe to extinction pretty fast, especially when they run out of Seska to abduct.) If Lauren is the same age as Dayna, that could indicate that Mellanby has abducted her. But that seems a risky business - if he'd been caught Dayna would have been left unattended and probably died, unless she was old enough to fend for herself. But in that case it seems strange that Lauren didn't run back to her family at the first opportunity. Maybe she preferred to stay with the Mellanbys rather than go back to her own people? The phrase "adopted daughter" may also indicate that Lauren came along with her mother to live with Mellanby. Maybe he wanted a woman to care for the young Dayna and either abducted or more probably charmed Lauren's mum into coming and live with them. The episode doesn't give us much clues. Actually, I've always wondered why Terry Nation brought Lauren into the story at all, as - apart from being pretty - her only function seems to be that her death provides extra grief for Dayna. It would have been fun if she'd survived - imagine poor Avon having to cope with *two* high spirited teenagers aboard Liberator. :-) Maybe Terry Nation was getting fed up with writing for the show, or he was too busy with other projects, but to me both this story and Terminal feel rushed and not properly thought through. IMO they would have benefited if he'd laid them aside for a fortnight and then gone through them afresh to weed out the flaws and plotholes. Of course, it's those same flaws and plotholes that give us so much opportunity for discussion and speculation. :-) Marian

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RE: [B7L] surveillance and vets
by Louise Rutter 02 Apr '01

02 Apr '01

Julia wrote: >Speaking of which - are your movements being monitored at the moment? I >recall at least two members of Redemption getting remarkably twitchy >about whether they'd be able to go home at the end of the con. Well I wasn't entirely sure if I was being followed, so I took out a couple of suspicious folk to be on the safe side.... Seriously, though, small animal vets are of no interest whatsoever. Louise

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