Blakes7

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5511 discussions

Re: liking character
by Steve Rogerson 15 Feb '01

15 Feb '01

Alison wrote: "My thought is that I hope you are coming to Redemption so you can come along to my panel on telepathy in fiction. Steve - when is it? I never got a program" The Redemption programme is now on the web site (you need Acrobat Reader 4.0), but the panel in question (Is telepathy possible or desirable) is 3pm Saturday. -- cheers Steve Rogerson http://homepages.poptel.org.uk/steve.rogerson Redemption: The Blake's 7 and Babylon 5 convention 23-25 February 2001, Ashford, Kent http://www.smof.com/redemption

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Re: verbal vs. non-verbal
by Helen Krummenacker 15 Feb '01

15 Feb '01

> PS--talking to people who give no non-verbal cues? It's called > the Internet, actually, which is one factor in the frequency of > flame wars. Whereas, for some of us, it allows us to open up more. I can't imagine discussing in person my emotional reactions to things as I sometimes do here. At least, not to anyone I hadn't known for years! In person, my face tends to reflect my physcial reality (pain, stiffness, tension-- all part of fibromyalgia) rather than my emotional reality. People often read me as being mad at them when I just want the fatigue to go away so I can concentrate on what they are saying. OTOH, I do spend a lot of time annoyed at other people. Just not when they think I am. ObB7: Avon's diary would consist of 4 legible words: Vila, shut it NOW! The rest would be in a complex code that would be the nearest thing to unbreakable. In that diary would be his comments on the fashion sense of the others, including "I wore that red-lobster thing today, and you know, none of them even smiled. No sense of irony in haute couture, why do I waste my time trying to amuse them." However, if he sent letters, emails, etc. to Anna, I can picture him getting much more romantic in writing than in person. Also, if he ever decided to approach Cally, he might try leaving a note at her console and see if she would look at *him* after reading it. Blake, OTOH, would prefer to interact in person whenever possible.

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Re: [B7L] liking 'character'
by Tavia Chalcraft 15 Feb '01

15 Feb '01

Neil wrote: >All that I've read suggests that men and women both >respond to dangerous lifestyles in a pretty similar way. >And a way, incidentally, that is generally not reflected in >fanfic - crude humour, cruder practical jokes, behaviour >that in more comfortable surroundings would be taken as >outright nastiness, sarcastic putdowns, emotional silence, and >apparently inappropriate or tasteless responses to shocking >situations (laughing at corpses, for example). These are all >coping strategies developed by people who desperately need >coping strategies. While I agree, based mainly on what I've read (though going to an awful lot of HIV meetings, perhaps one meets a similar kind of stress), most of this is rarely or never seen on screen... We see sarcasm and emotional silence, but very little of the rest. Certainly less crude/tasteless than your average office, a lot less language too. (In fact, one of the obvious differentiating factors between my 'real Tavia MS' and the B7 characters in my piece is the swearwords-to-content ratio.) Tavia PS The repetition of food in Patricia Cornwell is almost certainly (IMO) coincidental, everything in those novels repeats, as one realises if one reads several of them back to back.

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Re [B7L] fanfic
by Tavia Chalcraft 15 Feb '01

15 Feb '01

Neil: >Reprographic characterisation was mentioned by Tavia >(who in turn was apparently citing me). 'How many ways back' by Neil Faulkner (on Judith's site). An excellent essay, Neil... >I've generally >taken this to be the writer saying,"Look how well I can >write the characters" - an act of appropriation. (At the >same time, stories written in this way can read like >applications for some kind of Brownie Badge. >Fan Writer Assignment 2: Write no more than >three hundred words capturing the essential qualities of each >of the main characters in Season X and exposing >the primary manner in which each character interacts with >the other. All lines of dialogue must be accompanied by a >suitable adverb. Each character must be referred to >by a binomial descriptive eg Burly Rebel, Snarly Tech, >Little Thief etc. At least one incident from a broadcast >episode must be explicitly referred to.) All characters must be presented in a positive light. All characters must be involved in the action. >'Good' writing, on the other hand, is IMO about sharing a vision with the >readers, not imposing one on them. 'Good' prose should give the readers >enough material for them to construct something that is not entirely their >own and not entirely the writer's. Writers should therefore be >prepared to restrain themselves when it comes to description, >exposition and dialogue. Agreed. Though it's easy to go too far and get faceless people operating in a vacuum again. (Though maybe that's what the story demands...) Tavia

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Re: [B7L] liking 'character'
by Tavia Chalcraft 15 Feb '01

15 Feb '01

Annie wrote: >I think this is more an indication of the differences in "male" >and "female" viewers than anything else. Yes, females >can like the action and the science and yes, the males >can like the character interaction... but I think you still >find that men tend to like one more than the other (on >the whole) and that women go for the character interaction, >the *emotions*, more than the action. This is one reason that >media fandom, overall, and most fan fiction writers in media >fandom, tend to be female. I had to take a walk round the block after reading this (large block). Considering the set of human beings, I think the spread of characteristics overlap more than they diverge between sexes. That is, if you want to characterise a human being, you're better of saying 'they like B7, they like cheese, they are interested in characters...' than saying they are male or female. I find generalisations like the above somewhat frightening. Tavia

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RE: [B7L] liking 'character'
by Roberts, Patricia ＠ CSE 14 Feb '01

14 Feb '01

-----Original Message----- From: Harriet Bazley Subject: Re: [B7L] liking 'character' Without knowing the context, this is incredibly difficult, and I'll inevitably make the wrong assumptions about the surrounding plot... but here's my attempt at a more plausible re-rendering, from Vila's point of view. I'm guessing that we're post-Star One here, probably on Gauda Prime. ______________________ This is great! I want more of your "re-rendering", pretty please. Pat

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Re: [B7L] liking 'character'
by Bizarro7＠aol.com 14 Feb '01

14 Feb '01

In a message dated 2/13/01 9:56:50 PM Eastern Standard Time, ragan(a)sdc.org writes: << On the other hand, it is entirely possible to go to far in the opposite direction. Some of the things I really like about B7 are the subtlety of the characterizations, the multiple layers of meaning in the things they say to each other, the fact that they *don't* sit around discussing their emotions like touchy-feely Trek characters. In attempting to make everything explicit in dialog, it's very easy to completely ruin all of that, and make the characterizations feel wrong, to boot. It's a difficult balance to achieve, really. >> So the question arises: If BLAKES 7 had begun its existence solely as a SF series in novel form, rather than the screen, would it have had the same impact, on the same people? I'm not sure about that. What seems to make a TV show "fannish" usually involves the chemistry between the basic milieu, the character's visual presence and portrayal and the writing. Some people are wired in right-brain, some left. One side is analytical, the other visual. Your mileage will always vary. Leah

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Re: [B7L] Re: fanfic; my zine, plus replies to comments on style
by Ashton7＠aol.com 14 Feb '01

14 Feb '01

In a message dated 2/14/01 10:25:42 AM Eastern Standard Time, dshilling(a)worldnet.att.net writes: << > > How can you write in a purely "verbal," communicating medium by being > > "non-verbal." It just doesn't work. All right, words are our tools, but the maxim is "show don't tell" when using them. >> Yes, and you can't "show" anything without having the characters BE verbal and providing description, etc. "Show don't tell" really doesn't fit the discussion we're having, imo. This falls into the category of what kinds of verbs (passive or not) an author uses, etc. Annie

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Re [B7L] fanfic
by Neil Faulkner 14 Feb '01

14 Feb '01

From: Dana Shilling <dshilling(a)worldnet.att.net> > One reason that many actors and directors hate working with a living > playwright who is present at rehearsals is that many a playwright > doesn't WANT there to be anything for the director or performers to > do other than do EXACTLY what the playwright put into the script. > > Maybe that's what being a fanwriter is about? Achieving Hitchcock's > dream of treating actors like cattle because we have total control over > them? Maybe bad stories come about from Mad Character Disease > (which in turn, is caused by what we feed them?) I think this could be pretty close to the truth in some cases. Fan writing is all about appropriating the aired series (Jenkins calls it 'poaching') and making it your own. Fan writers take possession of the setting, the props and above all the characters and set about constructing a definitive interpretation of the source material. We get lengthy and detailed expositions of what the characters are thinking, often rendered into speech - this is the writer taking control of the characters' minds. Reprographic characterisation was mentioned by Tavia (who in turn was apparently citing me). I've generally taken this to be the writer saying, "Look how well I can write the characters" - an act of appropriation. (At the same time, stories written in this way can read like applications for some kind of Brownie Badge. Fan Writer Assignment 2: Write no more than three hundred words capturing the essential qualities of each of the main characters in Season X and exposing the primary manner in which each character interacts with the other. All lines of dialogue must be accompanied by a suitable adverb. Each character must be referred to by a binomial descriptive eg Burly Rebel, Snarly Tech, Little Thief etc. At least one incident from a broadcast episode must be explicitly referred to.) When it comes to description (of people or settings) we usually get next to none, or conversely we get far too much (what I call 'pixel-dot' description), trying to leave absolutely nothing to the imagination. 'Good' writing, on the other hand, is IMO about sharing a vision with the readers, not imposing one on them. 'Good' prose should give the readers enough material for them to construct something that is not entirely their own and not entirely the writer's. Writers should therefore be prepared to restrain themselves when it comes to description, exposition and dialogue. (The series itself does this with the characters - how else do we get so much discussion about their personalities and motivations? We are not told everything, nor should we be.) Leave 'em wanting more! Neil

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Re: [B7L] liking 'character'
by Ashton7＠aol.com 14 Feb '01

14 Feb '01

In a message dated 2/14/01 3:26:09 AM Eastern Standard Time, pennydreadful(a)powersurfr.com writes: << .I speculate that perhaps Annie means it would be very difficult to accurately transcribe "body language", in comparison to speech, as a means of communication...how would you go about writing out the Buster Keaton movie playing in your head (well I know *I've* always got one rolling) to make it ROTFL amusing? Better off converting into a more dialogue-oriented format. "'X,' said Y [Z-ly]" gets the point across succinctly, if not always terrifically aesthetically; where a list of Y's bodily contortions (which in real life or a Buster Keaton movie *could* communicate "X, Z-ly" very efficiently) will have the reader skimming ahead for the next period/paragraph break/dirty word. >> Give yourself a kewpie doll. That's exactly what I meant. ;-) Annie

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