Responding to me, Annie wrote:

<< IIRC, Jenkins had a hypothesis about that. >>

I'm starting to find the constant references to Jenkins' book...well, strange. When it first appeared in fandom, yea many years ago now, it was regarded as somewhat of a joke in most fannish circles, if I'm remembering correctly. It certainly wasn't something that B7 fans (or any fans) took as some sort of fannish "bible."

Whoops, I certainly didn't mean to imply it was anything like that... Mainly, I regard the book as interesting food for thought. He tosses out a lot of ideas which I find rather fun to think about (whether I agree with all of them or not). And he's a pleasantly lucid writer, IMO.

I believe that, at the time, he was doing his thesis. I've seen other fans do the same thing as a way to combine their love of fandom with their scholarly career. RRight now, I know several people who teach film history in schools and/or universities who like to use their favorite shows (like Alias Smith & Jones, as one example I know about) as classwork!

Wish I'd had some of those teachers... Not that I ever took film history...

I do remember writing a few essays about _Star Trek_ and _Doctor Who_ for my English classes. My high school teacher didn't quite know what to make of it, but my college prof was actually impressed. :) -- Betty Ragan ** bragan@nrao.edu ** http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/~bragan Not speaking for my employers, officially or otherwise. "Seeing a rotten picture for the special effects is like eating a tough steak for the smothered onions..." -- Isaac Asimov