XPost: rec.arts.tv, rec.arts.sf.tv, rec.arts.movies.current-films   
   XPost: rec.arts.sf.written   
   From: seawaspobvious@obvioussgeinc.com   
      
   norrin wrote:   
   > Paul Harper wrote:   
   >   
   >>Troy.Heagy@gmail.com wrote:   
   >>   
   >>>Paul Harper wrote:   
   >>>   
   >>>>dialogue is some of the shittiest exposition I have every had to listen   
   >>>>to. When his characters were *supposed* to be making speeches, then   
   >>>>fine, but even when they weren't, they were *still* making speeches.   
   >>>   
   >>>Sounds like Shakespeare.  He did alright (or so I'm told).   
   >>   
   >>We have progress. At least in that posting you admit you don't know   
   >>what you are talking about.   
   >>   
   >>And anyone who thinks that...   
   >>   
   >>"A mote it is to trouble the mind's eye. In the most high and palmy   
   >>state of Rome, a little ere the mightiest Julius fell, the graves stood   
   >>tenantless, and the sheeted dead did squeak and gibber in the Roman   
   >>streets; as stars with trains of fire and dews of blood, disasters in   
   >>the sun; and the moist star upon whose influence Neptune's empire   
   >>stands was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse."   
   >>   
   >>is comparable to...   
   >>   
   >>"Get the hell out of our Galaxy"   
   >>   
   >>Has lost his mind some considerable distance beyond redemption.   
      
   	Taking an entire speech from one source, and then comparing it to a   
   single line, taken totally out of context, from the other, is hardly   
   fair play.   
      
   	I happen to think the "Get the hell out of our Galaxy" is brilliant.   
   Taken in context. Which most detractors work VERY hard NOT to do,   
   because they don't LIKE the context, because it does rather undermine   
   the detraction.   
      
   	I love Shakespeare, too. I think that trying to compare Shakespeare   
   and Babylon 5 isn't easy. They're totally different.   
      
   	I happen to love melodramatic speeches, so some of the stuff that   
   makes some people wince makes me say COOL! I presume that JMS is   
   similar to me in that area. If so, he's writing material that exactly   
   achieves his objectives -- which indicates he's a damn good writer.   
      
   	Shakespeare? Hard to compare. But he was a popular writer of his   
   time, producing general entertainment. In that sense he's rather   
   similar to JMS, but the subject material was rather different.   
      
   	You might be able to get the best comparison out of The Tempest.   
   Where we have an all powerful wizard manipulating all the events and   
   making speeches like,   
      
   	"Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes, and groves   
   	And ye that on the sands with printless foot   
   	Do chase the ebbing Neptune and do fly him when he comes back;...   
      
   	... By whose aid, weak masters though ye be,   
   	 I have bedimm'd the noontide sun   
   	 Called forth the mutinous winds,   
   	And 'twixt green sea and azured vault set roaring war..."   
      
   	Which, to my mind, isn't all that far from a number of the bombastic   
   speeches made by characters in Babylon 5.   
      
   	Which is also not a bad thing, to my mind.   
      
      
      
      
   --   
   				Sea Wasp   
                           /^\   
                           ;;;	   
   Live Journal: http://www.livejournal.com/users/seawasp/   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)