>1) How do you approach reading -- do you read novels differently
>than manuals?
>
>
Not that I'm aware of consciously, no. I guess I go to a manual looking for
information, and I go to *enjoy* a novel.

I have to be careful doing research, because after a while I find that the
facts get in the way of the *telling*...it's like, "Okay, I just spent $300 on
books about this stuff, and now YOU'RE going to pay for it!" I have to leave
it alone for a while until the notes go away and the sense of it remains.

>2) How did you transform the passage in _Le Morte DArthur_ to the
>poignant counterpoint in B5? Did you read the Cliff's Notes?
>Was there some other play, book, etc. (i.e., _Excalibur_) that
>moved you?

I guess the difference is that a writer of fiction or scripts has to put him-
or herself into the scene, to feel what someone else has described in technical
terms. From that comes emotion, from emotion comes contact.

jms

From: (jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com