As long as I'm being unproducerish....

>Still,
>continuity is earned and not promised; it develops organically and not
>merely retrospectively. Insisting that there is an arc on the basis of
>future developments amounts to a cheat, and an embarassing one on the part
>of a writer of JMS's stature.

I'm sorry, but this comment ranks in the top ten percentile of astonishingly
paralogical remarks I've ever seen. What you're saying here is that the ONLY
thing that constitutes an arc is if the audience sees it before it happens, if
it's told it's there...as opposed to an arc that becomes clear in the light of
FUTURE EVENTS.

But an arc IS A STORY THAT GOES INTO THE FUTURE EVENTS. That is the very
DEFINITION of it. How many people here said they started watching B5 in its
first season and didn't know there was an arc until "Signs and Portents?"
Plenty, I've seen them. So unless it's *predictible*, unless you've been
briefed ahead of time that something's coming, paying it off in the future,
which is how I'm writing it, doesn't count.

Yes, I referred to future developments because THAT IS WHAT AN ARC IS, future
developments.

This is the most astonishing conversation I've had on the nets in months.

Excuse me, I think I'll go get a ball peen hammer and bang myself between the
eyes for a couple of hours, it'd be easier and less painful in the long run....


jms

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