/* *************************************************************************** ** *************************************************************************** ** The Non-Sequitur Express ** Published every 11.3 days or so by Phillip Thorne ** Volume 3, Issue 3: Monday, 21 May 2001 ** http://nsx.underbase.org/ ** ** Jaridians. Floridians. Know the difference! ** *************************************************************************** ** ************************************************************************ */ OBSERVATIONS & C: Suburban minimarts bad? Lawns, tree colors. LINGUISTICS: m/gi..e./ BOOKS: The 9+9 "Babylon 5" novels. ANIME COMPARED: Pokémon, Digimon and Monster Ranchers ERRATA & O+A+A: Six weeks. UPCOMING: Season finales, current films. plus Legalese, acknowledgements and opt-in/out instructions. /* *************************************************************************** ** OBSERVATIONS & COGITATIONS ** ************************************************************************ */ First, villages. Then cities. Today, suburbs. In the days before personal motor transport (ie cars), cities had pedestrian usability features like sidewalks and mixed-use residential/retail zoning (ie corner grocers on every block). Today, we have isolated islands of residency and retail, with nary a link save the family car. Even so, witness the indignant resistance when a new mini-strip-mall goes up on an unusued suburban corner (soon to host a bank branch, dry cleaner, convenience store, video rental; plus maybe a pizza place and hair dresser or dentist). (One of my close relatives suffers from the kneejerk malady "oh no, they're altering the sylvan character of our community" -- so I get to witness said indignation frequently.) True, the thermal, drainage and habitat qualities of pavement are inferior to those of woodland. True, the convenience of a Wawa-brand minimart comes at the price of, err, higher prices relative to an economy-sized supermarket. But think: these satellite minimalls should actually *reduce* the number of miles driven by patrons, and the minutes spent at traffic signals (erected to regulate the concentrated consumer flow at retail hubs). Manage the growth skillfully, and short-range electric cars might catch on. *** Being buzz-cut to the depth of a putting green is not the natural state for Kentucky bluegrass, the most common breed on American lawns. If cut overshort, each plant will "panic" and direct its energy to regrowing its leaves ("blades"). If the blades are left alone, the plant can extend its roots, and will crowd out any nearby weeds, obviating the need for lawn chemicals. [From NPR's "You Bet Your Garden".] The lawn around my house doesn't attempt to maintain an artificial monoculture. Instead, its grassy majority coexists with clover, dandelions, vinca (a small violet five-petaled flower), and the occasional grape hyacinth and wild strawberry. Summer is the chromatically boring season of photosynthesis, but it's in the springtime that trees show their colors. The mustard-yellow explosions of forsynthia bushes are very popular in my locale. I've seen trees with white blossoms, yellow, yellow-green, pink, red, red-purple and lavendar, but never orange or blue. The mother of one of my former classmates, a plant geneticist, was once engaged in a project to breed blue lilies. *** The Jaridians are a race of aggressive, hot-blooded aliens in the TV SF series "Gene Roddenberry's Earth: Final Conflict." They say, "Must destroy Taelons, grrrr!" a lot. Floridians are human residents of the state of Florida, the southeastern peninsula of the continental United States. They say, "Must build retirement housing in path of hurricanes, hmmmm!" a lot. Know the difference, lest you try to sell condos to leather-skinned warriors who will suffer spontaneous combustion long before reaching retiremen age. /* *************************************************************************** ** LINGUISTICS ** m/gi..e./ ** ************************************************************************ */ gibber (jib'er) - to speak or utter rapidly and incoherently; chatter. gibbet (jib'it) - a gallows, or a structure like a gallows from which bodies of criminals already executed were hung and exposed to public scorn. giblet (jib'lit) - any of the parts of a fowl, as the heart, gizzard, neck, etc., usually cooked separately. gimlet (gim'lit) - a small boring tool with a handle at right angles to a shaft with a spiral, pointed cutting edge. ...from Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language, Second Concise Edition, 1975. /* *************************************************************************** ** BOOKS ** The 9+9 "Babylon 5" Novels ** ************************************************************************ */ Commentators on SF publishing sometimes bemoan the fact that "media tie- ins" have dominated the shelves since the resurgence of televised SF in the late 1980s. (TV, plus renewed interest in "Star Wars", plus other blockbuster SF films.) The plethora of paperbacks set in a particular vexes a subset of fans (the ones who like consistency), because each is usually considered an independent interpretation of that particular universe; a fork from the televised timeline, with no fealty to any other novel. Without this editorial mandate, the scriptwriters of a show still in production (eg "Star Trek: The Next Generation" et al) would need to be familiar with major plot twists of the novels -- and often, they can barely keep up with the twists added by their fellow scriptwriters. Even when a story is declared canon (ie canonical, official, not apocryphal -- terms borrowed from the assembly of the Roman Catholic bible), the writer (if some hack hireling not intimately familiar with the universe) will inevitably fall short on verisimilitude, to the shrill protests of watcher- readers. When Warner Bros. licensed "Babylon 5" (1993-1998) to Dell Publishing for a series of novels in 1995-1997, exactly this fate befell them. (And there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth.) When the license passed to Del Rey in 1998, the editors made the prudent decision to get official help. J.Michael Straczynski, creator and executive producer of the series, not only designed the overall five-year story arc, but also penned about half of the 110 episdoes. He's provided written plot outlines for the three trilogies: "The Psi Corps", "Legions of Fire", and "The Passing of the Techno-Mages"; so whatever complaints readers might have as to characterization and plotting, they can't object to the content. By Dell Publishing... 1 Voices - John Vornholt () 2 Accusations - Lois Tilton () 3 Blood Oath - John Vornholt () 4 Clark's Law - Jim Mortimore (275pp, feb-1996, 2242, 2258-2259) * 5 The Touch of Your Shadow, the Whisper of Your Name - Neal Barret Jr. () 6 Betrayals - S.M.Stirling (jun-1996) 7 The Shadow Within - Jeanne Cavelos () ** 8 Personal Agendas - Al Sarrantonio () 9 To Dream in the City of Sorrows - Kathryn M. Drennan (Mrs.JMS) ** * Considered the best of the first six novels by fans, but still has several serious divergences from the series. ** Large parts of these two novels are canon, JMS has stated. By Del Rey... Movie novelizations In the Beginning - Peter David (255pp, feb-1998, c.2248,c.2278) *** Thirdspace - Peter David (256pp, aug-1998, 2261) *** A Call to Arms - Robert Sheckley (jan-1999, 2268) *** *** Fans disagree on whether these novelizations add or detract from the movie originals. The Psi Corps Trilogy - J.Gregory Keyes 1 Dark Genesis: The Birth of the Psi-Corps (267pp, oct-1998, 2115) 2 Deadly Relations: Bester Ascendant (266pp, mar-1999, c.2220-2258) 3 Final Reckoning: The Fate of Bester (257pp, oct-1999, >2262) Legions of Fire - Peter David 1 The Long Night of Centauri Prime (280pp, dec-1999, 2262) 2 Armies of Light and Dark (252pp, may-2000, c.2268) 3 Out of the Darkness (266pp, oct-2000, c.2278) The Passing of the Techno-Mages - Jeanne Cavelos 1 Casting Shadows (352pp, mar-2001, nov-2258) 2 Summoning Light (368pp, jul-2001, c.2259) 3 (Not yet announced) /* *************************************************************************** ** ANIME COMPARED ** Pokémon, Digimon and Monster Ranchers ** ************************************************************************ */ Monster X squares off against Monster Y. Trainer Z encourages Monster X. Monster X wins, gains points and evolves to X', then X''. Beyond that shared premise, how is the prospective viewer to differentiate between the three anime imports, "Pokémon" (KidsWB), "Digimon: Digital Monsters" (FoxKids) and "Monster Rancher" (BKN)? In the world of "Pokémon" (Pocket Monsters), humans coexist with forests full of whimsical creatures, from semi-sentient yellow electric catlike creatures, to surly fire-breathing lizards, to flying gemlike starfish. These creatures have a tendency to fight each other, and by winning, gain the confidence to evolve to a more powerful form. Humans have built an entire sports league around such contests, and human trainers go into the wilderness to capture the creatures (which are stored in "transporter stasis"-like melon-sized pokéballs). The story follows three teenage friends on their training safari, followed by the jealous "Team Rocket" who forever try to impede their progress. "Digimon" -- The Digital World is parallel to our own, derived from data on our internet and populated by a variety of creatures (of various dispositions and degrees of sentience) who are hatched from eggs and who gradually "digivolve" through increasingly-powerful forms. (Their attack powers have no apparent natural function.) Digimon are capable of emotionally bonding to a single human, who can accelerate the normal digivolving process with support and affection. Like ours, the "digital world" spawns the occassional tyrant, who first enslaves the (peaceful, if sometimes aggressive) digimon with dark mechanisms -- and then turns his attention to our realm. The story follows a group of children (seven at first, then more) who are transported to the digiworld to bond with their destined partners -- a plan arranged by the digiworld's guardians, who unfortunately aren't around to explain it in detail. Fumbling to survive, the kids and digimon discover their higher forms in a series of combats (many of them traumatic) in both worlds against successive tyrants over several years. "Monster Rancher" -- Centuries ago in a parallel world, human scientists learned to create custom sentient creatures, and to store them on manhole- sized platters. A great war between two superweapon-creatures devastated the civilization; but the two souls drifted off into the hills. The human survivors, regressed to a pastoral existence, still find the occassional platter and revive the occupant. The story follows a human boy (Genki) from our world, sucked into a CD-ROM game that by synchronicity resembles the parallel world. He joins a local girl (Holly) and a band of creatures on their quest to fight the subverted- minions of Mu (the reincarnated soul of the evil weapon-crature) and revive the Phoenix (its opponent). : Pokémon : Digimon : Monster Rancher Protagonist humans : 3 : 8+ : 2 Supervillians : 0 : 4+ : 1 Worlds : 1 : 4 : 2 Global consequence : No : Yes : Yes Individual names : No : No : No Sentient monsters : Limited : Yes : Yes Talking monsters : No : Yes : Yes Multiple forms : 3 : 4+ : 1 Bonding : 1:M : 1:1 : No So, which of the three is the best series? That's a loaded question, but... (and noting that I've seen most of "Digimon" season 2, only a few eps of "Monster Rancher", and only fragments of "Pokémon")... "Pokémon" is clearly aimed at the youngest audience. It has slapstick, cartoon-style bad-physics violence and a teen who pants over every attractive female he meets. "Monster Rancher" and "Digimon" deal more seriously with the motivation and consequences of combat, but the "Digimon" characters mature further. The creatures in "Pokémon" are captured from the wild in the cartoon equivalent of cockfights, and often resent it. "Monster Ranchers" monsters choose to travel with Holly and Genki, however much they complain. Digimon naturally bond for life with a human. (This latter relation can be compared to the dragons in Anne McCaffrey's "Dragonriders of Pern" novels, or the bitek Voidhawk spacecraft in Peter F. Hamilton's "Night's Dawn Trilogy".) The biggest challenge in "Pokémon" is evading Team Rocket's latest dastardly plan, while Holly and co. have an entire world to save (no more than a billion sentients, given the agrarian economy); the digi-destined have *two* worlds, with six billion humans and "billions" of digimon. The good guys on "Pokémon" consist of three humans, plus several non-verbal creatures, plus the occasional vidphone call from a parent. "Monster Rancher" has two humans plus four intelligent, talking monster characters. "Digimon" has up to eight kids, each with a talking digimon partner; plus increasingly-frequent contact with parents. The character interactions are correspondingly rich. /* *************************************************************************** ** ERRATA & OMISSIONS, ADDENDA & ADMISSIONS ** ************************************************************************ */ Yoinks. It's been over six weeks, this time. Have you been checking the online content? The regularly-updated synopses and the TV listings? http://nsx.underbase.org/ - back issues http://nsx.underbase.org/index_plus.htm - reviews, analyses, etc. http://nsx.underbase.org/tv/ - TV listings /* *************************************************************************** ** UPCOMING ** Series, Seasons, Episodes, Movies, Books ** ************************************************************************ */ ADVISORIES... sun-27-may-04:00, 29, encore, "StarGate SG-1" season 3 finale. sun-27-may-23:00, 17, encore, "Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda" season 1 finale. mon-28-may-00:00, 17, encore, "Earth: Final Conflict" season 4 finale. tue-22-may-20:00, WB, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" season 5 finale (aka the "WB series finale"; next season it's on Fox). tue-22-may-20:00, WB, "Angel" season 2 finale. tue-22-may-20:00, UPN, "Star Trek Voyager" retrospective. tue-22-may-21:00, UPN, "Star Trek Voyager" viewer's choice. wed-23-may-20:00, UPN, "Star Trek Voyager" season 7/series finale (two hours). fri-25-may-20:00, SFC, "Farscape Chain-Reaction" (ie marathon) with "Farscape Undressed" plot-explaining special (five hours). tue-29-may-20:00, UPN, "7 Days" season 3 finale. CURRENT CINEMA... fri-30-mar "Spy Kids" **** fri-04-may "The Mummy Returns" (heavy CG) ***1/2 fri-18-may "Shrek" (CG) **** fri-08-jun "Evolution" (heavy CG) fri-15-jun "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" (cel) fri-15-jun "Tomb Raider" fri-29-jun "A.I." wed-11-jul "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within" (CG) wed-18-jul "Jurassic Park III" (heavy CG) (Rating system: 1 = horrible waste of film and time, 2 = a few good points, 3 = competent effort, 4 = quite entertaining, would watch on home video, 5 = truly astounding, fell in love, watched repeatedly.) "Spy Kids" - Two quarrelling children discover their parents are former international spies, who are kidnapped to support a plot; but the putative villian's heart really isn't in it. Good characters, good story, very funny. No guns, explosions, deaths or profanity (but there's one moment you'll *think* there is). The visual design of Floop's castle isn't quite as whimsical as Dr.Seuss, nor as creepy as Tim Burton. "The Mummy Returns" - a worthy sequel to 1999's "The Mummy", but can't stand alone. The good guys *know* bad things are sure to happen if they continue, but can't stop; no obvious mistakes in judgement. Very funny. Many guns, some explosions, many bloodless deaths, no profanity. Many bloodless half-dismembered mummy-types, one aerodynamically absurd dirigible. WFW wrestler "The Rock" appears for about five minutes at the film's start, then later courtesy of CGI. "Shrek" - To regain his swamp, ogre cuts deal with local ruler-nasty to fetch a wife, a princess in a dragon-guarded castle; is forced to open his personality to her and talkative donkey. Good story, characters, very funny; trailer does *not* give anything away. Stupendous semi-cartoonish CGI (with hair, fur, and textile FX). No guns, no explosions (but dragon- breath), one death (sort of), not-quite-profanity, much flatulence humor, some sexual innuendo. The pop soundtrack is a bit offputting (starting with Smash Mouth's "All Star", as heard in 1999's "Mystery Men"). "Evolution" - Meteorite delivers rapidly-propagating alien ecosystem to Earth, and screwballs try to contain it. Like David Gerrold's _War with the Chtorr_, but in a contemporary setting and funny. "Tomb Raider" - The Lara Croft (Indiana Jones, but more gymnastic, more gun-happy, and aggressively female) title character of the popular third- person shooter computer games crawls through yet more jungle tombs, and faces off against a robot. "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" - This summer's Disney animated feature, but no cute animals and no cute songs. Steampunk explorer-exploiters invade the ruins of Atlantis over the objections of their geek-archeologist (Michael J. Fox), who helps the locals reactivate their heritage. Noticeable anime influences (how many Disney fairytales have mechanical designs or bikini tops?). "A.I." - Stanley Kubrick's final project, inherited by Steven Spielberg. In the future, humans manage the world with the help of AIs, some of them installed in humanoid bodies. "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within" - the nine "Final Fantasy" computer games by Squaresoft (and several anime) have no unifying plot or characters, but have consistently engrossing storylines (I'm told). Photorealistic CGI with accurate humans. /** ************************************************************************ ** Legalese ** Acknowledgments ** Opt-in/out Instructions ** *********************************************************************** */ The set of creative works herein reviewed and analyzed, including the subset {books, movies, TV shows, toys}, are the property of their respective copyright holders. No infringement or endorsement is expressed, implied or intended. The original reviews and analyses are themselves copyright 2000 by Phillip Thorne. In this issue, certain data (not otherwise acknowledged) have been obtained and aggregated from: Amazon.com amazon.com Excite TV tv.excite.com The Internet Movie Database imdb.com Upcoming Movies upcomingmovies.com If you're receiving this newsletter, you've probably intentionally subscribed to it, or possibly you're interested in special conference/ convention/tradeshow coverage. In any case, to cancel your subscription, send an email message to nsx@underbase.org with the words "UNSUBSCRIBE NON-SEQUITUR" in the subject line and/or body. Capitalization and punctuation don't matter, since there's absolutely no automation behind the subscription process. Still. /* *************************************************************************** ** *************************************************************************** ** The Non-Sequitur Express ** http://nsx.underbase.org/ ** Volume 3, Issue 3: Monday, 21 May 2001 ** Copyright 1999-2000 Phillip Thorne, nsx@underbase.org ** *************************************************************************** ** ************************************************************************ */