2aMageing
Regular
I noticed that some of the philosophy and structure JMS put into his B5 Universe came from pre-existing sources, so I thought it might be fun to toss out the ones I spotted and see if any of ya'll have some "revelations" about his sources to contribute.
First the Delenn quote about "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth leaving the world blind and toothless" seems to be an almost direct quote from Ghandi. Very cool source.
Another, I like to think major, notice was that (posted originally by me on the Sci Fi board):
"
I don't know if JMS has talked about it specifically before, but I stumbled accross a book a couple years ago that talked about Celtic and some other "Indo-European societies" and I found a place that talked about how they often divided their societies into three groups:
"Priestly intelligentsia (the learned, I believe that means)"
"the Warriors"
"the agriculturalists" (sounds like a working class to me)
It seems to be right on the money, but maybe their was another similar source he drew from.
One other thing, the whole persona of the Vorlons and the Shadows (or what ever their name actually was, what is it with unpronouncable names anyway, the Hand and all)
anyway, the character of the Vorlons and Shadows and their relationship to each other reminds me ALOT of a concept I heard of in Sociology ... I can't remember the name of it right now but it broke living systems into two ways of looking at peoples interaction; Functionalist theory: trying to explain society in terms of trying to "achieve and remain in equilibrium or balance", and Conflict Theory: Society as being held together by some groups wielding power over other groups to the benefit of the more powerful group(s).
Anyway I got the Celtic bit from Funk & Wagnalls dictionary of folklore, mythology, and legend. And the Sociology stuff I got from Sociology for the twenty-first century (By Curry, Jiobu, and Schwirian). Maybe this will give some people a new way to look at some of the stuff that went on in the original B5 series, and show how (if I am right, that is)JMS does not go off half-cocked and probably has more quality set up in the Rangers concepts from the movie than some people are giving it credit for.
"
Anyone else got any other juicy background info on B5 lore?
------------------
"Humanity IS my business"
or the always popular
"You can get farther with a kind word and a 2 b four, than you can with just a kind word"
First the Delenn quote about "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth leaving the world blind and toothless" seems to be an almost direct quote from Ghandi. Very cool source.
Another, I like to think major, notice was that (posted originally by me on the Sci Fi board):
"
I don't know if JMS has talked about it specifically before, but I stumbled accross a book a couple years ago that talked about Celtic and some other "Indo-European societies" and I found a place that talked about how they often divided their societies into three groups:
"Priestly intelligentsia (the learned, I believe that means)"
"the Warriors"
"the agriculturalists" (sounds like a working class to me)
It seems to be right on the money, but maybe their was another similar source he drew from.
One other thing, the whole persona of the Vorlons and the Shadows (or what ever their name actually was, what is it with unpronouncable names anyway, the Hand and all)
anyway, the character of the Vorlons and Shadows and their relationship to each other reminds me ALOT of a concept I heard of in Sociology ... I can't remember the name of it right now but it broke living systems into two ways of looking at peoples interaction; Functionalist theory: trying to explain society in terms of trying to "achieve and remain in equilibrium or balance", and Conflict Theory: Society as being held together by some groups wielding power over other groups to the benefit of the more powerful group(s).
Anyway I got the Celtic bit from Funk & Wagnalls dictionary of folklore, mythology, and legend. And the Sociology stuff I got from Sociology for the twenty-first century (By Curry, Jiobu, and Schwirian). Maybe this will give some people a new way to look at some of the stuff that went on in the original B5 series, and show how (if I am right, that is)JMS does not go off half-cocked and probably has more quality set up in the Rangers concepts from the movie than some people are giving it credit for.
"
Anyone else got any other juicy background info on B5 lore?
------------------
"Humanity IS my business"
or the always popular
"You can get farther with a kind word and a 2 b four, than you can with just a kind word"
