Babylon 5 and Philosophy

[FCBertrand]

Anyone know of any articles, essays, etc. that deal with "Philosophy in
Bablylon 5"??

[Morden]

"The Book of G'Kar"

[rallytbk]

Is there such a book? With garibaldi's coffee stain? I would like to know... LOL

[TurkishZath]

Anyone know of any articles, essays, etc. that deal with "Philosophy in
Bablylon 5"??

Long time lurker posting now to let you know about this book:

http://www.personal.rdg.ac.uk/~lhsjamse/babylon5.htm


I've got a copy and it's quite interesting, actually. I nearly ended up writing my undergraduate thesis on B5.

In the end I did it on The Philosophy for Children Program.

[FCBertrand]

Philosophy in B5

Tks TurkishZath for your helpful and relevant reply. I've been intrigued
for a long time by Straczynski's use of "philosophical ideas" in B5,
in particular Political Philosophy, Ethics, and Philosophy of Religion. But
I've found little in the way of useful discussion/dialogue/debate about
this. Was not aware of the book you note: The Parliament Of Dreams.
Anyone seen available used copies of this????

[Jan]

I've never heard of that book at all, though it sounds interesting. I have another, though, called "Interracting with Babylon 5" that I'd completely forgotten about. I'll see if I can't take a look and see if it has anything that might be of interest to you, FCBertrand.

Jan

[Towelmaster]

It's still out of print according to amazon, and ebay doesn't give any hits on it. Solly...

[FCBertrand]

Philosophy in B5

Tks Jan and TowelMaster for your info. One of the few B5 books I do have
at present is Kurt Lancaster's Interacting With Babylon 5. And on p. 12
he does quote from a jms interview wherein jms indicates he likes writing
stories about "issues of eternal debate, the Big Questions [such as] who are
we, where are we going, why are we here, and what should we as a
people be doing to create the future?" One could substitute traditional
philosophical terminology for each of these and hopefully engage in some
cogent discussion/dialogue/debate about how they are depicted in B5....
But, my experience with Internet communities, albeit devoted to Philip K.
Dick, Bertrand Russell, The Prisoner, etc., is that I'll find mostly irrelevant
fluff consisting of posturing, pontificating, and cruel comments about other
posters.

[Jan]

One could substitute traditional
philosophical terminology for each of these and hopefully engage in some
cogent discussion/dialogue/debate about how they are depicted in B5....
But, my experience with Internet communities, albeit devoted to Philip K.
Dick, Bertrand Russell, The Prisoner, etc., is that I'll find mostly irrelevant
fluff consisting of posturing, pontificating, and cruel comments about other
posters.

Well, we've been known to have our lapses, but most folks around here enjoy a good conversation. Any posturers or pontificators are easily put on 'Ignore', I think.

I'm not familiar with philosophical terminology but feel free to start a thread or give an example and we can see if folks are interested.

Jan

[FCBertrand]

Philosophy in Babylon 5

I would note the following from p. 28 of David Bassom's book Creating Babylon 5:

"As well as moral debate, Babylon 5 frequently touches upon the
subject of religion. Although Straczynski is an atheist, he has always
been interested in the subject and minored in philosophy at San Diego
State University. Given that religion has existed for 4,000 years of
recorded history, he feels that it won't go away within the next 250 years
or so."

jms also got BAs in Psychology and Sociology at SDSU, as well as a second
minor in Literature.

Anyone know what year he graduated from SDSU?

[Jan]

jms also got BAs in Psychology and Sociology at SDSU, as well as a second
minor in Literature.

Anyone know what year he graduated from SDSU?

Looks like anywhere from '75 to '78. There's this post :

From: [email protected] (Jms at B5)
Subject: ATTN JMS: When did you go to r
To: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated
Date: 1/28/1995 2:39:00 PM

Okay...Kankakee in 1972-73; Richland 1973-1974; Southwestern
1974-1976; SDSU 1976-1977.

jms

And this one:

From: [email protected] (Jms at B5)
Subject: Re: a nosey question about jms...
To: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated
Date: 1/3/2003 8:09:00 PM

>Just out of sheer curiosity, when? I was at SDSU in the early
>'70s (73 - 75). EE mostly.

From around 1975-78. About a year in, I started writing for the San Diego
State Daily Aztec, and ended up writing so many articles, reviews and columns
-- sometimes 4-5 per week, sometimes twice a day -- that the paper became known
on campus as the Daily Joe.

jms

Jan

[FCBertrand]

Philosophy in Babylon 5

Whilst doing some Internet searching, came across a posting at B5JMS:
cs.columbia.edu, from [email protected], with some helpful info. In that
jms attended four different colleges, the question I now have is at which
one did he get his minor in Philosophy?? Perhaps jms can let us know??

p.s. Well, as a postscript, have found the archives at jsmNews. Searched
by "philosophy," and have gotten quite a bit of info. Apparently jms got
all his college majors and minors at San Diego State University.

[TurkishZath]

FC Bertrand, it looks as though you're in Manchester.

Harvard has a copy in their library, otherwise I only see it in Texas and a few British libraries.

[FCBertrand]

Philosophy in B5

Tks, TurkishZath, for that info. I'm going to try ILL through the library where
I'm working on my MEd. Visited the website for the Philosophy Dept at
SDSU, to ascertain what it takes to get a minor in Philosophy -- 24 units,
of which there's one required course.

[Towelmaster]

It may be a bit much, but may I suggest that the B5-canon in itself is a(minor) philosophical work?