Monthly Archives: April 2011

Allochthonia: Languages

Posted on April 17, 2011 by evilrooster

Lennier: And in my eleventy-fifth year in the temple, I began to study the 97 dialects and subtongues of our homeworld. And I discovered something truly amazing. Londo: Yes? Lennier: Yes. The same word, n!kai, appears in every Minbari dialect … Continue reading →

Posted in Allochthonia | 51 Comments

Babylon 5: The Quality of Mercy

Posted on April 15, 2011 by evilrooster

Mal: But it ain’t all buttons and charts, little albatross. You know what the first rule of flying is? Well, I suppose you do, since you already know what I’m about to say. River: I do. But I like to … Continue reading →

Posted in Babylon 5 | 8 Comments

CSS not working

Posted on April 12, 2011 by evilrooster

Technical thing: for some reason, all of my CSS changes, which include a lot of formatting improvements and comment numbering, have stopped working in both Firefox (3.x and 4) and Safari. They still work fine in Chrome. I haven’t checked … Continue reading →

Posted in Blog | 8 Comments

De Nieuwe Batavia: Watchfulness & Distraction

Posted on April 8, 2011 by evilrooster

I’m walking the perimeter, checking for an air leak. I know it’s here, I just don’t know where it is. We use a very old-fashioned way to locate leaks. Whenever we get a flag that the air mixture is off … Continue reading →

Posted in De Nieuwe Batavia | 29 Comments

De Nieuwe Batavia

Posted on April 7, 2011 by evilrooster

“Space…the final frontier.” I’ve been a Trekkie since I was four. I grew up believing these words the way kids believe nursery rhymes: unthinkingly. Grown up now, thinking about it, I know that it’s not Roddenberry’s fault. He didn’t invent … Continue reading →

Posted in De Nieuwe Batavia, Worldbuilding | 16 Comments

Babylon 5: Babylon Squared

Posted on April 6, 2011 by evilrooster

Never believe in a meritocracy in which no one is funny-looking. —Teresa Nielsen Hayden In the last episode, we brushed up against one of the persistent themes of the series: vocation. Draal was called to the Machine, both by Varn’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Babylon 5 | 24 Comments

Allochthonia: Numen, Faith, Religion, and Lack Thereof

Posted on April 1, 2011 by evilrooster

One of the persistent topics of discussion in the Babylon 5 threads has been annoyance about the depiction of religion in the alien societies of the series. The consensus is that Bab 5 isn’t unique: religion and faith are frequently … Continue reading →

Posted in Allochthonia | 148 Comments

Allochthonia

Posted on April 1, 2011 by evilrooster

Being an expat (as I have been for most of my adult life) is a profound and repeated experience of otherness. It’s a constant rediscovery that people can do things, and structure their societies, in entirely unexpected ways. And they … Continue reading →

Posted in Allochthonia, Worldbuilding | 25 Comments