In a message dated 2/19/01 5:45:51 PM Eastern Standard Time, rilliara@juno.com writes:

<< On Mon, 19 Feb 2001 16:32:47 EST Ashton7@aol.com writes:

Just about *any* hobby can sound pathetic to those who aren't interested

in it.

Some people like to catalog insects (B7 reference! <g>) and others like to catalog things in their favorite tv show. Where's the difference?<<

It's in the explanations. When I went through and counted every time

Vader in the novel version of Star Wars used a name or title to address someone or speak of them, I said it was for literary analysis in the evaluation of character motivation*. That way, it was a good thing.<

Sounds better than the sports fan who can proudly and seriously quote to you the averages of a player or team down to the last decimal, for the past few decades. Mundanes often regard one as 'childish, stupid trivia' while the latter is 'authoritative sporting enthusiasm'. We have to stop apologizing for our fannishness. We have nothing to apologize for. Well--okay, maybe for some of the most lurid purple prose, but even the greatest sportsmen get gutterballs.

Leah

If I'd been doing it just because I was obsessive compulsive about a show, _that_ would mean I had a problem.

So, it's perfectly all right to know how many times Avon wore a particular outfit and under what circumstances if you add something about it's telling symbolism for his character (ie, did he wear it because he liked it or because he couldn't be bothered to pay attention to what he grabbed out of the closet in the morning?).

Ellynne

*If there's anyone who wants to know, Vader almost completely avoided anything that wasn't a pronoun when he could. He made an exception for Tarkin and Ben, although he never used a title with Tarkin (his nominative superior), although Tarkin and Kenobi broke even for nonpronoun forms of address (four out of seven, I think [but it depends on how you rate 'Old man' (insulting? familiar? synonym for father figure?)]).

The big exception was Princess Leia. Vader used either a respectful form of her name, a title, or a formal form of address (although, like Han, he wasn't above making 'your highness' derogatory) nearly 80% of the time. As she was the only woman we see on the Death Star, pronouns wouldn't have been too confusing.

From a character POV, that has interesting implications for how Vader viewed her.

Of course, one could always argue the _writer_ did this because the audience was supposed to think of her as a person and the nameless imperial thugs as nameless imperial thugs. >>