From: Danny Sichel Newsgroups: alt.humor.best-of-usenet Subject: [rec.arts.comics.dc.universe] Re: Shared Universe Date: 22 Dec 1998 23:27:16 GMT Subject: Re: Shared Universe From: bhmarks@aol.com (BHMarks) Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.dc.universe XZYP03E@prodigy.com (Michael Doran) said: >But the respective countries in question are to their very core >fundamentally different You know, the world of STAR TREK is completely different from ours. FTL travel, transporters, alien races . . . you name it. But if in the next STAR TREK movie, the president of Earth said "as you know, we choose the Admiral of all Star Fleet by rolling dice", I would immediately feel there was something wrong. Perhaps you would object to my reaction. After all, if the laws of PHYSICS are different, then maybe they DO choose the High Admiral by rolling dice. Except: even if the laws of physics are different, we still have a general feeling for how the Federation and Star Fleet deal with things, based on watching a lot of episodes and movies with the Federation and Star Fleet. And rolling dice to determine leaders just doesn't mesh with this. I have no idea if the situation set up in NML is better or worse than this. But I do know: the argument that says "if you've accepted that a man can fly, you should then accept ANYTHING an author hands you - regardless of whether it's been revealed or foreshadowed in earlier episodes, regardless of whether the author has justified it in a convincing way, regardless of whether it fits in with your understanding of the setting" just doesn't wash with me. Suspension of disbelief is earned, not automatic. Again, this may or may not pertain to NML.