[Dragaera] No traffic since February?

[Casey Rousseau]

Margaret Young writ:
> Question to throw out to others.
> 
> There is a theory that we interact with television by dealing
> with a sujet [sic] which is the present overt story while
> creating and holding in mind a fabula - the backstory, context,
> created history. The fabula is not given to us, rather we create
> by grasping clues from various sujets. 
> 
> In relationship to Brust/Vlad/Dragaera
> 
> One of the fascinating things to me is the way in which each
> time I read a new book I end up having to reread the entire
> series in order to integrate the new information into the fabula
> that I (and others) have been creating.
> This is notoriously considered to make it hard for new people to
> come to a television show with a rich and non-obvious fabula 
> (that is why networks don't like arcs) and yet it is one of the
> things which I always thought attracted people to intelligent
> world creations.

1) Perhaps readers tolerate a modest amount of exposition more readily than
viewers?
2) Many tightly serial television shows recap highlights from recent
episodes (e.g. "Previously on The West Wing...") (this is a technique that
dates back to pulp serials from Dicken's day and earlier I'm sure.)
3) It's easier for a novel reader or movie goer to choose to pick up the
'first' volume in the series rather than the current episode.
4) Network television has historically used reruns to help fill in the gaps.
5) Now, many successful television shows have the entire prior season
released in non-broadcast form shortly before the new season starts.
6) Viewer initiated video feeds such as Tivo, On Demand or internet
streaming are allowing viewers to (within some limits) take control of when
formerly broadcast media is consumed.

Casey