On The Sofa (7)

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  • #42493
    Missy @missy

    @purofilion

    Thank you puro. Your advice helped a lot.

    Regards,

    Missy

    #42494
    Jon R @jonr

    Apologies, if this turns to have been posted in the wrong place.

    I’m trying to check whether my memory of something Tom Baker

    said is accurate, or I’m just imagining things.

    I think I can remember him saying that he spent some time

    on the Isle of Skye, as a teenage monk, on one of his DVD commentaries.

    However, listening to dozens of hours of commentaries, to find

    out whether he did, or nor, is a daunting task.

    Does anybody know whether this is true, or not, and if

    it is, could you tell me where he says it.

    Thanks Jon

    #42495
    Bluesqueakpip @bluesqueakpip

    @jonr – you’ve confused islands, that’s all. Yes, Tom Baker spent six years in a monastery and yes, part of those six years were on a monastery on an island. But it was Jersey, not Skye.

    #42498
    Whisht @whisht

    @ichabod @purofilion – the Tardis is like the show, its bigger on the inside.

    (I am sure others have said that before!)

    I agree, loads of room for play with the Tardis – probably why its endured as such an iconic ‘spacecraft’, obviously along with its idiosyncratic (and then anachronistic) exterior.

    I’d imagine the Tardis works to its own rules so shifts things or has them on an idiosyncratically ‘logical’ path (eg “always two lefts after you’ve truly given up” or “the door before you would have started to open every door”).

    To conserve ‘memory’ (data and energy), rooms can be deleted (I seem to remember and makes sense).

    But very very easy to imagine colonies of ‘things’ living in areas below the knowledge of the Tardis or hidden in some ways.

    ;¬)

    #42499
    Whisht @whisht

    btw I love your image of a speech bubble @ichabod although I have a slightly different way to use it.

    Imagine the ‘point’ of the bubble (the beginning of it, the source) pointed at the collapsed sun [whateverthehellitwasthatOmegadid] and the bubble being the Tardis (and any Tardis).

    Any Tardis uses that point in SpaceTime that Omega created as its energy point/ moment of warping SpaceTime enough to Time Travel (and create matter and mass in the form of rooms etc).

    In fact did we ‘see’ this moment of the collapsing sun in Journey To the Centre of the Tardis?

    Maybe not but I agree with you – loads of scope for bonkerising!

    ;¬)

    #42500
    ichabod @ichabod

    @whisht  Or colonies of living things that the Tardis transports but keeps hidden from the Doctor for its own reasons (our current refugee crisis comes to mind — maybe refugees the Doctor doesn’t approve of).  Why not?  Since they went to the trouble of establishing the Tardis as a personality, with goals of its own and immense powers of self-transformation and internal rearrangement, why not put it into play more in story plots and arcs?  The writers made it into a character — maybe it’s got projects of its own, from which the Doctor’s requirements distract it from time to time (as it were), so you wouldn’t have to use it like an independent character all the time (some stories might get too cluttered), but when you want to — well, anything goes, until events establish rules, eh?

    I’m probably interested in this because I’m reading an Iain Banks novel of The Culture, which is full of sentient machines and their desires and friendships etc.

     

     

    #42504
    Anonymous @

    @ichabod

    @whisht (good to see you -and bonkerising on top form as usual!)

    Yes, one could have another Tardis -focussed story much like Journey to the Centre of the Tardis and The Doctor’s Wife (I often confuse that name with The Wedding of River Song – I can’t think why).

    Colonies of space ‘refugees’ -monstrous or not, would make for a good plot:

    maybe it’s got projects of its own, from which the Doctor’s requirements distract it from time to time

    I recall, at the beginning of Amy’s visit to the Tardis, that a certain ‘look’ crossed her face which people thought may have been a Silent crossing her line of vision. She looked a trifle perplexed or frightened. And then her face retained its initial look of relative calm  🙂

    Mind you, that she’d seen a Silent was later dismissed. Any nervous looks would be attributed to sheer amazement at the unique features of the Tardis: the console, the Round Things, the organic quality of the ship with its command centre, flashing lights and inherent space (and yes, it’s bigger on the inside). I recall she was standing in her cream nightie at the time which was shortly to be covered in the charming, oozy digestive juices of an enormous space whale!

    ichi: you’re in New Mexico? A writer’s panel or workshop? How’s the weather? 🙂

    Yes, I’m also thinking about the news of refugees and how our conservative govt suggested it might take 10 000 people but that would mean placing “other, equally needy refugees, back in the queue.” (because of course there’s a queue of needy versus not-so-needy people)

    We have a weekly Question and Answer programme (@JanetteB -you’d be familiar with this Monday night event) wherein various pollies, leaders of pressure groups and those involved in gatherings such as writer’s festivals are invited to answer questions from Australians in the audience or from Twitter and video feeds.

    Recently we had a Festival of Dangerous Ideas in which Geoffrey Robertson (formerly of The Hypotheticals) was invited to speak. His involvement in Q&A had some memorable, humorous and biting retorts to our business leaders and those of the conservative persuasion regarding the Syrian refugee crisis. That he quoted Kant, Portia from The Merchant of Venice and the parable of the good Samaritan added depth and quality to a panel of fence sitters, equivocators and blue -boringers.

    I do love Geoffrey sometimes.

    #42512
    janetteB @janetteb

    @Purofilion. I must chase up the Geoffrey Robertson Q&A. I had the honour of hearing him talk by phone last year at a dinner. He was supposed to have sent a pre-recorded speech but due to an organisational muddle ended up phoning in. It was really quite wonderful to hear him speak and for him to hear the audience response. He is a remarkable man, an Australian to be proud of as opposed to those who make us hang our heads with shame.

    I always enjoy stories which capitalise upon the potential of the Tardis though Journey to the Centre of the TArdis was rather disappointing. That does however remind me that there are still some questions left unanswered from that episode. Maybe it is time I re watched.

    Cheers

    Janette

    #42513

    @craig

    An alternative way to donate to Save The Children UK – courtesy of Crowded House.

    #42514
    Anonymous @

    @janetteb

    it was on this past Monday and therefore is still available on catch up TV courtesy of iview ABC 1

    #42530
    Ludivine @ludivine

    @purofilion

    Thank you ! What a lovely welcome =)

    #42536
    JimTheFish @jimthefish
    Time Lord

    I know the prelude is creating much squee this evening, but thought it only fair to post Jonathan Jones’s riposte to last week’s PratchettGate.

    #42537
    ichabod @ichabod

    @purofilion  Yes, I live in New Mexico — we came here in 1970 from New York, stayed ever since.  I was at the local SF convention, small until George Martin flew into the stratosphere with GoT; he came on Saturday, mobs of orderly and excited fans, some good panel discussions.  An SF convention *ought* to be a Festival of Dangerous Ideas, but rarely is, and never with public recognition — it’s just SF, you know, kids’ stuff, action films, and trivia.  Says a culture that’s out taking photos of Pluto using space-faring robots . . .

    #42541
    Anonymous @

    @ichabod

    Ah I see now! how wonderful. Whilst in the States, many years ago and on different occasions, I didn’t travel to NM (I would have liked to). Friends of mine actually left for the States on a holiday yesterday – at about 11.50 pm: the idea being that tickets on the 11th of Sept were actually cheaper – with their 4 children ranging from 3 to 14 years.

    I could not think of anything worse that I’d actually have to shell out cash for- in that they’re hopping from one place to another with no more than 3 days in one particular city or state and plan on visiting NM (it’s also the interminable flight and the unnecessary purchase of an iPad for each child complete with head phones, downloaded music and incidental games).

    Each child was allowed to suggest a destination which would fit in with the parent’s goals. The 11 year old insisted on NM -something to do with sport, apparently? So well done Young Child.

    Thing is, they’re only away for 2 1/2 weeks: a whirlwind ‘tour’. The gentleman finally made it to partner in the corporate law firm so this is a reward for the patient family: for 15 long years he’s been at the coal face for over 16 hours a day.  I don’t think he can distinguish one child from another.

    All cleaning, nannying and gardening outsourced whilst the lady does the cooking, washing and ferrying of seemingly endless groups of children to a panoply of prescribed ‘fun activities and sport’ thus ensuring ‘good motherhood’. I estimated each child had 4 separate after- school activities on the week days leading to further games on the weekend (which husband attended). A quick calculation results in 16 activities per 5 day period.

    I would be dead. In fact, I’d encourage it 🙂

    Life. Or is it?

    @ludivine you’re entirely welcome. We promise that there will be lots of Who discussions of the present series once 19 September rolls around! However, there are lots of recent posts from contributors such @Arbutus, @ichabod, @nerys and @lisa on Kill the Moon, The Caretaker and the Forest episode. I too am a fan of the re-boot although I grew up watching Who from a very young age. In Oz, it was aired every day at 4  -about which time mum needed to have me ‘out from under’ whilst preparing our evening meal.

    Your picture is lovely and your handle also. I like ludivine. Is it derivative or a name you made up entirely? If this question is too personal, forgive me and ignore the nosy Puro! Others do, occasionally 🙂

    @jimthefish Well, well.

    Mr Jones gets better and better doesn’t he? I believe he needs a cyber update -or at least a pre-selection for same. <<*\*>>

    Kindest,

    Purofilion

    PS: Jim, our Boy Ilion discovered that a recent update of a Play Station game uses Nathan Filion’s voice as a main character: he’s absolutely overjoyed

    #42545
    ichabod @ichabod

    Jones continues to be a witless snob; okay, long as I don’t have to read his stuff.  Gods, can you imagine T. Pratchett trying to sound like Henry James, of all people?  To please stuffy little mouthpieces like J. Jones?   Anybody here read any Henry James recently?  Yes, it’s art, sometimes, and for some people.  For others it’s a dreary school assignment; they’d prefer “Small Gods”.  Which is also art, if you think (as I often do) that art is how artistic people communicate their personal perceptions of the world for others to respond to, or not, as they choose.

    Aesthetic choices vary with personal taste, the times, predominant styles, and tons of other stuff, but I think the underlying artistic purpose is constant: I want you to see some of what I see, feel some of what I feel, understand some of what my life has taught me — even if you shrug and move on, or toss my book across the room, or spray graffiti on my carved stones, or (best) set to work making some art that answers mine.  Henry James did that for readers, sometimes still does; Terry Pratchett did that, maybe more effectively, for more people of our time, and still does.  Does that make one better, a producer of “higher” art, than the other?  According to how many (or how few) readers read each one after he’s dead?   After he’s been dead for a century or more?  In 2075?  What?

    #42547
    Arbutus @arbutus

    Thanks for the link, @jimthefish! I was interested to read it, although I was sorry to see that they have apparently decided to disable comments, as it would have been interesting to see if any readers at least gave him credit for trying. (Although I suppose there wouldn’t have been much of that, really.) I thought that his point of view was much more clearly expressed this time around, which is an excellent argument for actually reading the writer you’re talking about.

    @ichabod, I had a similar thought about the issue of proclaiming some books to be “literary” and others not. Obviously, there is a lot of English lit canon that is considered, rightly, to be “literature” because it has stood the test of time in a way that other works have not. Loads of people wrote Gothic romances in the 19th century, and there’s a reason why they aren’t all remembered! But without that test of time, who decides? Because nowadays, it can’t be right to decide based on different literary styles. If someone writes in a more lyrical, image-based style, that is literature, while a straightforward presentation of story and characters is not?

    I had this conversation loads of times in my days as a musicology student, where entire classes were devoted to analyzing the importance of various composers of the later twentieth century. I could never understand how it was possible to determine their importance before their work had been allowed to stew a bit in the juices of history. @purofilion can also tell you how many composers in recent years have been dismissed because their music was too tonal, too accessible, even (horrors) too popular. Film music too… Ennio Morricone and John Williams are not considered serious composers, but Sergei Prokofiev, who wrote a lot of music for film, is.

    Oh, dear, you gave me a soapbox and I climbed up on it. Oh well… How ’bout that Doctor Who Prelude, eh?  🙂

    #42552
    ichabod @ichabod

    @arbutus  — well, John Cage’s argument is a simple and strong one — “If I put a frame around it, that makes it art”, with the frame being the recital hall, no musicians necessary (Warhol, with his soup cans, argues the same).  But that vast perspective leads into impossible places where art and philosophy overlap in waffle-y ways.  It’s kind of like that foreground/background stuff: I know at some level that anything is art if you are *looking* at it as art.  Um.  And?  Um.   Luckily, in the foreground I keep my favorite music, books, and pictures and my “arguments”, such as they are, for why they’re “good” rather than “bad” or “mediocre”.  Even though all that stuff shifts around with time and cultural styles etc. we can still have fun discussing our respective collections and rationales.  The background truth, though, remains what it was, as far as I can see.

    #42554
    Anonymous @

    @purofilion

    I guess it is gonna be a very unexpected season. I am having a feeling that it might be better than the previous season. What do you think? will it or will it just have a great plot? I kinda forgot about what happened last time…my memory is just like yours now 😛

    #42558
    Anonymous @

    @judefjackets-2

    I tend to be an optimist on several levels. Moffat and indeed anyone involved with Who has always done a great job. I expect that it will be terrific: that Capaldi will be in full stride with a mop of curly grey hair wanting to “kiss the deliciousness” of it all.

    Can’t wait.

    #42559
    Anonymous @

    @arbutus @ichabod

    I brook no argument against Cage. I just can’t 🙂

    Just as he will say, “this is my music. Such as it be”

    #42560
    Anonymous @

    I hope so. I’ve become a regular viewer of Doctor Who and i’m so lucky to be part of the Whovian clan. I am eagerly looking forward to it. And, just like the finale episode of last season, i expect it to start with the same momentum it ended.

    #42569
    ichabod @ichabod

    I’m trying to ramp my expectations down so I can actually pay attention to what happens on the screen — I think it’s going to be a hell of a great season, which will of course terribly disappoint the people who get their jollies by complaining about whatever the episodes should have been instead of what they are (“criticism”, weird idea of).

    #42571
    Mudlark @mudlark

    @arbutus  @ichabod  @purofilion     I suppose Jonathan Jones redeems himself slightly, in that after the response to his initial piece he did bother to actually read one of Pratchett’s books, but he still comes across as a condescending intellectual snob.  People like him seem to have a very narrow definition of what constitutes art or ‘literature’, and I have little patience with such a pretentious and high falutin’ point of view.

    The purpose of art, whether in fiction, painting, sculpture or music, is surely communication; and if the artist has some personal message, vision or perspective on the world and is able to communicate something that message, vision or perspective effectively, then as far as I am concerned it is art, whether the number of people whose view of the world and humanity is changed or enlarged is few or many; and in the case of Terry Pratchett’s novels, it is very many.

    To Jones, ‘Small Gods’ is the ‘novel as distraction’ and the prose ‘ordinary’.  Evidently he does not find the perspective offered by well crafted fantasy underpinned by a humane and wise intelligence enlightening, and cannot appreciate Pratchett’s playful delight in the use of language; which is fair enough, although it is his loss.  I just find it hard to reconcile this with his claim to be a fan of Doctor Who, unless it is a kind of cognitive dissonance between his childhood self and his adult persona.

    Not every artist, in whatever medium, can speak to everyone, but because an artist does speak to you personally is no reason to dismiss him or her as trivial.  I recently finished reading ‘The Bone Clocks’ by David Mitchell. I bought it without prior knowledge because I had enjoyed reading other novels by him, and I found it the most absorbing of all of them; in fact I read it twice in succession because, like many Doctor Who episodes since SM took over as show runner, the full import and the details could only be appreciated and absorbed the second (or third) time around.  After I had read it I looked up some of the reviews to see what others had made of it.  On the whole the reviews were favourable, although many had been put off by the unorthodox narrative structure and/or by the underlying but integral paranormal theme. But I was particularly struck by the something said by the reviewer in the New Yorker.

    The novel is divided into six separate but interlinked sections set in successive decades between 1984 and 2043.  The first and last sections are narrated by the same character, Holly Sykes, firstly as a fifteen year old and at the end as a woman in her seventies.  The intervening sections are narrated by four other characters with whom Holly’s life intersects as a secondary but crucial character. The reviewer in the New Yorker thought that one of the major flaws in the novel was that the narrative ‘voices’ were more or less indistinguishable, whereas I had found them so clearly distinct that I could immediately visualise and ‘feel’ the characters, even in the difference between the fifteen year old Holly, acutely alive to every sensory impression even as she struggled to cope with emotional trauma, and the Holly as a grandmother in failing health, anxious for her grand daughter and adopted son in a world going rapidly to hell.  So whose view should carry the more weight?  Or are both valid?

    In my view the role of a critic or reviewer is to give the readers a flavour of the work so that they can decide if it is worth investigating further, not to dictate what they should consider worthy of regard.

     

     

     

     

     

    #42574
    Levram @levram

    I have noticed a rule when watching fiction.

     

    A lot of times in works of fiction, you’ll see a couple really happy.

     

    Then something bad to really bad will happen.

    It doesn’t always have to be a death, but it often is a death.

     

    For example, Amy and Rory. They were happy together then something bad happened to Amy.

     

    Their marriage almost fell apart, but the Doctor helped them save it.

     

     

     

     

    #42575
    ichabod @ichabod

    @arbutus  On modern music — I have a theory that when “serious” music went academic, becoming all about structure and math and producing the weirdest pitches and runs possible, the actual creative impulse in composers migrated to other venues where people would still listen to it and be enthusiastic about it or meh: film and TV scores; popular music groups deliberately incorporating symphonic or chamber elements recognizable by their sound, not some math formula; music for computer games; and things I haven’t thought of or remembered.  Endangered wolves in the northeast survive by cross-breeding with coyotes, emerging again when people are gone and there’s more big game around; endangered classical forms in music perhaps survive by cross-breeding with more popular forms and hiding themselves there until it’s save to come out . . .

    #42576
    ichabod @ichabod

    @levram   So true; happiness isn’t a story.  For a story, you need drama; for drama, you need challenges, not contentment.  That’s why SF writers rarely write Utopias — they turn into travelogs: “This is how we do our agriculture, so that the right foods are produced in the right quantities by people happy to spend their days weeding, hand-pollinating, etc.”  “This our school, where we teach how bad the old days were, and how to value all your classmates.”  Etc.  People who write Utopian stories usually write them in order to dig until the find the weak point in the system, where something is deeply unfair, exploitative, or doomed by the passage of time.  Even comedies need challenges: look at comic opera or operetta: everything is dandy, we all love our class system full of happy peasants and silly aristocrats, but Beppo, here, is miserable because he’s in love with Angelina, and she is promised to another!

    Misery make a story go because it demands resolution into something less miserable.  You can even succeed with a story about *not* succeeding (Les Miserables, for instance).  But you need that challenge, to get your characters up off their arises in the first place.

     

     

     

     

    #42578
    Anonymous @

    @levram

    A lot of times in works of fiction, you’ll see a couple really happy. Then something bad will happen. It doesn’t always have to be a death, but it often is a death.

    I think good literature is wonderful and beats television nearly every time and you’re quite right, the happy couple is often lost irretrievably. The heroine dies, the couple you mentioned doesn’t get together, death or illness separates them but in Who, even the Doctor can work his magic and ensure Amy and Rory return to earth has the happy couple once again.

    In novels, relationships are the categorical imperative: interactions with people is the most interesting element which creates the ‘great novel’ or work of fiction. It is the crucible to test our mettle and contains conflict or complications to precede the eventual resolution.

    Generally,  these resolutions emerging from conflict can occur within one book but in some cases over several, such as the conflicts Francesca overcomes in order to find happiness in the first of four books beginning with The Virgin in the Garden (Antonia Byatt) and concluding with her final novel in the quartet, Babble Tower.

    Conflicts and predicaments act as transition moments or scene transitioning, helping the reader experience or understand, first hand, the characters’ frame of mind within key chapters or scenes.

    All relationships in novels concern some conflict-whether large or small -in the period before marriage, during a formal declaration of intent to pursue a relationship or even during the wedding itself, where, for example, Jane Eyre discovers the existence of Bertha Mason, Edward Rochester’s first wife, alive (but not well) in the north tower. It occurs at the pivotal moment in any wedding where the priest asks, “is there an impediment standing in the way of this legal marriage?” Whereupon Mason’s lawyer states sombrely that “this marriage cannot go on as I declare the existence of an insuperable impediment. It cannot be got around. Rochester has a wife. The law recognises it even if he does not.”

    Wow. A  total blow for Eyre, though not entirely surprising as she pieces together the tiny clues dropped along the way.

    However, sometimes the couples are not reunited and tragedy results. There are many examples in fiction to support this fact but I’ll take one of the more famous novels: Flaubert’s Madame Bovary.

    The protagonist, Emma Bovary, is not entirely happy in her marriage: she’s not completely certain what her position in this marriage is. To skip to the conflict and resolution (somewhat miserable for them all; including her husband), Emma takes two lovers, who, tired of her emotional excesses and superficial existence, find they are ambivalent toward her and abandon her (to them she may have been a play thing only: pretty and useful for a period -an interesting social construct for the time, by the way, and worth analysing in itself).

    During the latter relationship, whilst enamoured of pretty but expensive and frivolous things, Emma has fallen into enormous debts. Frightened and alone, she poisons herself. Her husband is deeply distressed and becomes a recluse whilst all his material possessions are taken away in order to cover his late wife’s debts.

    He dies and his daughter is passed to an aunt. The child ends up working at a cotton factory. These are my thoughts from the time when I last read Bovary,  so any mistakes are down to my poor memory. I guess one can concede the point that a ‘happy couple’ is always troubled by conflict, premeditated complications (one person within the couple wishes to ‘do away’ with the other for instance), illness, infidelity or the rule of class which doesn’t permit them to assign a formal relationship to their friendship.

    Many of the most famous couples -and their struggles to be together or their final failure – are beautifully narrated in the works of many writers such as the plays of Montaigne and, closer to home, Shakespeare.

    Kindest, puro.

    #42579
    Anonymous @

    @mudlark

    I don’t know The Bone Clocks at all but I sympathise with your frustrations regarding reviewers and ‘the great critique’ which reviewer is turning rock star, more famous than the writer themselves.

    To me, the authorial voice is immensely important and I do find these ‘voices’ tend to similarity and interdependence but knowing you as I do: an independent, well educated person who reads with relish, I respect your opinion as highly valuable. In some periodicals, there are letters to the reviewer, where if you can spare the time, you can explain your position on the matter: who was the reviewer, by the way?

    I would agree with your final assessment, too. The reviewer’s job, is complicated and I wish I could recall the film and novel critic who, for me, is the best, by far: it’s been a while since I’ve stopped reading the quarterly in which his long but gripping reviews are published. To me, I think their job is to gauge the usefulness of a work, its impact on modern events, its intended audience as well as the expected development of the narration of the argument. It should be discussed in terms of its broader modern contextual issues and must signal a personal evaluation: not one which deters readers from finding their own ‘acclaim’ for the work. This latter is often lost as critics, seeking the puerile reader, are arrogant and twee in their declaration – something along the lines of, “looking away from bad things. Understanding we should recognise it but not indulge bad imaginings.” As if to say, something not within our own characters, even our personal restraints should be kept out of print -if it lacks a ‘humanitarian’ view, for example. A subtle way of co-opting so-called modern ethics or religious views to demonstrate contempt for a novel that the reviewer is frightened of and cannot comprehend: most probably because he cannot comprehend himself.

    @ichabod

    “Misery make a story go because it demands resolution into something less miserable”

    Indeed: in Women in Love there is an important passage:

    “This marriage with her was his resurrection and his life…She wanted to be made much of, to be adored. But there were infinite distances of silence between them. How could he tell her of the immanence of her beauty that was not form, or weight but something strange? How could he know what her beauty lay in for him? He said, “your nose is beautiful….” But it sounded like lies and she was disappointed, hurt…This ‘I’ – this old formula of the age, was a dead letter…”

    Anyway, I should be on the books thread: from my responses from @levram onwards! I apologise Mods: if I could cut and paste and send it there, I would, but my technical skills are very poor.

    Apologies. I’ll move there for all future discussion.

    Puro

    #42584
    ichabod @ichabod

    @mudlark   The Bone Clock has acquired a very good reputation; thanks for reminding of my intention of reading it.

    #42587
    Arbutus @arbutus

    @ichabod   People who write Utopian stories usually write them in order to dig until the find the weak point in the system, where something is deeply unfair, exploitative, or doomed by the passage of time.

    You remind me of Ursula LeGuin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”: beautifully concise and poetically descriptive at the same time, shocking and haunting. Exactly as you describe above, because there surely can be no perfection in human society.

    I loved your image of “endangered classical forms”, hiding until it is safe to emerge, hibernating perhaps. 🙂  But I do think it is true that many talented composers, plebeian enough to want people to actually listen to  their music, migrated to genres and settings where that was more likely to happen than the classical concert hall.

    And in response to this:     but Beppo, here, is miserable because he’s in love with Angelina, and she is promised to another!     I will shortly leave you something on the music thread!

    #42588
    ichabod @ichabod

    @arbutus  “Omelas” was exactly the story I was thinking of when I wrote that.

    There’s been some evidence recently that polar bears have begun mating with northern browns (maybe grizzles?) producing blended offspring.  So maybe the great white bears have begun this genetic hiding thing in the face of pretty certain extinction of their present form as white, water-traveling big land predators in an Arctic landscape.   I hope biologists are doing studies of this — so far, I’ve only seen reportage from professional wildlife observers of one sort of another, but without specific genetic studies.  I just think the whole idea is astounding — and that if true, there may be other examples unearthed, once scientists start looking.

    I’ll be watching the music thread, then!

    #42595
    Ludivine @ludivine

    @purofilion

    Thank you !

    I discovered Doctor Who last year, by chance, zapping. It was with Matt Smith. Now, I can’t stop watching the series =D

    I’m very excited about the new season ! Also, I’ve got my ticket for the Doctor Who Festival in London, I can’t wait for it !

    Ludivine is my real name =). It’s a kind of old French name…

     

    #42597
    Anonymous @

    @ludivine

    great name! I hope you enjoy the festival. I was going to take my boy but the airfare is probably about $1000 return to Sydney and with tickets at, say, $400 for two, the whole thing will be a bit much: having loved Capaldi and knowing he’ll be here, though, I’m considering throwing caution to the wind. 🙂

    What’s  a bit of cash for? We can eat beans on toast for 2 weeks. I’m sure the people around us will enjoy it. Errm: cough. 🙂

    #42598
    Anonymous @

    @mudlark The critic I was thinking in my post earlier was Evan Williams (an Ozzie)

    #42745

    Spoilerphobes be VERY wary of the Guardian front page today (16 Sept)

    #42747
    blenkinsopthebrave @blenkinsopthebrave

    @pedant
    I rushed over to the Guardian half-expecting Jeremy Corbyn to reveal details of the season in Question Time, but…I see what you mean. Spoilerphobes beware, indeed.

    #42748
    Bluesqueakpip @bluesqueakpip

    @pedant and @blenkinsopthebrave

    The rumours are also being reported (as rumours) on BBC News’ Entertainment and Arts page. I can only suggest that spoilerphobes go into a state of Total News Lockdown. 😀

    #42751
    spud @spud

    Hi –  this is my first time on here and I ama trying to find a thread regarding the rumour jenna is leaving!  I would love to see the Dr’s granddaughter brought back.  The girl who played her in An Adventure in Space and Time would be perfect!  what do you all think or can you tell me how i start a new thread?

    #42752
    ScaryB @scaryb

    Hi folks!

    Interesting discussions been going on here (as ever) on the sofa while I’ve been AWOL 😉

    Agree with a lot of what’s been said, but I particularly liked @mudlark‘s definition of “art” as

    The purpose of art, whether in fiction, painting, sculpture or music, is surely communication

    And agree that the critic’s job should be to assess it partly on its own terms – does it do what it sets out to do, does it comply with the rules of its own genre, or more interestingly, does it knowingly break those rules? Also agree with @Purofilion about it being difficult to assess how lasting it will be without a temporal distance. Art can be important without being “high art” if it speaks to and influences other creatives, both its contemporaries and those to come.  In modern music for example, a group like the Velvet Underground was relegated to cult status for years  until the music re-emerged a couple of decades later as various musicians acknowledged it as a seminal influence.

    Art, music and species going into hiding are inevitably changed by the process, but then something new and marvellous might appear as a result. Change, growth, mutation are all inevitable in this universe.

    And so back to Doctor Who 😉 It might not be great “art” but it communicates across the decades to many, many people, many of whom identify with the outsider who is at the heart of the show.

    #42753
    ScaryB @scaryb

    Turning summersaults at less than 3 days to go. Woohoo!!! Can’t wait to hear what you all think of The Magician’s Apprentice. Loved the Prelude (and delighted it addressed one of the things we lucky ones who saw the whole episode early discussed as a plot point). If you liked it, I reckon you’ll love TMA.  Beyond that, my lips are sealed till Sunday!!

    🙂

    #42754
    ScaryB @scaryb

    Hi @spud  I think a lot of people here would love to see the Doctor’s granddaughter back (or his daughter for that matter). But I think it’s also highly unlikely, The writers usually prefer to try something new. But as ever with DW, you never know.  If someone has a good enough story line, then anything can happen, and anyone can be brought back. (Including the big spoilery return for Xmas that’s been trailed everywhere!)

    #42755
    ScaryB @scaryb

    @craig – thanks for the Refugee appeal on the front page. That’s a great thing to do

    #42757
    Anonymous @

    @scaryb

    Great to see that you’re back and aware you must have been busy. Love, as always, reading your concise analyses of the world around us: art, music as well as communication and its defining purpose.

    It must have been glorious to not only see TMA  but to do so in the company of some Forum members. We in Oz are definitely filled with envy  🙂 But after tomorrow there’s a couple more sleeps. I feel a bit like a kid at Christmas!

    Kindest,

    puro.

    #42758
    Anonymous @

    @spud

    Hi there and welcome to the Forum.

    You might like to check the Home Page and then locate the Spoiler’s thread where all discussions of a ‘spoilery’ nature – such as what you referred to are freely discussed. I think moderators start new threads, in general, but you’ll find there’s plenty of places to discuss a variety of things ‘Who-ish’ if you head to the Home Page or the Forum Page.

    Anyway, jump in with some bonkers theories or just enjoy reading them! 🙂

    Kindest, puro.

     

    #42759
    ScaryB @scaryb

    @Purofilion

    Haha I feel a LOT like a kid coming up to Christmas, and I’ve already opened 1 of my pressies. Actually it’s more like having had a nibble of the Christmas cake early, or pulling one of the crackers – enough to tantalise but not enough to spoil the excitement. Can’t wait to eat more and then  discuss it with you all.

    Hahaha… dunno about concise, but thank you.

    #42765
    Anonymous @

    Guys!! i got bad news….

     

    Jenna Coleman leaves the show!

    #42816
    ichabod @ichabod

    Maybe this belongs here — an interesting new interview with Capaldi, with some insights into this and that:

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/doctor-who/11858973/Peter-Capaldi-You-dont-just-play-the-Doctor-you-represent-him.html

    And you were right, @puro (I think?), there is some running problem going on — I’d rather assumed that back trouble was more likely (long-torso’d people often have back problems), but maybe they need to tone down the running down corridors a bit.

    #42835
    Missy @missy

    @purofilion @scaryb

    Envious, is putting it mildly. I can barely contain myself until tomorrow evening.

    Missy

    #42838
    Missy @missy

    @ichabod

    Thanks for that.

    Missy

    #42847
    Mudlark @mudlark

    For those who like this kind of thing, many of the clues in the Guardian cryptic crossword today are Doctor Who themed.  Something to while away an hour or so and distract the mind while waiting for tomorrow evening.

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