Good news, everybody!
6 Dec 2010 04:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
promethia_tenkFirst:
Snow! Well, ok, flurries. That didn't last long and didn't stick. But still, there were white fleck-y things in the sky, and I WAS OUT IN THEM! Huzzah!
Second:
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stick_poker , who is henceforth my personal hero until such time as I come across the next thing that literally makes me *gleep* with delight, has discovered something in "The Eleventh Hour" that everybody else missed. A bit of a joke, if you will. Namely, that Moffat was not really suggesting that the TARDIS's swimming pool is generally to be found in the library. Rather, the swimming pool is elsewhere, but with the TARDIS crashed on its side like that, the water from the swimming pool had drained out and pooled in the library. The key bit of dialogue, I think, (because it always bugged me somehow), is this:
Amelia: You said you were in the library.
Eleven: So was the swimming pool.
Was. It's a strange thing to say if the swimming pool is usually in the library, or at least had been recently as a matter of course. No, the swimming pool was in the library for the same reason Eleven was: it fell. (Aside, I also rather like the more absurdist visual of the entire swimming pool structure, having come unmoored somehow and floating free within the floor, crashing down into the library.)
IT'S A SPATIAL REASONING JOKE!! No, even better, IT'S A SPATIAL REASONING JOKE AND A METAPHOR ABOUT PERSONAL GROWTH ALL IN ONE!!! (Eleven was reborn out of the watery womb of knowledge and then asked for an apple =D )
Q: Could I love Steven Moffat's writing any more than I already do?
A: I didn't think so, but apparently I was wrong.
Q; Is everyone else going to be as delighted about this as me?
A: Somehow I doubt it, but let's find out, shall we?
Third:
Stephen Fry twitted the following article about the role of comedy and its importance and why the modern novel is dying from an angst overdose and I think I am in love with it but am having far too many thoughts about it to say anything coherent now, so I'll just leave this here: Divine Comedy.
Fourth:
A bit by the by, but since I was posting anyway: I think this is the funniest xkcd we've had in a long while.
Snow! Well, ok, flurries. That didn't last long and didn't stick. But still, there were white fleck-y things in the sky, and I WAS OUT IN THEM! Huzzah!
Second:
stick_poker , who is henceforth my personal hero until such time as I come across the next thing that literally makes me *gleep* with delight, has discovered something in "The Eleventh Hour" that everybody else missed. A bit of a joke, if you will. Namely, that Moffat was not really suggesting that the TARDIS's swimming pool is generally to be found in the library. Rather, the swimming pool is elsewhere, but with the TARDIS crashed on its side like that, the water from the swimming pool had drained out and pooled in the library. The key bit of dialogue, I think, (because it always bugged me somehow), is this:Amelia: You said you were in the library.
Eleven: So was the swimming pool.
Was. It's a strange thing to say if the swimming pool is usually in the library, or at least had been recently as a matter of course. No, the swimming pool was in the library for the same reason Eleven was: it fell. (Aside, I also rather like the more absurdist visual of the entire swimming pool structure, having come unmoored somehow and floating free within the floor, crashing down into the library.)
IT'S A SPATIAL REASONING JOKE!! No, even better, IT'S A SPATIAL REASONING JOKE AND A METAPHOR ABOUT PERSONAL GROWTH ALL IN ONE!!! (Eleven was reborn out of the watery womb of knowledge and then asked for an apple =D )
Q: Could I love Steven Moffat's writing any more than I already do?
A: I didn't think so, but apparently I was wrong.
Q; Is everyone else going to be as delighted about this as me?
A: Somehow I doubt it, but let's find out, shall we?
Third:
Stephen Fry twitted the following article about the role of comedy and its importance and why the modern novel is dying from an angst overdose and I think I am in love with it but am having far too many thoughts about it to say anything coherent now, so I'll just leave this here: Divine Comedy.
Fourth:
A bit by the by, but since I was posting anyway: I think this is the funniest xkcd we've had in a long while.
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(no subject)
Date: 6 Dec 2010 09:31 pm (UTC)I LOVE IT TO DISTRACTION!!!!
(no subject)
Date: 6 Dec 2010 09:41 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 6 Dec 2010 09:46 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 6 Dec 2010 09:56 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 6 Dec 2010 11:18 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 6 Dec 2010 10:12 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 7 Dec 2010 12:57 am (UTC)IKR? I was sure I had SUCKED THE SEASON DRY of everything one could possibly get out of it . . . and then this came along. Like a surprise present.
(no subject)
Date: 6 Dec 2010 10:28 pm (UTC)I always assumed that :o
Later he says something like "No idea where it is now, it'll turn up"
I STILL DON'T KNOW WTF MOFFAT IS TALKING ABOUT WHEN HE SAYS THERE'S SOMETHING MASSIVE THAT EVERYONE HAS MISSED AND HE CAN'T BELIEVE HE GOT AWAY WITH IT. AGHHHH I'VE WATCHED THE EPISODE 50 TIMES AND I STILL DON'T GET IT. BASTAAAAAARD!
(calms down)
"gleep" is my new favourite word
(no subject)
Date: 6 Dec 2010 11:00 pm (UTC)Although it's not massive. Hm. *ponders*
(no subject)
Date: 6 Dec 2010 11:04 pm (UTC)This was more like "Tee hee I am so clever no one will ever guesssss"
(no subject)
Date: 6 Dec 2010 11:17 pm (UTC)This was more like "Tee hee I am so clever no one will ever guesssss"
Darn, now I'll have to re-watch again... (What a chore. Heh.)
(no subject)
Date: 7 Dec 2010 01:05 am (UTC)AND YOU DIDN'T TELL ME?!?!?!?! WHAT IS THIS I CAN'T EVEN.
Later he says something like "No idea where it is now, it'll turn up"
See, I assumed that the TARDIS just decides to rearrange things for her own amusement and that was what that line was about, not that the pool has been tumbling around the TARDIS due to gravity.
I STILL DON'T KNOW WTF MOFFAT IS TALKING ABOUT WHEN HE SAYS THERE'S SOMETHING MASSIVE THAT EVERYONE HAS MISSED AND HE CAN'T BELIEVE HE GOT AWAY WITH IT.
Yeah, this is bugging me too, but I figure that if we haven't seen it by now, it is either 1) so ridiculously clever we'd never see it on our own so we might as well just wait or 2) really sort of obvious and so nobody ever bothered to say anything and we're all gonna be like 'oh, that's what you were going on about?' Or some strange combo of the two.
(calms down)
Here, have a lollipop.
(no subject)
Date: 7 Dec 2010 01:13 am (UTC)I thought it might be the weird staircase in Amy's house that goes nowhere, but that doesn't seem like a huge deal? it's kind of obvious? idk.
LOLLIPOP!!!!! :DD :D :D (glee)
[i am all about the exclamation points today APPARENTLY]
(no subject)
Date: 7 Dec 2010 02:13 am (UTC)I thought it might be the weird staircase in Amy's house that goes nowhere, but that doesn't seem like a huge deal? it's kind of obvious? idk.
I think that really is just the stairs to the attic and everybody's blowing it all out of proportion. Like, I wish my attic had real stairs to it. Maybe if it did, I would actually use it.
[i am all about the exclamation points today APPARENTLY]
They are very aggressive.
(no subject)
Date: 7 Dec 2010 04:44 am (UTC)and IIRC Amy's house has a flat roof...not much room for an attic.
It's the only thing I can think of! I have to be right!
>>They are very aggressive.
sorry :/
Ps I read that Stephen Fry article - adoooreeee that man - have you listened to his podcasts? My favourite is his rant/rage at language pedants. sooo good.
(no subject)
Date: 9 Dec 2010 02:34 am (UTC)Oooo, the article is not actually by Stephen Fry, but was recommended by him. My knowledge of him is somewhat limited, but I am becoming more and more of a fan.
Have you listened to his podcasts? My favourite is his rant/rage at language pedants. sooo good.
Link, pls :)
(no subject)
Date: 9 Dec 2010 04:04 am (UTC)[excuse me while i go a bit Stephen Fry crazy here]
Oh man, I think you would adore Stephen Fry... You need to watch QI, I think you'd love it...it's his comedy panel/game show thing about random facts and knowledge where the emphasis is put on being interesting rather than "right"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rh_hHFT76iU
Then there's Fry and Laurie which is just... the funniest ever and has Hugh Laurie in it<3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFD01r6ersw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znZuH2BU0FE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utpdzQj2S6o
Here's his podcasts
http://www.stephenfry.com/media/
Language: http://fry.positive-dedicated.net/fry-podcast2-episodes-03.mp3
I adore him, he's one of my personal heroes. He's ridiculously intelligent and hilarious and he's survived sooo much insanity in his life. sigh <3
(no subject)
Date: 21 Dec 2010 04:40 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 21 Dec 2010 04:42 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 7 Dec 2010 12:54 pm (UTC)See, I did, and was confused that other people didn't. I'm pleased to hear I wasn't alone.
I'm not sure what the missing thing is either but I almost don't want to hunt for it too hard in case I'm disappointed. But then again, have I not faith in the Moff? Will it not be splendid? *sighs*
(no subject)
Date: 6 Dec 2010 11:23 pm (UTC)I freaking adore XKCD!
(no subject)
Date: 7 Dec 2010 01:06 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 6 Dec 2010 11:23 pm (UTC)Also ... Divine Comedy article was basically divine :D Extremely interesting read. Now excuse me, I need to go angst over being unable to write comedy ...
(no subject)
Date: 7 Dec 2010 01:15 am (UTC)... or possibly it just roams the TARDIS at will
This was roughly my interpretation (hence the Doctor's "don't know where it's got to now--it'll turn up"), or I more figured that the TARDIS tended to rearrange things from time to time for her own amusement and, quite logically, might have moved the pool during the remodel. But the idea that the pool had fallen into the library just had not occurred to me.
Also ... Divine Comedy article was basically divine :D Extremely interesting read. Now excuse me, I need to go angst over being unable to write comedy ...
:D Lol.
(no subject)
Date: 7 Dec 2010 01:48 am (UTC)For some reason the idea that it had all slid down in a glorious mess of water and books and Doctor and probably other stuff upon crash landing, hit me pretty early on and amused me. I imagined it like the Titanic upending and everything sliding down to the end (though in my mind it was the whole pool, not just its water), then I thought maybe the pool just liked to wander and then I guess I subscribed to the theory of 'pool lives in the library'
(no subject)
Date: 7 Dec 2010 02:07 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 7 Dec 2010 12:23 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 7 Dec 2010 01:19 am (UTC)And I think I want "MY META KNOWS NO BOUNDS" on a t-shirt now.
(no subject)
Date: 7 Dec 2010 06:28 am (UTC)I think the fans are perhaps more clever than Moffat.
It's rather like picking out the visual symbology of Series 5, without proper understanding of the actual production hierarchy of DW.
We forget about the individual writers, the directors, the cinematographers and the art department. Moffat doesn't have the godlike control some fans speculate he has. Many of the choices are left up to the present director and downward.
Stephen Fry twitted the following article about the role of comedy and its importance and why the modern novel is dying from an angst overdose and I think I am in love with it but am having far too many thoughts about it to say anything coherent now, so I'll just leave this here: Divine Comedy.
I think there's a time for everything, but I've always leaned toward tragedy, rather than comedy. I crave Hamlet more than As You Like It. Some of the best comedies I know are those screaming with laughter at the darkness. Those so horribly rooted in a shit pit of a world, that the only way to survive is to laugh. That I can understand. That's real to me.
Comedy that doesn't reflect the reality of the world is insubstantial.
I actually just finished relistening to Matt Smith on the Nerdist podcast. He had talked about how much he loved Peter Sellers' dark sense of humor and then moved on to the darkness of the Doctor:
Because that's what interests me as the Doctor, actually. Look at the blood on the man's hand. Nine-hundred years—countless, very selfish choices. And he's literally blown planets up, his own race. I mean, that's all on his hands. Which is why I think he has to make silly jokes and wear a fez. . . because if he didn't, he'd hang himself.
That's the sort of humor I crave. Tragicomedy. Why have one, when you can have both?
(no subject)
Date: 9 Dec 2010 02:58 am (UTC)Are you saying this about the swimming pool in the library thing? Because that is entirely based on Moffat's words in a Moffat episode--I'm pretty sure he's in excellent control of those. If you want to talk about, say, depictions of water in "Vampires of Venice," that is of course an entirely different matter.
Some of the best comedies I know are those screaming with laughter at the darkness.
The person who wrote the article very much agrees with you on that, and in fact argues that we need to consider comedy in dealing with dark and serious subjects, rather than tragedy being the default or only option. It's less about comedy "haha" and more about comedy as an alternative perspective, one more removed from the immediacy of human suffering that allows us to perceive ourselves from a different angle. They are in no way arguing for the elimination of tragedy--just for the necessity of restoring comedy to a legitimate footing alongside. A society that writes solely from a tragic viewpoint ultimately condemns itself to stagnation. Comedy is the method by which we challenge the existing order.
(no subject)
Date: 9 Dec 2010 06:13 am (UTC)IT'S A SPATIAL REASONING JOKE AND A METAPHOR ABOUT PERSONAL GROWTH ALL IN ONE!!!
I thought it was merely that the TARDIS was rebuilding itself. Some furnature getting pushed around and such. Funny Doctor falling into the pool. I don't believe Moffat was thinking it through so analytically. . .
Alright, I reread the article more slowly. I'm usually forced to just pick out words from paragraphs instead reading all the way through, as I have difficulty focusing. Trying to piece it all together can lead to half-understandings and such.
I think I'd become rather irritated by what the critic called Homer's "tiresome clichés" and stopped taking much interest in the article from then on.
Julian Gough seemed to navigate away from the tremendous rich and celebrated history of comic theater (only briefly mentioning Greek comedy) and focused solely on areas that best supported his viewpoint.
Rather harsh about the Christian religion too, I might add. He clearly didn't do much research into the Mystery Cycles and passion plays. People really did love to see the Devil being hit with a frying pan.
As I don't read much these days, I'm not sure what's topping the bestseller lists. That said, there has never been a drop off of comedy within television, film or theater.
Comedy flurishes, in all its plentiful mediums.
Also slightly miffed Terry Pratchett wasn't mentioned.
(no subject)
Date: 20 Dec 2010 05:47 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 7 Dec 2010 01:01 pm (UTC)(Only just read this now... There was something I had to write first, see.)
(no subject)
Date: 9 Dec 2010 02:37 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 7 Dec 2010 02:13 pm (UTC)o_O falling swimming pool! I like it! I always assumed the pool had somehow migrated to the library during the crashing, but the idea of it falling is cooool. A time machine in a flux... why shouldn't it fall? (It probably ended up in the ceiling somewhere, just to mess with everyone.)
(no subject)
Date: 9 Dec 2010 02:37 am (UTC)<33333333
Must write fic with upside-down swimming pool at some point . . .
(no subject)
Date: 9 Dec 2010 02:36 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 18 Dec 2010 01:03 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 18 Dec 2010 01:02 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 18 Dec 2010 02:55 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 20 Dec 2010 05:43 pm (UTC)It seemed pretty obvious to me when he said it that the water had poured into the library... but I didn't recognise the symbolism. That's gorgeous!
(no subject)
Date: 21 Dec 2010 05:19 am (UTC)I <3 the symbolism. Somebody pointed that out to me in a meta post I did once (I think on River and the Library), and it made my week.