Good news, everybody!

[promethia_tenk]

First:
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.

Comments

[cosmiccoz.livejournal.com]

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?

[promethia_tenk]

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.
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.

[cosmiccoz.livejournal.com]

It's difficult to get ones thoughts across when your tapping on a phone. I think my brain was making a gumbo of the recent over-analyzing of Series 5.
 
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.

[sea_thoughts]

But isn't that the point? The establishment looks down on Pratchett because he writes 'fantasy', because he's 'popular'. They happily ignore the themes of his books because of the magical setting and dismiss him. It's not seen as 'proper' writing.