vitruvian23

Well, since all the cool kids seem to be doing it, finally imported my old stuff from Livejournal. We'll see how vital or not Dreamwidth is these days... at the very least it should be a convenient place for long form journal entries when I feel like it.

Okay, caught up with Forever Evil a week late, and in what was probably intended as a moment of ultimate cool, Geoff Johns has one of the main villains grab the Moon and place it in position to create a total eclipse of the Earth. At which point, I decide this book and event is not for me, because no. Just no. This is too dumb.

( And here is why... )

I haven't actually read Margaret Atwoods In Other Worlds, but I understand from articles and reviews that she takes the position that "if it is realistic or plausible, it isn't science fiction". Well, even if one accepted her pronouncements that aliens and spaceships weren't either of those, there's still plenty of stuff written by science fiction writers, some of them recognized Grand Masters such as Heinlein and Asimov, that was quite realistic and plausible. Beyond that, well, spaceships exist and further development of them is in no way implausible (although FTL may well be), and as to aliens? Ms. Atwood, I'm afraid I'll take Dr. Carl Sagan's opinion as to whether the existence of aliens is plausible or not over yours.

In short, Ms. Atwood seems to have confused her definitions of science fiction and fantasy, although I'll happily concede that much of what people call science fiction is actually science fantasy or space adventure.

This should be short enough not to need an lj-cut - okay, the prologue is captioned as taking place in 965 AD, with Thor and Loki (or at least Loki, Thor might be a little bit older) as infants at the time. They're shown as little boys shortly thereafter, but a later scene I won't spoil further confirms that Loki was definitely still a baby at the conclusion of the war with the Frost Giants.

Problem: The Norse and other Germanic peoples already worshipped Thor, and at least had stories about Loki, under varying names at that time. So if it was going to be years or decades before they grew up into recognizable figures, with Thor wielding his hammer and Loki known as a trickster, how does that work? How do the Norse anticipate how they'll grow up and base their myths and religion on it? Especially considering that Asgard supposedly withdraws from our world at the conclusion of that conflict...

Were there earlier versions of both, i.e., uncles Thunor and Loge, or something?

Were mortals capable of prophecy about the future, as with the Ragnarok story?

Did they just get the date wrong? After all, there's not much about the village or the humans' clothing that marks it out as definitely 10th century as opposed to a few centuries earlier, or even way back in Roman times.

Inquiring (and nitpicky) minds want to know.

Ok, I like Torchwood, both the regular series format and the Children of Earth mini, and I'm looking forward to Torchwood: Miracle Day. However, I'm noticing a distinct lack of... ( calculation )

Has anybody seen the new Alice in Wonderland movie early? I'm certainly going to see it opening weekend, whatever flaws it might have, and as a Burton/Disney production it will probably have plenty. ( For example, )

So, I'm still planning to go see Amanda Palmer at the State Theatre in Falls Church tomorrow night (11/19). Doors open at 7, tickets are still available as of Wednesday afternoon. I'll probably have dinner somewhere in the area, maybe at Four Provinces across the way or something like that.

Anybody in the area interested in joining me tomorrow night?

Morning started with confirmation that Xander (18 mos old) must indeed be my son, since he absolutely refused to put down his book in order to be lifted out of crib, have his diaper changed, and be dressed. He ended up keeping said book with him and perusing it 2-3 times more in full while all these operations were completed (actually a blessed distraction during diaper change), maintaining a grip on it with one hand even while arms were being inserted in shirt sleeves.

I haven't seen him run into anything while walking and 'reading' at the same time, not yet, but it's probably only a matter of time... ;-)

In other news, just found out that Amanda Palmer, co-founder of the Dresden Dolls and currently Neil Gaiman's girlfriend, will be at the State Theatre in Falls Church this Thursday. I've got my ticket, anybody interested in meeting me there?

Life is odd, truly. I remember back about, oh, twelve or thirteen years ( ago, )

( “So, what are we training to fight?” asks Xander. )

( The first thing Xander does... )

( Valhalla is fun enough for the first few weeks. )

( Nobody knows quite what to do with Anya in Valhalla. )

( She’s expecting fire, brimstone, and hot pincers or the like. )

( By the time his luck runs out, his eye socket barely itches at all. )

Hey, did it ever occur to anybody else that perhaps Heat Miser and Snow Miser's real names were... Surtur and Ymir?

Is it truly a coincidence that the company that makes Tamiflu, and which features in many conspiracy theories about plans for biowarfare (due in part to having had Donald Rumsfeld as director), has the name Gilead Sciences Inc.? Recall that the name of the kingdom from which Roland the Gunslinger of the Dark Tower series hailed was Gilead, and that his world looks in many ways like a post-apocalyptic version of our own world, right down to a George Washington Bridge in the city of Lud and Microsoft software running on the computers left behind by the 'Old Ones'. Let's hope that Captain Trips is not our navigator to All-World, and the Beams don't break.

Was at home Monday with the Munchkin, and observed again that kids television on Noggin and PBS Kids is frequently rather surreal. In addition to the mindwarpingness of Yo Gabba Gabba and the cheeriness of Jack's Big Music Show (and how embarrasing is it that I was blurting out at the screen, "Space Opera!", before becoming aware that that was in fact the title of the episode), one of Xander's favorites (as in, actually holds his attention for more than a minute at a time) is the Hoobs.

The Hoobs, you see, are cute Muppet aliens that are investigating Earth customs and ways, and frequently make pilgrimages to schools and homes to ask children (or 'tiddlypeeps') about things they don't understand. Imported British show, too, which gave rise to this extremely, terribly random thought....

you think they're under investigation by Torchwood? And just what would Jack's reaction to their greeting of 'hubba hubba' be, hmmm?

Well, after this week's ep, I might be about ready to give up on Heroes. I'll probably give the rest of Fugitives a chance out of sheer inertia, but if it takes me a while to watch eps on the DVR, I won't be sad. Not worth staying up to watch it live any longer, that's for sure.

For some reason, though, I was thinking about a conundrum from the first season... just how are people finding all the superhuman mutants?

( Read more... )

Okay, what with the movie coming out soon, there's something that always bothered me from the graphic novel, but I've never seen anybody else express, not even in that Watchmen and Philosophy book that came out a while back.... excuse me if this is a little ( spoilery. )

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
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Recent Entries

Joining the Crowd

Forever Dumb

Margaret Atwood vs. Carl Sagan

Belated thought on Thor upon watching the DVD

Torchwood: Lack of Numeracy Day

Curioser and curioser - in Canton

The Man Who Was (in Falls Church on) Thursday

Take it as read...

You know...

Forewarned Is?

Follow, Lead, or Get Out of the Way

Never-Ending Battle

Waiting

Surprise

Chosen

Random Thought Out of Ginungagapp

Stephen King moment

Even more random thought

(no subject)

Upcoming Watchmen Thought...

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January 2019

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