tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60942285670349430962024-03-05T19:35:59.265-08:00Dériving me backwardsA blog that denies fixed points while adopting a position of absolute flux and taking it's time about itAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03336228298618073076noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6094228567034943096.post-76373759527001981762016-01-12T16:03:00.000-08:002016-01-12T16:03:48.445-08:00My Death<div class="MsoNormal">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRrkkXmF7tsScMecDpreSbs3iCGKNmLZseVHE_ycVzWhXMj4FURydJQvop6BfPrv97MA09q-mavWUp_l-p8tdixDAMq2iHUthppKsZG6I11LdbjVQseobhZBJ5g3OOur3GpUa4iL-bfFla/s1600/Bowie+and+skull.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="572" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRrkkXmF7tsScMecDpreSbs3iCGKNmLZseVHE_ycVzWhXMj4FURydJQvop6BfPrv97MA09q-mavWUp_l-p8tdixDAMq2iHUthppKsZG6I11LdbjVQseobhZBJ5g3OOur3GpUa4iL-bfFla/s640/Bowie+and+skull.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="background-color: black; line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> News guy wept and told us…</span></span></i></h4>
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<i style="background-color: black; box-sizing: border-box; color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">The spectacle is not a collection of images; it is a social relation between people that is mediated by images.<b style="box-sizing: border-box;"> </b></span></i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">- Guy Debord,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><u style="box-sizing: border-box;">Society of the Spectacle</u></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Bowie<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">And so it’s the next day.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white;">Yesterday I cried. It’s personal. It was for all of
us; as my friend Joe described us, </span></span><span style="background-color: black; color: white; line-height: 18.4px;">the </span><span style="background-color: black; color: white; line-height: 115%;">Bowie Casualties. If you don’t get that
you probably won’t need to read on.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I was struck by how, of all the eulogies which
sprung up both on social media and the mainstream press, it was in the comments
columns underneath, (usually the domain of trolls and smart asses with axes to grind)
that the most heartfelt sentiments were expressed. Almost without dissent the
claims that Bowie was writing specifically for them, that he somehow had access
to his fans’ personal dreams, nightmares, and possibly secret teenage diaries were
ubiquitous. Of course they were all wrong. He was writing, creating, performing
exclusively for me. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">So you’ll forgive me if I take his death personally.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I switched on the Today programme on Radio 4 which I
used to do regularly every morning but have recently fallen out of the habit of doing. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“We’ll be back after the weather with more on the
death of David Bowie…”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I stopped dead in my tracks. I really couldn’t move.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Yet all through that sad day I wasn’t interested in the BBC news or Channel 4’s
coverage telling me about <i>Life on Mars</i>,
the middle class answer to ‘what’s your favourite Bowie song?’ (with others with a passing interest in Bowie you
might get “<i>Heroes”</i> if they’re of the stadium rock flag waving
bent but they’ll never put the quotation marks round the word in their heads), and even Radio’s 1 and 6 creating a while you wait Cult Legacy Bowie theme park left me somehow cold. I
certainly couldn’t care less about David bloody Cameron’s attempt to co-opt
Bowie into a Tory spin buzz-quote. “He always did it right” and Jeremy Corbyn
severely blotted his copy book in my eyes with his anodyne and mumbling “I’ll
always think of <i>Life on Mars” </i>Hmmm.
really Jezza? And every time I see the Eiffel Tower it always reminds me of
Paris. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">It’s important I think to start with the music. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">That Bowie earned his place in the Pantheon of Rock
gods is indisputable but his place at the table is hard to define. The history
of Rock and Roll would certainly have gone on without him. The Beatles was
inevitable, the Rolling Stones was inevitable, Led Zeppelin was inevitable.
There was nothing inevitable about David Bowie. He created worlds inside and
outside of Rock that would never have existed without his eclectic, magpie dilettantism.
As his 1978 press campaign at the height of punk explained –<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<i><span style="background-color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">There’s
Old Wave…There’s New Wave…and there’s David Bowie.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></i></div>
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<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: 115%;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">In <i>Rock n Roll Suicide</i> the final track of
the Ziggy album, Bowie depicts his avatar unable to maintain his artistic and
indeed physical reality, destroyed by very absurdity of the concept of himself as
a Von Dannikanesque revolutionary rock star, but the suggestion is also of resurrection.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: italic; line-height: 115%;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><span style="font-style: italic; line-height: 115%;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></span><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Bowie in
the 1970s of course lived out his own mythos, nearly destroying himself in a
narcotic haze of occult dabbling and neo fascistic messianic fantasy. But,
incredibly he survived. Choosing to only almost
burn out and then to move on, to come back, reinventing himself again and again.
Yet I tire of references to Bowie as the ‘chameleon of rock’ there was never a
chameleon so noticeable and self-promoting. This was a colour changing lizard
whose raison d’etre was to draw attention to his moves.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18.4px;">As Phil Sandifer says on his blog about </span><span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18.4px;"> </span><i style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18.4px;">Ziggy Stardust –</i></span><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: black; line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="color: white;">'Bowie …</span><i style="color: white;">turns the fetishized spectacle of death
into a mad celebration, this comeback is not his final move but his first. Of
course death is no particular obstacle or stress for Ziggy. How could it be?
Built out of the wasted salvage of death to begin with, Ziggy can make himself
out of his own death as easily as anyone else's. Consume and burn out a rock
star and another will take its place. The role survives its actor, and exists
independently from him.'</i></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">But as I said this is personal. There’s a Bowie
shaped hole in my life from yesterday. The idea of him not being around, lurking around the edges; poised and planning to unleash
another bonkers drum n bass jazz odyssey or performance dance piece about some
obscure new obsession seems incomprehensible. The world seems somehow
diminished.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: 115%;">Bowie’s lasting artistic
legacy will be not only his own work but also the influence he had on others.</span>
He influenced my every move as a teenager and well into my twenties and
thirties. He was responsible for me forming bands, experimenting with music and
noise and electronica, discovering the power of image, becoming an actor and
creating a theatre company. I saw him live four times, on the Ziggy, Aladdin
Sane, Thin White Duke and Serious Moonlight tours. I just wish I could have
thanked him personally for everything he gave me.<span style="line-height: 115%;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />
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<span style="background-color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">So let’s get down to cases<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">It’s 1978. I’m getting married and living in
Edinburgh. In the wedding photos Sarah is wearing a satin jump suit and I’m
desperately trying to look like Bowie but probably end up looking more like
Bamber Gascoigne. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 115%;">It's 1999 I'm appearing in Selfridges window in Oxford St London as Andy Warhol. Living art as promotion for my play Andy and Edie. As I walk from the tube station I find myself singing </span><i style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 115%;">The London Boys "Bright lights, Soho, Wardour Street, You hope you make friends with the guys that you meet." </i><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 115%;">and contemplating Warhol's advice, via Bowie about constantly re-creating yourself.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; line-height: 115%;">It’s 1976. Thanks to my friend Pamela recently
re-inventing herself, Bowie style, with Mondrian inspired face paint and
gravity defying spiky beehive as Punk scene queen Jordan I’m on Malcolm Maclaren’s guest list for the
Sex Pistols gig at the 100 club. I pose around in a black plastic T shirt made
for me by a girlfriend. My hair is an approximation of Thomas Jerome Newton in </span><i style="background-color: black; color: white; line-height: 115%;">The Man Who Fell to Earth.</i><span style="background-color: black; color: white; line-height: 115%;"> A few days later
NME write about me. A short paragraph between descriptions of the Clash and
Souxsie and the Banshees’ first gig (Sid Vicious on drums). According to them I
am <i>‘A Bowie lookalike. As doppelgangers go he gangs more doppel than most’</i>.
This remains one of the highlights of my life.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">It’s 1986 I’m performing on stage at the Zap club with
my group The Last Decade (an offshoot of EJK454F my Bowie and Eno inspired avant-
rock bedroom band). I am channelling Ziggy Stardust while fronting a rapidly disintegrating
experimental electro noise concept and friendship with my guitarist (A whole
other story. There was a woman).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">It’s 1972 I have experienced the epiphany that is
Ziggy Stardust on Top of the Pops and asked a hairdresser neighbour, the mother
of my girl-next-door schoolboy crush, to savagely crop my long corkscrew curls into
a kind of Peter Pantomime pixie cut which I then proceeded to, gradually, incrementally
in my Nan’s bathroom using Loreal hair die from Boots, die bright pillar box
red. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">It’s 1973. I am seeing Bowie for the first time live
on stage at the Brighton Dome. I spend the whole gig fixating Bowie with an
unwavering stare from row three (I queued five hours for tickets). I wish that
when he gets to the line ‘perhaps the strange ones in the Dome…’ from <i>Drive in Saturday</i> he will gesture around
the auditorium. He doesn’t. I conclude that ‘I could do better than that’ and
that ‘I could make it all worthwhile as a rock n roll star’.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">It’s 2000. I am playing Prospero on top of a thirty
foot scissor lift on the deck of an oil dredging platform which my theatre
company – Fireraisers have had towed onto Brighton beach for our free Millennial
show <i>This Rough Magic. </i>An adaptation
of <i>The Tempest</i> with stunt helicopter
skydivers and a specially composed drum n bass soundtrack. There are 40,000
people watching from the beach and the promenade. My arms are outstretched. I
am thinking ‘this is my Bowie at Hammersmith Odeon moment’ <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXDUc8APyPOl-TkhDZ8BOZEyV7tFSGzdt_PHESbtPCMw1w_cFbLAq4KRBMJNBATe9IlYs7U5qXGPQ5bzf9prq-NH1BzXGHELKgWYNlPAS8wcdqbBscgTP-_Exk8h19S0Acp4pHhk45ZbM4/s1600/Anton+Polly.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXDUc8APyPOl-TkhDZ8BOZEyV7tFSGzdt_PHESbtPCMw1w_cFbLAq4KRBMJNBATe9IlYs7U5qXGPQ5bzf9prq-NH1BzXGHELKgWYNlPAS8wcdqbBscgTP-_Exk8h19S0Acp4pHhk45ZbM4/s640/Anton+Polly.jpg" width="412" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; line-height: 115%;">It is 1980. I am walking through the lanes with some
friends and find myself singing <i>“the little green wheels are following me”</i> from
</span><i style="background-color: black; color: white; line-height: 115%;">Ashes to Ashes. “</i><span style="background-color: black; color: white; line-height: 115%;">Only Bowie could get
away with that lyric” I say.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">It is 1974. I am dancing with myself to <i>Jean Genie</i> on an empty dance floor in a
hotel nightclub that my mate Steve DJs at. I’m in full Bowie drag. Mime moves
and everything. I have beer thrown over me at the bar and later will be beaten
up in the street on the way home. The lumpen proles have seen the future and
they don’t like the cut of its jib. For myself I have seen A Clockwork Orange
and so fully understand their pain as well as the barely hidden animosity of
the policemen who, later, help me, barely older or distinguishable from the thugs who
attacked me. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">It’s 1975 I discover that, while not homosexual, I
can find sanctuary in the burgeoning Gay club scene. Ironically I meet and
initiate relationships with some beautiful girlfriends there. fag hags and
fruit flies all. Soon my outrageous style becomes too much even for the old queens
hanging on to a lifestyle whose coded moves are under threat from legitimisation
and I escape into the arms of Punk Rock.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQMNqRv1HiR9VwoVYI3u3-703XbZQ_PmDKgerA8vqLgIBe30W3PlVeZYlo011SLD4rnNFH768DoUyyN6jt6yv-5iRWS3i9Z4S8xgdXsUA3c3OmWHBKGLT1lTeGWrXCuqggZushQN9S4wTA/s1600/guitar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="612" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQMNqRv1HiR9VwoVYI3u3-703XbZQ_PmDKgerA8vqLgIBe30W3PlVeZYlo011SLD4rnNFH768DoUyyN6jt6yv-5iRWS3i9Z4S8xgdXsUA3c3OmWHBKGLT1lTeGWrXCuqggZushQN9S4wTA/s640/guitar.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">It’s 1982. There are ‘Bowie nights’ springing up in
nightclubs across the UK. Finally social interaction and style have caught up
with us. Me and Bowie. He then releases a slew of mediocre commercial albums and
I lose some enthusiasm for the thin white one but he’s always there on the
periphery.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">It’s 1971. I’m on my way home on the night bus. A pretty
teenage girl in hot pant dungarees and platform boots who I vaguely know and casually fancy spots
my new haircut and sits next to me saying <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“Anton, you’re looking more and more like David
Bowie every time I see you”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">An idea forms in my mind. I can use this. I will
find love and adulation for my creative genius through Bowie. But I will do it
by becoming myself. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">It’s 1990. I become a performance artist. Untrained
and somewhat slightly dazed. Basing most of my strategies and ‘alienated other’
performance persona on Bowie in <i>The Man
Who Fell to Earth</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">It’s 2016. I have written a children’s novel. Had
two disastrous relationships in the space of the last three years have survived another Christmas and New Year. I am 60 years old and <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“We’ll be back after the weather with more on the
death of David Bowie…”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I stopped dead in my tracks. I really couldn’t move.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03336228298618073076noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6094228567034943096.post-22324048448161684722015-12-31T15:24:00.002-08:002015-12-31T15:24:28.354-08:00Happy New Year<h2>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></i></span></h2>
<h2>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 115%;">‘I
don’t fuck much with the past but I fuck plenty with the future’</span></i></span></h2>
<h2>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 115%;"> Patti Smith</span></span></h2>
<div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO9M-dQ31ypNGfz1XJfu0HhCx5CiP0xQghKaVhSMjQE5RTGZ6BjA8e1Ad3gsmI9eDCc6u9PROTFvw1XVIB3gOGyLEYGgCofFJdhOAa084OFvIRJ1JVdmoD7EKzndrKyH4x8olEPBN_X2p0/s1600/The+Magus+in+tophat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO9M-dQ31ypNGfz1XJfu0HhCx5CiP0xQghKaVhSMjQE5RTGZ6BjA8e1Ad3gsmI9eDCc6u9PROTFvw1XVIB3gOGyLEYGgCofFJdhOAa084OFvIRJ1JVdmoD7EKzndrKyH4x8olEPBN_X2p0/s640/The+Magus+in+tophat.jpg" width="374" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here’s the thing. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’m more a believer in revolutions
than resolutions.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But this is the traditional time to take stock
and strategize the future<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So allow me these words<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yeah that was a year. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Somehow magical and mundane. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was in the cards from the start<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I fell in and out of love and found my ability to
judge character needs some work<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I made some friends and lost some too.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I realised that family is both more and less than blood.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I still believe in magic.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here’s the plan. It’s my plan. You can share it if
you wish.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I wish.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I wish for the usual. I wish for the unusual. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I wish
for peace and love to come. I wish for hate and war to go.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is my will that I will</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This year I will. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Find and embrace positive change. Get my book
published. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Find a better place to live. </span><span style="line-height: 18.4px;">Fulfill</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> my creative dreams. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Find a job
that earns me good money and utilises my talents and skills. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All will be well in my world.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I hope it will be in yours too<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Happy 2016</span></span><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03336228298618073076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6094228567034943096.post-88044507141885809872015-12-29T10:11:00.000-08:002015-12-30T08:53:09.351-08:00Doctor Who Series 9 Xmas Special<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://wegeekgirls.files.wordpress.com/2015/12/doctor-who-christmas-special_the-husbands-of-river-song.jpg?w=640" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Doctor Who Christmas Special_The Husbands of River Song" border="0" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-38024" height="640" src="https://wegeekgirls.files.wordpress.com/2015/12/doctor-who-christmas-special_the-husbands-of-river-song.jpg?w=640" width="449" /></a></div>
<b><span style="background: white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="background: white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="background: white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Husbands of River Song </span></b><br />
<b><span style="background: white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I suppose a temporal
adventurer must take her ‘Happily Ever Afters’ where and perhaps more
relevantly, <i>when</i> she can; what’s more, if you’re going to attempt a
relationship with another time traveler then it’s probably best to keep your stories
straight and your diary updated. Because,
as we know, ‘we’re all stories in the end’ and if your parents were also time travelers
and you’re a sort of <i>H</i><i>ybrid</i> possibly
with a Time-Head conceived in a TARDIS and born on an asteroid called Demon’s
Run then it falls to you to make it a good one.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Yes </span><i style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">The Husbands of River Song </i><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">was a little
continuity heavy but was all
the better for it </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 21.4667px;">(despite the fact my favourite argument is that Doctor Who is a delightful continuing serial precisely because it has no continuity)</span><span style="color: #252525; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">. Having said that, it took a subsequent, post-Christmas viewing
free from the hazy effects of alcohol and mince pies to really appreciate what
it was doing. That is, to present us with the lovely Christmas present of a
dénouement for the bitter sweet romance that has been the Doctor and River
(Otherwise known as </span><i style="color: #252525; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">The Time </span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 21.4667px;">Traveler's</span><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> Wife</span></i><span style="color: #252525; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> which makes this story’s title even more meta-ironic).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I think we can safely
ignore the first 40 or so minutes which consisted of a moderately enjoyable
screwball comedy space romp with multi-headed androids and stunt-cast comedians.
Although the meta-symbolism of River marrying a series of replacement heads
alongside her unfolding picture wallet of previous Doctor’s head shots (In
handy chronological order) probably warrants a closer reading at some point. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-e9o7zppIBnA/VoASt1KPqZI/AAAAAAAAFQQ/kMKH8vlcPoU/s1600/tumblr_nzxi3ochhU1rn3zbbo2_500.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" class="irc_mi" height="225" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-e9o7zppIBnA/VoASt1KPqZI/AAAAAAAAFQQ/kMKH8vlcPoU/s400/tumblr_nzxi3ochhU1rn3zbbo2_500.gif" style="margin-top: 87px;" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="background: white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">So, although it’s not
strictly the case that their time lines have been travelling in opposite
directions the Doctor and River’s parallel narratives have often been about
beginnings and endings. Way back in 2008's</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><i style="color: #252525; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Sil</i><i style="color: #252525; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">ence in the Library,</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> River Song’s
last meeting with the Doctor and his first meeting with her (hold on to
something secure, any passing monolith will do, this is going to get
complicated) she greets the tenth Doctor with a </span><i style="color: #252525; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">‘Hello Sweetie’</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">, mentions having dated an android and then checking
her diary ascertains that it's early days for the Doctor because he ‘</span><i style="color: #252525; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">looks so young’</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> and that he hasn’t yet experienced the Crash of
the Byzantium or the Picnic at Asgard all of which are referenced again in </span><i style="color: #252525; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">The Husbands of River Song. </i><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">In </span><i style="color: #252525; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Forest of the Dead</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">, the second part of
the story, River’s final speech is this -</span><a href="http://www.doctor-who.it/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/snapshot20080604190704.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; display: inline !important; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" class="irc_mi" src="http://www.doctor-who.it/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/snapshot20080604190704.jpg" height="230" style="margin-top: 84px;" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">‘Funny thing is, this means you've always known how I was
going to die. All the time we've been together, you knew I was coming here. The
last time I saw you, the real you, the future you, I mean, you turned up on my
doorstep, with a new haircut and a suit. You took me to Darillium to see the
Singing Towers. What a night that was. The Towers sang, and you cried’.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">All of which we see come to pass in
this episode where the Doctor’s final speech to River is -<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">‘Nobody really understands where the music comes from. It's
probably something to do with the precise positions, the distance between both
towers. Even the locals aren't sure. All anyone will ever tell you is that when
the wind stands fair and the night is perfect, when you least expect it but
always when you need it the most there is a song’.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Echoing River’s final voice over in
the coda of <i><span style="color: #252525;">Forest
of the Dead </span></i><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<br />
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;"><i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">‘Now and then, every once in a very long while, every day in a million days, when the wind stands fair, and the Doctor comes to call…Everybody lives'</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The secret of this
tale though, to be discovered like a sixpence in a plum pudding or a diamond in
a brain, was hidden in plain sight and found at the end. Indeed at the risk of
invoking that most irritating of River’s catch-phrases “Spoilers!” we need to
look beyond the end of the narrative and examine the final caption.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Of course it’s there
to cement the concept of River and the Doctor’s love story being like a fairy
tale and naturally invokes its companion caption ‘Once upon a Time’ a favourite
trope of show runner Steven Moffat. But isn’t every Doctor Who story about ‘once
upon a time’ or at least ‘time’? Once again we get the concept of a discrete pocket
of time like the two billion years inside the Confession Dial in <i>Heaven Sent</i>, the space between
heartbeats of Clara’s post death adventures and the fateful immortality of Maisie
William’s Ashildr. This time it’s the 24 year long night at the Singing Towers
of Darillium where the Doctor and River get to share their happiness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Actually the idea of ‘Ever
After’ is interesting in itself. Suggesting a time that comes after time, the contradiction
of a continuation of the story after the narrative has ended. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">So…<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<i><span style="background: white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And They Both Lived Happily Ever After<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This then wipes in a
disintegration of snow or stardust to leave -<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="background: white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And They Both Lived Happily…………<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Then finally the only
word left is -<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="background: white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">…………………….. Happily……………<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Then t</span><span style="background: white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">his, like the other
words, eventually disintegrates into stardust. </span><br />
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<span style="background: white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">As must we all eventually, even
if we live to see the End of Time, which, incidentally, the Doctor has </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 21.4667px;">visited </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">on
numerous occasions, most recently in this very series finale. It must
be getting a bit crowded there, if only with versions of himself.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">So if there was a moral to this sweet Xmas truffle of an episode with a bitter sweet coating it might just be that everybody's story has its beginning and its ending but not </span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 21.4667px;">necessarily</span><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> in that order and time-travelling a</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 21.4667px;">dventurer or not, in matters of the heart it’s very easy to lose your head.</span><br />
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<a href="http://45.media.tumblr.com/005d2942892dff7e2f99bde697652653/tumblr_nzy8fsdu711tsfx8ro8_400.gif" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" class="irc_mi" src="http://45.media.tumblr.com/005d2942892dff7e2f99bde697652653/tumblr_nzy8fsdu711tsfx8ro8_400.gif" height="359" style="margin-top: 98px;" width="640" /></a></div>
<i><span style="color: #252525; font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 21.4667px;">DOCTOR: Every night is the last night for something. Every Christmas is the last Christmas ...</span></span><span style="color: #252525; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 21.4667px;"> Times end, River, because they have to. Because there's no such thing as happy ever after. It's just a lie we tell ourselves because the truth is so hard. </span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: #252525; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 21.4667px;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #252525; font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 21.4667px;">RIVER: No, Doctor, you're wrong. Happy ever after doesn't mean forever. It just means time. A little time. </span></span></i><br />
<span style="color: #252525; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 21.4667px;">. </span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03336228298618073076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6094228567034943096.post-50759527122429171952015-12-07T16:17:00.000-08:002015-12-30T08:53:28.747-08:00<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="background: #E9EAED; color: #141823; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><span style="color: #141823; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-large;">Doctor Who Season 9 Overview</span></o:p></span></h2>
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<i><span style="background: white; color: #252525; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Now, the real question is: Where did he get
the cup of tea? Answer: I'm the Doctor. Just accept it.”</span></i></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #252525; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">As viewers we’ve been
asked to accept quite a lot of things because ‘I’m The Doctor’ during Steven Moffatt’s
tenure as show runner so it’s probably inevitable that in this ninth series we
begin to question just what ‘Being the Doctor’ might mean.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It’s a well-worn
truism that the role of the Doctor is ‘actor proof’. That, with varying degrees
of success, “any old fucker with an Equity card” (© Mark Gattis 1999) can have
a go at the time-travelling eccentric. Indeed there’s always been an element of
the thespian to the character of the Doctor. The casting, two years ago of as
well respected and talented an actor as Peter Capaldi in the role has recently tended
to spotlight the performativity of the role. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">One of the things a
lot of actors enjoy is breaking the fourth wall - the direct address to the
audience. In classic drama Hamlet’s famous monologue is often played this way. The effect can also be seen in pantomime and most obviously in stand-up
comedy. Last year we briefly had Capaldi addressing the audience directly in
the episode <i>Listen.</i> This series gave
us the most blatant example in the cold open for <i>Before the Flood</i> with his monologue direct to camera explaining the
‘Bootstrap Paradox’. The fact that over the years we’ve had countless Doctor Who
stories employing that old time travel chestnut ‘the Bootstrap Paradox’, most
often in stories written by Steven Moffatt, without feeling the need to give us
a fourth wall breaking mini-lecture must have significance. I think it’s all
about agency, showing us the performer suspended inside the narrative and the
narrative suspended within the performance. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">In </span><i style="color: #333333; font-family: 'times new roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">The Witch’s Familiar</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> Clara hanging
upside down and tied up was perhaps a magickal reference to the Tarot card The
Hanged Man, it being an image of initiation. The 'Magician's Apprentice'
becomes the 'Witch's Familiar' and is put through various trials before
achieving enlightenment. Clara being pushed off a ledge and surviving a twenty
foot drop being just one of a number of 'leaps of faith' given her by Missy. But
might her initiation also be read diegetically as a preparation for her graduating
to the role of the Doctor and outside the narrative to the actor herself achieving
that agency? I think this is the key to decoding this series. </span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Series 9 has been all
about the acting. Characters openly playing roles. Playing at Vikings, playing
at highwaymen, </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">The Doctor playing </span><i style="color: #333333; font-family: 'times new roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">the
Doctor -</i></div>
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<i><span style="background: white; color: #252525; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“There's no such thing as the Doctor. I’m just
a bloke in a box telling stories”</span></i></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Missy playing the pantomime
drag Master</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">The Doctor playing
Davros</span></div>
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<i><span style="background: white; color: #252525; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Proposition. Davros is an insane, paranoid
genius who has survived among several billion trigger-happy mini-tanks for
centuries. Conclusion? I'm definitely having his chair”.</span></i></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #252525; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And a lot of people
giving us their versions of the Doctor.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #252525; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Missy, within
Michelle Gomez’s delightfully hat-stand performance showing us what would
happen if the Doctor let his madness get the upper hand. Davros demonstrating
how love of racial purity is certainly not an ideal for a renegade Time Lord to
aim for, Ashildr/Me showing us the lonely immortal, Kate Stewart depicting the Third
Doctoresque scientific/military option*, Rasmussen in <i>Sleep No More</i> giving us the teller of dangerous shaggy dog stories
and finally Clara demonstrating the Tardis thief and reckless adventurer. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #252525; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">*Incidentally </span><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Redgrave is remarkable and what she is doing as
an actor is quite subtle. It's nothing to do with any fan-imagined legacy of
the Brigadier; who was mostly written as a Monty Python cliche army character
for the Doctor to anti-militarily snark at. (That the character transcended this
is in the classic series was mostly down to Nicholas Courtney's professional
skill) and I doubt she has much knowledge of the fan worship and head-canon
that the character enjoyed other than what Moffat has told her. Instead I
believe she is attempting something totally in keeping with the traditions of
Doctor Who, that is, to juxtapose one genre convention against another to see
what will happen. Redgrave is playing Kate Stewart naturalistically (using
acting techniques more suited to docu-drama or performed reconstruction using
reported speech) as a real person caught up in chaotic and surreal events who
is forced to employ an unreal chaotic person (the Doctor) to restore order. Her
coping option is to remain calm in the eye of the storm. If she appears
detached, that is the result of the juxtaposition she has created. A calm
reflection of the Doctor's manic energies. I find it fascinating to watch Matt
Smith and now Capaldi clearly enjoying being exasperated at her coolness just
as Pertwee and Baker were exasperated by the Brig's unflappability.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Anyway, those themes
of performativity and role playing established lets have a look at the series
as a whole. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">So to start at the
end…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The grand finale.
Finales are odd things, an old vaudeville tradition somehow clinging on to the
TV drama mini-series format, replacing the variety song and dance act with the razzmatazz
of explosions, conflict resolution, death and closure. Which is exactly what
Steven Moffat doesn’t give us in <i>Hell
Bent</i> the final episode of series 9. In a classic piece of rug pulling he changes
the kind of story we’re watching from epic revenge tragedy to spaghetti western
and leaves us with Thelma and Louise in Space. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And once again we get a piece of pure
theatricality, another breaking of the fourth wall. The Doctor playing Clara
her own signature tune, in the American diner set from season six’s <i>Impossible Astronaut</i>. How much more
post-modern do you want to get? Capaldi’s guitar playing effectively drags
Murray Gold’s <i>Clara’s Theme</i> onto the
stage to take a bow, moving it from the extra-diegetic, right into the foreground
of the narrative. Just as the Doctor started series 9 himself, entering that
most theatrical of settings - the medieval castle - playing a distorted rock
version of the classic Doctor Who title theme. The twanging reverb of the
electric guitar recalling an Ennio Morricone soundtrack laying the sonic
groundwork for the spaghetti western tropes we will be treated to when we finally return to Gallifrey. But we're racing ahead of ourselves.<span style="background: #E9EAED;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">So, taking each story in turn chronologically, what do we see?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><b style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Magicians Apprentice/The Witch's Familiar</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Having the sins of the past or unfinished business
from days gone by come back to haunt you must be, not only an occupational
hazard, but the most uncanny and disturbing aspect of time travel and the
opening two-parter was all about things coming back to bite the Doctor’s arse.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Doctor had to face and attempt to fix some of
things he did or failed to do in his own time-line. Will we ever understand how
it all fits together? As the man said -<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“<i>I try never to understand. It’s called an
open mind.”<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We begin with a cold-open to end all cold-opens, the
revelation of the child Davros. <span style="background: white; color: #333333;">In
last year's<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Listen</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>we learnt that the Doctor's childhood
fear was having his ankle grabbed by a disembodied hand. Now we get hand mines,
whose modus operandi is to grab you by the ankle. No wonder the Doctor was so disturbed
to witness the kid Davros being scared by them.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Back at Coal Hill school Clara’s outing of Jane
Austin was a deliciously throwaway piece of literary name dropping. Once again
she’s adopting the Doctor’s traits. This will have consequences.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Moffat sneaking in
Missy's reference to the Doctor as a 'little girl' here must shut down once and
for all any remaining deniers of the Doctor's trans-gender potential by calmly
stating that it's already happened. Yes of course Moffat left it open to
interpretation. The "One of those things was a lie" statement was a
delicious piece of self-trolling but...we all know it's true really don't we?
And now, in <i>Hell Bent</i> we have the
General’s regeneration not only changing his gender but his skin colour too. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The whole sewer
sequence, as well as being a classic 'journey through the underworld' rescue
was also a call back to Ian and Barbara's interminable journey (at least three
episodes) through tunnels to the Dalek city with the Thals in the first Dalek
story. (A lovely reference to Hartnell to compliment Capaldi's trousers).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> The relationship that Missy suggested she and
the Doctor enjoyed was remarkable too. For the first time we got a glimpse of
how beings who 'walk in eternity' (© the Fourth Doctor) might relate to each
other. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Under The Lake/ Before the Flood</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCglBnJm6BuYNMxBxCkV_YTGKDBIOGRZPe_YNPa5p6CR_mMf_rG_2MEB3v64YOrsrnVpRT62lWqx13t6lIYatt3RG0WFp8y4prp4GIdJfVZRdlgI_B3vl3qEqKMluoZMZaedZMqPp4VLcD/s1600/Under+The+Lake.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCglBnJm6BuYNMxBxCkV_YTGKDBIOGRZPe_YNPa5p6CR_mMf_rG_2MEB3v64YOrsrnVpRT62lWqx13t6lIYatt3RG0WFp8y4prp4GIdJfVZRdlgI_B3vl3qEqKMluoZMZaedZMqPp4VLcD/s320/Under+The+Lake.jpg" width="226" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnzkMsFVidihoTzaayj8KPKlzSSDoO4GzDsRqmSUuDwaczbywnFoLmHGGEP0WxU2JRy2LfdEs2CVzmGbWSADh1-i6XfAz09SHQ6GLvK2mcK2DCrdAO_5UpGk6A9R2JzRnjC1NHd1llm4ZJ/s1600/Before+the+Flood.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnzkMsFVidihoTzaayj8KPKlzSSDoO4GzDsRqmSUuDwaczbywnFoLmHGGEP0WxU2JRy2LfdEs2CVzmGbWSADh1-i6XfAz09SHQ6GLvK2mcK2DCrdAO_5UpGk6A9R2JzRnjC1NHd1llm4ZJ/s320/Before+the+Flood.jpg" width="226" /></a></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Not my favourite story
of the season. It seemed like two episodes of Doctor Who written by someone
who'd never seen Doctor Who but had only had it described to them. Which, in a
way, given the themes of language and translation in the narrative is oddly
apt. </span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">There's a really good Doctor Who two-parter to be written where the second
part has the Doctor travel back in time to affect the events of the first. Unfortunately
this wasn’t it. Also, I can handwave the dodgy astronomy but why would aliens name
a constellation 'Orion's Sword' in the first place? Unless we're suggesting
that Greco/Roman mythology is universal. Which would be a whole lot more
interesting than what we've got in this story.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">I think, maybe if the fake Soviet
village had been a night shoot it would have achieved the atmosphere the
director was looking for.</span><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Maybe.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="background: white;">I can only assume Whithouse heard a reference to the
Fisher King story once, thought it sounded a cool name but couldn't be bothered
to actually do any research. Anything, the vaguest reference to Arthurian myth,
the wounded God archetype or the Grail legend would have done but no. Nothing.
Just a cool name that now, for me because of this, is just that little bit less
cool. This outdoes last series’ <i>In the
Forest of the Night</i> for gratuitous referencing with no pay off.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white;">Why was Prentis dressed as a Victorian
undertaker?<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>This I suspect is the
real Bootstrap Paradox -</span> <span style="background: white;">Whithouse has an
idea for 'cool' visual, i.e. a Gothic ghost in a futuristic base and then
decides to be clever and retcon the plot within its own narrative to explain
it. Except the explanation never quite lands and he ends up with an
anachronistic visual motif which could easily be explained using time travel but is instead
'explained' using space travel. I mean...why? </span><span style="background: white;">Whithouse has said in an interview that the
original script was even more 'timey wimey' (Gods help us) before Moffat edited
it. I mean, can you imagine?</span></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Girl Who Died/ The Woman Who Lived<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">The writer of </span><i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">The Girl Who Lived</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> Jamie Mathieson </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">said
in an interview "of course this is Doctor Who so we're doing horned Viking
helmets even though they're wrong."</span><span class="apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">This is lovely. It’s my opinion that when the TARDIS
leaves ‘Space’ and moves back into ‘History’ it time travels
psychochronographically. Not to ‘real’ historical times but to a kind of
collectively agreed upon </span><i style="color: #333333; font-family: 'times new roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">version</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> of
history and most often a peculiarly British one that has more to say about mining
the stories we tell ourselves than any attempt at digging for truths. For
instance, the various WWIIs the Doctor has visited are formed from a kind of
gestalt British folk memory of the era (Churchill in </span><i style="color: #333333; font-family: 'times new roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Victory of the Daleks</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">, the “Are you my mummy” gas mask kid and
barrage balloons over Big Ben in </span><i style="color: #333333; font-family: 'times new roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">The
Empty Child</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">, etc.) and a quite child oriented one at that due to the show's
origins as a children's 'educational' series. The Tardis' first voyage was from
Coal Hill school to a prehistoric Britain straight out of a year 6 history
primer. Last year’s </span><i style="color: #333333; font-family: 'times new roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Robot of Sherwood</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">
addressed this issue well, I thought, albeit within the confines of a not very
good story. Remember Amy's childhood picture book of Roman centurions being the
memory that created the Pandorica setting and Rory's resurrection? Probably not
very historically accurate, but a vivid image that every British school kid is
taught.</span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I'll have to admit I
struggled to enjoy the second half of Ashildr’s story. I really wanted to love
it but it was let down by so many things. Maisie Williams gave it her best shot
but was sometimes a little out of her depth. The writer, Catherine Tregenna,
was clearly aiming for a 'Wicked Lady' meets 'Interview with a Vampire' vibe
but unfortunately Williams doesn't yet have the experience to negotiate the
swift turns of the script from haughty immortal to rollicking highwayman. This
often left her looking vulnerable and exposed, though Capaldi did a generous
job of catching her each time and giving her plenty to react to.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> <span style="background: white;">As to Leo the cuddly space lion with laser eyes...if
ever there was an argument for ditching unnecessary alien invasion plots from
the 'Historicals' this was it.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="background: white;"><span style="background: white;">The overall tone was strangely one-note and the
pacing was also all over the place but Ed Bazelgette's direction overall was
superb, particularly the interior scenes. I feel a lot of the blame for the
weakness of this episode should be aimed at the editing which, in some
instances, was positively amateurish. A number of instances of 'crossing the
line', badly matched reverse shots and clumsy transitions. The sound design was
murky too apart from Murray Gold's musical score and I think the 'girl does
man's voice' conceit would be less concerning (it was expertly and cheekily
handwaved diegetically) if the voice had matched the ambiance of Maisie's own
voice rather than sounding like a guy sitting in a recording booth. There was
the same problem with the Fisher King's voice in <i>Before the Flood</i>. </span><span style="background: white;">Oh and the tacked on coda in the TARDIS was appalling.
Who gives a selfie as a present? Why does Clara show it to the Doctor on her
own phone rather than send it to him? Was this bit written by Moffat? Does he
know what a selfie is?</span></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Zygon Invasion/ The Zygon Inversion<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwBCbv0iCsdSobbyzj9WPCRKeq4k3VIni7xHjs6Lz4YoIsaNectyIxdWfnmhXVvUEEkYQ5dC90A61groKR4J5dEXbao8NQnTFmNfyeEtUh-zxk9i6kZbqAUNG-6jaZQug2LO_QzFQ0M6WX/s1600/The+Zygon+Inversion.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwBCbv0iCsdSobbyzj9WPCRKeq4k3VIni7xHjs6Lz4YoIsaNectyIxdWfnmhXVvUEEkYQ5dC90A61groKR4J5dEXbao8NQnTFmNfyeEtUh-zxk9i6kZbqAUNG-6jaZQug2LO_QzFQ0M6WX/s320/The+Zygon+Inversion.jpg" width="226" /></a><br />
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<span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Just when I was
beginning to lose faith in Doctor Who's ability to still deliver the goods Peter
Harness gives us the <i>Zygon Invasion/Inversion</i>
and it certainly doesn't disappoint.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">On first viewing what really stood out for me
was the beautiful brazenness of its metaphors. To the extent that I see the
main complaint among its detractors is the 'obviousness' of the
'immigrants/radicalisation/assimilation allegory. As though a message somehow
loses potency by being easy to read and that could somehow be a valid critique.
I fear the real reason people are annoyed by the story's simple theme is that,
in fact, they don't agree with its implications.</span><span class="apple-converted-space" style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">I love how the Osgood/Zygon question is not only
sidestepped (the fact of her being alive is as obvious as the rest of the
allegories and really not an interesting puzzle to obsess over, any more than
where the Doctor got his cup of tea or how he escaped the invisible clones) but
pressed into service to unexpectedly make the most political point in the
story. No it shouldn't matter whether you identify the person you are talking
to as human or alien, Christian or Muslim, male or female. Perhaps listening to
what they're saying is more important than value judging.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">I think a child
watching this story might actually take away a vague echo of the concepts of
'morality' of 'decency' and 'fair play' which, while obvious paper tigers and
false ideals here, are nonetheless not inherently bad things to wish for. As the
situationists say ‘Be reasonable – demand the impossible’. Moffatt and Harness
here are ascribing entirely to keeping politics childish but I think the
attempt falls down because the writers have built a ridiculous straw man
argument and attempted to clothe it in 'concerns torn from today's headlines'.
Equating an invading force of octopoid, electro stinger wielding, sucker
covered blobby creatures FROM ANOTHER PLANET with concerns around immigration
in the UK and the US and then also throwing in ISIS for good measure is at best
naive allegory and at worst bloody stupid.</span><span class="apple-converted-space" style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">I still love Doctor Who but they do make that
hard to justify sometimes.</span></div>
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<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It's easy of course
to argue that the politics were (with I feel I can safely say the best of
intentions) a little skewed but this was always going to be inevitable given
the show’s fun-for-all-the-family remit. The decision to shift the dramatic
tension from the epic to the personal was the only way the various potential
pitfalls of an oversimplified dialectic could be avoided. (And I'm not saying
all of them were). This was effortlessly handled in the first few moments by
having the cliffhanger be resolved within Clara's struggle to control her own
identity. Mirroring the main theme of assimilation v the violent assertion of
individuality and of course, bringing into focus again the main themes of agency
and role playing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">I'm genuinely at a
loss to say what I felt about this episode. I know it's going to divide opinion
but I'm oddly unsure what side of the divide I'm falling on. Which probably
means it's great.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> <span style="background: white;">Certainly a surprising bit of writing from Gattis.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>I liked the lack of a credit sequence
which effectively made the entire episode a cold open; or the way it turned the,
(much used in the classic era particularly by Second Doctor Patrick Troughton),
'staring directly at us out of a TV screen' trope (itself a kind of visual
fourth wall breaking) into the mise en scene of the story.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>The Sandmen, dust golems made of eye
gunk, are probably the best and simultaneously the most ridiculous pseudo-science
monsters we've had but, as such, seemed to belong more to season eight with the
Foretold and the Boneless and the moon egg hatched space dragon. Didn’t Gattiss
get the memo? ‘Fairy Tale’ was last year, this series it’s ‘Agency’ and ‘Role Playing’. </span></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Face the Raven</span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">So Clara gets her own 'companion' in Rigsy and the question becomes, will the Doctor be able
to wrest control of his own character from Miss Oswald 'curing' Clara of her
reckless bravery before it kills her?</span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Heaven Sent</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkYHHLilbHBtTZEszcv4H1KJeR3Ez3IHzaxpnsaNXx97JwPKm6D7xldIwCEOSsFeuKpajdaiByf4Q8WJQbX-M57FDmJH4kz-GnD9e5evtmzuLI98GfjDv22F0l63vFFnqvEearHpuPCDiJ/s1600/Heaven-Sent.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkYHHLilbHBtTZEszcv4H1KJeR3Ez3IHzaxpnsaNXx97JwPKm6D7xldIwCEOSsFeuKpajdaiByf4Q8WJQbX-M57FDmJH4kz-GnD9e5evtmzuLI98GfjDv22F0l63vFFnqvEearHpuPCDiJ/s320/Heaven-Sent.jpg" width="226" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">See, the thing I like
about experimental theatre (and I've been responsible for quite a bit of it in
my time) is often not the end result (the 'product' of the experiment if you
like) but the odd, quirky, imagery and juxtapositions thrown up along the way.
Experimentation (in drama terms) is not just about gratuitously 'being weird'
but in the creation of hybrids. New forms of discourse formed by rubbing
disparate concepts together to make fire. Or gold. Alchemy. Sometimes this must
be achieved by smashing through the tougher than diamond wall of control to
challenge the authorities on the other side.</span><span class="apple-converted-space" style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">So, while Heaven Sent is, in many ways, an
experimental take on experimentalism it's also very much a traditional Doctor
Who experiment of rubbing one genre up against another. In this case A
Beckettian existential one hander (The confession dial as Krapps Last Tape) and
a classic locked room mystery (with the added twist that the victim is also the
detective). Add a touch of Edgar Allen Poe (I thought 'BIRD' was a clue about
Facing the Raven) and you've got Doctor Who gold.</span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And here we are back
to the finale ( the long way round)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEEslo1PMNtluU4ulwo5kowO59H-pqetRiJBh1IfD-RDEc3Zu0KkYYbqE6YYEwFsyCC4kjwT_5aMWGvZj55Z1rjty76C8FM8P05QkEk47oc360DQjZ3fN7Dn-SCV9dPVqgtjVxGxu5vvqs/s1600/Hell+bent.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEEslo1PMNtluU4ulwo5kowO59H-pqetRiJBh1IfD-RDEc3Zu0KkYYbqE6YYEwFsyCC4kjwT_5aMWGvZj55Z1rjty76C8FM8P05QkEk47oc360DQjZ3fN7Dn-SCV9dPVqgtjVxGxu5vvqs/s400/Hell+bent.jpg" width="282" /></a><b><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Hell Bent</span></b></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Without being a total
re-reboot the final episode pretty much rewrote the Doctor's history as we knew it, put it
back together a bit wonkily, twice and then added some Clara/Me shipping
fanfic. I bloody loved it. I loved that the Hybrid could still be Susan or
River or the Doctor or Me or Harry bloody Potter and it really doesn't matter
because the Time Lords and their obsession with their idiotic prophecies turned
out once again to be barking up the wrong tree.</span><span class="apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">My personal theory is that the Sisterhood of
Karn are an analog of the Bene Gesserit in Dune and are playing a long game.
They've been trying to create the Hybrid for millennia in order to take down
the Time Lords and rule the multiverse. The Doctor, like Paul Atriedes in Dune
is one of their experiments gone rogue.</span><span class="apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Incidentally, those who
are, inevitably, calling for a<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Clara
and Me</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>spin-off series are
misinterpreting the nature and purpose of the open ended character escape. As
long as we never see them, Clara's adventures in Space and Time preserve her
character, suspended like a fly in amber between her last heartbeats. Just as
she was suspended upside down in <i>The
Witch’s Familiar</i>. If we show them it devalues the currency and she becomes
a lesser character. She needs to remain a tantalising might-have-been out there
somewhere in the swirling vortex of the Land of Fiction along with Jenny, Susan
and the Meddling Monk. Of course your reaction to this retcon of <i>Face the Raven</i> depends entirely on
whether you consider Clara’s character to be running<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>away</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>from her death or<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>towards</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>a new life. If nothing else the
Russian Roulette of who gets mind-wiped seemed to be a lovely redemption of the
awful fate of Donna Noble, forced against her will to forget the tenth Doctor
and all their adventures together, but I’m not buying this. No-one lost any
memories here did they? There are too many clues that suggest the Doctor and
Clara ended this season just like they did the last one – playing their roles
and lying to each other. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I thought it was a
fitting end for Clara as a character and a suitable tribute to Jenna Coleman as
an actor.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">So we end as we
began, with Clara taking agency as her own version of the time-travelling
eccentric Tardis thief along with her own immortal travelling companion in
Ashildr/Me. It’s hard to say which one is playing ‘The Doctor’ though. </span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">They
might both do well to remember Clara’s own advice from <i>Face the Raven –<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<i><span style="background: white; color: #252525; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“You. You listen to me. You're going to be
alone now, and you're very bad at that. You're going to be furious, and you're
going to be sad, but listen to me. Don't let this change you. No, listen.
Whatever happens next, wherever she is sending you, I know what you're capable
of. You don't be a warrior. Promise me you'll be a Doctor."</span></i></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03336228298618073076noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6094228567034943096.post-63980962876691669312014-02-12T04:23:00.001-08:002014-02-12T14:04:42.864-08:00<h2>
THIS SITE UNDER DECONSTRUCTION</h2>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03336228298618073076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6094228567034943096.post-50765135333136462712013-12-01T10:37:00.000-08:002015-12-08T16:37:52.256-08:00The First Post is the Deepest<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCRiOS5mHGieLBelr2IJKm6DX89in-jRnaTNuU_JC1YYo84w7xDk-ZswnzuRpFFpCrsNuvjM8ip4OklJgTRjdeWjx7KM7AJGUt36Uyg0DmjepiDD52p1aPVAvG6EXz_9TGDsm_FsJTQq9t/s1600/marxes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: red; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCRiOS5mHGieLBelr2IJKm6DX89in-jRnaTNuU_JC1YYo84w7xDk-ZswnzuRpFFpCrsNuvjM8ip4OklJgTRjdeWjx7KM7AJGUt36Uyg0DmjepiDD52p1aPVAvG6EXz_9TGDsm_FsJTQq9t/s640/marxes.jpg" width="480" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Welcome to <strong>D</strong><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><strong>ériving Me Backwards.</strong> The final shape of which will be determined by the interaction of a number of elements; chiefly a magpie randomness and attraction to the shiny and Pop (not necessarily an abbreviation of 'popular' more the third part of 'Snap, Crackle and...') combined with a certain amount of Situationist, Magickal, Hauntological and Psychogeographic concerns. I'm intending to combine absurdist and post-modern attitudes and skim the surface of pretension with agility and style. Probably. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I'd like this to be a collaborative and inclusive forum, a kind of idea-space.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Ultimately we could create a blog that utilises our own uniquenesses combined and individually.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">We should suggest parameters which would create a set of possibilities which could combine and evolve uniquely at each post.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Lets create parameters, set them off, and see what happens. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My suggestion would be to use randomisers such as Eno's Oblique strategies. </span><a href="http://www.eno-web.co.uk/oblique/oblique.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">http://www.eno-web.co.uk/oblique/oblique.html</span></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> Tarot, I -Ching or even simply random Google searches to create random input.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The poststructuralist thinkers Deleuze and Guattari in <em>A Thousand Plateaus</em> 1980 introduces the idea of the rhizome, a structure in which hierarchy is abandoned in favour a free motion and play without any set points of singularity. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Could we embrace a rhizomatic structure in this blog that denies fixed points entirely, taking a viewpoint of absolute flux ?</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><o:p>Again any ideas or suggestions - please comment.</o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">I'm excited to see how this thing evolves and</span> welcome followers, comments and suggestions for content, only asking that we all play nicely.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">To begin with a beginning - here are a few possible tropes we might explore and a non-list of things that are holding my attention at this fixed point in time as well as a deconstruction of the title of this blog.</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><strong>PSYCHOGEOGRAPHY</strong> </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">describes a form of writing in which
the nature of a place is captured via the experience of moving through it
according to logics other than those it was designed for— a concept known in
the original Situationist conception as the dérive. Its most common technique
under Iain Sinclair is the walking tour, in which the physical experience of
walking through an urban space provides the narrative frame for an exploration
of its history and future.</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><strong>DERIVE</strong><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychogeography" title="Psychogeography"><span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">psychogeography</span></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">,</span> a <b>dérive</b> is an unplanned journey through a landscape, usually </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City" title="City"><span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">urban</span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">, on which the subtle aesthetic contours of the surrounding </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architecture" title="Architecture"><span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">architecture</span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> and </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography" title="Geography"><span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">geography</span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> subconsciously direct the travellers, with the ultimate goal of encountering an entirely new and authentic experience. Situationist theorist </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Debord" title="Guy Debord"><span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Guy Debord</span></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> defines the dérive as "a mode of experimental behavior linked to the conditions of urban society: a technique of rapid passage through varied ambiances." He also notes that "the term also designates a specific uninterrupted period of dériving." The term is literally translated into English as <i>drift</i></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%A9rive" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%A9rive</span></a></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: black;"><strong>DRIVING ME BACKWARDS</strong> </span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: black;">Is a track from Brian Eno's debut solo album <em>Here Come the Warm Jets.</em></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: black;"><em> </em></span></span></span><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driving_Me_Backwards" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driving_Me_Backwards</span></a></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><strong>SITUATIONISM</strong></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Situationist" target="_blank"><span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Situationist</span></a></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychogeography" target="_blank"><span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychogeography</span></a></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><b>HAUNTOLOGY</b></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">Is an idea within the </span><span style="color: black;">philosophy of history</span><span style="color: black;"> introduced by </span><span style="color: black;">Jacques Derrida</span><span style="color: black;"> in his 1993 work <i><span style="color: black;">Spectres of Marx</span></i>. The word, a combination of the word </span></span><a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haunt" title="Haunt"><span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">haunt</span></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">and the suffix -</span><span style="color: black;">ology</span><span style="color: black;">, and a near-</span><span style="color: black;">homophone</span><span style="color: black;"> to </span><span style="color: black;">ontology</span><span style="color: black;"> in Derrida's native French, deals with "the paradoxical state of the spectre, which is neither being nor non-being". </span><br />
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<span style="color: black;">The idea suggests that the present exists only with respect to the past, and that society after the </span><span style="color: black;">end of history</span><span style="color: black;"> will begin to orient itself towards ideas and aesthetics that are thought of as rustic, bizarre or "old-timey"; that is, towards the "ghost" of the past. Derrida holds that because of this intellectual realignment, the end of history will be unsatisfactory and untenable.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><strong>MAGIC</strong></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As in close-up card magic, sleight of hand effects etc. Not large stage illusions or the real stuff which I shall pretentiously refer to as -</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><strong>MAGICK</strong></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This will include my interest in Tarot, astrology, numerology and other divinatory/focusing disciplines as well as stuff like Chaos Magick, ritual and sigils etc.</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><strong><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">DOCTOR WHO</span></strong></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I could go on about this show at length and probably will.<br />
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<strong><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">PROJECTS</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I'm at the note-making and idea simmering stage of writing a book which I'd like to follow in the tradition of the classic 'gateway to otherness' works of childrens' literature ( Carrol, Lewis, Barrie etc.) Here are a few of the concepts - </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><em>The gate which the protagonists discover, their 'looking glass' or 'wardrobe' if you like, through which they enter the 'other' world of the Imaginary is ‘The Magic Theatre’ which appears on a street near you only when
it’s needed. It being the part of the Imaginary which is closest to reality and
thus able to poke through.</em></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><em> <span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">The </span>initial quest is to find a map but when they do they discover it is blank.<o:p></o:p></span></em></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><em>The map is not the territory - as the protagonists explore the world they are mapping it but maybe come to realise they are also creating it. A map that is as big as the world <strong>is</strong> the world.<o:p></o:p></em></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><em>Travelling through a series of framing devices.</em></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><em>The story is trapped inside the book and the book is
trapped inside the story</em></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><em>Each chapter finds the protagonists passing through layers of fiction each layer being
less ‘real’ than the last. <o:p></o:p></em></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;">Until you get to where?<o:p></o:p></span></em></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><em>Pure thought?</em></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><em>‘Sleepwalking’ is the route through one of the quests. Not in a dream but actually functioning physically while asleep. How would that work?</em></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><em>It's a story about the death of the
childhood dream-world itself or the prevention of that death. Can it be
prevented? Or must it just be postponed? To survive it must be inhabited, lived
in fact. (Or in fiction). Maybe somehow linking it to reality, which is what
the travelling 'magic-theatre' people do, but what is destroying it?</em></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><em>Something is stripping away the artifice<o:p></o:p></em></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;">"What happens when the story’s over? Does it go on
without me? Or is it the other way round?"</span></em></span></div>
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</em></span><span lang="EN" style="color: black; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><em>Each
of the worlds communicate with the other worlds by books. They read about
characters as they move closer to their reality, through books (or other
written media).</em>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Any thoughts or suggestions please feel free to comment.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><o:p>Now lets see what happens.</o:p></span></div>
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