Virgers! How are we doing with those explosives?

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12/23/11--03:02: Article 2 (chan 2250183)

I'm seriously considering turning commenting off on LJ - I'm reluctant to, but the whitespace in the new format is giving me headaches.

Crossposted from http://tree-and-leaf.dreamwidth.org/591379.html.


12/25/11--10:37: Article 1 (chan 2250183)

A happy Christmas to all who celebrate it - and, indeed, happy festival of choice if you're celebrating something different, and for that matter, if you're not celebrating anything, then I hope you had a lovely day nonetheless.

The 25th of December, of course, also brings Yuletide! I had two splendid gifts.

The first, The North Face of the Eiger is Swallows and Amazons fic, set a few years post canon, in which Nancy and Titty climb the North Face of the Eiger, otherwise known as Jack's Rake. The characterisation, and the way Titty and Nancy think about the world is spot on - it feels like an extension of canon.

The second is Go and Catch a Falling Star, a plotty cross-over in which Harriet and Peter investigate mysterious cases of spontaneous combustion in Denver, only to find themselves crossing swords with a strange chap calling himself the Doctor, and his two 'cousins'. This is an ingenious blend of the two canons, and the resolution felt very fitting to both sources.

I haven't got any further through the Yuletide fics, but I expect I'll have a rec post up later in the week!

I wrote a fic, a treat, and a Madness ficlet - I suspect at least one of them is really obvious, but I will offer a drabble for the first person to correctly guess each one...

Crossposted from http://tree-and-leaf.dreamwidth.org/591709.html.


12/26/11--15:05: Article 0 (chan 2250183)

So, I have some Yuletide recs! (I should perhaps explain for those who don't know - since someone asked me about it - that Yuletide is an annual exchange of fics for small fandoms, which is initially anonymous, though the authors will be revealed in, I think, about a week's time. I participated this year.*)


In no particular order, other than by fandom:

The Tough Guide to Yuletide. I wouldn't read this if you've never participated in Yuletide. If you have, though, you will probably enjoy it. You don't have to have read the source it's referencing, Diane Wynne Jones' "Tough Guide to Fantasyland", although it's very funny, so if you read fantasy at all you should read it.

How Luther Laughed at the Devil. This is Hamlet/ Faust crossover, set pre-canon for both, and very funny.

The Wine Dark Sea. Tintin - Captain Haddock just pre-canon. A dark and angsty fic dealing with alcoholism and (internalised) homophobia.

Daughters Like These. Anne of Green Gables - Una Meredith and six significant relationships with women, during and post-canon. Could be read as gen or femslashy (without contradicting canon); a lovely, delicate, sad but hopeful fic.

Bagthorpes v Zombies. Does exactly what it says on the tin. Great fun, and I would dearly like to read a sequel.

A Mouse Gnawing in her chest (The Blue Castle). Gives Cissy Gay, who we only meet in canon after her fate is pretty much sealed, a voice and a story. Not a happy fic (though not overwrought, quite the reverse), but a satisfying one.

Morning, Die Rosen. (Chalet School). Jack Maynard, before his marriage, writing to his sister - and getting distracted. Nice little vignette/ character study.

China in Your Hand (Discworld- Tiffany Aching books). What Granny Aching really thought of the shepherdess - very sweet.

The Yvain Fragments from Lost Romances. A fragment of the lost sequel to Chretien's Yvain (don't worry, it's in translation...)

Role Model. Wimseyverse, St George-centric. Three generations of the Wimsey family. This would have benefitted from better Brit-picking (though the issues are all quite minor and linguistic), and I'm not sure Jerry thinks of himself as 'St George', but it's still a very good character study. Deals with PTSD.

Oaks in the Coppice. Also Jerry-centric - in which Jerry is in love with Hilary, and she doesn't want to get married. Not quite sure about the ending here, but there's some good character stuff all the same.

The Life That Is Waiting - DS9 - Kassidy post canon, rebuilding her life. This is a great exploration of Kassidy's situation and her attitudes to the station, the Prophets, and Bajor.



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So, I have some Yuletide recs! (I should perhaps explain for those who don't know - since someone asked me about it - that Yuletide is an annual exchange of fics for small fandoms, which is initially anonymous, though the authors will be revealed in, I think, about a week's time. I participated this year.*)


In no particular order, other than by fandom:

<a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/300499">The Tough Guide to Yuletide</a>. I wouldn't read this if you've never participated in Yuletide. If you have, though, you will probably enjoy it. You don't have to have read the source it's referencing, Diane Wynne Jones' "Tough Guide to Fantasyland", although it's very funny, so if you read fantasy at all you should read it.

<a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/299494">How Luther Laughed at the Devil</a>. This is Hamlet/ Faust crossover, set pre-canon for both, and very funny.

<a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/299114">The Wine Dark Sea</a>. <i>Tintin</i> - Captain Haddock just pre-canon. A dark and angsty fic dealing with alcoholism and (internalised) homophobia.

<a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/296605">Daughters Like These</a>. Anne of Green Gables - Una Meredith and six significant relationships with women, during and post-canon. Could be read as gen or femslashy (without contradicting canon); a lovely, delicate, sad but hopeful fic.

<a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/297348">Bagthorpes v Zombies</a>. Does exactly what it says on the tin. Great fun, and I would dearly like to read a sequel.

<a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/295667">A Mouse Gnawing in her chest</a> (The Blue Castle). Gives Cissy Gay, who we only meet in canon after her fate is pretty much sealed, a voice and a story. Not a happy fic (though not overwrought, quite the reverse), but a satisfying one.

<a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/294800">Morning, Die Rosen</a>. (Chalet School). Jack Maynard, before his marriage, writing to his sister - and getting distracted. Nice little vignette/ character study.

<a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/300887">China in Your Hand</a> (Discworld- Tiffany Aching books). What Granny Aching <i>really</i> thought of the shepherdess - very sweet.

<a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/299689">The Yvain Fragments from Lost Romances</a>. A fragment of the lost sequel to Chretien's Yvain (don't worry, it's in translation...)

<a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/299932">Role Model</a>. Wimseyverse, St George-centric. Three generations of the Wimsey family. This would have benefitted from better Brit-picking (though the issues are all quite minor and linguistic), and I'm not sure Jerry thinks of himself as 'St George', but it's still a very good character study. Deals with PTSD.

<a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/298985">Oaks in the Coppice</a>. Also Jerry-centric - in which Jerry is in love with Hilary, and she doesn't want to get married. Not quite sure about the ending here, but there's some good character stuff all the same.

<a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/294773">The Life That Is Waiting</a> - DS9 - Kassidy post canon, rebuilding her life. This is a great exploration of Kassidy's situation and her attitudes to the station, the Prophets, and Bajor.

<a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/296414"Collaborators</a> Odo-centric, but with a big role for Quark and one for Dukat. How Odo ended up acquiring a permanent job in station security.

<a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/299966">Immortal</a>. Jadzia's path through selection in the Initiate Programme. A lovely character study of Jadzia before Dax - and I must say, I found it had resonances with all kinds of vocational discernment....

* Two fics in the main collection, one ficlet in the Yuletide Madness collection. Again, if anyone guesses one correctly, I will write them a ficlet).

<span style="font-size: smaller;">Crossposted from <a href = "http://tree-and-leaf.dreamwidth.org/591945.html">http://tree-and-leaf.dreamwidth.org/591945.html</a>. </span>




12/31/11--11:55: Article 2 (chan 2250183)

Happy birthday, aella_irene!

Crossposted from http://tree-and-leaf.dreamwidth.org/593114.html.


12/31/11--15:32: Just squeaking in with some more recs before the reveal (chan 2250183)

An odd carriage. A brief cross-over: Emily Dickinson meets Death (THE ONE THAT TALKS LIKE THIS).

Galaxy Quest Episode 57: "The Fairest of Them All". Galaxy Quest: an excerpt from an episode guide. Very funny!

The Alien Lover. Galaxy Quest again, and a backstory for Laliari. Fluff, and "kind of the opposite of tentacle sex", as the author says.

Harmless. Discworld, with a very funny riff on Asimov: what do you get if you cross a golem and the three laws of robotics?

The Escapists. Emily and Anne Bronte get a day out in York. I'm not sure about some of the period detail (I doubt that York Minster smelled of incense in 1845), but it's a lovely fic all the same.

Bolts of Iron. Vorkosigan Saga. Some key incidents in the lives of Pierre and Miles Vorkosigan.

Yip et non. This is what I get for muttering to myself about being sick of fic about Peter bloody Abelard, because this piece of inspired lunacy is hilarious. I can't better the summary: Abelard and Bernard are pomeranians and they have been bad.

Experiments In Intelligence. (Fandom: Octopus Steals My Video Camera and Swims off with It While It's Recording (Youtube). A really rather good exploration of what the octopus might have been thinking...

Scymnus Diaboli". (These Old Shades/ Devil's Cub) I should warn that this contains sexual assault and an attempted rape (it's hurt comfort, though thankfully without Magical Healing Cock - it's gen), but the Heyer pastiche is really pretty good.

She Will Place on Your Head a Graceful Garland; She Will Bestow on You a Beautiful Crown . Hebrew Bible; Bathsheba and Abigail. A very good fic about women in a patriarchal society and the temptations of power, with an excellent Abigail (and a very convincing Michal). My favourite fic of the batch, and worth it even if you're a bit foggy on Kings and Chronicles or not that interested in the Bible.

The Man in the Gaberdine Suit. American Gods. I'm not entirely sure Shadow would make the choice he does at the end of this fic, but it does capture the feel of American Gods very well indeed.

Crossposted from http://tree-and-leaf.dreamwidth.org/593243.html.


01/01/12--13:22: Yuletide Reveal! (chan 2250183)

So I can reveal what I wrote for Yuletide:

First, the gift was for WickedWonder, In The Files, a DS9 fic.

I also wrote a treat, for femmequixotic, Like a Thief in the Night, Rev, (as guessed by ankaretand el_staplador, and, I think, serriadh.

And I wrote a drabble for Madness, Lessons, for Tel (fandom: Rivers of London).

So: Yuletide! It was great fun, though next year I will start earlier and find a beta...

Crossposted from http://tree-and-leaf.dreamwidth.org/593491.html.


01/06/12--06:07: Music for Epiphany (chan 2250183)

There's a lot of good music for Epiphany, which unfortunately often doesn't get heard as much (unless, like my first choice, it gets co-opted for carol services).

So: here's King's Cambridge doing Cornelius' "Three Kings." The soloist is more forward than he often is in performance/ recordings, but I don't think it's a bad thing, though it may be partly explained by the difficulties of recording in Kings, which has a rotten acoustic.*



I tried to find a decent recording of "Brightest and Best" - an unusual hymn, in that the first verse is addressed to a star, although one might chose to read the star as an image for John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, who is often linked with the star in patristic (and later) writings.** But this is surprisingly difficult, and not helped by the proliferation of tunes. The following recording, a bluegrass tune sung by the McLain Family Band, was not what I was looking for, but I think it's rather charming:




And, although the Russian Orthodox don't celebrate Epiphany for another thirteen days, I like this snippet of the Epiphany liturgy, the troparion (a stanza chanted at various points in the services throughout the day, if I have got that right - Orthodox liturgy is a bit of a closed book to me, as it's very different to the Western tradition):



You will notice that the troparion seems to be more appropriate to the Baptism of Christ, but this is because, as the name suggests, the fundamental point of the Epiphany is not the wise men or the gifts, but the simple idea of Christ revealed to the world, and thus revealing God to the world; so there's an obvious thematic link. This is also picked up in the very Anglican hymn, Songs of Thankfulness and Praise (horrible audio warning!), which goes from the visit of the kings, to the baptism of Christ, to his first miracle at the Wedding at Cana, to his healing ministry, and looks forward to his 'great Epiphany' at the end of time, when he will judge the world and be recognised by it. It's actually one of my favourite Epiphany hymns from the point of view of lyrics, although Salzburg is not an exciting tune, and on balance "Brightest and Best" still just wins...


(This is a poor quality recording, but there wasn't a lot of choice!)

* It's not as bad as St Paul's but few things are. I have never understood the psalms, or even the readings, there, and it's not down to the failures of the choir.

** There is, for instance, a plausible interpretation of the famous line from Crist:
Éala, Éarendel, engla beorhtast,
ofer middangeard monnum sended,
(Hail, Earendel, brightest of angels, sent to men over the earth) where, although Earendel seems to be the name for the morning star, it would refer to John as the herald of Christ, as is certainly the case in the Blickling Homilies.

Crossposted from http://tree-and-leaf.dreamwidth.org/594013.html.


01/06/12--09:39: Article 0 (chan 2250183)

This afternoon I have read the phrase "the problem of John" (I am reading for the course on the theology of John) so often that I'm beginning to think it ought to be a genre of Biblical fan-fic.

... or maybe I need to take a break.

Crossposted from http://tree-and-leaf.dreamwidth.org/594389.html.


01/10/12--23:51: In streams of light I clearly saw The dust you seldom see, Out of which the Nameless makes A Name fo (chan 2250183)

OK, the Leonard Cohen-themed Mass was brilliant. More later, hopefully.

Crossposted from http://tree-and-leaf.dreamwidth.org/595889.html.


01/14/12--04:31: Article 0 (chan 2250183)

Very sad to hear that Reginald Hill has died. Although I didn't talk about them much here, I absolutely loved Dalziel and Pascoe and the rest of the Mid-Yorks crew. Such good detective stories - gripping, well-written, with utterly believable characters, and the ability to explore very dark things without losing a sense of humour - which is, after all, one of the ways of coping with the darkness.

Crossposted from http://tree-and-leaf.dreamwidth.org/596365.html.


01/20/12--03:54: WTF, Amazon seller? (chan 2250183)

I have been reading William Temple's book on St John's Gospel. It is very good, and I have been considering buying a copy (necessarily second hand, as while it has been reissued in paperback, I believe it is no longer in print).

However, dear person trying to flog a 1980s paperback copy on Amazon for $999.98.... I don't think you are going to find any takers.

Or, alternatively, I could spend £4 on it and get a first edition hardback in fair condition from Abebooks. Decisions, decisions!

Crossposted from http://tree-and-leaf.dreamwidth.org/598064.html.


01/20/12--07:05: Article 1 (chan 2250183)

Article about Leonard Cohen from today's Grauniad. Am really looking forward to hearing the new album (Guardian review here).

Crossposted from http://tree-and-leaf.dreamwidth.org/598350.html.


01/20/12--07:35: ILU William Temple, you sarcastic so and so... (chan 2250183)

"It was held [by nineteenth century critics] that the simple preacher of love towards God and man could be discerned behind the Marcan, Lucan and Matthaean narratives. (Why anyone should have troubled to crucify the Christ of Liberal Protestantism has always been a mystery)."

William Temple, Readings in St. John's Gospel (1945: xxiv).

Crossposted from http://tree-and-leaf.dreamwidth.org/598712.html.


01/24/12--07:25: Article 1 (chan 2250183)

NB: thanks to legionseagle, I now realise that this post is misleading. I will post a more accurate version soon, but for now, you might like to look at legionseagle's comments in the, er, comments on the DW cross-post, or the Wikipedia article.




Originally posted by obstinatrix at To UK Flisties

Originally posted by de_nugis at To UK Flisties

(Taken most recently from amber1960, slightly adapted.)

If you're from the UK and you believe in freedom of speech and an uncensored interenet, you really need to sign this petition. There are others floating about, but that particular one is the best way to ensure that your voice gets heard. It's hosted on the directgov website and addresses parliament directly. If it gets more than 100,000 signatures, it becomes eligible for discussion in the House of Commons.

Everyone's been getting so worked up over SOPA -- and rightly so -- that ACTA seems to have slipped under the radar. This is hugely problematic, because ACTA is a similar bill, but it has the potential to be far more damaging than SOPA ever could be.

Some people seem to have this misconception that ACTA is the 'European SOPA', but that simply isn't true. It's a global treaty, and it's already been signed by eight countries, including the US, Japan, New Zealand and Singapore. Europe votes on Thursday. If they vote 'no', the bill will have to be taken back to the drawing board and reformulated, which should buy us some time at the very least.


If you think this doesn't affect you, you're wrong. If ACTA passes, it could well signal the end of the internet as we know it, and that isn't an exaggeration. It's not just about watching movies and television online. If ACTA passes, sites like YouTube, Livejournal, Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook and even Google and Wikipedia could become impossible to maintain. ACTA would allow ISPs to monitor your net activity and cut off internet access for your entire household if one person is suspected of breaching copyright. Think Big Brother is Watching. I don't think I need to emphasise just how damaging it can be to be without internet access in this day and age, when we rely so heavily on technology.

It's not only bloggers and fandom that would be affected, either. Small businesses, independent film-makers and unsigned musicians who have previously found their niche online would also suffer hugely, and would be at risk of being bullied into submission by Hollywood and multinational corporations under accusations of copyright infringement. All those artists who found fame by uploading covers of songs to YouTube would never have had the opportunity to do so under ACTA, as those cover versions would be prohibited.

I know the internet has its problems, but to my mind it's the single greatest invention to come out of modern times, and it would be an absolute travesty if we were to lose that now. From a personal point of view, I can't even put into words how important this is to me. I've met some of my closest friends through the internet and online fandom, people whom I would likely never have met without it, and it's given me this amazing social support system. I don't want that to end here, and I want to preserve it for future generations so that they can have the same experience and opportunities I've been given through my online interactions.

I know that opinions on the seriousness of copyright infringement and online piracy vary wildly, but that isn't really the point. Internet giants such as Google are opposed to this bill, and it's pretty safe to say that they're not in favour of copyright infringment, as anyone who's ever had a fanvid taken down from YouTube will be painfully aware. Whatever your stance on copyright, this isn't the way to go about dealing with it. This is dangerous legislation that impeaches on some of our most basic human rights, such as the right to privacy and freedom of speech.

So if you're from the UK, please, please sign the petition. If you hail from elsewhere in the world, there may well be similar movements in your own country, but I think the most effective thing anybody can do right now is to keep talking about this. Talk about it on Livejournal, on Twitter, on Tumblr, on Facebook, and anywhere else you can think of. Make sure this issue is never far from people's minds. The internet is an amazingly powerful tool: let's utilise it while we still have the chance.

Please repost and spread the word :)

SAY NO TO ACTA!

Please consider reposting this, especially if you have a large proportion of UK flisties. And please consider spreading the word via other platforms: Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, your own personal network.


(If you have an LJ, you can find an automatic repost-to-your-journal button on my LJ).

Crossposted from http://tree-and-leaf.dreamwidth.org/599409.html.




01/25/12--03:52: Article 0 (chan 2250183)



I still have no idea how it was done, but I'm wondering if the clue people have been missing was the fact that the child screamed at the sight of Sherlock...

Crossposted from http://tree-and-leaf.dreamwidth.org/600054.html.


01/25/12--12:16: I love the internet, and I especially love buying second hand books (chan 2250183)

For today it has allowed me to order the Sacra Pagina commentary on the Revelation of John, Culpepper's "Anatomy of the Fourth Gospel", and John M. Ford's "How much for just the planet?" And all for under £10 including postage.

Crossposted from http://tree-and-leaf.dreamwidth.org/600561.html.


01/26/12--09:28: Article 1 (chan 2250183)

Incidentally, I finally got round to watching Call the Midwife, which was originally brought to my attention by Sam Wollaston slagging it off. I should have taken this as a recommendation, but I actually didn't go and look for it until Fr Vice-Principal talked about it in his address at morning Mass.

Anyway, it's very good - it's the story of a newly qualified midwife in the fities who takes a job at what she thinks is a private hospital, but turns out to be a community of Anglican nuns whorun a midwifery service in Poplar.

I don't know how accurate the midwifery is, but it's a very good portrayal of a religious community as made up of actual human beings, and the rhythm of its life, sympathetically portrayed without being saccherinely pious, it's well acted, and there are a lot of believable female characters. It passes the Bechdel test without any effort.

Possibly worth noting that episode 2 (I missed the first one) contains a distressing story about a fifteen year old prostitute and a church agency's treatment of her, which while not "The Magdalene Laundries" doesn't give her anything approaching a happy ending. It's also possibly not a great watch if you're overly squeamish about childbirth, though mostly it made me intensely grateful for modern medicine. That apart, though, I'd strongly recommend it (and you can always look away at the bloody bits, they don't predominate).

Crossposted from http://tree-and-leaf.dreamwidth.org/600745.html.


01/27/12--06:14: More on ACTA (chan 2250183)

The EU signed up to ACTA - but it still has to be ratified by the European Parliament, so this is not final. The most useful thing citizens of the EU who oppose the bill can do is probably to write to their MEP: handy article here.

In an interesting development, the 'rapporteur' (official appointed to oversee an issue) responsible has resigned in disgust.

Why you should be concerned about ACTA: the more accurate version, substantially taken from this petition, emended by legionseagle, who knows far more about these things than me:


ACTA is one more offensive against the sharing of culture on the Internet. ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) is an agreement secretly negotiated by a small "club" of like-minded countries (39 countries, including the 27 of the European Union, the United States, Japan, etc). These countries, typically, are net exporters rather than net importers of intellectual property.

Negotiated behind closed doors, with major industry participants such as MPAA and RIAA invited to make submissions instead of being democratically debated, ACTA bypasses parliaments and established relevant international organizations to dictate a repressive logic dictated by the entertainment industries. ACTA would require signatory states to impose new criminal sanctions forcing Internet actors to monitor and censor online communications. It is thus a major threat to freedom of expression online.

It's problematic for all the reasons we went through during the SOPA debacle - you don't have to be in favour of commercial piracy (you don't have to be involved in fandom, either, although I am) to see that this is repressive and will endanger sites which now promote free expression of all kinds of opinion, and has been negotiated in a profoundly undemocratic way.

You can read more on the background at the useful wikipedia article; the pages I linked to at techdirt also seem well-informed.

Crossposted from http://tree-and-leaf.dreamwidth.org/601084.html.


01/28/12--10:08: "Tot miraculis, quot articulis" (chan 2250183)

Incidentally, today is the commemoration of Thomas Aquinas, probably my favourite theologian ever, partly because he's just straightforwardly brilliant*, and was never afraid to engage with secular learning and use it in the pursuit of truth, even when it looked like a challenge to faith, but also because, as a good Dominican, his theology is always connected to the preaching of the Gospel and the service of others, and to prayer - his last prayer, on his deathbed, was "I receive Thee, ransom of my soul. For love of Thee have I studied and kept vigil, toiled, preached and taught..."

As well as being patron saint of theologians, academics, philosophers, book sellers, and pencil makers(!) he is, for some reason, invoked against lightening.

(Blessed Thomas, pray for us).


* "Tot miraculis, quot articulis" - there are as many miracles as there are articles - replied a Dominican at Thomas' canonisation trial to the Devil's Advocate's objection that Thomas had worked no miracles. While I don't agree with every conclusion Thomas came to, he is a superb reasoner and always worth engaging with.

Crossposted from http://tree-and-leaf.dreamwidth.org/601117.html.


01/31/12--02:15: Article 0 (chan 2250183)

Gosh, How Much For Just The Planet is impressively insane, isn't it?

I loved it.

Crossposted from http://tree-and-leaf.dreamwidth.org/602454.html.


02/07/12--03:38: The Star Trek Meme. (chan 2250183)

I thought I would have a bash at this, even though some of the questions are a bit daft, because it gives me a chance to talk about Trek!

1 - Which Star Trek is your favorite?

Deep Space Nine, without a doubt. Long plotty arcs, a brilliant ensemble cast of characters - and some wonderful recurring guests, such as Garak, Dukat, Cassidy, and above all the superlative Kai Winn, politics, people who don't necessarily love Star Fleet but aren't 'bad guys', and did I mention the characters? One of the wonderful things about Nine is the web of relationships and interactions between the main (and minor) characters, the way the backstory keeps affecting them - and I also love the fact that they took Worf and O'Brian and made them into truly memorable characters. I love the sense of friendship (especially because sometimes it gets complicated and strained) - Jadzia and Ben, Kira and Jadzia, the developing friendship between Julian and Miles, Julian's fascinated, slashy relationship with Garak.

The fact that it treats faith much more richly and intelligently than any of the other Treks, of course, makes me even more fond of it. Ben's journey, over the series, is pretty brilliantly done - the reluctant acceptance of a vocation that turns out to be something even more fundamental. Kira, whose faith and her struggles with it (and her struggles with working for the Emissary) are fundamental to what makes her Kira. And the handling of the dark side of faith is just as good - Winn is a tragic and all too believable figure, and I suspect every priest has the potential to turn into her. And then there's Dukat, who wants to instrumentalise the Pah Wraiths as he has consistently tried to instrumentalise everything to do with Bajor, and gets turned into a tool himself. But I find Winn's fall scarier, because that's the sort of corruption of the good that happens all the time, without any special effects, and sometimes without anyone noticing.

The runner up is classic Trek (and the movies), because that's where it all started, and because of the wonderful trio of characters at the centre of it: Kirk, Spock, and Bones. Or to be honest, Spock, Kirk, and Bones, because Spock was always my favourite. Also, I love the way TOS can veer wildly between the serious and the moving to the honest-to-God crack. I mean, you'd hardly believe "City on the Edge of Forever" and "Shore Leave" were the same series. And sometimes you get the same weird tension in the same story. "The Naked Time" has some exceedingly funny scenes (Sulu swashbuckling and addressing Uhura as "Fair maiden!" and Uhura's dead-pan, "Sorry, neither"!), and some heartbreak as well.

It follows that "Trials and Tribblations" is one of the best things ever and guaranteed to make me smile. (But is it my favourite episode EVAR? Watch this space).



2 - Who is your favorite character?

3 - Who is your least favorite character?

4 - What was the first Star Trek series you watched?

5 - What was the first episode/movie you watched?

6 - Your favorite canon pairing? (Canon being the series and the movies, including the reboot.)

7 - Your favorite non-canon pairing?

8 - Your favorite actor/actress? (Not the same as character.)

9 - What's your favorite episode?

10 - What's your favorite species? (Humans are a species as well.)

11 - What's your least favorite species? (See question 9 about species.)

12 - What's your favorite funny moment?

13 - What's your favorite dramatic moment?

14 - What's your favorite Star Trek quote?

15 - How did you get into Star Trek?

16 - Are you involved with Star Trek fandom?

17 - Have you read any of the books? If so, which ones?

18 - If you could be any species in the Star Trek universe, what would you be?

19 - How did the Star Trek reboot affect you?

20 - Of the minor characters (one shots, not the recurring ones) who's your favorite?

21 - Which Star Trek food would you want to try at least once?

22 - Which Star Trek world would you want to visit at least once?

23 - Is there anything you'd want to change about Star Trek? Why?

24 - Is there anything about Star Trek that has disappointed you?

25 - How has Star Trek changed you?

26 - Lots of Star Trek Parodies out there. Which do you dig?

27 - What would you cross over with Star Trek?

28 - If you could change one thing about Star Trek, what would it be?

29 - If you could tell Gene Roddenberry one thing, Star Trek related or not, what would it be?

30 - What's your favourite film?

Crossposted from http://tree-and-leaf.dreamwidth.org/604082.html.


02/07/12--08:52: Article 0 (chan 2250183)

Can anyone explain the reference to 'grape' in this post and icon? It's obviously something to do with shipping Hermione/ Snape, but I can't work out what.

ETA: *head-desk* OK, it was bloody obvious. Kids these days, with their smushed ship names, it wasn't like that in my day....

Crossposted from http://tree-and-leaf.dreamwidth.org/604412.html.


02/08/12--07:48: Heads up for people interested in philosophy and theology (chan 2250183)

Tina Beattie, a very acute Catholic theologian, has got a new series on Thomas Aquinas, philosophy and modernity on the Guardian.

Crossposted from http://tree-and-leaf.dreamwidth.org/604688.html.


02/10/12--02:51: Article 0 (chan 2250183)

I urge you, if you are a British citizen or resident and you care about the future of the NHS, to sign this petition to drop the NHS bill. It is being overwhelmingly opposed by NHS medical staff and, we now discover, some of Lansley's own party are not happy about it either.

The NHS is one of the proudest achievements of this country. If you care about it, make your voice heard, and don't let the government push through this unholy mess.

Crossposted from http://tree-and-leaf.dreamwidth.org/605276.html.


02/14/12--05:59: Article 0 (chan 2250183)

Thank you for the v-gift, juno_magic!