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don't let those precious moments fool you (life, the universe, and hamlet)
At the moment I am reading one of my Christmas presents, Bill Bryson's Short History of Nearly Everything, and am delightedly rediscovering, in engaging laymen's terms, a lot of mind-bendingly wonderful stuff I forgot since first-year astronomy class. (To be fair, I also learned some of it from The Science of Discworld, but I read that before the astronomy class, so the only part that really stuck is how bogglingly vast everything is.) I love reading about the creation of the universe, because it's mostly about how we don't know anything at all, and how the conditions for even the laws of physics as we know them are pretty much impossible but happened anyway, maybe because there are infinite universes and we just happen to live in this one. Whenever I get to the part where the universe has no edges and even when it was tiny beyond all knowing it was still all there was, I start wanting to keyboard with joy. I don't even know why it makes me so happy! I do know that it makes me want to write Doctor Who fic that is less about the technical science than it's about how huge and alien and wonderful the universe is.
Relatedly, I can't stop watching this preview clip from End of Time part 2. It's like that one bit of Frontier in Space, with bonus bondage! I'm starting to suspect that Russel T. Davies is some sort of horrible quantum thing that does everything I've ever wanted and destroys all my hopes and dreams at the same time. DON'T BLINK.
And I watched Tennant's Hamlet. slfddfjdf I -- I can't talk about it very coherently. I was expecting to at least enjoy it, because I am quite easy for David Tennant; what I wasn't expecting was to be riveted. I had to stop sometime during Act III to be friendly and eat with the family, and I realized that I was anxious to get back to watching because I wanted to know what happened. I know this play backwards! I know it well enough to easily catalogue which bits they switched around or cut out! and I wanted to know what happened??
I love this so because I've had a strange love/hate relationship with this play for years and years; I knew it was good, but I didn't like anyone, until the combined kryptonite of Geoffrey Tennant (...these Tennants are getting confusing) & a good English teacher made me love it. But this production made me write about a page of frantic notes that were mostly to the tune of "Oh, I get it now," because this is the first time in my life where Hamlet the character seems entirely coherent to me. It's probably at least in part that my brain automatically watches David Tennant and constructs coherent structural character threads, but it's also that he did a really amazing job.
Some of said frantic notes; a few lightbulb moments, & some shallowness:
+ Hamlet trying to recite part of the Pyrrhus speech for the players, and how he can't remember it, and stumbles over the words -- it makes Polonius' compliment even more ridiculous, but it also makes Hamlet's acting not acting -- his antic disposition is at least two parts real, which I think is my favourite thing about Tennant's Hamlet; not that I've seen a lot (honestly I think Branagh's is the only production I've seen the whole way through, and while it has its good points I am not overfond of it) even in readings Hamlet strikes me as deeply inconsistent. Tennant's Hamlet I believe as a whole specific person, who is already half-mad with confusion and grief, who is more intelligent than anyone there (much, interestingly, like Ophelia, so I buy them and the suddenly wrenching scene after the 'to be' speech), and aklfjhgdf.
+ I finally get the players, too! Blah blah the entire play is about ways of acting, my arse. Hamlet's mind has, say, two outlets in this place, one of which is the seldom-seen Horatio, who knows his scholarly self, the other the players, who will speak for him words that mean something, which makes him feel less awfully alone.
+ I am not sure the 1984 cams are worth the fabulous moment where Hamlet destroys them ("Now I am alone") because it seems -- far too obvious? And also this version of 'to be' was absolutely not played for an audience -- he didn't suspect Polonius and/or Claudius was watching until "Where is your father?" -- and I hate that somewhere Claudius is bewilderedly watching it on his CCTV. I dunno.
+ You know why I fucking love Tennant's acting here? Because every time he gets to a monologue, he's explaining something you've already seen. Like, at "Oh, what a rogue and peasant slave am I," I'd already seen every ounce of stunned longing during the player's speech. Goddamn.
+ And you know what? He's so young. He's panicked and angry and almost fucking teenaged and apparently all he really wants is to cry on his mum's lap, except she's allied with the dark creatures he needs to fight and she doesn't believe in the monsters under the bed. GIVE THE BOY A HUG. And give props to Tennant for cutting his age in half.
+ This is also the first time I really ship Hamlet/Horatio. And oh my god I ship it HARD.
And finally, a few Who-specific things:
+ That "Well," he does! It's hilariously Ten. Also the clicking wink, and a few of his inflections. But there were only about four or five flashes in the whole three-hour production where I actually saw the Doctor instead of Hamlet.
+ I am ... horrifically sad they did not have Ten whistle things. ALL THE TIME. My god that man can whistle.
+ I forgot that I would get DAVID TENNANT FENCING. Fsdl;sdkjdfs my own virtual season has made me so damn shallow.
A++ WILL ABSOLUTELY WATCH AGAIN.
Relatedly, I can't stop watching this preview clip from End of Time part 2. It's like that one bit of Frontier in Space, with bonus bondage! I'm starting to suspect that Russel T. Davies is some sort of horrible quantum thing that does everything I've ever wanted and destroys all my hopes and dreams at the same time. DON'T BLINK.
And I watched Tennant's Hamlet. slfddfjdf I -- I can't talk about it very coherently. I was expecting to at least enjoy it, because I am quite easy for David Tennant; what I wasn't expecting was to be riveted. I had to stop sometime during Act III to be friendly and eat with the family, and I realized that I was anxious to get back to watching because I wanted to know what happened. I know this play backwards! I know it well enough to easily catalogue which bits they switched around or cut out! and I wanted to know what happened??
I love this so because I've had a strange love/hate relationship with this play for years and years; I knew it was good, but I didn't like anyone, until the combined kryptonite of Geoffrey Tennant (...these Tennants are getting confusing) & a good English teacher made me love it. But this production made me write about a page of frantic notes that were mostly to the tune of "Oh, I get it now," because this is the first time in my life where Hamlet the character seems entirely coherent to me. It's probably at least in part that my brain automatically watches David Tennant and constructs coherent structural character threads, but it's also that he did a really amazing job.
Some of said frantic notes; a few lightbulb moments, & some shallowness:
+ Hamlet trying to recite part of the Pyrrhus speech for the players, and how he can't remember it, and stumbles over the words -- it makes Polonius' compliment even more ridiculous, but it also makes Hamlet's acting not acting -- his antic disposition is at least two parts real, which I think is my favourite thing about Tennant's Hamlet; not that I've seen a lot (honestly I think Branagh's is the only production I've seen the whole way through, and while it has its good points I am not overfond of it) even in readings Hamlet strikes me as deeply inconsistent. Tennant's Hamlet I believe as a whole specific person, who is already half-mad with confusion and grief, who is more intelligent than anyone there (much, interestingly, like Ophelia, so I buy them and the suddenly wrenching scene after the 'to be' speech), and aklfjhgdf.
+ I finally get the players, too! Blah blah the entire play is about ways of acting, my arse. Hamlet's mind has, say, two outlets in this place, one of which is the seldom-seen Horatio, who knows his scholarly self, the other the players, who will speak for him words that mean something, which makes him feel less awfully alone.
+ I am not sure the 1984 cams are worth the fabulous moment where Hamlet destroys them ("Now I am alone") because it seems -- far too obvious? And also this version of 'to be' was absolutely not played for an audience -- he didn't suspect Polonius and/or Claudius was watching until "Where is your father?" -- and I hate that somewhere Claudius is bewilderedly watching it on his CCTV. I dunno.
+ You know why I fucking love Tennant's acting here? Because every time he gets to a monologue, he's explaining something you've already seen. Like, at "Oh, what a rogue and peasant slave am I," I'd already seen every ounce of stunned longing during the player's speech. Goddamn.
+ And you know what? He's so young. He's panicked and angry and almost fucking teenaged and apparently all he really wants is to cry on his mum's lap, except she's allied with the dark creatures he needs to fight and she doesn't believe in the monsters under the bed. GIVE THE BOY A HUG. And give props to Tennant for cutting his age in half.
+ This is also the first time I really ship Hamlet/Horatio. And oh my god I ship it HARD.
And finally, a few Who-specific things:
+ That "Well," he does! It's hilariously Ten. Also the clicking wink, and a few of his inflections. But there were only about four or five flashes in the whole three-hour production where I actually saw the Doctor instead of Hamlet.
+ I am ... horrifically sad they did not have Ten whistle things. ALL THE TIME. My god that man can whistle.
+ I forgot that I would get DAVID TENNANT FENCING. Fsdl;sdkjdfs my own virtual season has made me so damn shallow.
A++ WILL ABSOLUTELY WATCH AGAIN.
no subject
Seriously, Canada, man. What is it with BSG and Canada.
no subject
Also I see you are already at the beginning of s4! But I ... think that Amelia was actually starting from the beginning of s1, and you were just doing the Kowalski seasons? We're going to have to play Watch The Whole Damn Series catch-up when we're all back at school. :D
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Re: project Watch All The Seasons, I agree wholeheartedly. Especially since, besides needing to see the Vecchio seasons, I'll need to rewatch everything with Kowalski because today something clicked in my brain that was like, "OKAY. You've watched almost two seasons of this show. TIME FOR FIC."
It has been an interesting day since I made that revelation.
no subject
AHAHAHA. Do you want any recs? (Plus I have fourteen! I WROTE FOURTEEN DUE SOUTH FICS THIS LAST YEAR, WTF.) The amazing magical thing about this fandom is that at least 60% of it is top-notch and only about 10% is actually mediocre. MAGICAL, I SAY.
no subject
Also, OMG RECS PLZ. See, right now I'm doing what I've wanted to do for a LONG TIME (basically since I got into SGA fandom in yonder years of old), which is read Speranza'S dS fics. They're keeping me busy for now, because there are quite a few, and some of them are quite long, but eventually I will need SO MUCH MORE FIC. And I cannot think of a better person than you to lead me to it. (And just so you know, I already have your masterlist of dS fic tabbed in my browser for reading, because YAY. Actually, now that I look at it, I also have your Season Five project (was reading before Christmas) and your yuletide recs tabbed. ARIA YOU ARE TAKING OVER MY BROWSER.)
no subject
Here is a recs list of fifteen of my favourite dS fics; I like pretty much everything by all the people listed there. At the time I hadn't yet read Hawks and Hands, which will EAT AN ENTIRE DAY, so make sure you have time for that one. (Also I don't think you should read it unless/until you've seen the pilot episode, because it's much more awesome in context.) There's also my delicious bookmarks, but that's ... six months' worth of reading, and 290 or so fics; it's a good portion of what the internet has to offer. So I'd, y'know, get to those slowly.
I ... have to confess that I fucking adore Speranza's SGA fic, but I am very uneven on her dS fic. I want to have fierce arguments about her characterization of RayK! Like, she always goes interesting places, but I generally don't agree with them, so I have a love/hate relationship with her due South fic.
MWAHAHA I AM TAKING OVER YOUR BROWSER. <3