(no subject)

Happy birthday,naraht! Have a great day!

(no subject)

In other news, I am feeling terribly bleary, as everyone in the flat has spontaneously developed a Cough of Doom, which meant a night of coughing echoing through the remarkably thin walls, and not much sleep. Oh well, it would have been a good deal less sleep had yesterday's news been different.

Now I must finish various bits of writing, before heading off to Evensong and then Cub Pack of Chaos, before the theology course.

Tomorrow, happily is my day off, and an expedition to Rochester (fast trains and a cathedral!†) is mooted.


Also, I have found a poem, by Robert A Heinlein (which I gather is probably well known by people who know more about previous generations of SF than I do), which seems to me to be heavily chaneling Kipling:

The Green Hills of Earth

Let the sweet fresh breezes heal me
As they rove around the girth
Of our lovely mother planet
Of the cool, green hills of Earth.

We rot in the moulds of Venus,
We retch at her tainted breath.
Foul are her flooded jungles,
Crawling with unclean death.

[ --- the harsh bright soil of Luna ---
--- Saturn's rainbow rings ---
--- the frozen night of Titan --- ]

We've tried each spinning space mote
And reckoned its true worth:
Take us back again to the homes of men
On the cool, green hills of Earth.

The arching sky is calling
Spacemen back to their trade.
ALL HANDS! STAND BY! FREE FALLING!
And the lights below us fade.

Out ride the sons of Terra,
Far drives the thundering jet,
Up leaps a race of Earthmen,
Out, far, and onward yet ---

We pray for one last landing
On the globe that gave us birth;
Let us rest our eyes on fleecy skies
And the cool, green hills of Earth.



† Stereotypical Anglican clerical - or embryonic clerical - interests are stereotypical.

(no subject)

I quite enjoyed "Vampire of Venice", though I don't have much to say about it than "it was fun", I loved the fact that his library card shows his first incarnation, and the episode handled ( Minor spoilers, I suppose )

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You know how Diana Gabaldon thinks fanfic is totally pornographic and totally evil, like writing rpf about you and someone's daughter and then sending them copies of it?

You know how she ALSO says that her character, Jamie (who suffers various nasty things in the course of the first book alone, including rape and having his hand nailed to a table, and also has lots of fairly pornographic sex) was a tribute to Jamie MacCrimmond† (or at least to his kilt)?

Well. It turns out that she sent a copy of Outlander to Frazer Hines. (Via metafandom).

I think my brain just broke.

Let us, instead, turn to an author who is A Good Thing, namely Jim Butcher. Not only has he got a new policy of giving permission for fanfic to be licensed under creative commons, it turns out that he wrote the Codex Alera books because someone bet him he couldn't write a novel based on the Lost Roman Legions and Pokemon. The flick through I gave Codex Alera didn't inspire me to read it, but weirdly, this makes it all better.

There is a possibility I may be leading a home group on God and fiction, and I am desperate to use the Dresden Files for the purpose (the scene with "The Lord of the Rings" and the airport cleaner who is more than he seems); though I suspect I may have to size the group up first...

Eta: damned_colonial points out that Butcher's policy does not make legal sense. On the other hand, the response of sources close to the author suggests that the point still stands re: Butcher being an all round Good Thing.

† I like Jamie. He is sweet and loyal, and while he may be a bit dim, I don't think he deserves any of that....