Thank you for tearing me open

[sovay]

I am in between doctor's appointments of the day. Have some links.

1. On the phenomenon of comparisons that disappear up their own context-flattening pop-culture references: Rosa Lyster, "This essay is just Harry Potter for people who think comparing things to Harry Potter is stupid." "What does describing Machiavelli as an incel do other than indicate that you know what an incel is, vaguely, and you have read something somewhere about Machiavelli not being too keen on women?"

2. I am feeling bitten by this comic because in second grade my Halloween costume was Gene Kelly's umbrella from Singin' in the Rain (1952). I was very proud of it.

3. I had never heard of Cosmic Wimpout until spatch mentioned it last night. I don't even normally play dice games. The FAQ are delightful. "Generally, we follow the direction of the path of the scoreboard. If you are not using a scoreboard, it's up to you, as we can't remember how we used to do it."

4. I still haven't managed to see The Lighthouse (2019), but I am already here for this female-forward maritime neo-noir. I would put that poster on my wall. I might still if I can get it.

5. I legitimately thought this was fanart for Machineries of Empire until I counted the number of eyes.

P.S. Any necklace with a spider motif and uranium glass really belongs in modern-day Paradys.

Comments

[kore]

If anything, I'd have thought people would be arguing over whether he was ace or not.

Yeah, the impression I have of Newton is he thought sex would have distracted him from the Principia. And that he pretty much thought food was also a distraction (that story about him and his cat!).

[moon_custafer]

There’s a short Big Finish Doctor Who drama in which the Doctor makes the mistake of pulling out a handful of coins from different centuries and planets while trying to pay a tavern bill in late seventeenth-century England, and ends up under arrest and being questioned by Newton in his capacity as Master of the Mint. As played by David Warner, Sir Isaac is fiercely convinced of the rightness of his cause, but also smart enough to realize this is no ordinary case of coining, nor do the coins from the future make sense as “Catholic propaganda” since while it might benefit them to posit the existence of a future Irish Republic allied with Europe, it makes less sense to convince people of a second English monarch named Elizabeth; moreover the off-world coins make no sense unless they are real, and therefore the Doctor must actually be a time traveller and extra-terrestrial, and this conclusion is giving him a theological headache. I think he finally just kicks the Doctor back into the TARDIS and tells him to leave.