That two girls are too many, three's a crowd, and four you're dead

[sovay]

My sleep schedule has gone so far off the rails, I'm not even sure what time zone I'm in anymore, but I don't think it's the one I live in.

Yesterday I tried to take a sort of mental health break, finishing my work in the afternoon and then spending the rest of the day reading Henry Green's Back (1946) and watching John Cromwell's Caged (1950) and a serial and a half of Sapphire & Steel (1979–82) with an interlude of returning books to the library and making rice pudding. I would like to write about all of these things; they were differently great. I may just stare at more Sapphire & Steel instead.

I have decided that my personal best mode of dealing with white supremacists going around invoking Odin as a hate symbol and generally misunderstanding the Vikings is to go around invoking Loki as a queer symbol and talking a lot more about seiðr.

Courtesy of moon_custafer: I may be in the wrong country to catch a theatrical screening of Leslie Howard: The Man Who Gave a Damn (2016) tomorrow night (watching movies for people's yahrzeits is just as valid as for their birthdays), but it looks like it will be coming to TCM. Hurrah.

P.S. Has anybody on this friendlist seen the 1977–78 ITV adaptation of Joan Aiken's Midnight Is a Place (1976)? I just discovered it exists; I like its setting of "Denzil's Song" and it's got David Collings, but I can't tell anything else about it except that it seems to have aged up Anna-Marie.

Comments

[kore]

Did you read Al Ewing's Loki, Agent of Asgard comic run? I'm waiting for my library to get it, I've heard it was really great.

[sovay]

Did you read Al Ewing's Loki, Agent of Asgard comic run?

No, but I've also heard good things. Can I ask you for a review when your library gets it in?

[alexxkay]

I liked it quite a lot. Not *quite* as much as Kieron Gillen's earlier Loki run ("Journey into Mystery"), but enough to start following most of Ewing's other comics work.

[gwynnega]

Great news about the Leslie Howard documentary!

[sovay]

Great news about the Leslie Howard documentary!

I'm really looking forward! I've been hearing about it for years at this point.

[nineweaving]

So glad you won't miss this. ("...in the wrong country"?)

Nine

[asakiyume]

Wow yes that song is beautiful! ("Denzil's Song")

I seem not to have read this Joan Aiken, but I like that it features Blastburn, which I remember fondly from The Wolves of Willoughby Chase.

[sovay]

Wow yes that song is beautiful! ("Denzil's Song")

It's a significant piece of poetry in the novel. Patrick John Phelan's setting seems to have put all the verses together in a way I do not mind and added a verse of his own, although it's conceivable they could have asked Aiken for it. The originals are:

When, when shall I see you
When shall I see your face
For I am living in time at present
But you are living in space.

Night's wingèd horses
No one can outpace
But midnight is no moment
Midnight is a place.

Time is only a corner
Age is only a fold
A year is merely a penny
Spent from a century's gold.

So meet me, meet me at midnight
(With sixty seconds' grace)
Midnight is not a moment;
Midnght is a place.

I had a tune for it in my head when I read the book as a child, but since it does not resemble this one at all, I think I may have made it up. It's much simpler.

I seem not to have read this Joan Aiken, but I like that it features Blastburn, which I remember fondly from The Wolves of Willoughby Chase.

It's not the first Aiken I read, because that was A Necklace of Raindrops (1968), but it's kind of my formative one—I read it before any of the Wolves books, with which it shares a universe but not much else. It has a Victorian setting and is a perfect miniature Gothic novel (but not a grimdark one, despite a plot about child labor and industrialization) and I like all of its protagonists very much.

[cyphomandra]

Has anybody on this friendlist seen the 1977–78 ITV adaptation of Joan Aiken's Midnight Is a Place (1976)? I just discovered it exists; I like its setting of "Denzil's Song" and it's got David Collings, but I can't tell anything else about it except that it seems to have aged up Anna-Marie.

I have, but I am not much help as I saw it when I was 9 or 10 years old (I enjoyed it then, though; it and Whispering Mountain are my two favourite overlooked Aikens). My paperback copy has photos from it (Anna-Maria trapped in burning building on the front, assorted period urchins on the back) and I remember singing Denzil's song while wandering the playground, to what your link confirms is their setting.

[sovay]

I have, but I am not much help as I saw it when I was 9 or 10 years old (I enjoyed it then, though; it and Whispering Mountain are my two favourite overlooked Aikens).

Still counts for purposes of data! I need to re-read The Whispering Mountain. I remember liking it, but almost nothing about the plot except Wales.

My paperback copy has photos from it (Anna-Maria trapped in burning building on the front, assorted period urchins on the back) and I remember singing Denzil's song while wandering the playground, to what your link confirms is their setting.

Oh, that's neat! I grew up with a paperback edition with a very '70's Gothic cover I can't find on the internet (it more or less fell apart and I replaced it eventually with this one). I take it this was your copy?

[conuly]

P.S. Has anybody on this friendlist seen the 1977–78 ITV adaptation of Joan Aiken's Midnight Is a Place (1976)? I just discovered it exists

What. I have got to see this!

[sovay]

What. I have got to see this!

All right, you can tell me how it is!

[rydra_wong]

Sapphire and Steel! (That is all I have to say at this level of caffeination.)

[sovay]

Sapphire and Steel! (That is all I have to say at this level of caffeination.)

I am enjoying it immensely. Also, I hoped someone I knew would have an icon with Silver. (For various reasons, I saw the third serial first. For obvious reasons, I imprinted.)

[questioncurl]

I'd completely forgotten about Midnight Is a Place till I read this, though it was my first Aiken, and I even wrote a continuation of the song for an English class. Somehow I can't imagine it being filmed though. Please do review it if you get around to watching the movie...

[sovay]

I'd completely forgotten about Midnight Is a Place till I read this, though it was my first Aiken, and I even wrote a continuation of the song for an English class.

That's wonderful! Can I ask you for the words?

Somehow I can't imagine it being filmed though.

I can see why people would try: it's full of exciting incident, vivid characters, and all the blood-and-thunder plus social commentary a Victorian melodrama affords. I'm just not sure how much of the essential Aiken-ness would come through without her particular style. [edit] Weirdly, I feel it would have made a perfectly fine radio play.

Please do review it if you get around to watching the movie...

I will! Getting hold of it looks like the tricky part.

[thisbluespirit]

Hello!! You just subscribed to me, so I came over to see if I should friend back, and saw the words Sapphire & Steel and rushed off to press the friend button without further thought. Now I also see Joan Aiken, David Collings, and my name getting bandied about everywhere, so I'm hopeful that wasn't a rash move. ;-)

I have the DVD of MiaP. I got it years ago, I think quite cheaply, via Amazon marketplace, but I am in the UK. It is very much a children's production and frustrating in places, because it irons out a lot of Joan Aiken's AU-ness. Anna-Marie is a teenager, as Lucas, I suppose for practical purposes, as it would be far more complicated to make with a younger child. It's hard to say what someone else would make of it - it's pretty much all on a level with S&S A1, only sadly not S&S.

(In my defence, I'd like to say that I'm hardly the first person to point out that Mr Collings does have rather amazing hair. And a tendency to die frequently and in endearingly improbable circumstances. My favourite is the one where he gets eaten by hyenas in Victorian London, but he spent a lot of the 60s and 70s weeping, disintegrating and occasionally murdering people, and usually dying before the end. *embarrassed*)

[rydra_wong]

(In my defence, I'd like to say that I'm hardly the first person to point out that Mr Collings does have rather amazing hair. And a tendency to die frequently and in endearingly improbable circumstances. My favourite is the one where he gets eaten by hyenas in Victorian London, but he spent a lot of the 60s and 70s weeping, disintegrating and occasionally murdering people, and usually dying before the end. *embarrassed*)

I see zero need for embarrassment. I only know him from Sapphire and Steel (and B7), but that sounds like a delightful television oeuvre, and one that should be appropriately celebrated!

(... and Wikipedia tells me there's a highly-acclaimed recording of him reading the ghost stories of M. R. James. I may need to acquire this.)

[sovay]

Now I also see Joan Aiken, David Collings, and my name getting bandied about everywhere, so I'm hopeful that wasn't a rash move.

Hello! I found your Tumblr while looking for information about the ITV setting of "Denzil's Song" and followed your link to Dreamwidth from there. I hope you don't mind that I friended you immediately.

(You're the LJ post as well! I didn't realize. Thank you for all of your research!)

It's hard to say what someone else would make of it - it's pretty much all on a level with S&S A1, only sadly not S&S.

I am sorry although not totally surprised to hear that it simplifies the story. I will probably keep trying to track down a copy if for no other reason than Collings' Mr. Oakapple, since he was always my favorite character in the book and it looked from your Tumblr like I shouldn't get let down too badly in that department.

In my defence, I'd like to say that I'm hardly the first person to point out that Mr Collings does have rather amazing hair.

Amazing hair is its own defense! I have been known to feel similarly about Leslie Howard's.

And a tendency to die frequently and in endearingly improbable circumstances.

He looks like he's got it worse than Edward Woodward. I'm really impressed by the hyenas.

(Please do not be embarrassed. I started paying attention to Van Heflin partly because his best roles all seem to involve him crying. Took me the better part of a year to catch him in a movie where he didn't melt down.)

[davidgillon]

Sapphire and Steel have been assigned! That's taking me back to my childhood :)

And that's a good David Perry article to link to, while the seiðr stuff is very interesting, it's an aspect of Norse myth I wasn't really aware of.

[rydra_wong]

Transuranic heavy elements may not be used where there is life!

(That show is one of my favourite examples of the power of not info-dumping at all.)

[sovay]

That's taking me back to my childhood

I'd run across mention of the series before and it had always sounded intriguing, but it was never readily available where I could get to it and therefore I missed out on it completely until two nights ago when I discovered all six serials on YouTube and am now trying to watch them before anyone notices.

while the seiðr stuff is very interesting, it's an aspect of Norse myth I wasn't really aware of.

I knew about Loki's genderbending from the time I was in second grade and clinging for dear life to my elementary school library copy of D'Aulaires' Norse Gods and Giants (1967), but I didn't know it was part of a broader pattern until relatively recently, and I liked finding out that it was.

[ashlyme]

I don't know Midnight Is A Place in any form. I looked it up on IMDB but it won't tell me if Collings plays an evil uncle. It's good to see the DC-love in the comments. And more S&S aficionados than I thought existed....

[sovay]

I don't know Midnight Is A Place in any form.

It's a pitch-perfect Victorian Gothic for children. I read it young and I'm sure it had an effect.

I looked it up on IMDB but it won't tell me if Collings plays an evil uncle.

Oh, no: a lovely (complicated backstory) musician. His name is Julian Oakapple and he was my favorite character as far back as I can remember reading the book, so chances are good I'll watch the adaptation eventually just for him. thisbluespirit has collected some fine images:



And more S&S aficionados than I thought existed....

It's memorable stuff!

[17catherines]

Commenting just to say you have earwormed me with Dandy now, and I hope you feel pleased with yourself!

Also, I do love Sapphire and Steel. It takes something special in the way of acting to make a spotlight moving across the floor into a menacing, nightmarish thing, but they managed it.

[sovay]

Commenting just to say you have earwormed me with Dandy now, and I hope you feel pleased with yourself!

It's my current music because it's stuck in my own head!

It takes something special in the way of acting to make a spotlight moving across the floor into a menacing, nightmarish thing, but they managed it.

Yes. It's a very minimalist, theatrical approach and I love when it works. It really works on Sapphire & Steel.