Well, first
of all, I have to state for the record that the subject for this entry came up
a few weeks ago when I went to a pagan moot and there were some issues raised about
my eclectic path and the bunch of people I was hanging out with (more eclectic
pagans). I lost it a little bit there,
the first of a short sequence of times when I’ve allowed someone, for different
reasons, to push my buttons in a way that does not make any kind of sense… Thing is, because these matters can be
complicated since there are many groups of conservative pagans that have chosen
to follow through each guideline of the old religions, and also because I
refused to believe that it had actually gotten so bad as to the point of
perfect strangers saying insidious things to you just because you were on a
“different” pagan path than they were, I let a conversation take a wrong turn
and ended up being quite rude to that person as well; I had a witty comeback
about how pagans had been shunned for centuries by the main religions and that
if now that people can be open (or rather a *bit* more open) about these types
of preferences we start shunning each other then we’re actually not getting
anywhere new; but because I do have that little problem where in special social
circumstances my mouth disconnects from my brain, nothing much of that came
through. I did notice, though, how extensive
the subject is, and I did talk about it sometime last week or the week before,
when someone actually alleged that I was saying that I am a geek because today,
thanks to Doctor Who, the Avengers, Joss Whedon, Harry Potter, Tolkien, and The
Big Bang Theory (just to name a few obvious examples), being a geek is cool. Well, I did like quite a few of those things
way before they were cool, and I was seriously terrorized at school because of
them! I cannot remember if I’d already
told the story about how a guy I fancied during my BA actually stopped talking
to me because I told him that I’d dreamt the night before that he’d told me I
was Buffy… and that was like 10 years ago, so there! Well, one thing I can say to the new
generation is: enjoy this! Bask in this,
and enjoy that you can now openly take pleasure in so many wonderful things!!
Still, even
between those openly Fandom groups things can get difficult at times, and it
reminded me (or rather, one thing reminds me of the other), about pagans being
shunned firstly by the religions and now by each other… Many of the fandoms tend to compete a lot
between them, and sometimes even the people from the same Fandom, when it comes
to generational-type shows, such as Doctor Who and Star Trek. I think that in a way it kind of makes sense,
cos having open discussions about these important matters are half the fun of
being in a fandom anyway, but it’s rather sad if you think how far some people
take it… almost as bad as football fans!
Well, I got really lucky, cos in my Doctor Who group everyone is very
respectful of each other and most actually find my newness into that world a
little endearing, so yay! But I have not
been that lucky with other people, and, not that I care about any of them (cos
they’re not even acquaintances anyway), I have to say that it breaks both my
hearts to see so many going berserk about the smallest things about a show or
universe or whatever…
There was a
lovely example of this in a TV show that I love (well, I’ve got over 30
favourite TV shows, and this is one of them): In an episode from Castle, which
I started watching because of my addiction to Firefly and absolutely favourited
because it is so so funny and because of the amazing chemistry between Castle
and Beckett, it happens that a young woman who’s trying to get an old TV show
back on people’s minds gets murdered; that show was called Nebula 9, and from
the looks of it, it’s like Star Trek and Babylon 5 but lower in quality (as it
seems by the snooty comments Castle makes Beckett every time she says she used
to like it). (And it's an obvious throwback to Firefly, just as Castle itself is covered in, so, looooove!). Right at the end of the episode, she closes with this speech,
which I absolutely love:
‘You’re right, okay? It was a stupid show. I mean, a handful of Academy Cadets on a
travelling mission and suddenly the Earth is destroyed and they´re all that’s
left of humanity? I completely
understand why you hated it. But,
Castle, I also understand why people loved it.
Why Anabelle loved it. It was
about leaving home for the first time, about searching for your identity and
making a difference. I loved dressing up
as Lieutenant Chloe. She didn’t care
what anybody thought about her. And I
kind of did, at that time. I mean, she
was a scientist AND a warrior, that was all in spite of the way she
looked. It was like I could be anything,
and I didn’t have to choose. So don’t
make fun, ok? (...) Besides, it didn’t hurt that my legs looked
great in the outfit…’
The “(…)”
is when Castle is saying that he agrees with her, which is a Yay! cos she’s so
right… I have started seeing that
everything (or at least most things) out there actually has a reason for being,
a message being told to the readers, watchers and listeners; so, with the
exception of those in which the message is actually bad for us, we should
really start respecting each other’s likes and dislikes. Who am I to say which has a good message and
which has a bad one? That’s easy, it’s
all about common sense, and we all have it, so it’s mostly a matter of deeply
considering what is on the page or on the screen, rather than just seeing it
shimmer and thinking it’s pretty when in reality it’s not…
So, yes, I
am really lucky that the group of people that I do the Doctor Who Imaginarium
project with are very open to my newness (even about David Tennant!! Gasp!!), and that makes me feel safe when I
say the stupid things that sometimes come out of my mouth (especially when I
have no control over them because my brain has disconnected again)… In any case, they know that I have studied a
lot about the Classic series, even if I haven’t watched any of it yet, but that
usually gives me brownie points…
Oh,
super-quick side note, cos I wanna share something that happened the other day
and there is no way to go about it without saying *this* first… As several of my friends and family know
already, I am seeing someone now (Huzza!), but for personal, professional AND
literary reasons, I will exercise my right to drip-feed information about him
on the blog. However, since the anecdote
cannot be told without explaining WHO (no pun intended! Honestly!) I was
referring to, I shall say only *this* bit about our relationship: because he is
a major geek (had to be, otherwise I would not have fallen for him, could I?)
and one of them Walking Geek Encyclopedia types at that, we’ve already had the
“David Tennant talk”. Long and short of
it, he’s con, I’m pro. Rose Tyler, sigh,
the same. So it happened that while I
was having a coffee with a friend the other day, I said (quite loudly, as I
usually say these things when I get over-excited) “We’re perfect for each other:
he doesn’t like David Tennant and I am very okay with that!”. Need I even say that a sentence like that can
bring about all kinds of funny looks from people? A passerby gave me one of those looks that I’ve
grown so used to that can’t even be described as the strangest look I’ve ever
got, and I laughed so much that it just prolounged it, by the way…
So, wait,
was this just a way for me to brag that I’ve got a boyfriend now even though
I’ll not be talking much about him yet?
Yeah, kind of, lol, but it’s still linked to the subject at hand,
because he truly respects anyone who has a really deep, real, passionate point
of view about things that he might not agree with… Most of them, anyway, cos he doesn’t like that
fake shimmer that some things have which shouldn’t have, either, and we’re so
okay with each other about that.
This brings
to mind how I got into Doctor Who in the first place, and I’m still in the
“before it was cool” gray area in Mexico, so even if I’m so new in that world
here in England, back there it’s still considered “strange look” material… Anyhu, the thing was that I kept hearing
little things about that show, including my friend Alan telling me to watch it,
and it being mentioned over and over in Big Bang, so one day I decided to check
it out, and it so happened that an episode was just finishing so I tuned in to
see what I could glimpse… What I saw was
a lonely beach and a blonde crying her heart out, with a group of people
watching from far away and crying a little too.
Then this skinny man appears and tells her that he’s burning a star to
say good-bye and that they’re never gonna be able to see each other again… She cries, he cries, she says I love you, he
says Rose Tyler I—and disappears. I say
What the hell? and see that the skinny man is now inside the TARDIS (yes, that
much I knew, even though when I moved to Newcastle I spoke too fast and referred
to it as the TARGIS for the first time aloud… got one of *those* looks from the
book vendor I was talking with, yes.),
and he’s crying and things seem sad and I am just about to ask another question
(yes, to the TV set), and a red-headed woman appears and turns around. She’s wearing a wedding gown and demanding to
be taken back to the church. The episode ends with both the skinny man and me
yelling What??
Now, I
refer to Tennant as the “skinny man” cos at that time there were still pictures
of Christopher Eccleston in the TV guide and stuff, and even though I faintly
recall people telling me about the regeneration, at that moment my brain was
not quick enough to process all the information. All I knew was that I had no idea what had
just happened and that I now had an overly-demanding need to watch the show so
that I could understand what it was all about.
Funny thing is, I didn’t know there’d be so many parallels between
Tennant’s Doctor and my life --er, minus the timey-wimey stuff… Think about it: super-old man who’s been
traveling alone for ages and suddenly finds himself with a need that he
probably hadn’t had for ages, maybe ever since he created the family that
delivered him his granddaughter (minus a flirt and a snog here and there, of
course, Rose included)… that’s when he finds himself looking pretty and fit and
telling everyone that he’s so clever and making many people hate him because of
that, and to top it all, in front of a pretty young thing that has the hots for
him… Anyone might fall for that, come
on! Even now, with Capaldi, even though
he was the first to say that because the Doctor was old again there would be no
flirting, how many people might not be falling for him? If he’s good enough for Milady to try and
seduce him, I’m willing to bet that even as the Doctor he has more than one
heart throbbing for him. Or what, just
because he’s of a certain age he doesn’t deserve any love? Or any of the other
Doctors, for that matter? Sarah Jane had
a thing for Four, I think, and Davidson was actually very annoying to fans
because of his suave quality, wasn’t him?
Anyway, yes, they played it wrong having a full-on romance between Ten
and Rose, but if you think about it for a bit, it is the tale of the absolute
ultimate loneliness… I mean, the guy
actually had to see his own *clone* stay back with Rose while *he* had to walk
away alone again… And yes, Doctor Who is
and should remain being way more than about romantic issues, so I do not fully
agree on everything about that particular story arch, but I will always defend
the Doctor’s right to wish for love…
That’s a
subject that has been running about in social media, especially now that
Capaldi is nailing it (for many) and the show is being taken back to its
origins, but I kinda had to have my two cents in… that and brag that I have a
boyfriend now, yay! (Which, by the way,
also implicates a shift in paradigm settings, how deep is that?) (Oh, no, I do not mean that I will be
con-Tennant now, just that he’s not my Doctor anymore, and I’m happy with that)
(Wait, he’s still my Doctor within the show’s running, but he’s not anymore the
one that I fantasize about) (I mean,
I’ve always said that I’m so in love with myself because of Ten, right? So what’s the harm in choosing another Doctor
now?) (Holly crap on a cracker, this is
probably making me sound really weird to anyone who doesn’t know the full context
of what I’m saying) (Meh, I’m used to
sounding weird, so I’ll leave it like that).
In any
case, I went off on a tangent again, but it rounds back to the whole “Respect
your neighbouring Fandom” thing, right?
I hope? Rather, like I said
before, I know that there will always be people going for or against something
we like, and discussion will arise whether we try to remain impartial or not…
that is pretty healthy most of the time, but even the discussion part should be
respectful, cos everyone in the world has given us a hard enough time as it is
since decades unspoken of, so why give each other the same hard time now that
we are so free to like what we like?
Or course,
I admit that the subject also flowed because of how happily I can state that I
am in a very respectful relationship (it’s not all just about the bragging…
well, it is, cos he really is a great guy!)… Respect is our banner, and the geekier the topic is,
the better we meet in the middle: he’s more Star Wars, Star Trek and Charmed, I’m
more Buffy, Firefly and Harry Potter, and it just makes us click… His Doctors are the ones no one likes; my
Doctor is the one I *thought* no one liked (until memes and Facebook proved me otherwise
and I went Oh crap, I’m mainstream! Oh well).
He’s giving me more options about what to watch and read and listen to, and
I seem to be giving him more drive to complete the creative cycles he began even
before we met, so I think we’re working out…
I ramble on too much, more often than not in incomplete sentences and
giggling fits; he rambles on too much, more often than not making me break out
in even louder laughing fits… And we don’t
always know the book or show or artist the other one is talking about, but we’ve
got willingness to learn! That amazing non-presumption,
which I’ve found in someone of clearly higher intelligence than normal, is what
makes me want to shout out to the world that we could all be happier if we
respected each other a little bit more…
What I mean is, he could easily have ended up a Sherlock or a Sheldon,
but he’s got more empathy than Watson and Leonard put together; and let’s not
stop loving Sherlock and Sheldon, please, cos those are the characters that
drive the others to betterment anyway, but let’s not try to *be* them, either… And what I mean by him having a higher intelligence
is because he’s wacky and he knows it and has the most wonderful sense of
humour about it… Oh, that’s it exactly,
isn’t it? It’s not always just about IQ
(although in his case, because of the amount of books he’s read and the
deepness of his thoughts, yeah, I can vouch that it’s got a lot to do with IQ),
but intelligence shows a great deal by how a person can view the world and
themselves with humour… If we’d all use
humour in our lives, the world would be a more intelligent place, probably, and
so much healthier…
And FYI,
fortunately everyone from my friends and family has always been very respectful
of my or anybody else’s quirkiness, but who knows who has to read this message,
right? Especially since there is still
so much bullying going about, and knowing that many people in my close circles
have suffered as much, or even more, than I from it…
So I close
and bid you all a good day, good night, good weekend, good week or whatever it
is going to be as you finish reading this entry of mine...
Cheers!
(Oh, and
by-the-by, fezzes are not cool… just couldn’t leave without saying it… lol)
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