The Shakespeare Code

[speakbitterness]

Let's see if I can break the record and manage two Doctor Who reviews in a row. I'm on holiday, chatty and feeling pretentious - so please read at your own risk - I reserve the right to be a wanker about pop culture, I have so little outlet these days

Comments

[fireandtherose]

I can given half a chance get a bit intellectual over Harry and why, brilliant childrens books that they are, it also has much to offer those of us who weren't fortunate enough to have them around to read when we were eight years old. It seems quite fitting to me, then, that JK Rawlings provided the words to finish off the witches - an act that was started by Shakespeare. And I loved the way the doctor referred to her as JK - as if they were old friends. Imagination, as well as words were being celebrated.
And talking about the power of naming things....my mum ahs this habit of interrupting virtually all her spoken thoughts by using the word 'whatisname'. This quote from Midngihts Children reminded me of her and also speaks about the power of being able to name things (or at least the vulnerability of not being able to:

'Aadam Aziz frowned.'What is this wife?' To which my grandmother answered, 'This, whatisitsname, is a very heavy pot; and if just once I catch you in here, whatisitsname, Ill push your head into it, add some dahi, and make, whatisitsname, a korma.' I don't know how my grandmother came to adopt the term 'whatisitsname' as her leitmotif, but as the years passed it invaded her sentences more and more often. I like to think of it as an unconcious cry for help...as a seriously meant question. Reverend Mother was giving us a hint that, for all her presence and bulk, she was adrift in the universe. She didn't know , you see, what it was called.'

[speakbitterness]

Salman Rushdie of all people alive today is probably the best man with words. he's not my favourite writer or anything but he really does have a strange power with them.
that's a great quote - and it is kinda sad when you think about it like that.

I'm with you on HP - well deserving of the Doctor's recognition I feel