first youtube. now attention-whore memes!

[quigonejinn]

But what can I say? I found this after looking at a related thing from ataniell93, and not only is it a Golden Compass tie-in -- AND A WEBSITE WITH DANIEL CRAIG, OKAY, EXPLAINING THINGS -- but my favorite part of the Golden Compass aside from the gay angels.

OMG, GUYZ, WHAT FORM DOES MY TOTEM ANIMAL HAVE???

...

On a only slightly less plebey note,

John Barrowman's new and improved American accent is Torchwood's #1 present to me this season. I swear. It's pretty fucking good, man. He doesn't have all of the enunciation -- you know, the way his voice goes up and down within a sentence? -- completely right, but it's pretty darn close. It's the best American accent I've heard on British TV in a long time.

Present #2 has to be the new and improved plots that don't become immediately clear within about 35 seconds. Alas, though, after the total awesomepants fanservice of the first episode, I suspect that I'm going to spend most of every episode from now on being like I CAN HAZ IANTO NOW? HOW ABOUT NOW? HOW ABOUT NOW? I mean, I'm a little disappointed at how everything he's done so far has tended toward either the gay or the humor, but at this point, I don't even mind this whole Regis Philbin Casual Coordinates shit he's got going on.

Also: could that intro scene have been more profoundly YOU ARE NOT WATCHING AMERICAN TV? Interracial couple in bed! Cricket bat under bed! Burglars without guns! And then the endless Abu Ghirab/torture airline reference with the non-white prisoner sitting in the interrogation with indefinite detention and Gappy's references to "We're just doing our jobs!" The torture chairs! The determined American interrogator!

And then they wussed out and made the girl all heroic and self-sacrificing and believing them. Excuse me while I roll around on the floor in laughter.

Comments

[artyartie.livejournal.com]

I absolutely love the design of the Web site (and the music!) but they need more choices, both for questions and daemons! Picking out daemons for any future characters who show up in my story is both going to be fun and beat-my-head-against-the-keyboard frustrating.

[quigonejinn.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the questions when your friends show up to take it are kinda limited, but I remember being pretty impatient this morning when I was taking the full 20-question thing for myself.

*has been saving your story to read until she can properly sit down to enjoy it* I've been thinking about what kind of daemon Caesar would have. XD

[artyartie.livejournal.com]

*grins* May I recommend a fine pinot noir to accompany the story? But that's awesome you're saving it - I do that too, when I just don't have time to do more than skim.

But yeah, Caesar is going to be the hardest, and I've been mulling him over. Octavian is going to be a pain in the ass until his daemon settles, because as hard core as Antony is, Octavian just takes it to a whole new level.

[quigonejinn.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think Caesar would have to be a carnivore. It's hard narrowing it down beyond that, especially since you have Antony pegged as a panther in your story already. Maybe a lioness, big as a pony? And Octavian, in my mind, is pegged pretty firmly as a snake. I mean, whatever the theory about how daemons settle into their final forms, I don't think the pre-Christians were as negative on snakes as modern society is. And what with the old stories about Asclepius and, also, the

(And randomly: the story of Romulus and Remus takes a different cast when you think about it in the context of daemons, doesn't it?)

[artyartie.livejournal.com]

Caesar is definitely a carnivore, but he's tricky. He's ruthless but clever, and overall merciful to his enemies, at least when they were Romans. I may have to read up on my big cats! And he is rather reptilian - I was thinking perhaps a Komodo Dragon. Snakes in Pullman's verse tend to be associated with guile and influence, which seems to me more like Servilia.

Oh, and I think having a wolf daemon either would be some sort of divine sign or the worst sort of hubris! I think Caesar and Cicero both would have had a wolf daemon, temporarily, before they settled.

The whole daemon concept just raises soooo many possibilities in the context of Rome. Boys wouldn't become men and take on the toga virilis until their daemon settled; future commanders would be set apart right away due to their daemons - and would men respect someone who 'came up through the ranks' if he still had a canine and thus servile daemon? And how would the different philosophical schools deal with daemons? I tried to get into that, a little - the Stoics thought the soul was made of fire and air, and so thus Brutus and Cicero's 'perception' of a soul was tinted with that concept.

If only I could give this much attention to my thesis writing!!

thesis, shmesis.

[quigonejinn.livejournal.com]

Octavian does strike me as being guileful and full of the seductive, but ever-so-slightly off-kilter guile -- which, to me, doesn't rule out Servilia as a snake. A boa constrictor-type for Octavian to parallel the way he settles in, deceptively gentle and innocent, and then squeeeeeezes the life out of the Republic. Servilia would has a little viper, bright as a jewel.

XD I bet every male Roman patrician would pray and bargain and attempt to bribe in the most transparent fashion to get a wolf. Or an eagle. Jesus, the kind of bragging rights you'd get. XD

When I skimmed your fic, one of the most interesting bits for me was the notion of the Roman legionnaire without his daemon. I bet that if the legions got their boys young, a disproportionate number of the men would have their daemons settle into a canid form. Let loose the hounds of war, etc, etc.

bed, schmed...

[artyartie.livejournal.com]

I think I could literally talk with you about Roman daemons for waaaaaaay too long, but I have a morning class to TA! So I will post once I'm coherent and out of class in the a.m. :)

I like your thoughts on the snakes, especially Servilia! And how disappointed would she be in Brutus' daemon? Descendant of two illustrious families and he gets an overgrown weasel. Oh, and the legions *would* snatch up children young (I'm thinking Spartans training up babies young) to train them just the right way - loyal but bloodthirsty. Hounds of war indeed!

Re: bed, schmed...

[quigonejinn.livejournal.com]

This is a belated reply, but I've been trying to flesh out the idea of Antony as an animal besides a big cat -- I mean, it's the obvious one for how Antony is a very, very, very dangerous man underneath the pretense of being vulgar and fucking everything female in sight, but I've been trying to figure out an alternate just as an intellctual exercise. I've rewatching Rome, and it's striking how socially-oriented Antony is. He's intensely loyal, but to people, not to ideas or causes. Remember his little shitfit when Atia suggests that he betray Caesar? And how Antony finds strength at the end by hanging with Vorenus?

Antony, I think, is fundamentally a guy who needs to follow a leader. you know? Which makes me think maybe you could make an argument for him being a wolf, albeit one that acts like a dog most of the time, but it'd draw a fascinating line underneath his proper Roman suicide. And ahaha, if we go with Plutarch's version of Antony's youth, it just adds to the scandal, doesn't it? Young man of distinguished family spending his days cavorting with actors and prostitutes! AND HE HAS A WOLF FOR A DAEMON, TOO. :O :O :O