One anxious owner...
Nov. 15th, 2009 05:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sensiblecatInteresting remark from Michael Moorcock re his recently-announced forthcoming DW novel. I should mention it's addressed, mainly, to Outpost Gallifrey forum people rather than the general fanship:
"I share an enthusiasm for the current Dr Who broadcasts with quite a few friends who are 'literary' novelists and I sense in some of the Gallifrey remarks a suspicion of the 'outsider' which you used to get when someone with a reputation as a non-sf writer would decide to write an sf novel. All I can answer to this is 'wait and see'. I'm certainly not a non-watcher! Neither am I someone who ascribes a kind of religiosity to an enthusiasm. This phenomenon crops up a lot, these days associated with sf/fantasy, LOTR, H.Potter, Twilight and so on. I hate these presumptions of exclusivity either in my own corner of the literary world or elsewhere. Mike Kustow, once director of the Royal Shakespeare Co, described this as 'the anxious ownership syndrome', when faced with his first confrontation with sf fandom in Brighton 1968. He'd found the same sort of expression with Shakespeare fans when someone from 'outside' showed an interest."
You don't often see DW and Shakespeare yoked together in one statement like that (though someone on my flist made a similar connection a few days back). It's been interesting for me to do a further degree in Shakespeare and Theatre and find out just how often something comes up that reminds me of Doctor Who. There do seem to be links in the way something that was, after all, initially designed as an ephemeral form of popular entertainment has become canonized and culturally codified in many ways. And many of us have exploded when faced with a particular production that, we felt, traduced the Bard and destroyed his original intention.
It's always been my belief that Shakespeare would have understood fan fiction perfectly. Almost every play he wrote was a similar kind of adaptation of an existing story. I would love to see someone fic an interview between him and RTD. And I once raised academic eyebrows by saying that of all the books I'd read the one that gave me the best insight into the pressures Shakespeare would have worked under was "The Writer's Tale."
However, that was nothing to the expression on my tutor's face when I told her that people really did write Shakespeare fan fiction - and most of them seemed to be graduate students.
In other news, my daughter told me this morning that I was disgusting to fancy David Tennant - officially because of the 12year age gap. Interesting - I'm sure the age gap between Georgie and him is even wider. Which makes me wonder what her own little lad thinks about it all. He's a pretty cool father figure to have in your life, though. That must help.
Came in last night to find the kids watching "City of Death" of all things. Best fun I've had in ages, and it did make me realise how seriously Who takes itself these days. We spent a lot of time howling with laughter at Duggan's behaviour and saying things like "They had real men in DW in them days, not a load of raving poufs!" in our best Gene Hunt voice. And wondering how Romana's hat stayed on.
I've got a lot of chocolate in for this evening. Nuff said.
"I share an enthusiasm for the current Dr Who broadcasts with quite a few friends who are 'literary' novelists and I sense in some of the Gallifrey remarks a suspicion of the 'outsider' which you used to get when someone with a reputation as a non-sf writer would decide to write an sf novel. All I can answer to this is 'wait and see'. I'm certainly not a non-watcher! Neither am I someone who ascribes a kind of religiosity to an enthusiasm. This phenomenon crops up a lot, these days associated with sf/fantasy, LOTR, H.Potter, Twilight and so on. I hate these presumptions of exclusivity either in my own corner of the literary world or elsewhere. Mike Kustow, once director of the Royal Shakespeare Co, described this as 'the anxious ownership syndrome', when faced with his first confrontation with sf fandom in Brighton 1968. He'd found the same sort of expression with Shakespeare fans when someone from 'outside' showed an interest."
You don't often see DW and Shakespeare yoked together in one statement like that (though someone on my flist made a similar connection a few days back). It's been interesting for me to do a further degree in Shakespeare and Theatre and find out just how often something comes up that reminds me of Doctor Who. There do seem to be links in the way something that was, after all, initially designed as an ephemeral form of popular entertainment has become canonized and culturally codified in many ways. And many of us have exploded when faced with a particular production that, we felt, traduced the Bard and destroyed his original intention.
It's always been my belief that Shakespeare would have understood fan fiction perfectly. Almost every play he wrote was a similar kind of adaptation of an existing story. I would love to see someone fic an interview between him and RTD. And I once raised academic eyebrows by saying that of all the books I'd read the one that gave me the best insight into the pressures Shakespeare would have worked under was "The Writer's Tale."
However, that was nothing to the expression on my tutor's face when I told her that people really did write Shakespeare fan fiction - and most of them seemed to be graduate students.
In other news, my daughter told me this morning that I was disgusting to fancy David Tennant - officially because of the 12year age gap. Interesting - I'm sure the age gap between Georgie and him is even wider. Which makes me wonder what her own little lad thinks about it all. He's a pretty cool father figure to have in your life, though. That must help.
Came in last night to find the kids watching "City of Death" of all things. Best fun I've had in ages, and it did make me realise how seriously Who takes itself these days. We spent a lot of time howling with laughter at Duggan's behaviour and saying things like "They had real men in DW in them days, not a load of raving poufs!" in our best Gene Hunt voice. And wondering how Romana's hat stayed on.
I've got a lot of chocolate in for this evening. Nuff said.
