21st August 1572: Admiral de Coligny is shot and wounded; the Abbot of Amboise, suspected of being an impostor who has derailed the assassination plans, is killed by his own allies; Steven (who is fresh from the mayhem of The Daleks' Master Plan) thinks it is the Doctor who has been slain. (as shown in The Massacre, 1966 – I used this picture for Andre Morell's birthday yesterday, but I think it's from this episode so I'll use it again.)
Current Bring Up the Bodies, by Hilary Mantel The Conqueror’s Child, by Suzy McKee Charnas Jerusalem: Vernal’s Inquest, by Alan Moore
Last books finished One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey A Boy and His Dog, by Harlan Ellison Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel The Maze of Doom, by David Solomons Jerusalem: Mansoul, by Alan Moore
Next books The Mirror and the Light, by Hilary Mantel Shadow Scale, by Rachel Hartman
Wed, 12:23: Cally: My people have a saying, “A man who trusts can never be betrayed, only mistaken.” Avon: The life expectancy… https://t.co/AgeI2rI363
Wed, 12:29: RT @AmbDanFried: .@anders_aslund makes the case for fast-track European mediation to help resolve Belarus standoff without more bloodshed o…
Wed, 17:11: RT @thomasforth: Is the UK’s coast poor? Yes, but only because of England. A blog post in which I share how to create this map of coastal i…
Thu, 10:45: A must-read piece if you care about how Brexit was not stopped. Perhaps a bit too much on the boardroom politics th… https://t.co/4G8TUGeIy7
20 August 1909: birth of Andre Morell, who had only one Whoniverse appearance as Marshal Tavannes in the story we now call The Massacre (First Doctor, 1966), but also ties in with one of my other projects in that he appeared in two Oscar-winning films – as Colonel Green in Bridge on the River Kwai and Sextus in Ben-Hur.
20 August 1916: birth of Bernard Archard, who played Bragen in The Power of the Daleks (Seocnd Doctor, 1966) and Marcus Scarman in The Pyramids of Mars (Fourth Doctor, 1975).
20 August 1932: birth of Anthony Ainley, who played the Master from the last scene of The Keeper of Traken (Fourth Doctor, 1981) till the final Old Who story, Survival (Seventh Doctor, 1989)
20 August 1934: birth of John Davies, who directed The Macra Terror (Second Doctor, 1967)
20 August 1943: birth in Dublin of Sylvester McCoy (original name Percy James Patrick Kent-Smith), who played the Seventh Doctor from Time and the Rani (1987) to Survival (1989) and returned for the 1996 TV movie. He continues to feature in Big Finish audios.
20 August 1962: birth of Sophie Aldred, who played the Seventh Doctor’s companion Ace from Dragonfire (1987) to Survival (1989).
also 20 August 1962: birth of James Marsters, who smoulders through the second (2008) series of Torchwood as Jack's lover and enemy Captain John Hart, though we knew him first as Spike on Buffy. Interesting that he and Sophie Aldred were born on the same day; isn't it odd that we have never seen them in the same room at the same time?
20 August 1969: birth of Barnaby Edwards, main Dalek operator in New Who and also actor, director and writer for Big Finish audios.
ii) production anniversary
I don't usually do these, but this is a significant one.
20 August 1963: first ever production session of Doctor Who, as the opening credits are created.
iii) date specified in-universe
20 August 1572: Steven, trying to find the Doctor, bluffs his way into the Abbot's presence and overhears the plot to assassinate Admiral de Coligny, as shown in The Massacre (First Doctor, 1966).
This was the topic of a marital conversation yesterday: which books of the Bible would pass the famous Bechdel test? The test itself originates from a conversation between two characters in Alison Bechdel's famous comic Dykes to Watch Out For, about films:
Over the years it has acquired a minor additional tweak: a book or film etc passes the test if:
There are at least two named women characters
who have a conversation
about something other than a man.
Obviously the Bible was not made for the Bechdel test, or vice versa. But it is an interesting exercise to apply the one to the other, and see what comes up. Pro-Bible commentators claim that there are four books of the Bible that actually pass it; in my view only one of these is sound. That one is:
The Book of Ruth
In case you don't know it, the Book of Ruth is a short Old Testament book which starts with a woman called Naomi, who is an immigrant in Moab and whose two sons both die leaving young widows, Orpah and Ruth. Naomi decides to go back to her original home, Bethlehem. Orpah decides not to come with her, but Ruth is a different matter.
1:15 So she said, "See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law."
1:16 But Ruth said, "Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God.
1:17 Where you die, I will die— there will I be buried. May the Lord do thus and so to me, and more as well, if even death parts me from you!"
1:18 When Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more to her.
1:19 So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them; and the women said, "Is this Naomi?"
1:20 She said to them, "Call me no longer Naomi, call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt bitterly with me.
1:21 I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty; why call me Naomi when the Lord has dealt harshly with me, and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?"
1:22 So Naomi returned together with Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, who came back with her from the country of Moab. They came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.
Men are barely even mentioned here; it's a conversation about where you want to live your life after Plan A didn't work out. A clear Bechdel pass.
The dynamic between Naomi and her two daughters-in-law has captured the attention of a number of artists. Here’s William Blake’s take.
However, there are another three cases where it is argued (in my view wrongly) that the Bechdel test is passed. They are:
The Book of Tobit
There is a debate about whether the Book of Tobit belongs in the Bible at all – as a school-going Catholic, it was in my version, but the Protestant kids didn't have it in theirs. There are two segments of Tobit that are invoked as potential Bechdel passes. The first is in Chapter 3:
3:7 On the same day, at Ecbatana in Media, it also happened that Sarah, the daughter of Raguel, was reproached by one of her father’s maids.
3:8 For she had been married to seven husbands, and the wicked demon Asmodeus had killed each of them before they had been with her as is customary for wives. So the maid said to her, “You are the one who kills your husbands! See, you have already been married to seven husbands and have not borne the name of a single one of them.
3:9 Why do you beat us? Because your husbands are dead? Go with them! May we never see a son or daughter of yours!”
I'm afraid this seems to me to fail all three legs of the Bechdel test. First off, the maid (in some translations, plural maids) is not named (granted, that's a later wrinkle to the original form of the test, but I think an important one); second, we don't get Sarah's response, so it's a rant not a conversation (the next section contain's Sarah's solitary reflections); and third, it's about her dead husbands who were all, er, men.
The second bit of Tobit which some claim clears the Bechdel test is later in Chapter 7, when Sarah marries Tobit's son Tobias, her parents certain that he is doomed like the previous seven unlucky chaps:
7:15 Raguel called his wife Edna and said to her, “Sister, get the other room ready, and take her there.”
7:16 So she went and made the bed in the room as he had told her, and brought Sarah there. She wept for her daughter. Then, wiping away the tears, she said to her, “Take courage, my daughter; the Lord of heaven grant you joy in place of your sorrow. Take courage, my daughter.” Then she went out.
This would actually pass if we got Sarah's response, which would probably make it a conversation about marriage. But we don't even hear if she replies.
Rembrandt was a huge fan of the Book of Tobit, but sadly did not pick either of these scenes to illustrate. However, here is his take on Sarah anticipating her new husband Tobias.
The Gospel of Mark
Here the potentially Bechdel-passing section is from immediately after the Crucifixion, in the very last chapter of the Gospel, Chapter 16:
16:1 When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him.
16:2 And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb.
16:3 They had been saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?”
Now, I will grant that the three women in the conversation are named. On the other hand, (once again) it's not a conversation, it's a single line; there is no dialogue here. And while apologists may argue that the conversation is about a stone, it's not; it's about the person who will move the stone.
(In New Testament Greek, the semi-colon is a question mark.) It's implied pretty clearly that the person who might move the stone will be a man, by the word ἡμῖν, "for us" – because they are women who (in the view of the Gospel writer) couldn't do it for themselves. So I don't think Mark passes either. (True, the spirit of the Bechdel test is to eliminate conversations where women are presenting themselves only as romantic partners for men. But I think there's something important here also about gender roles.)
There are many paintings of the women at the tomb, but few explicitly show the scene from the Gospel of Mark, with the three identified as two Marys and Salome. One of the rare exceptions is this by twentieth-century Danish artist Kamma Svensson.
The Gospel of Luke
Here the potentially Bechdel-passing section is in the very first chapter:
1:39 In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country,
1:40 where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.
1:41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit
1:42 and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
1:43 And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me?
1:44 For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy.
1:45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”
1:46 And Mary said,
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
1:47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
1:48 for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
1:49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
1:50 His mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
1:51 He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
1:52 He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
1:53 he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
1:54 He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
1:55 according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”
1:56 And Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home.
I admit that this is the judgement I am most uncertain about. Mary and Elizabeth are both named women characters. There is a definite conversational exchange (even if Mary's response is effectively to break into song, I would accept that for a Hollywood musical, so I think I have to accept it here). The conversation is about pregnancy, which generally regarded as a women's issue. However, I cannot get away from the fact that both unborn children – Jesus Christ and John the Baptist – are men.
The Visitation (which as a child I learned as one of the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary) has been a pretty popular topic for artists over the centuries. I’ve chosen a patriotic Belgian nod to Rogier van der Weyden, because he just shows the two women talking – a lot of the others are very crowded.
Reasonable people can disagree about all of this. The Bechdel test is not itself gospel, it's just a useful indicator of the extent to which a writer is treating women as people rather than romantic adjuncts to the men in the story. Large chunks of the Bible are not narrative in form and the Bechdel test cannot be reasonably applied. If the Book of Ruth passes, the Bible as a whole passes.
And yet, even on the optimistic viewpoint that all four of the above passages do pass the Bechdel test, that still leaves vast chunks of the Bible where women's voices are simply not heard. (See a book-by-book analysis here.)
Tue, 14:25: RT @JulietEMcKenna: I’ve just realised why Husband’s online meeting sounds so incredibly formal, with everyone addressing each other as Mr…
Tue, 20:08: “Votes of women can accomplish no more than votes of men. Why waste time, energy and money without result?” https://t.co/Fxcnkvof09
Tue, 20:47: “Stories are like people. Even when they aren’t perfect, you just try to cherish them and overlook their flaws.”… https://t.co/mwpmrXs6VC
Tue, 22:55: RT @oonuch: 2 understand power of a cross cleavage coalition in #BelarusProtest watch this retired farmer’s (in Cherikov) solidarity messag…
19 August 1969: birth of S.P. Krause, who developed the 2009-10 K9 series and co-wrote seven of its episodes.
ii) broadcast anniversaries
19 August 2011: broadcast of Torchwood episode Immortal Sins, mostly a flashback to Jack’s time in New York in 1927.
iii) dates specified in-universe
19 August 1572: The Doctor and Steven land in Paris; the Doctor goes off to consult the apothecary Charles Preslin while Steven falls in with Huguenots, and the Abbot of Amboise arrives in Paris; guess who he looks like? (as shown in The Massacre, 1966)
19 August 1983: birth of Ianto Jones, later to join Torchwood, as revealed in Fragments (2008).
A month or so ago, I was intrigued to see an early morning tweet from Alexander Stubb, former prime minister of Finland.
My world famous #bananapancakes are back: 2-3 eggs, a mashed banana and 1/2 cup of oats. Today’s toppings: Turkish yougurth, cashews, blueberries and honey. Beat that. pic.twitter.com/eK9yWtQOk0
I’m a fan of breakfast in general. I’ve made myself egg on toast as a matter of routine every morning for about twenty years. I used to have bacon at weekends, but have been warned that it’s not all that good for me, so more recently I’ve been doing a poached egg (with a splash of vinegar in the boiling water) on salmon on buttered toast.
But this looked like an idea worth trying. So I gave it a go.
The banana itself is not all that liquid to start with, but once it has been mashed around a bit and then the grinding effect of the oats, it turns into something very much resembling a batter. I found the Stubb recipe quite large, in fact, but you can use half a banana, one egg and a quarter cup of oats and voila, you have a single banana pancake. (Or you can use the full quantities and make one for a passing friend or relative.)
It’s had a really positive effect on my digestion. I have a rather irritable bowel, unfortunately, and have tried all kinds of solutions to improve my general comfort level over many years. I can honestly say that the banana pancake breakfast has had the most beneficial effect of anything I’ve tried. I guess the oats and the banana together are a powerful combination. (I was eating an egg every day anyway.)
Anyway, it may not work for you, but it made a difference for me. Thanks, Alex!
Mon, 14:33: RT @JolyonMaugham: Northern Ireland is abandoning the algorithm for GCSEs – but maintaining it for A Levels. Not sure why, if it’s unfair f…
Mon, 17:23: RT @10DowningStreet: A Level, AS Level and GCSE results will now be based on teacher-assessed grades. Students will receive the higher of…
Mon, 17:23: RT @Keir_Starmer: The Government has had months to sort out exams and has now been forced into a screeching U-turn after days of confusion.…
Mon, 20:00: RT @BeilinsonOrel: If you’re wondering why you see both LukashenkA and LukashenkO, the answer is basically that the former is Belarusian an…
Tue, 10:33: RT @Radlein: @nwbrux Old news — that was SUNDAY’S temperature. Monday’s temperature there was EVEN HIGHER, IIRC.
Tue, 11:36: RT @JulianHeather1: “Choosing between Edward Davey and Layla Moran” – some excellent insights in this blog by Nicholas Whyte. https://t.co/…
18 August 1925: I know this is a bit marginal, but this was the birth date of Brian Aldiss, one of the greatest ever science fiction writers, who died in 2017 the day after his 92nd birthday. At the age of 85, he had a story in the 2011 Brilliant Book of Doctor Who, which may make him the oldest ever Who writer. I was beyond thrilled to meet him in 2014.
ii) Broadcast anniversaries
None.
iii) date specified in canon
18 August 1951: Sarah Jane Smith's parents die in a car accident after attending the village fete at Foxgrove, as we see in The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith (SJA, 2008).
We spent September 2007 pretty much in limbo waiting for word on B's future accommodation once she returned home after a couple of weeks' respite. At work my Italian intern V left (she went off to run refugee camps and is now raising her family) and was replaced by a Dane, also V (who charmed me on her arrival by revealing that as an exchange student at Michigan State University she had actually shaken hands with Gerald Ford). I had one trip to London, where and put me up.
3,800 pages (YTD 56,900)
1/13 by women (YTD 47/193)
None by PoC (YTD 4/193)
My two favourite books of the month were the longest and the shortest: Proust's second volume, which you can get here, and the lovely wee guide to the history of Belfast, which you can get here. Wooden spoon to E.E. "Doc" Smith's First Lensman, which you can get here.
Sun, 12:56: RT @NatalieZed: Who wants to look at a late night nightmare house with me?? There is a very, very SHARP turn this property takes. (endle…
Sun, 13:51: Great stuff from Steve Mollmann (who doesn’t seem to be on Twitter) analyzing the performance of No Award in this y… https://t.co/QevzlezOvF
Sun, 13:55: Two died long before I was born (both in the 1940s; I was born in ‘67), one when I was 9, one when I was 12. My o… https://t.co/Q0awrlCtY1
Sun, 14:48: RT @archer_rs: Just spoke with an old friend who works in investment banking in the City of London. He’s just been told his entire departm…
Sun, 16:05: Anne Applebaum and the Tragic Romance of the Middle-Aged Western Liberal https://t.co/3hDppOlCO7 Ivan Krastev’s insightful review.
Sun, 17:07: RT @wadhamoxford: Wadham College will admit all 2020 offer-holders. Those applicants whose courses are now full will be guaranteed deferred…
Sun, 18:02: RT @CER_Grant: Many wise words from Alexievich on the situation in #Belarus, including the advice to Lukashenka that he should step down be…
Mon, 08:42: RT @Keir_Starmer: The Tories’ chaotic and incompetent handling of this year’s exams is robbing a generation of their future. https://t.co/o…
Mon, 09:19: RT @peterweirmla: After consulting @CCEA_info & having listened to the concerns of principals, teachers, parents & young people, I have dec…
17th August 1990: death in a shooting accident of Graham Williams, producer of the 15th to 17th seasons of Doctor Who (the fourth to sixth Fourth Doctor seasons, from Horror of Fang Rock to ShadaThe Invasion of Time and City of Death, and author of the unbroadcast story The Nightmare Fair which brought back the Celestial Toymaker (and was released in audio format by Big Finish in 2009).
ii) broadcast anniversary
17th August 1968: broadcast of episode 2 of The Dominators. The Doctor and Jamie are examined by the Dominators; Zoe goes to the capital and tries but fails to charm the Dulcian leadership. When she and Cully return to the island, the Dominators and Quarks blow up their cave…
iii) date specified in-universe
17 and 18 August 1947 are the setting of Demons of the Punjab (Thirteenth Doctor, 2018).
I've reported on my vote in previous Lib Dem leadership elections in 2006, 2007, 2015 and 2019. I found it difficult to care as much this time round. The Lib Dems' catastrophic performance in last December's election and subsequent cratering in the polls perhaps make this the least important choice of the century. On the other hand, who knows? Perhaps the new leader will be able to generate a revival if the right choice is made.
I have not met either candidate, though I vaguely know Layla Moran's father from Brussels circles. I voted against Ed Davey last time, for what seemed to me good reasons, but it was clearly the wrong choice, as is obvious from the party's painful post-mortem on the election result and from the information I've gleaned from my (few) Lib Dem insider sources. So I'm being a bit careful with my own gut reactions this time.
In normal times I am strongly impressed by the endorsements each candidate is able to gain from fellow MPs, who work with them most closely. However the split is 5 for Davey and 3 for Moran, hardly an overwhelming majority especially when two of Davey's five are his immediate neighbours in London. On the other hand, I have to say that I have heard of precisely none of Moran's non-MP endorsers, whereas Davey's list includes Richard Kemp, Sarah Ludford, several former MEPs who I know (13 of the 16 of the 2019-20 class), and (though I have never met her) Floella Benjamin. (PS – I see on Twitter that Duncan Brack has endorsed Layla Moran, which I do take seriously, but it's not on her website.)
So I watched today's hustings for Lib Dem members outside the UK, chaired by my friend Hannah, with a genuinely open mind, with the impression beforehand that Moran is more discursive and Davey more wonkish. There is not a lot to choose between the two candidates; they are closely politically aligned. Their style is very different. To my surprise, I did not find that Moran had a decisive edge on charisma, and she notably over-ran her time allowance several times. She does come over as a teacher, as she proclaims herself to be, which is both good and bad; Davey more of the standard politician though with some added depth, citing personal experience of implementing policy rather than experience from outside the Westminster bubble as Moran did.
And I have made up my mind and cast my vote for Ed Davey. He said two things that caught my imagination; Layla Moran said two things that put me off her. These were:
Ed Davey will use the House of Lords to give representation to UK citizens abroad. A slightly wacky idea, I thought at first; surely the Lib Dems want to replace the House of Lords with an elected chamber? But a moment's reflection reminded me that actually this is a policy I personally disagree with, and even if I agreed with it there is no harm in exploiting the existing system in order to fill gaps in representation.
Ed Davey's personal story of having been a carer for close relatives with difficult health situations obviously spoke to me. He did not go on about it; he mentioned it once and let us draw our own conclusions.
Very minor, but not insignificant: Layla Moran called Donald Trump "deranged". He is, of course, but the serious leader of a serious British political party cannot say so.
Whoever wins has a serious challenge ahead of them. I can’t be the only person who is wondering if I will still be a paid-up party member next year. As a citizen of Belgium who does not expect to ever vote in another UK election, my views don’t matter that much, but I suspect my emotions are not untypical. We’ll find out soon enough if others go the same way.
Sat, 13:20: RT @CoNZealand: If you missed out on the Sir Julius Vogel Award voting packet the first time, we are pleased to announce that it is now ava…
Sat, 16:39: RT @archer_rs: Overheard ten minutes ago at the boulangerie, two British women in the queue, “Bloody EU, they imposed a 14 day quarantine…
Sat, 20:48: Tank Girl 25th anniversary: Rachel Talalay looks back at comic book adaptation https://t.co/3FN7UuL6yO Missed this great piece at the time.
Sat, 21:55: RT @DoctorWho_BBCA: “You know the sound the TARDIS makes? That wheezing, groaning. That sound brings hope wherever it goes.” #DoctorWho htt…
Sat, 23:02: RT @anders_aslund: 10. That Lukashenko organized a media meeting today to appeal to Putin for a conversation indicates that Putin really do…
Sun, 10:45: RT @StuartHumphryes: These magical autochromes were taken 107 years ago at Lulworth Cove in Dorset, in August 1913 – less than a year befor…
16 August 1935: birth of Janet Henfrey, who played Miss Hardaker in The Curse of Fenric (Seventh Doctor, 1989) and Mrs Pitt in Mummy on the Orient Express (Twelfth Doctor, 2014).
16 August 1950: birth of Robert Pugh, who played the aged Jonah in the 2008 Torchwood episode Adrift, and local villager Tony Mack in The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood (Eleventh Doctor, 2010).
16 August 1958: birth of Rachel Talalay, who directed all three Twelfth Doctor finales and the regeneration story Twice Upon a Time (2017). She is a source of much wisdom; my favourite story from her is that she asked a taxi driver not to give away spoilers for the latest Marvel film, and in exchange he asked her if she'd ever seen this amazing comic book movie from the 90's called Tank Girl. Which she directed.
ii) broadcast anniversaries
16 August 2002: webcast of episode 3 of Real Time. More messing around the time portal with Six, Evelyn and the Cybermen. Turns out the Tardis won't fit through it.
iii) dates specified in canon and spinoff fiction
16 August 1978: possibly birth of Gwen Cooper, who grows up to be a Cardiff policewoman who joins Torchwood. (Though other sources say 5 May.)
16 August 1979: The First Doctor and Susan encounter the snail-like Slarvians who are planning to take over Earth by hatching their eggs all over the planet. (As told in Samantha Baker's "Childhood Living", in the 2006 Short Trips: The Centenarian anthology).
16 August 2017: a holiday liner sank, as revealed in The Enemy of the World (Second Doctor, 1968).
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest won the Oscar for Best Picture of 1975, and picked up the other four of the magic five – Best Director (Miloš Forman), Best Actor (Jack Nicholson as McMurphy), Best Actress (Louise Fletcher as Nurse Ratched), and Best Screenplay Adapted from Other Material, the first film to do this since It Happened One Night in 1934. It lost four – Best Supporting Actor (Brad Dourif as Billy Bibbit), Best Original Score, Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing.
The other Oscar-nominated films of 1976 were Barry Lyndon, Dog Day Afternoon, Jaws and Nashville; the only one I have seen is Jaws. Other films of the year which I have seen are Monty Python and the Holy Grail, The Rocky Horror Picture Show (many many times), The Return of the Pink Panther, Love and Death and One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing. The Rocky Horror Picture Show is one of my favourite films, but I have no hesitation in admitting that One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is the best of them (IMDB users agree, on bothratings). Here’s a trailer.
In case you did not know, it is the story of a petty criminal who gets himself referred to the state psychiatric hospital, and leads the other inmates in various acts of empowering rebellion against the oppressive nurses, until a final reckoning with a tragic ending. I confess that because of my close personal connection with the subject of people living in institutions, I postponed watching this for a few weeks. Against my expectations, I found myself really liking it, and I’m putting it 7th in my overall list, behind Bridge on the River Kwai but ahead of Midnight Cowboy. In some ways I thought it was better than the book (which as usual I reread after watching the film).
I did not find any actors who had previously appeared in Oscar-winning films. I found one who had been in a Hugo-winning film – Marya Small, now known as Mews Small, who is Candy here and was Dr Nero, in charge of brainwashing Woody Allen, in Sleeper.
To start with the less good points, it’s our old friends race and gender. This is a story about white men having problems with women and with non-white men. The patients are all white (apart from one Native American who barely speaks – more on that when we get to the book). The orderlies are black. The evil nurses are women. The good women are sex workers. The film is a bit more balanced than the book in giving us the nurses’ point of view; but it’s even less balanced than the book on race. An extraordinary bit of erasure is that one of the psychiatrists, Dr Sonjee, is played by a real psychiatrist, Prasanna K. Pati, who is simply not credited anywhere despite getting several spoken lines in the film. (I see claims that he is the only person of Oriya origin to have appeared in an Oscar-winning film, though I would be surprised if there were nonw at all in Gandhi.)
Having said that, kudos to Dr P.K. Pati and even more so to Dean Brooks, who was in fact the real-life director of the Oregon State Hospital at the time the film was made, and plays his own fictional counterpart Dr Spivey. Several other staff – and indeed apparently patients – at the hospital were involved with the production of the film, either in front of or behind the camera, but here let Dean Brooks stand for them all. I was talking to a psychiatrist friend the other day, who told me that as a student her class had had to watch the film to be sensitised to popular culture perceptions of their chosen profession; it does not show them in an unambiguously good light, and they would have known this going in. (This is a step further than The French Connection, in which a very small part was played by the same guy who had done it in real life, and the policemen on whom the two central characters were based themselves appeared as secondary characters, all very heroic in each case.)
The soundscape and landscape are both well done here. The music, with use of bowed saw and stroking wineglasses, is eerie and extraordinary.
And the cinematography is generally compelling – my favourite scene, as it is for may viewers, is the fishing expedition:
Though this is possibly one of the few scenes that isn’t improvised – the immersion of the cast and crew in the culture of the real hospital, with cameras on all the time and sometimes catching the actors flashing their own character instead of their parts, makes for an extraordinary viewing experience.
The tragic ending is signalled way in advance, but all the more effective for the way it is done, and I am glad that the film-makers did not cop out and stayed true to the book in that regard. Tremendous stuff.
The second paragraph of the third chapter of the original novel is:
“What, Miss Ratched, is your opinion of this new patient? I mean, gee, he’s good-looking and friendly and everything, but in my humble opinion he certainly takes over.”
This is a pretty tough book, in many ways: the violence and abuse perpetrated by the staff of the mental institution where the story is set is uncomfortable to read (and I have a daughter who is permanently institutionalised, so it cuts rather close to home). Also I was rather dismayed by the racism and sexism of the story: the only black characters are the brutal male nurses (though the narrator is half Native American); the main female character is the Big Evil Nurse (the other women depicted are two prostitutes and the Little Good Nurse, who comes in only at the end). It was probably not Kesey’s intention, but I could see white American men who believe that they are being oppressed taking comfort and inspiration from this novel.
Having said that, it would be the wrong message. The book is about disorder and development – disorder in two senses, the mental disorders that many of the patients suffer and the disorder and subversion that McMurphy brings to the ward, and the opportunities he offers for his fellow inmates to develop n new directions. There is a tremendously cathartic couple of chapters about a deep-sea fishing expedition which almost summarises the entire book. The violent conclusion leaves several key characters dead but gives others the means of liberating themselves. So in the end I was glad to have read it, though I will not come back to it any time soon.
The crucial difference with the film is that the Native American patient is the narrator and viewpoint character of the entire novel, whereas he is one of the supporting cast in the film – an important one, but largely silent; and the fact that the focus therefore moves away from him makes the film all the whiter. (It was apparently this specific change that Ken Kesey cited as his reason for never watching the film.)
Next up is Rocky, for which I have no expectations; but I will watch the Hugo-winning A Boy and His Dog first.
Fri, 15:14: RT @AmIRightSir: Kamala Harris was born on the same day that the 31st President, Herbert Hoover, died at the age of 90 (he held the record…
Fri, 17:17: RT @laevisiloki: Haven’t seen these circulating on twitter yet so here are open letters for Oxbridge alumni to sign to encourage their univ…
15 August 1963: birth of Con O'Neil, who played April's father in Class.
ii) broadcast anniversary
15 August 1964: broadcast of "Guests of Madame Guillotine", the second episode of the story we now call The Reign of Terror. The Doctor narrowly escapes both the burning barn and a forced labour gang; Ian, Susan and Barbara are imprisoned in the Conciergerie, and, as the episode ends, Susan and Barbara are taken off for the chop…
iii) date specified in canon
15 August 2003: The Seventh Doctor, Ace and Bernice Summerfield visit the Pinehill Crest Hotel in Kent which is hosting three very different events: a cross-stitch convention, an experiment in time travel and… the summoning of the Scourge. (Big Finish audio play, The Shadow of the Scourge, October 2000.)
Thu, 20:31: RT @tmtm: I think I’ve now added every information to Wikidata about every candidate in every historic UK Parliamentary Election for the cu…
Correction: Ten years ago I listed this as being Alexander Armstrong's birthday, which it isn't. Can't find anyone else who satisfies my usual criteria.
ii) broadcast anniversaries
14 August 2011: release of the prequel for Let's Kill Hitler.
iii) date specified in-universe
14 August 1819: The Fifth Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan land in the outskirts of Manchester, in 2016 Big Finish audio The Peterloo Massacre.
Current Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel The Maze of Doom, by David Solomons Jerusalem: Mansoul, by Alan Moore One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey
Last books finished Jerusalem: The Boroughs, by Alan Moore
Next books The Mirror and the Light, by Hilary Mantel East West Street, by Philippe Sands
When I first did these posts in 2010-11, I skipped this date because I could not find anything relevant. There still isn't much, but there's more than nothing.
i) births and deaths
13 August 2017: death of Victor Pemberton, the first person to have both written a Doctor Who story and also acted in one. He was also script editor of the show in 1967. He wrote Fury from the Deep (Second Doctor, 1968) and Doctor Who and the Pescatons (Fourth Doctor audio, 1976), and appeared as the minor character Jules Faure, a crewman who gets converted into a Cyberman, in The Moonbase (Second Doctor, 1967).
ii) broadcast anniversaries
None.
iii) dates specified in-universe
This is really clutching at straws. On 13 August 1945, Daniel O'Kane kills most of his family, as later recounted by his surviving brother to his long-lost son (see pic below) in P.R.O.B.E.: The Zero Imperative, which stars Caroline John as Liz Shaw and some other Whoniverse actors in other roles. The specific mention of 13 August is at the 48 minute mark. (Audio here is not very good but you can probably get a better copy easily enough.)
Following the early Saxon occupation the area was returned to agriculture, as shown by the cultivation horizon which accumulated over the early Saxon features. Apparently this persisted throughout the middle Saxon period. A single ditch may have formed a field boundary relating to this cultivation which divided the area along a line mid-way between the main palaeochannel and the southern course of the Cotton Brook. In the north-western corner of the site faint linear "features" may represent plough-furrows aligned parallel with the suggested field boundary.
Back in the autumn of 1985, when I was 18, I spent two months working as a volunteer on the dig at West Cotton, just outside the obscure village of Raunds in Northamptonshire. It was a growing experience for me – the first time I had been working outside of home (I was 18). Most of my fellow diggers were local unemployed people supplied by the Manpower Services Commission (as it then was), overseen by a trio of real archaeologists, Dave Windell, Andy Chapman and Jo Woodiwiss, who published this slim booklet about their initial findings a few years later. You can (probably) download it here.
West Cotton was known to have been an Anglo-Saxon settlement, which survived the Norman invasion and became deserted in the decades following the Black Death in the mid 1300's. It only gradually became apparent (and the first signs were there in my time) that this minor rise in the valley of the river Nene had also been a centre of Neolithic and Bronze Age ritual three thousand years earlier. In the initial phase of excavation, while I was there, it became clear that there was a three-ringed barrow under the highest point of the (low-lying) Saxon village; subsequent exploration uncovered a whole ritual landscape.
The site seems to have been little used once the Bronze Age properly kicked in, including through Roman times (in my day a Roman villa was discovered a few fields away). But in Saxon times it once again became a centre of activity, a farmstead built unknowingly where the ancestors had worshipped three millennia before.
Even in the early days of 1985, some fascinating finds were made. A number of flat stones were discovered with an engraved pattern of three suares connected by vertical and horizontal lines – boards for the ancient game of Nine Men's Morris. I wondered then if the all-England Nine Men's Morris Championships for the year 985 had taken place in West Cotton. Apparently the boards have now been dated to the end of the settlement in the village, ie 13th and 14th centuries, but I still wonder. (This graphic and the next photograph are from a different paper.)
Most poignant of all, one of the boards was found at the feet of the only representative art found on the site, which I remember causing much excitement when it was uncovered back in 1985 – a sculpture of a praying figure, some thought a knight (though I don't see any evidence of armour or arms). Did this come from the end of days in West Cotton, as the plague hit and the villagers realised that their way of life had become unsustainable? The look of concern and worry in the face of an incomprehensible pandemic speaks to us across the centuries. I leave you with this message from 650 years ago; we don't know exactly what it says, but we can make a darn good guess.
Wed, 10:45: RT @AlishaRai: This headline reminds me of the time my friend’s mom pitched a fit when she found out my mom made us tandoori for dinner bec…
12 August 1947: birth of John Nathan Turner, producer of Doctor Who for the last nine seasons of the classic run, starting with the Fourth Doctor's final season and continuing for the whole of the last three Doctors of Old Who. Controversial and colourful, like him or loathe him, nobody can dispute the depth of his influence on the show. I recommend Richard Marson's biography.
12 August 1969: birth of Nev Fountain, author of many tie-in media and Nicola Bryant's other half.
12 August 2003: death of Anne Tirard, who played Locusta the poisoner in the story we now call The Romans (First Doctor, 1965) and the Seeker in The Ribos Operation (Fourth Doctor, 1978).
12 August 2004: death of Alec Wallis, who played Leading Telegraphist Bowman in The Sea Devils (Third Doctor, 1972) and Warner the communications technician in Revenge of the Cybermen (Fourth Doctor, 1975).
ii) broadcast anniversary
12 August 2011: first showing of The Middle Men, sixth episode of the fourth series of Torchwood. Gwen and Rhys bust her father out of the Cowbridge camp, but when she reaches L.A. she gets a call to tell her that her family have been captured.
iii) date specified in-universe
Same picture as yesterday; apparently Wilmington emerged victorious over Kinsbroke on 12 August 1904, as seen in the 2008 Torchwood episode, From Out of the Rain.
The first part of August 2007 was spent on holiday in Northern Ireland as usual, with MeCon a particular high point. My account of it here and here, but my favuourite picture, for sentimental reasons, is this one:
We got back to a very grim situation with B, which culminated in her being removed from the house at the end of the month by three burly ambulancemen to give us a break for a few weeks, still waiting for a permanent residential place to become available. In the meantime we got very little sleep, and were very stressed.
So I only read 13 books that month, mostly non-fiction.
Mon, 12:56: RT @tombennett71: This letter, from Albert Camus immediately after he was awarded the Nobel Prize,to his childhood teacher Louis Germaine,…
![the-massacre-3[1].jpg](https://i0.wp.com/fromtheheartofeurope.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/1826492_600.jpg?w=584&ssl=1 "the-massacre-3[1].jpg")
