Comments on PaulCornell.com: Casual Fridays: The Monty Python Yes

Welcome aboard.

2012-01-18T07:42:55.169Z

Welcome aboard.

Casual Fridays...cool, even thou I'm only catc...

2012-01-17T21:00:04.872Z

Casual Fridays...cool, even thou I'm only catching up with your blog on a casual Tuesday...and I may well be catching up with the next one as I'm out celebrating a 50th birthday. Thankfully, not my own. Thou it won't be long :ol

I agree, I think a lot of this is a kind of passiv...

2012-01-10T06:27:53.242Z

I agree, I think a lot of this is a kind of passive/aggressive reaction on the BBC's part to the Jerry Springer: The Opera protests of a decade or so back. (And how hideously misjudged they were.) Mind you, 'the BBC' is very rarely one entity, and usually this sort of stuff is decided by someone at one desk with their own range of worries, tics and prejudices.

@Paul: I see it as a "careful what you wish ...

2012-01-09T19:47:58.806Z

@Paul:

I see it as a "careful what you wish for" situation. too many people protested too many times.

the BBC and others responded with: "you don't want to get offended? all right, we won't offend you. we will airbrush the religion [and other controversial things] away."

I first cottoned onto this when I heard about the things the BBC won't have Big Finish include in their DOCTOR WHO audio plays any more.

the family animated film THE SECRET OF KELLS takes in a monastery... despite him, no references to God or Jesus and not a single cross. (still a good film regardless.)

Thanks, Paul. You've made me think and I wonde...

2012-01-08T15:57:22.513Z

Thanks, Paul. You've made me think and I wondered if there was any 'wider reading' on the subject I could do.

I'll just have to some 'wider thinking' instead. ;o)

Looking forward to the next 'Casual Friday'.

Cheers
Matt Badham

I think that's my own word, Matt, and I don...

2012-01-08T15:05:03.095Z

I think that's my own word, Matt, and I don't know of anyone else trying to talk about it in public. But then, I haven't really looked, Casual Fridays being just me talking off the top of my head.

Hi Paul This issue, of Theophobia -- is that the ...

2012-01-08T13:39:34.386Z

Hi Paul

This issue, of Theophobia -- is that the correct term? I'm sure it's the one I've heard you use -- fascinates me. Do you know if anyone else is writing about/discussing it or are you a lone voice?

Thanks for writing tip 41. Food for thought, as ever.

Cheers
Matt Badham

Nick: that's just saying what I'm saying i...

2012-01-08T11:40:58.015Z

Nick: that's just saying what I'm saying in a different way. There are loads of decisions, both conscious and unconscious on the way to that, including the very debatable assumption that we're living in a secular age: not outside Britain, or perhaps London, or perhaps just part of London. *Why* is that 'contemporary default' there? And why is that okay, when it results in my people being written out of fiction and fact? Jason: that Weetabix game is full on Proustian for me.

I like Casual Fridays. Bravo! I also like this n...

2012-01-07T19:10:43.946Z

I like Casual Fridays. Bravo!

I also like this new issue of Vworp Vworp! Those Weetabix games feel almost as deeply entrenched in my childhood as the Target novels.

I'm not sure that 'Merlin' is d...

2012-01-07T11:44:40.884Z

I'm not sure that 'Merlin' is deliberately avoiding the issue of religion. I think it's just that the show, despite having a dark age setting, chooses to present its characters as having contemporary knowledge and attitudes.

Gaius is the most obvious example of this: a dark age doctor whose knowledge of medicine somehow includes the circulation of blood and the germ theory of disease; a man who, centuries before Copernicus, owns a model solar system that shows the planets orbiting the sun.

We also see it in Arthur's attitudes to marriage. A real dark age king wouldn't reject a politically valuable marriage in order to wed a servant girl - he would think nothing of marrying the princess and keeping the servant as a mistress.

'Merlin' could show its characters as having dark age religious beliefs, but as with marriage and medicine it chooses instead to give them contemporary attitudes - and in terms of religion, the contemporary default is secular.

And I hope that's in a Scottish accent. (Nobod...

2012-01-07T11:38:04.436Z

And I hope that's in a Scottish accent. (Nobody else knows what we're talking about.)

I wore my white tie - did you?

2012-01-06T18:02:10.756Z

I wore my white tie - did you?

Drop me a line at paulfanfictionmas@yahoo.com and ...

2012-01-06T17:07:23.688Z

Drop me a line at paulfanfictionmas@yahoo.com and tell me your postal address. Well done!

Yes! You win!

2012-01-06T17:06:27.102Z

Yes! You win!

[is first!] [does the happy dance]

2012-01-06T17:05:57.533Z

[is first!]
[does the happy dance]

That'll be The Brain of Morbius, then! [wonde...

2012-01-06T17:04:44.215Z

That'll be The Brain of Morbius, then!

[wonders if he's first]