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rivendellroseQuestions!
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icepixie:
1. What's your favorite thing about Seattle?
This is such a difficult question for me! I think it's the location, in a lot of ways, when I get right down to it. I love being close to the sound, but protected from the ocean; I love being in kind of a little basin of lakes and foothills and mountains. And, because I'm a horrible wimp about extreme temperatures (especially heat), I love how temperate it is here. Sometimes it bugs me that we don't get nice clear seasons with long, bright, hot summers and brilliant fall foliage and lots of snow in the winter, but I'm so well adapted to Seattle's mildness all around and the fact that it's rare for us to get extremes of anything for more than a week that I don't think I'd be happy long-term with anything else.
2. Who's your favorite visual artist (or what's your favorite school or style)?
Oh, man. So many questions that are hard to pin down! I'm going to have to call a tie on the basis that my two favorites are too disparate in style and content for me to really pick between them. Alfonse Mucha is obviously one, and the other is probably Mike Mignola. If there were a way to combine the two of them, I would be the happiest person ever. ;)
3. What did you want to be when you grew up?
Ha, so many crazy things. But the one that lasted longest was a paleontologist.
4. When did you get into sci-fi and other genre stuff, and how?
When I was in... 2nd grade, I think, the school librarian gave me "The Hobbit." I read anything with a dragon in it for the next... oh, probably about ten years. ;)
5. If you could live anywhere, where would you live?
Honestly, I'd probably stay in the general environs of Seattle, or maybe Portland, OR. I'd like to live in England, but I haven't been yet and so can't really say for sure that it would agree with me as well as I imagine. ;) It would be tempting to move to the San Juan Islands, if money was no object - they're one of the most rural and untouched areas around Seattle, most can't be reached except by boat or sea-plane, and I'd get a kick out of living out in the boonies again, if I could work out the whole "I hate driving" issue that crops up around it.
Fromdeborah_judge:
1. Are you done with BSG fandom or are you still thinking about it?
Definitely not done thinking about it! I got sucked back into B5 fandom, and have been spending most of my creative energy on a long project there, but when my best friend gets home from Taiwan in a few months I will be accompanying her through her first watching of BSG, and I fully expect new stuff to come out of that. ♥
2. What do you think BSG gets most right in its approach to polytheism?
The thing they get best is the absorbtion-power of polytheism. When confronted with anything other than a strict monotheism, polytheism has a great power to just absorb other religions and universes - I seem to recall there was a reference to Mithraism in there, and we certainly had mixing of pantheons (mostly Greek, some Roman, some Egyptian). I liked that a lot.
3. What do you think it gets most wrong?
The way this is handled probably changes a lot from culture to culture, but I never got the sense that the Colonials worshipped the gods individually or had particular gods they were inclined toward, apart from the Sons (or was it Brothers?) of Ares. I think it’s valid that people might just worship the pantheon as a whole, but it seemed strange to me that people wouldn’t have particular gods they felt closer to, and I would have been interested to see how that played out.
4. If Lennier decided to get over Delenn and marry someone else, who would it be?
Honestly? Someone we haven’t met. Almost certainly a Minbari, Religious or Worker caste. Still older than him, I think, and probably still a fairly strong-minded person. I could easily see him escaping back to a temple to try to get away from the world and his feelings, and ending up falling in a very quiet, shockingly practical way for a priestess there.
5. Have you ever met anyone in real life who reminded you of Lennier?
Yup. A friend of some friends in college - lovely guy in a very quiet, gentle sort of way. It took me half a dinner to realize I was flirting with him, about five minutes more to realize who he reminded me of. Sweet guy, I still see him occasionally, but we’re very much in different sections of the social group we’re both in, but it does always kind of make me smile when I realize how I react to him. ;)
If you want questions, just ask and I'll give you five for you to answer in your own entry!
From
icepixie:1. What's your favorite thing about Seattle?
This is such a difficult question for me! I think it's the location, in a lot of ways, when I get right down to it. I love being close to the sound, but protected from the ocean; I love being in kind of a little basin of lakes and foothills and mountains. And, because I'm a horrible wimp about extreme temperatures (especially heat), I love how temperate it is here. Sometimes it bugs me that we don't get nice clear seasons with long, bright, hot summers and brilliant fall foliage and lots of snow in the winter, but I'm so well adapted to Seattle's mildness all around and the fact that it's rare for us to get extremes of anything for more than a week that I don't think I'd be happy long-term with anything else.
2. Who's your favorite visual artist (or what's your favorite school or style)?
Oh, man. So many questions that are hard to pin down! I'm going to have to call a tie on the basis that my two favorites are too disparate in style and content for me to really pick between them. Alfonse Mucha is obviously one, and the other is probably Mike Mignola. If there were a way to combine the two of them, I would be the happiest person ever. ;)
3. What did you want to be when you grew up?
Ha, so many crazy things. But the one that lasted longest was a paleontologist.
4. When did you get into sci-fi and other genre stuff, and how?
When I was in... 2nd grade, I think, the school librarian gave me "The Hobbit." I read anything with a dragon in it for the next... oh, probably about ten years. ;)
5. If you could live anywhere, where would you live?
Honestly, I'd probably stay in the general environs of Seattle, or maybe Portland, OR. I'd like to live in England, but I haven't been yet and so can't really say for sure that it would agree with me as well as I imagine. ;) It would be tempting to move to the San Juan Islands, if money was no object - they're one of the most rural and untouched areas around Seattle, most can't be reached except by boat or sea-plane, and I'd get a kick out of living out in the boonies again, if I could work out the whole "I hate driving" issue that crops up around it.
From
deborah_judge: 1. Are you done with BSG fandom or are you still thinking about it?
Definitely not done thinking about it! I got sucked back into B5 fandom, and have been spending most of my creative energy on a long project there, but when my best friend gets home from Taiwan in a few months I will be accompanying her through her first watching of BSG, and I fully expect new stuff to come out of that. ♥
2. What do you think BSG gets most right in its approach to polytheism?
The thing they get best is the absorbtion-power of polytheism. When confronted with anything other than a strict monotheism, polytheism has a great power to just absorb other religions and universes - I seem to recall there was a reference to Mithraism in there, and we certainly had mixing of pantheons (mostly Greek, some Roman, some Egyptian). I liked that a lot.
3. What do you think it gets most wrong?
The way this is handled probably changes a lot from culture to culture, but I never got the sense that the Colonials worshipped the gods individually or had particular gods they were inclined toward, apart from the Sons (or was it Brothers?) of Ares. I think it’s valid that people might just worship the pantheon as a whole, but it seemed strange to me that people wouldn’t have particular gods they felt closer to, and I would have been interested to see how that played out.
4. If Lennier decided to get over Delenn and marry someone else, who would it be?
Honestly? Someone we haven’t met. Almost certainly a Minbari, Religious or Worker caste. Still older than him, I think, and probably still a fairly strong-minded person. I could easily see him escaping back to a temple to try to get away from the world and his feelings, and ending up falling in a very quiet, shockingly practical way for a priestess there.
5. Have you ever met anyone in real life who reminded you of Lennier?
Yup. A friend of some friends in college - lovely guy in a very quiet, gentle sort of way. It took me half a dinner to realize I was flirting with him, about five minutes more to realize who he reminded me of. Sweet guy, I still see him occasionally, but we’re very much in different sections of the social group we’re both in, but it does always kind of make me smile when I realize how I react to him. ;)
If you want questions, just ask and I'll give you five for you to answer in your own entry!
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no subject
Date: 2011-06-12 08:06 pm (UTC)I could see that too. If he were 'real', that's probably what would've happened.
I think it’s valid that people might just worship the pantheon as a whole, but it seemed strange to me that people wouldn’t have particular gods they felt closer to, and I would have been interested to see how that played out.
Yes, that strikes me as odd too. Can I ask a bonus question - which deities do you think your favourite BSG polytheists would've connected to? I'm thinking in particular of Helo, who doesn't seem attached to a particular deity.
Definitely not done thinking about it!
Glad to hear it! And looking forward to the B5 fic as well.
no subject
Date: 2011-06-12 08:20 pm (UTC)Helo's the trickiest one, definitely. Helios is one possibility that appeals to me - he's a Titan, not an Olympian, but he was apparently worshiped outside Athens, and he has some potential in that he's described as the brother of Eos (the "first" goddess of the dawn in the same way that Helios was the sun and his sister Selene the moon), which I might fanwank as fitting to his relationship with Kara as Aurora. His wikipedia entry is pretty interesting (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helios), actually. All more symbolic than anything else, and if we assume that the Colonies and particularly Caprica are meant to be essentially Athenian then there's no real reason for Helo to worship Helios, but I've always kind of liked it anyway.
Gaeta's another I've wondered about a bit, and I think he might be a good candidate for a devotee of Hermes - swiftness and intelligence and language, boundaries and travel, and cunning triumphing over strength all strike me as the sorts of things he might value.
no subject
Date: 2011-06-12 08:25 pm (UTC)Mm yes, Gaeta of course was devoted to Hermes. Probably Dee as well, maybe that's one thing they bonded over.
no subject
Date: 2011-06-12 08:27 pm (UTC)Hermes seems a likely god to take up computers, if the Greek pantheon were still around (in active worship) today. He's got all the right attributes to be a god of techies. ;)
no subject
Date: 2011-06-12 08:32 pm (UTC)And do you think it went in families? Would Dee have taken on Lee's particular deity when she married him, or vice versa? Do you think Bill and Lee would've been attached to the same deity? (Do you mind my asking you these questions? This is interesting.)
no subject
Date: 2011-06-12 09:02 pm (UTC)There don't seem to have been household gods in Greece like there were in Rome or folkloric Russia, so it would seem likely to me that if Dee was to take on a particular deity she didn't already worship on marrying Lee, it would have been Hestia, the goddess of the hearth. Maybe also Hera, as the goddess of married women and the female realm of the household. That one might have been particularly potent for Dee once it was obvious that Lee was going to continue his on-again, off-again affair with Kara... although Hera is fairly unforgiving and vengeful in those matters, which doesn't seem Dee's style at all. Hestia is a very... quiet, comfortable sort of goddess, homey in a pleasant sort of way. I think Dee would probably be likely to ask her help in keeping her husband at home, rather than to ask Hera, who might very well do something unpleasant to him (or, more likely, to Kara). From what I understand about the Greek pantheon, and about polytheism in general practice (...and boy oh boy is that an "ask six polytheists, get twelve answers" kind of subject...), while one might feel especially inclined toward a particular deity, or even somewhat marked by that deity, there are always situations in which you would apply to others. For instance, if I'm a sailor, I'm going to spend a lot of time and attention in worship of Poseidon, and maybe the particular deities of the winds... but if I'm having problems with a sickness, I'm still going to pray to Apollo, because he's the god of healing, and in great need to Zeus, because he's the father of the gods. (I, personally, am/have been very wary of praying directly to gods like Zeus and Odin - they tend not to be interested in people who aren't important, and, especially in the case of Odin, it's really... just kind of not a good idea to catch his attention. He makes use of people who are 'his' in ways that are often not beneficial to the individual themselves. It's always for the benefit of the world, but on a long-term basis, and... it's a bit presumptuous, in any case, to go to a deity like that for anything other than the really big stuff. I'm rambling, now, but I think that kind of attitude is attested at least to some extent in traditional cultures - in common worship, Thor was a hell of a lot more popular than Odin, and I don't think it was just because Odin was a god for the chieftain class, while Thor was a god of the farmers and common folk. I would imagine that the same kind of thing transfers to the Greek pantheon. Someone like Helo or Dee would probably not request anything of Zeus except in a major emergency, although they would certainly venerate him in ceremonies along with everyone else.
Bill and Lee is another interesting question... Bill is one person that I, at least, associate with Zeus, and I think he would be comfortable with that. I think most of the really military types probably worship Zeus and Ares, and probably Apollo in his martial aspect as well, and Hermes. Both Adama men, I think, would be particularly drawn to Zeus - they're born leaders.
And I don't mind in the slightest - I love this kind of conversation! It's always interesting to try to guess how this kind of thing would work.
...Whoa, wall of text. Sorry about that. I got a little carried away.
no subject
Date: 2011-06-12 09:47 pm (UTC)Art Noveau comics! Yes!
Although I could live without summer and winter, I would really miss fall and spring if I ever moved to the west or Gulf coasts, I think. Then again, no summer or winter is a pretty powerful draw. (Heh, well, no summer for the PNW, anyway. ENDLESS summer for Florida.)
Five questions, please!
no subject
Date: 2011-06-12 09:59 pm (UTC)It would rock! Someone should totally do this. ♥
Ah, but the whole year is spring or autumn... sort of... At least in the sense that it's always threatening to maybe rain, but maybe it won't, but maybe it will... and then when you get a brilliant sunny day, it's a huge awesome shock!
Oooo, let's see.
1. What is your favorite movie with awesome dancing?
2. What were your favorite and least favorite things about doing grad school in literature?
3. What's your favorite thing about living in Nashville?
4. Do you see yourself moving away from Tennessee, and, if you do, where would you want to live?
5. What was the craziest thing a student tried to get away with in one of your classes?
no subject
Date: 2011-06-13 12:09 am (UTC)Heh. I meant more in an "awesome fall foliage" kind of way, but I suppose you're correct there...
At least in the sense that it's always threatening to maybe rain, but maybe it won't, but maybe it will...
Heh, that's a summer afternoon here. Maybe there will be a pop-up thunderstorm! Maybe those clouds will just cloud around and thunder a bit but not actually rain! Maybe it will be so humid that water will spontaneously condense on any flat surface!
no subject
Date: 2011-06-12 10:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-12 10:18 pm (UTC)Questions!
1. I admit, I totally associate you with your dandelion icon in my mind. Are dandelions particularly significant to you, and, if so, why?
2. Since you mentioned it - where do you stand on the whole theory and practice of polytheism, in terms of having individual gods to which one prays within a pantheon, or having certain gods you might be interested in but not particularly inclined to associate yourself with?
3. What do you think of the fuss over the impending new Twilight movie?
4. Who's your favorite visual artist (or artistic style)?
5. ....Jello makes you twitch? Really?
no subject
Date: 2011-06-14 07:17 am (UTC)