{"id":10379,"date":"2013-04-28T20:47:05","date_gmt":"2013-04-29T00:47:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=10379"},"modified":"2013-04-28T20:47:05","modified_gmt":"2013-04-29T00:47:05","slug":"sunday-30","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=10379","title":{"rendered":"Sunday"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

Last night, I made the mistake of watching The Chronicles of Riddick<\/a>, which takes the perfectly fine Aliens<\/i> knock-off Pitch Black<\/i> and decides its sequel should be a ponderous bore of CGI and bad set design. <\/p>\n

I posted some about it here<\/a>, on Twitter, and I posted what I think is the film’s one<\/i> genuinely good scene here<\/a> on my Tumblr (my other blog). Actually, that scene comes in a stretch of the film that looks like it could<\/i> have been decent, and one that at least feels<\/i> like it’s in any way connected to Pitch Black<\/i>. But overall, the movie’s pretty lousy. I don’t think Vin Diesel is necessarily to blame for this — which is why, lord help me, I’m still holding out some small hope for the upcoming Riddick<\/i> — but it’s a very bad movie. People who try to tell you it’s underrated, and there are a few, are quite wrong.<\/p>\n

This week’s Doctor Who<\/i> wasn’t terrible, though. It was surprisingly not brilliant, either, given the meaty “journey to the heart of the TARDIS” plotline, but it was decent enough. This season — or this second half of the seventh season; and therein may be part of the problem — has been kind of hit or miss, I think. I genuinely like Jenna-Louise Coleman, so I don’t think it’s quite her fault. But I feel like the show lost something, maybe just a bit of its momentum, with the loss of Amy and Rory, and it hasn’t quite regained whatever it is, whatever it needs, to regain its footing. (Had Amy and Rory’s departure not felt a little rushed, or come at the end<\/i> of the season instead of the middle, I might not feel quite the same.) Still, a decent enough episode.<\/p>\n

And then today I wrote this:<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153You think darkness is your ally,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the zombie said with a shiver.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The building is on fire,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the professor said, rubbing her forehead.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Would you two shut up out there?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said a third voice from within. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Some of us are trying to sleep.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

The zombie and the professor eyed each other, then the professor sighed, speaking softly. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think my metaphor still holds.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The building, as you call it, is always on fire,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said the zombie. He was less concerned about waking their guest, but he too had begun to whisper. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153That is the nature of buildings. They are built up only to be burnt. Your problem is you think the darkness within will save the edifice without.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re mighty philosophical for a man who hungers for human flesh,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said the professor. She had had this argument with the zombie many times, and it was late, she was tired, not thinking straight. She knew the human flesh crack was low, that if he was sensitive about anything it was that. But, rubbing her forehead again, the professor wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t so sure that she cared.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Sorry,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said anyway, knowing that if she didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t they would never get any sleep. And then in the morning, when their guest awoke…<\/p>\n

No, she had promised herself she wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even think about that now. It had been a stupid gesture to even invite him here, stupid of him to come, no doubt, to stroll right into the lair of his two sworn enemies, but even more stupid for either of them to have let him in, for any of them to think that some good would come of this foolish exercise. She would be lucky if she survived past the morning, and there was no way that would happen if she exhausted herself debating metaphors with a dead man long into the night.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think we just have to agree to disagree,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. She could tell he was hurt. The turning had left him undead, but not unfeeling, as he was all too fond of reminding her. He felt every death, and he had not killed in several months. Yet the hunger still remained. To remind him of that need — that<\/i> had been truly stupid. She needed him on her side, now more than ever, and so she did not make a habit of rubbing salt in those old wounds. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re both tired,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she told him.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t sleep,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d was all he said.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153You know what I mean,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she offered. She sighed, then added, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean anything by that, by what I said.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153This is what happens,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the zombie said, slowly, softly, keeping his voice low but making sure she heard each word, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153when you consort with the darkness.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Without the darkness,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said, still arguing despite herself, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153you and I would have nowhere to stand. That thing in there — \u00e2\u20ac\u0153 and here she pointed to the tent \u00e2\u20ac\u0153 — that man, he<\/i> is of the light. His is the fire that burns down our buildings. His is the blinding and blistering flame that must, must<\/i> be snuffed out.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I can still hear you both, you know,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said the third voice.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I need to sleep,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the professor said to the zombie. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We can debate tactics in the morning. You have my word, darkness or no darkness, that I won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t try to kill him before then.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It started with a kind of weird prompt: two quotes — I provided the second one up top — with the dialogue tags and characters added by someone else. I haven’t got a clue what’s going on in this story, but I think there’s something.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last night, I made the mistake of watching The Chronicles of Riddick, which takes the perfectly fine Aliens knock-off Pitch Black and decides its sequel should be a ponderous bore of CGI and bad set design. I posted some about it here, on Twitter, and I posted what I think is the film’s one genuinely … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[18,14,28,17],"class_list":["post-10379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-doctor-who","tag-movies","tag-personal","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10379"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10379"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10382,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10379\/revisions\/10382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}