Posted in Aside

On suspending disbelief

Posted on by an old grey dog

I find the “willing suspension of disbelief” when reading fiction very odd. Not odd that it’s necessary for enjoyment of the story, but that the limits to how much disbelief we will suspend are so variable. The amount of sheer… rubbish… that we can accept in a good book can be enormous, yet at other times we require close adherence to reality.

Case in point: I’m a fan of science fiction and fantasy, so I can readily accept faster-than-light travel, magic and dragons — good grief, I love Doctor Who. I’m currently reading a book that’s a sort of supernatural police procedural, and this requires me to accept demonic possession, archangels on motorbikes, premonition and a few other totally impossible things.

Yet, when it came down to it, the thing I scoffed mightily at (and which has spoiled the book for me) is that the author expects me to believe that the Glastonbury festival takes place at the beginning of April!

Ludicrous idea.

Posted in Uncategorized

The power of words

Posted on by an old grey dog

I was reflecting just now on the way that the addition of a single word can sometimes transform a phrase from a hopeless, dispiriting signifier of joyless morbidity into a pean of delight and liberation.

The particular word that triggered this thought was the “former” in the phrase “former Education Secretary Michael Gove”.

 

Taste?

It is an infallible law of the universe that people who have the greatest desire to share their musical listening with the wider world also have the crappiest taste in music.

Posted in Uncategorized

Crisis? What crisis?

Posted on by an old grey dog

Can someone explain why the abdication of King Juan Carlos of Spain should be referred to in the press as a ‘crisis‘?

As I see it, one unelected member of a privileged elite is stepping aside to give another unelected member of a privileged elite a go. Why should this concern anyone but them? Except, of course, insofar as the people pay for them to enjoy their priviliged lifestyles. The only problem that I can see is that, one of the having called it a day, there should be another waiting to take on the parasitism.

Bring on the republic!

Posted in politics

Dear Mr. Farage…

Posted on by an old grey dog

I understand that recently you were made to feel uncomfortable by hearing people speaking in a foreign language on a train. Yesterday, I heard three non-English languages being spoken in the course of a short tram journey.

Here’s the thing, though: my life was not adversely affected one iota by it. I think that may be because I’m not a fucking xenophobe.

Posted in politics

Pardoned? What for?

Posted on by an old grey dog

So, Alan Turing gets a Royal Pardon. What is he being pardoned for? Being gay? Being persecuted by the state for being gay?

There should be no pardon: being gay should never have been a crime. What is needed is the recognition that the crime should never have existed and that everybody who was convicted under it should be considered to have no such ‘stain’ on their character. A pardon implies forgiveness, but if there was no wrong, there is no forgiveness.

That still leaves the persecution by the state, of course. Nothing we do can amend that, but we can continue to to work towards implementing real equality for everyone, so that the need for this retrospective action does not occur again.

Posted in evolution, religion, science

I don’t care what your magic book says, we are related.

Posted on by an old grey dog

(This post is based on one I wrote for my main photography blog.)

Humans — Homo sapiens — are closely related to chimpanzees, gorillas and orang-utans: the other great apes. This is simple fact. We share a last common ancestor (LCA) with chimpanzees; this ancestor lived about 6–8 million years ago (Mya). The LCA of (Humans/Chimps) and gorillas lived about 10 Mya, and the LCA of (Humans/Chimps/Gorillas) and Orang-utans lived about 10–16 Mya. Continue reading “I don’t care what your magic book says, we are related.” →

Posted in politics, privilege, rant, royalty

Royalty, privilege and the ear of government

Posted on by an old grey dog

I see from today’s Grauniad that ‘[a] former Tory minister has defended Prince Charles‘s right to have secret meetings with members of the government’. Apparently Tim Loughton says that the unelected parasiteprince had ‘always come across as “well briefed and knowledgeable” in their meetings’.

Continue reading “Royalty, privilege and the ear of government” →