Intuition...

I read a phrase this morning that I thought intersting.

It was by writer Steven Berlin Johnson, and he said: "...it lets me see something statistically that I've thought a great deal about intuitively as a writer".

Isn't that a paradox? If you've thought a great deal about something, it isn't intuitive? Or conversely, if it's intuitive, a great deal of thought isn't appplicable?

Anyway, it's an interesting essay: about how writers have typical word and sentences lengths with which they are comfortable. Interesting thought. I'm not sure I'm comfortable thinking about my own ratios. Makes me too self-conscious.

Scary stuff...

fannish5: I might as well combine the October 19 and October 26 questions, which are: 1. What are the 5 creepiest or most frightening pieces of fan fiction you have ever read?

To which I can only reply: not applicable. I don't like to read or watch scary stuff. If I start a piece of fanfic and find it creepy or frightening, I stop reading. So it's safe to say I've never read a piece of creepy or scary fanfic. I read fanfic for other reasons - because it's interesting, funny, exciting, sexy or imaginative. Never because it's scary.

2. What are the five spookiest episodes or scenes?

As with fanfic, so with entertainment in general: I avoid scary things. But here at least I can scrape up a few answers.

1. The Doctor Who series one two-part episode "The Empty Child" and "The Doctor Dances". I've watched them so often now that any fear-factor they ever had is long gone, but I remember how spooked I felt the first time I watched, and how much I enjoyed the story. I liked its combination of spookiness and humour. These are also the episodes that first introduced Captain Jack Harkness. The story was, of course, by the very best of Doctor Who writers, Steven Moffat. I don't, as a rule, find Doctor Who creepy in the least, but Moffat knows how to scare me and make me like it.



2. The Doctor Who episode "Blink", by (who else?) Steven Moffat.



3. Anything written by Alan Garner. Back in my teens I read The Owl Service. It terrified me and I loved it. Beautiful writing, which frightened me so much I then avoided his his books. Years later, I picked up another of his books - I don't recall the title - and was so scared by the first paragraph I couldn't continue. There wasn't even anything scary on that page. It's just all in his style. He has the unique distinction of being the writer I most love and admire whose works I can't read.



4. The X-Files episode "Humbug". It was the third episode I saw - up to that point, I thought the series rather silly, but not unwatchable for when I was doing exercises. "Humbug" was funny and scary at the same time - I liked that. I then became a passionate X-Files fan for a few years, and particularly a Fox Mulder fan, until the show lost its intelligence.



5. Carnivale. I watched till about the middle of second season, when it got to be too much for me. It was somewhat like a serious continuation of X-Files' "Humbug", with its carnival background - and of course a role for Michael J. Anderson in each. It had its share of time-bending, too. It was loosely about mythological forces of good vs. evil as played out with the story of a Methodist minister (who had supernatural powers) and a travelling "Carnivale" wandering through Texas in the Depression.
   
   Carnivale had consistently good actors, like Nick Stahl, Patrick Bauchau and Clea Duvall - and a special nod should go to Cynthia Ettinger, who played Rita Sue. And it had consistently good writing, for all it didn't usually make a lot of sense. Even the opening title sequence (which won an Emmy) was always fascinating to watch. My favourite episode was the one called "Babylon", a creepy story about a Texas ghost town with an abandoned mine.