World Enough and Time

Yes, isn't he delicious?

So is your icon here, too.

From:

silverwhistle.livejournal.com

Unfortunately, he seems to have put on a fair bit of weight in recent years. He was lovely when younger, though!

From:

he seems to have put on a fair bit of weight in recent years

So sad. I wish that didn't happen. Especially to me!

From:

I liked that episode better in retrospect than I did when I first saw it, I think. At the time it bothered me that (to my mind)it raised questions it didn't answer.

From:

acampbell.livejournal.com

Yeah, ALL the eps from the early seasons look better now! The beauty of that one is not the dumb A-plot (youth-sucking cheerleader!) or the B-plot (Grandpa Kent) but the wonderful Clex. That ep, to me, is the Clexiest ever!

From:

Big Eden... sorry, mind wandered.

From:

You like the title? Hmm?

From:

Anything with Eden in it I like.

From:

Too bad it wasn't set in the right century.

From:

haha I know. No pretty long red hair and high laced collars.

From:

It would have been so much more fun with that. Way different story, of course. But fun.

From:

From:

Having once lived in a small northwestern Montana town for a while, I can pretty much guarantee that the movie was wish-fulfillment [g].

I'm not gay, but I do practice a rather non-traditional religion, and there's no way I would have gone public there with it.

I did like the town (which I referred to on occasion as Cicely, Montana) as a general rule, though. Isolated as all heck, which was actually kind of nifty. Then again, I wasn't there through a winter, either.

Any movie that is reminiscent of Northern Exposure might have to be searched out. I loved NE.

From:

I can pretty much guarantee that the movie was wish-fulfillment [g].

I was afraid of that.

I do practice a rather non-traditional religion, and there's no way I would have gone public there with it.

Now I am curious: what is your non-traditional religion?

I did like the town (which I referred to on occasion as Cicely, Montana)

Hee.

Any movie that is reminiscent of Northern Exposure might have to be searched out. I loved NE.

So did I. And though my first thought is that the writing in NE was generally better (more variable, more emotionally powerful) than in this movie, the flavour was certainly there: of disparate types living together, with a sense of mutual support just through random coexistence. Which is, I suppose, a metaphor for all of us.

From:

These days I consider myself more an animist than anything else. At the time I lived in Libby I was practicing NeoPaganism a bit more formally than that.

And one of the things I loved best about NE was the magical realism. There've been a lot of imitators, but I think NE was the pioneer of that genre on television.

From:

These days I consider myself more an animist than anything else.

Cool. I've always called myself a pantheist, but since other pantheists seem to have views very unlike mine, I've been looking for another word.

From:

Well, you might want to look into what the word means a little more before you start calling yourself one [g]. The definition of pantheism I've been going on really doesn't have much in common with animism.

From:

No, I didn't mean to imply that animism and pantheism were necessarily connected, though I think there is an element of animism in my own beliefs.

I am perfectly happy with my definition of pantheist, and fear not, I researched it well before using it - it's just that many other people use it with different meanings, objectives and connotations. (Pantheists are not a united bunch and never have been.)

Since I've yet to find a word that describes my beliefs as well as 'pantheist' does, I tend to continue to use it - but not very often.

From:

If there is one "thing" in all of human experience where absolutely no one agrees on the terminology, it's religion. No matter what the religion is.

Personally, I've given up trying to do anything about it [g].

From:

That's so true! As long as I'm comfortable with my own philosophy, what does it matter what I call it?

From:

Not a whole lot unless you're dealing with some seriously intolerant people, which I tend not to do for long [g].

From:

lauradi7.livejournal.com

I thought Henry was the least interesting character, in some ways, but he was like the pebble dropped into water, causing ripples for all the other characters. The IMDb has pulled this interesting quotation:
>>Grace Cornwell: Listen, you know what they say when you get lost in the woods? If you stay put, stay in one place and don't wander, they'll find you. And I was just hoping you'd let yourself be found this time. I was hoping you'd let us find you. But you keep wandering and we can't. <<

Hoping you'd let us find you rather than the pop-psychology "find yourself."
A bunch of loving busybodies. ;-)

The older townspeople had a long-standing parental attitude about Henry, as did his agent, really. Dean Stewart, the character played by Tim DeKay, was such a casualty from the flames of his marriage that he tried to change his nature in order to be with someone who had loved him (albeit platonically) from childhood. Stuff like that. Clearly the couples as they ended up should have been together since high school, but they would have missed a lot of life experience (and children) if they had realized that then (and there wouldn't have been a movie).

From:

I thought Henry was the least interesting character, in some ways, but he was like the pebble dropped into water, causing ripples for all the other characters.

That's an excellent way of describing it. In a way it wasn't about him - his life was at the centre, but it was about the other people around him, reacting to him, and the way his presence made changes of one sort or another in their lives. He was a catalyst - even though I think he needed to do a little self-finding from time to time Maybe the point was that while Henry was drifting through life, the others couldn't find their place, either. I wondered at his 'place' in New York. He says he has a lot of friends, a lot of money (he must have, to be able to keep a New York apartment for six months without living in it!), and his work, but I didn't see much indication that they affected him at all - that he even thought about New York as 'home'. Mostly because the movie was so focussed on "Big Eden" and the people in it, but I did find myself thinking that if Henry chooses Pike, he presumably also has to choose to stay in Big Eden rather than return to New York and whatever lifestyle and ties he had there. Mythical though they may seem.

There's a scene where the grandfather says to Henry something like, "Why don't you trust me enough to tell me about yourself?" which I took to mean, "Why don't you trust me enough to tell me you're gay?" - the implication being that Henry was in the closet. (Had he been celibate all those years in New York? Pining over Dean?)

Anyway, my thought to that was, "How easy to do you think it is, to tell people you're gay? Especially older family members and people you've known since childhood? When you don't know how they'll react? Why is the onus on Henry here? Why not say, Look, I know you're gay, it's all right. Only - say it twenty years ago."

From:

jkluge.livejournal.com

which made me wonder in what universe a town in Montana is so ebulliently gay-friendly.

A lot of people seem to miss this, but it always surprises me a little bit, because I *don't* think of myself as quick to pick up on subtleties (therefore I assume this can't be subtle): the title. Big Eden? It's a vision of what the writer/director *want* that small town in Montana to be: all the best qualities of a small caring community, without the prejudices. They want us to watch the movie and see an "eden" -- a paradise where this story is possible.

I adore Big Eden. I'm so glad you enjoyed it, too. And Eric Schweig is a total hottie. I recently rented another movie he starred in, Skins.

From:

the title. Big Eden? It's a vision of what the writer/director *want* that small town in Montana to be

I still don't quite get it - I didn't understand the title. I thought it might be an American phrase I was unfamiliar with, liek the phrase 'Big Sky' being applied to the prairies. Do you mean the place was an analogy for the Garden of Eden? Thinking that way made me just think that there would be a serpent and they'd all get kicked out.

I did like seeing a place that was so idyllic, though. Once I got past my own aversion for living in the country. The gorgeous scenery helped there.

And it really is a lovely, lovely idea that a town could be so prejudice-free.

I have been in love with Eric Schweig since The Last of the Mohicans. I haven't seen him in much else - I'd like to see him a lot! He should be on my sexy-men list, which (I am happy to say) is getting longer and longer.

So what was Skins like?

From:

jkluge.livejournal.com

Another thing that's endearing about the movie is the way everyone we see (all of whom love Henry) talk about how good-looking he is. !!! Now *there's* some love talkin', there. Arye Gross was maybe handsome for about 3 minutes in his younger days, but not so much in this movie. Yet the characters who refer to him as cute and handsome and good-looking are all looking through the eyes of deep affection. I found that delightful.

From: