The doctor

Been watching all the old Doctor who, not way back, just the last few years since BBC resurrected it. Matt smith is growing on me after all I had my doubts and david tennant was such a honey.  I think the clincher was reading an interview where matt smith was asked about scenes kissing boys in his latest movie 'christopher and his kind' and he said I've kissed loads of boys before.

But back to the doctor. So anyway I have often tried to get my family to read science fiction and I am always being told, 'why would I read something that isn't real?' Which makes me wonder why I read fiction (or science fiction) because on the whole I am drawn to realism. But I think what I want is realism of emotions not place or things. I think fiction and sci-fi at it's best it has this strange power that can only come from imaginary situations infused with true emotions and pathos that reflect our world, and and the choices we make, back to us. Think about the best Doctor episodes such as 'the girl in the fireplace', ''blink' and ''silence in the library', am I right?

....and one of the best bit about the series is the doctors relationship with river song. Meeting in different places along both there time lines so that she has to say good bye before it has even begun. A love story that is a ready made tragedy of lost possibilities, leaves romeo and juliet in the dust...and really what it is all about. 

All of this realism stuff reminds me of a review by anis shivani on jonathan franzen's novel (never felt any desire to read any of franzen's work but the ideas are relevant)

“The problem with realism is also that it ends up being conservative, and even pessimistic. This is because it wants to rule out unpredictability to the extent possible, believes in a stable social order (otherwise why write realistically?), and wants the end to be internally and formally consistent with its premises, once they have been laid out.”

not that I agree with this or think realism is simply about the status quo. It is more that life is random and illogical and sometimes to get at the true pathos and tragedy of the thing you need a bit of hyper reality. like your very own greek chorus. Think books like solaris or most things philip k dick and then think the ending of no country for old men.