fahye: ([hb] shine forth upon our clouded hills)
Fahye ([personal profile] fahye) wrote2009-09-14 02:25 pm
Entry tags:

ignore the lower fear

My LJ has gone through a palindromic journey: it started off as a strictly RL tool (pre-Facebook!) and then became a mostly fandom-based platform and now, it appears, all I do is talk about RL again. SORRY GUYS. My L is very R, these days.

So in the spirit of nostalgia, a meme! Stolen from [livejournal.com profile] liminalliz.

My username is: fahye - pronounced FAYE - commonly misspelled as 'fayhe'. I chose an LJ username on very short notice at the end of Year 10, when I had just watched Cowboy Bebop, and I basically threw an 'h' into Faye to make it more unique and so more suitable as an online handle. It's had good staying power; I'm known by it in fandom circles, I answer to it automatically in real life, and it's close enough to my real name that I can just sign all my emails 'F' without thinking about it.

My journal name is: La Fahyette, which is just different enough from fahye to not look totally stupid when set next to it, and is silly and punnish and...I like it.

My title is: broadcast me a joyful noise, which is from 'Bad Day' by R.E.M. I love the song and I love this lyric in particular, it's so strong and hopeful, and it's snuck into the middle of a chaotic chorus about counting your blessings even in the midst of a stressful life. WHICH IS RELEVANT TO MY INTERESTS.

My subtitle is: ancient and naïve astronomies which is from Don DeLillo's Ratner's Star: 'a nullifying plunge through history's other end to all those ancient and naïve astronomies of bone and stone'.

My default userpic is:


[potc] under the windings of the sea
by spiffed_icon - 'do you think death could possibly be a boat?'

From PotC: At World's End, which I loved disproportionately to its actual worth as a film due to my obsession with concepts of death involving oceans and boats (see also: turn your sail). The keywords and comment are from two of my other favourite things to explore this concept: Dylan Thomas's poem 'And Death Shall Have No Dominion' and Tom Stoppard's play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.

Plus, the icon is just gorgeous! Tilted horizon, pale sky, vivid sea, a silhouette and a sunrise.

[identity profile] girl-wonder.livejournal.com 2009-09-14 05:04 am (UTC)(link)
R&G are Dead is kind of the play I always go back to when I need happiness. Why? I DO NOT KNOW.
ext_21673: ([twi] shattering smeyer's mormon dreams)

[identity profile] fahye.livejournal.com 2009-09-14 05:09 am (UTC)(link)
I can't really talk, I find enormous amounts of joy in almost anything that has DEAAAATHHH as a major theme.

[identity profile] girl-wonder.livejournal.com 2009-09-14 05:14 am (UTC)(link)
Because it's so absolute and always so intriguing?
ext_21673: ([dexter] thicker than water)

[identity profile] fahye.livejournal.com 2009-09-14 05:21 am (UTC)(link)
And the ways it's approached in fiction are so wonderfully varied! TV shows pushing this button for me, off the top of my head:

- Dexter
- Six Feet Under
- Torchwood
- Pushing Daisies
- Supernatural
- True Blood
- Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes
- Buffy
- BSG

I also love any show where the dead are prominently featured characters -- hi, Slings & Arrows!

I can't believe I haven't watched Dead Like Me.

[identity profile] girl-wonder.livejournal.com 2009-09-14 05:42 am (UTC)(link)
WATCH IT. DLM is so awesome. It's kind of how people not-deal with death. Plus it toes that line of flexibility I like with my death-mythos.

I agree with everything on that list (except I don't watch TB or Life on Mars), and add Carnivale and Sarah Connor Chronicles.

I miss Pushing Daisies SO MUCH.
ext_9289: (Default)

[identity profile] sainfoin-fields.livejournal.com 2009-09-14 06:13 am (UTC)(link)
I find this interesting because I have like zero interest in death as a topic (but enjoy several of the shows you list below). Why do you think it resonates for you? Should I be filling in "is becoming a DOCTOR, duh" blanks here? Curious!
ext_21673: ([bones] a single life shared)

[identity profile] fahye.livejournal.com 2009-09-14 06:40 am (UTC)(link)
I am not sure, to be honest! But I have always found the afterlife stories to be the most interesting when it comes to any particular mythos, the common themes of moral judgement and transition from one state to another. And I think that the beliefs and social rituals surrounding death can tell you a lot about a society; I read a really interesting sociological text called A Social History of Dying which has left a lot of half-remembered tendrils in my mind, and they snag on things in fiction quite often. I like the weight that awareness of mortality lends to anything. I like exploring the ways that exposure to death or fear of death or acceptance of death manifests itself in the human psyche.

I don't know if becoming a doctor is a cause of this fascination, or a result of it, or if their development was more tangled and organic. But it's true: medicine requires an ability to face death and to help people as they deal with it, and also a willingness to strive to maximise the quality of life that people do have. As an existentialist, this is very important to me.
ext_9289: (Default)

[identity profile] sainfoin-fields.livejournal.com 2009-09-14 06:45 am (UTC)(link)
Indeed, it is probably my own existentialist leanings that help to keep me from dwelling on death. Since this is all there is.

[identity profile] twoskeletons.livejournal.com 2009-09-14 05:30 am (UTC)(link)
Haha good to know, 'cos in my head I've been pronouncing your name as faah-yi!
ext_21673: ([fs] straight on 'til morning)

[identity profile] fahye.livejournal.com 2009-09-14 05:38 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah, 15-year-old me should have maybe thought this through a little more, but because I was using my LJ solely to communicate with RL people (so vocalisation of the word happened fairly early) it never came up.

IT'S ONE SYLLABLE, INTERNET.
ext_45018: (from world's end then he turned away)

[identity profile] oloriel.livejournal.com 2009-09-14 06:34 am (UTC)(link)
I think my favourite bit about this post is that I'm not the only person who thought that At World's End was a) great and b) far deeper (no pun intended) than most people are willing to admit. YES.
ext_21673: ([potc] unexpected monarchy)

[identity profile] fahye.livejournal.com 2009-09-14 06:42 am (UTC)(link)
Ooh, your icon is ALSO beautiful. And yes! Though I'll admit it had some problematic elements, I really loved so many aspects of AWE.

[identity profile] miscellanny.livejournal.com 2009-09-14 07:21 am (UTC)(link)
I've frequently not been on boats.
ext_21673: ([aa] going out of business)

[identity profile] fahye.livejournal.com 2009-09-14 07:23 am (UTC)(link)
YESSSS that whole conversation, especially considering the ongoing theme of death and not-death and the grey areas of unexistence in the unseen pages of a narrative.

[identity profile] miscellanny.livejournal.com 2009-09-14 07:40 am (UTC)(link)
I love the bit in the play about unicorns, and how sharing things with the wrong set of people can make them commonplace. And of course the monologue about the box. *points at icon* It's a ridiculously wonderful play and I could read it so many more times than I'd ever have time for without getting sick of it, it's delightful.

Maybe I should watch it later, although somehow last night I ended up downloading Independence Day, Star Trek and the second Robot Chicken Star Wars Special, plus an album by Adam and the Ants. Living on my own means there's no one to curb my internet use. XD