Ignorant Fairy

quote of the [insert time period here] or why medical textbooks are cool

Mon, 10 Oct 2005 21:22:01 GMT

Dynamics of amniotic fluid and the English way of life

The English instinctively admire the intrauterine way of life. Being dark and surrounded by water appeals to their embryonic sense of humour. And the irony of being protected from alien worlds by nothing more than a circulating system of one's own urine is not lost on them. The fish is in the sea, and the sea is in the fish: even more so, the fetus is in her liquor and the liquor is in the fetus. It is this quicksilver sense of irony that shapes their sphere and keeps England afloat on seas no longer ruled. As one Englishman has said: 'we are conceived in irony. We float in it from the womb. It's the amniotic fluid. It's the silver sea. It's the waters at their priestlike task washing away guilt and purpose and responsibility. Joking but not joking. Caring but not caring. Serious but not serious...'

Alan Bennett The Old Country
The silver sea referred to reflects Shakespeare's England as 'This precious stone set in the silver sea' nursing 'this teeming womb of royal kings' (Richard II)
-from Oxford Handbook of Clinical Specialities.

Random Quote of the [insert time period here]

Thu, 14 Jul 2005 12:08:38 GMT

"It is the Odyssey, isn't it? I went to such a ropy school, my dear," he confided to Laurie. "Free expression and no classics, you'd have hated it. Is it the Odyssey? The one where this silly boy goes away for about twenty years, and when he appears again he's so dreadfully gone off that no one knows him except the nurse who . . . oh, excuse me, perhaps we'd better scrub that bit. And the dog took one look, didn't he, and died of shock. And all this while, the poor queen has been knitting and knitting away madly in the bedroom, dropping stiches left and right, with suitors camping and screaming all over the house." He smiled at them ingenuously, like a stage undergraduate. "Or is it Shakespeare I'm thinking of all this time?"

...

"No," he [Laurie] said. "It's the Odyssey all right. It's the one where the man comes back from the war and finds the flash boys on his pitch and runs them out."

"Your sentiments do you credit," said Bim raising his eyebrows

-From The Charioteer, by Mary Renault

Random Quote of the [insert time period here]

Wed, 16 Mar 2005 17:15:07 GMT

And into that gate they shall enter, and in that house they shall dwell, where there shall be no cloud nor sun, no darkness nor dazzling, but one equal light, no noise nor silence, but one equal music, no fears nor hopes, but one equal possession, no foes nor friends but one equal communion and identity, no ends nor beginnings, but one equal eternity.
-Sermon, John Donne, 1572-1631

Random Quote of the [insert time period here]

Mon, 09 Aug 2004 15:09:15 GMT

The soul takes flight to the world that is invisible; but there arriving, she is sure of bliss and forever dwells in paradise.
- Plato, as quoted in Lady Jane

You're off the edge of the map... There be monsters here...

Wed, 10 Dec 2003 19:25:54 GMT

Seeing as I laugh in the face of chronological order I'm choosing this moment to say that this is bandonbanshee's writing journal.

Friends Only, so deal with that...

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ALSO: There are two icons I'm using and I DON'T KNOW WHO TO CREDIT. If they're yours, let me know and I will duly credit you (The Natalie Portman base and the Uma Thurman base.)