#As I said it is impossible for me to make a post about Soren without alluding to how gay he is

[venice-1987]

obsessed with soren's nickname section on his wiki. It really just encompasses his whole characater cause you have things on there like "smort longpocket" and "Court jester" and then "The failed son" Like, hot damn, there is so much facet to this character.

[lumoshyperion]

I do have a few questions about Year 2:

What is your favorite thing about Sean? About Nyx? About them together on stage?

Aside from the main seven, who is your favorite character/portrayal?

Best costume? Favorite costume? Costume you’d like to make? (I believe you’ve replicated some!)

Please share, even if in another post, some things about this last show.

💙

It's so hard to choose just one favourite thing about Sean. A bunch of us stood outside the theatre after cast change, talking to her about the show and listening to her thank us for our support over the years, and I just... I don't know - I've seen a lot of theatre and I've met a lot of theatre people in my time as both an audience member and a theatre maker and I genuinely feel that they're one of the kindest, most passionate people I've met in the industry. And that has always shone through in the way they play Albus. Her empathy and love for the character has been such a constant over the years and it's made her feel like the heart and soul of the play. She said that it felt like she was ready to leave Albus behind. But that they were worried the character wouldn't be held and cared for once they left the company. Those were the words they used and it utterly broke me. I think it's that care and specific love for Albus that I'm going to miss the most. Cursed Child isn't a perfect play, but Sean always elevated it. And I know that whatever they do next will be brilliant. Performance wise, I think I'll miss her Albus's sense of joy the most? Albus is easy to play as angry or selfish, but Sean never really fell into that. They're always smiling and laughing. Whenever Scorpius says something about their friendship, Sean's Albus gets this look of soft surprise and awe, before looking away and smiling. When they come out of the lake after the dark AU, they can't stop giggling. In Godric's Hollow, they're scared and anxious and heartbroken at the sight of James and Lily. But Scorpius makes them laugh. There was a moment last night, when they ran offstage together - I think it was after "let's find some wands and get potioning" - where Sean let out the most wonderful, carefree laugh. I'll miss that. I'll miss that a lot.

And I love Nyx's sense of humour. I love their creativity. I love how thoughtfully they portray Scorpius - giving him the most sensitive, incredible arc in the play that took me totally off guard when I first saw them a year ago at cast change. The line that encapsulates their Scorpius the most is "sometimes I'm capable of more bravery than he might think I am." In the first scene on the train, they're so nervous and guarded, as if they already know that Rose and Albus are going to leave like the other student did. But, throughout the play, you watch this character grow more brave and confident and bright. Scorpius grows up in the play. He learns his own value, outside of being a Malfoy and being Albus's best friend. He learns to be brave. Tom's Draco stands over Nyx in Saint Jerome's when they're waiting for Delphi. And I know it's a bit of blocking that every production has, but... there's just something so indescribable in the way Tom looks at them. There's so much pride in his expression and it feels like the most beautiful culmination of their arc. It's about discovering who you are and who you want to be. It's about going through years of bullying and nasty rumours from the Wizarding World, and choosing to be kind and loyal in spite of all that. I also love how clear it is that their Scorpius isn't straight. They're extremely unbothered by Polly. They barely flirt with Rose in the last scene, mostly just smiling a little in surprise at her "Scorpion King" gesture. I don't know how much of that is intentional, but I love it and it was one of the first things we all noticed last year.

And god, I just... I'm going to miss seeing them together so much. I don't think this cast change would have been so hard if it weren't for Covid. They were both robbed of a full run together. They've become so close, onstage and off, and they could have had so much more time together, and it was cut short. And it makes me feel so sad. They're so incredible together. I've never seen a pair of performers work so well together before - you watch them and you can just feel the rapport and the love. It's like Delphi says, "you belong together." And they do. They're like puzzle pieces, they complete each other. It's been such an honour watching them work together and I already miss seeing them together... so much. I'm tearing up, just typing this.

And ughhhh it's so hard to pick a favourite outside of the main seven, there's just so many performances that I love??? I love Gillian's subtle manipulation as Delphi, I love how she molds herself into someone Albus and later Scorpius would trust and even care for. I love how feral and terrifying she is after the owlery - and how vulnerable and childish she is in Saint Jerome's, and whenever she talks about Voldemort. I love George's fierce love for his son as Amos, and I love watching him openly weep as he talks to Harry in his office as Dumbledore. I loved Sloane's shy, lovable Craig who just wants to help. I loved Louis and Simon in all their various swing tracks, and I loved watching them messing around and having the time of their lives in the first and third tasks. I loved Kuda's Rose - her sensitivity and care for Albus, which I wasn't expecting and which made me cry when I saw her in the role. I love Jess and her absolutely chaotic Myrtle who has the audience in the palm of her hand the entire time she's onstage. I love the dignity and compassion of Soren's Sorting Hat as he watches over Scorpius and Albus throughout the years. I love the way Debra imbodies McGonagall so perfectly that she feels lifted right out of the pages. She's funny and warm, but still fierce and commanding when she needs to be. The scene in her office after the boys come out of the lake is one of my favourites in the play - it's so clear from the way Debra plays the role and how she talks about it that she's put so much thought into it. I loved the charisma and ferocity of Iopu's Bane, and the weight and care he gave every single line. I loved the way Manali played Rose as a daughter who looks up to her mum and wants to be just like her when she grows up, and I loved watching her expressions on the staircase outside the office after In Trouble Again as she slowly broke before running into her mother's arms. I loved the way David's Cedric was so brave and heroic, and yet so impossibly young that my heart always breaks a little when he thanks Albus and runs offstage. I loved the innate sense of joy in Hamish's Karl. I loved the maturity of Connor's Yann. I love this cast so much. Letting go of some of them was much more difficult than I ever expected. It's impossible to imagine the show without them.

And is there anything specific you want to know about the last performance?

Ask me questions about Cursed Child Melbourne Year Two!

[rhodanum]

One of the greatest challenges in writing anything multi-chapter for TDP is that it would involve me having to reconstruct the political systems of Katolis & the Pentarchy from scratch, so that everyone aside for Viren (and even he has his moment of impressive bungling) doesn't end up being an imbecile in terms of statecraft.

A quick recapitulation, starting with the dysfunctional mess that is the High Council of Katolis. And particularly That One Idiot who said, I quote: "Xadia sent assassins and they took the King's life. There hasn't been the slightest skirmish since then. Maybe that was it. They've had their revenge and everything will just... settle down now."

It's a good thing I didn't try to livetweet S2, because that would've caused a whole storm of "who the hell put this numbskull on the council? He isn't fit to look after a chicken-coop, much less a nation!" Seriously, that's the sort of opinion that a baker or a farmer or a cobbler or any other regular citizen is expected to give, the standard 'keep your head down and hope it all blows over by itself.' Not someone who is part of what is supposed to be a national ruling body.

The murder of a sovereign (no matter how morally justified on the side of the people doing the murdering) is, by definition, an act of war. You really don't want to be the first to strike? Fine, then. But at least mobilize the militias / the standing army and take precautions. But we don't see even the most basic self-defense measures being instituted.

Which links to the second glaring issue: not only is the council as a political body both unable and unwilling to act, it is paralyzed by Katolis seeming having no proper redundancy systems in case of murderized sovereign with an heir who is well under the age of adulthood. Standard procedure is instituting a regency (Viren wasn't wrong at all here, even if his goal involved Ezran never touching the throne) so the bloody kingdom doesn't end up in gridlock. It doesn't matter if the regency lasts a week, a month, a year or more. The goal of any ruling body is ensuring the continued political and economic functioning of the kingdom and the well-being of the people. Which cannot be done if decision-making is tied to the King's seal and said seal cannot be used by anyone other than the King's heir, who is missing and who has an entirely uncertain Estimated Time of Return. But instead of acting and picking up the regency for how long it takes for Ezran to be back, the high-rollers of Katolis sit & wait.

This is what drives me bonkers about Opeli, incidentally. She spends her time being an obstructionist force with no actual constructive and politically functional ideas behind said obstructionism. She doesn't pick up the regency or do anything to resolve the gridlock. Amaya, at the least, has the excuse that she's an essential component of the Breach's defense, through her command of the Standing Battalion. But even she takes a dunk in the 'Lawful Stupid / Stupid Good' fountain, when she justifies her refusal to accept the regency not through the importance of her military command right at the border with Xadia, but through 'Ezran is the rightful ruler.' Ma'am, 'rightful ruler' isn't going to matter a jot if you end up with anything from economic instability all the way to possibly getting invaded.

And then there's Harrow, whose inability to deal with his own burdened conscience and crushing sense of guilt when it came to the people he lost resulted in him effectively deciding to dump his people's well-being on the shoulders of a ten year old. It's not fair to Ezran and Callum (who effectively lost a third parent in a row) but, far more importantly, it's not fair to everyone else who has to pick up the pieces, because a ten year old cannot be expected to rule much of anything. (I'm looking forward to S3, but definitely not to the 'and he was a far wiser ruler, for he had the Innocence of Childhood' nonsense that will probably be going on with Ezran's plot-line. The only way his rule would make sense to me is if the council make him a figurehead and handle actual rule themselves. But I don't have much hope for that, because said council, as pointed out above, doesn't have a good track-record when it comes to actually decent statecraft).

The rest of the Pentarchy suffer from the same flaws as the rulership of Katolis. The same 'head in the sand / hope the storm passes if we ignore it' malarkey. The same waiting for others to act before committing to anything. Queen Aanya of Duren says noble, nice-sounding things in refusing to commit to preparations for war. I'd find them less of an irritating manner of writing if the show ever presents neutrality in a state of war as being absolutely no guarantee of safety. (I was talking with @ma_ya_mo_ri about this. I find neutrality a cheap cop-out in terms of writing military conflict because the both of us, as Eastern Europeans, know from our history that it did jack-shit when it came to keeping our countries from getting the shit conquered out of them). While we're at it, Aanya's platitudes, coupled with her essentially waving the Divine Right of Kings in Viren's face is, as far as I'm concerned, another notch in the 'this is why you don't let children anywhere near political power' post. (That scene is extremely telling and it says a lot about issues of class within the Pentarchy -- it means that you can study as much as you like, become as much of an accomplished specialist in your field as you like, sacrifice until your very body is crumbling and falling apart... but you'll still be shot down by a random kid with a crown on their head, whose only real achievement was winning the lottery of birth).  

Mind you, all of the above doesn't mean I think Viren didn't make mistakes either. His most egregious was the plan concerning the Princes, because he should have known that Soren and Claudia wouldn't have ultimately been able to go through with it. Two (relatively untested) teenagers, who have been life-long friends with the targets? It was always doomed to fail. I can sort of see why he did it, if I squint -- he needed two people that he could place his utmost trust in, on very short notice. It was still a stupid choice, likely one motivated by desperation and lack of any other immediate option.

What should he have done instead? Well, for one, Viren should have given very serious consideration to bringing Ezran back alive and using his position as his father's best friend / unofficial uncle to teach the kid and mold him into the sort of King he thought was necessary for Katolis and the rest of the Pentarchy. It's apparent why he didn't do it and went with the nuclear-option instead. If war is on the horizon, you don't have enough time to forge the young King you need, while also being in a state of constant war with the rest of the council for influence over said King.

If the kill-option was the only viable alternative in his mind, he should have ensured it was entrusted to someone who could go through with it. A stone-cold, trained killer-for-hire, instead of his kids. Regicide isn’t a course of action where you can afford either half-measures or mistakes. Even better, while we're at 'should have done's': have a small team of wetwork specialists trained in secret, taught to be utterly loyal and employ them for highly sensitive operations, where any sort of mistake or bungle can spell disaster. But he didn't have such a team trained (just as, for example, he didn't cultivate loyalty toward himself within the Crownguard, thus ensuring the rest of the Council couldn't use this fighting-force against him) because he never actually planned to take head-of-state powers within his own hands, before the disaster with Harrow.

The actions we see from S1EP4 onward aren't those of a man who always planned to overthrow his best friend and stage a coup, but rather someone who acted rashly, saved Harrow's soul against his will... and then was stuck in an impossible situation, with a kingdom without a ruler and paralyzed into complete inaction, along with the loss of humanity's greatest asset against Xadia (the Dragon Prince egg). No wonder he looks as if he's flying by the seat of his pants, juggling seventeen things all at once and actually failing at the basics of a proper coup (such as ensuring the support of the armed forces).

Viren's fault, that trips him up again and again, is (hilariously and ironically enough) the fact he isn't actually ruthless enough for the position he's currently in! He's an idealist at heart and genuinely believes that people can be persuaded to make the rational choices, with the right arguments. This is what leads to his fall-from-political-grace and arrest at the end of S2. He takes an enormous risk in using the King's seal and lying about his status as Regent in front of the other rulers of the Pentarchy, effectively putting all his eggs in the one basked titled 'surely they'll see sense and act', if the danger is presented to them in a clear and concise manner.' But that's not what happens and his enormous gamble backfires, in that his lie becomes known to the rest of the council and results in Opeli's efforts to have him arrested. His idealism in thinking reason could sway the rest of the Pentarchy bites him right in the arse.

[corbie]

Words I Have Enjoyed, 2017

Books

Iain M Banks, Use of Weapons

I was tepid for the first half, but final the final act warmed my interest plenty. Reminded me of the experience reading Matter, and how I engaged with the story without realizing it.

Soren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling

Maybe the most interesting essay on the emotional experience of faith I’ve ever read.

Alexander Pushkin, The Tales of Belkin

Why haven’t I read more Russian lit?

Samuel Florman, The Existential Pleasures of Engineering

Strangely, it was the language of this book — florid and formal, but not without character — that sticks with me. It felt more like a long New Yorker piece than a book. It labors to make two points: that the engineer is not responsible for the original sins of civilization, and that the act of engineering is as soulful as any creative effort. I enjoyed the latter and could have done without the former.

Plato, Dialogues

I���m compelled to begin reading classical literature regularly after reading these.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

Epictetus, the Enchiridion

Stephen Mitchell’s translation of the Bhagvad Gita

These felt interrelated, three voices describing the same thing. They were much needed spiritual sustenance last summer.

Peter Watts, Echopraxia

Nice counterpart to Blindsight. Watt’s mind is fantastic, I always enjoy reading the codas of research notes in each of his books.

Lavie Tidhar, Central Station

I’m a sucker for intergenerational stories or narratives with interconnected protagonists, this has both. Shifting points of view reminded me of Brunner's Stand on Zanzibar.

Sigmund Freud, Civilization and its Discontents

I’d heard this described as a pessimistic view of capital-C culture, and was glad to discard another piece of received wisdom. This is a great introduction to Freud’s theories and writings, explaining his worldview with approachable language.

Vernor Vinge, A Fire Upon the Deep

The narrative was stretched a bit thin in the middle. Some interesting ideas — I could read another book about the pack-mind species — but I think the Culture novels and Charles Stross have spoilt me and I can’t engage with stories about spacefaring cultures that don't discuss their power structures or economics. A fun read.

Marcel Proust, Swann's Way

There is nothing I could say about this book that hasn't already been said a thousand times and much better than I could, but I am very glad that I read this. I expect to return to it many times.

Longer Reads

What Happens When You Stare At The Sun?

“The injunction not to look directly into the sun isn’t just medical — it’s always political.”

By the Waters of Babylon

“Then I raised my eyes and looked south. It was there, the Place of the Gods.”

Where Oil Rigs Go to Die

What happens to gigantic infrastructure when it’s retired?

Why Read Code?

Code Is Not Literature

Point and counterpoint.

How To Build Stable Systems

Pithy and opinionated, just my style.

Design Principles Behind Smalltalk

Reading the history of Smalltalk and Lisp is like digging through an attic so stuffed with treasures that its abandonment is unimaginable.

The Seven Deadly Sins of AI Predictions

The impossibility of intelligence explosion

The Real Danger to Civilization isn’t AI

Dude, You Broke the Future!

Four of a kind. These ideas have been bubbling to the surface of my brain more than usual this year. Something’s coming out of this, not sure what yet.

Quantum Computing Explained

Best walkthrough I’ve yet read on the topic. Still not sure I understand it.

Consent of the Ungoverned

I want to blockquote the entire essay.

Against Productivity

I can’t say what kept me thinking about this one; that fact is interesting in itself.

Charles Dickens

Fantastic Orwell piece on literature, language, and class in Dickens.

[consciousowl]

Life is All a Metaphor!

Nature is a temple in which living pillars Sometimes give voice to confused words; Man passes there through forests of symbols Which look at him with understanding eyes.

- Charles Baudelaire

While attending the Science and Nonduality Conference some time ago, I happened to meet one of the leading theologians of the 21st Century, Father Richard Rohr, a Franciscan Priest who founded the Center for Contemplation and Action. Father Rohr gave a stunning exposition of Christianity’s single most arcane doctrine, that of the Trinity. He simply explained it as a divine dance: Three distinct aspects of God interplay, pulling us in as the audience. Father Rohr pointed to a Russian painting depicting the Three Divine Persons seated at the table, the fourth chair empty, waiting for you and me to sit down and commune with Them. Father Rohr turned to me and hinted, “It’s all a metaphor.” All the most sophisticated philosophical and theological concepts are but symbols for that which escapes human expression. As Joseph Campbell put it, “The best things can’t be said; the second best are apt to be misunderstood. All the rest is what we talk about.”

What Is a Metaphor?

A metaphor is a figure of speech where something concrete is used to characterize that which is abstract. A simile makes the comparison explicit. For example, in the Gospel of John, Jesus Christ declared, “I am the Bread of Life,” and “I am the Water of Life.” He could have put it, “I am like living bread. I am like living water.” But that would have totally spoiled the dramatic effect. A metaphor uses heightened language to drive us to a whole new understanding. When Christ proclaimed, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life,” He was speaking as an Incarnation, not simply as Jesus of Nazareth. It is harder to realize that even the Mass is a metaphor. “Unless you eat My flesh and drink My blood, you have no life in you.” Jesus was saying in an unforgettable way, “If you want to follow Me, you must BECOME ME.” That this point was not fully understood by His generation or any subsequent generation is made clear by the way, even today, religious people shrink from the realization that they are inherently divine.

Harmonize Every Tradition by Seeing Through Its Symbols

Over the course of a lifetime, Joseph Campbell systematically studied every mythology and cosmology he could get his hands on. One lesson emerged above all others. You must make a clear distinction between the local culture, the tribal, and the universal. To confuse the two is to undermine its potential to reveal the divine. He quoted Adolph Bastian in referring to a symbol being “transparent to the Transcendent.” Any image of the Transcendent Mystery can become a stumbling block when we fail to see it as a symbol. When we are conscious of an image as being but a symbol. It becomes transparent to the Transcendent. When we think of God as a Father seated on a throne throwing thunderbolts down on us, we ruin an image that leads to the realization that we “live and move and have our being” in Him. God, seen as a Father, is majestic. While we are in awe, we need not fear Him. This applies to every tradition. For example, the Buddha provoked people to awaken. This was not to awaken from physical sleep. It was to awaken from a spiritual stupor and come to terms with Ultimate Truth.

Probe Our Senses Through Science

We grew up in an age that prizes science and technology above all else. The philosophical mantle is Rational Empiricism. Only that which can be measured, repeated, documented and publically verifiable is deemed scientific. Taken to an extreme, only that which the senses register can be real. The most precious things in life, such as Love, Truth and Beauty are simply irrelevant. Science and technology have made our lives immeasurably better on the physical plane. For that, we must all be thankful. However, they can’t really touch eternity and infinity. They are confined to time and space.

Einstein realized that the physicist’s best friend was not his rational intellect, but his imagination. His own imagination led to the breakthrough of the Theory of Relativity. When we discover the limits of the scientific method, when we let go of the presumption that reality can then be defined once and for all by words and numbers, we are no longer its slave. The scientific method becomes our faithful servant. Only mysticism can pierce that barrier. We must move from reason to intuition, the sixth sense.

Say the Impossible Through Poetry

Poetry is the language of feeling and intuition. We sense our world, not only with our eyes, ears and hands, but with our heart. We get a feeling that something is about to occur without anyone having to tell us. We simply see with our inner eyes and ears. Poems use metaphor heavily to convey evanescent moods that hint at something transcendent. To borrow from one of my own poems:   "When you brake my breath, I wonder what thunder surrounds the centuries." Here, “braking” breath is not literal. However, when you totally fall for someone, it leaves you breathless. The inner encounter with your true love might as well be “thunder” that resonates through the centuries.

Poetry comes closest, along with music and art, in using language to overcome language. The greatest theology and philosophy will always fall short. The greatest truths are expressed in poetry, such as “The Lord is my shepherd,” which is frequently recited on death beds. Nothing quite captures our willingness to throw all ultimate concern onto our Source.

Feel the Truth Through Love

When we want to merge with the Truth, we will find nothing even comes close to the direct experience of divine love. It is one of those experiences that defies explanation. Romantic and sexual love lead us very close to the divine. The world is a friendly place, and you can see beauty in everything. Divine love is impartial to friend or foe. You become a channel for a love to flow through you that you know is not really yours. You don’t merely feel love, you become that love. We see it in Mahayana Buddhism where the monks declare, “Though the flames of hell be infinite, I vow to extinguish every one of them.” We see it in the cross of Christianity where the Master forgave the very people mocking Him. Love reveals the very essence of God in a way that any human can understand. This is why the way of devotion is always more popular than the way of intellect. In truth, you can’t really have jyana yoga without bhakti yoga. You feel a profound sense of gratitude for the guru. You can never really repay the one who opened you up to enlightenment. All you can do in return is do whatever you can to enlighten others. We do walk through a forest of symbols, every single day. When we recognize it, this can be liberating. Symbols are a wonderful, irreplaceable tool. We might reduce life to a dream or a story. In truth, it is very much like both. But life is still LIFE. We could say life is a dance, a play or even a movie. It is most definitely like all three of these. YET LIFE IS LIFE.

Life is Not a Problem to Be Solved, but a Reality to Be Experienced.

- Soren Kierkegaard

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