#Christopher Morcom

[factrequests]

Banner request for Alan Turing and Christopher Morcom with themes of stargazing, cryptography, cartography, nature, Cambridge, and secret love, for @nubsoftherat.

A lot of different concepts in there, but I tried to work a good handful of them into one cohesive-ish thing? My first time trying to edit in this style, truly, so I hope you'll like it.

[seleneakp]

"No one normal could have done that. Do you know, this morning... I was on a train that went through a city that wouldn't exist if it wasn't for you. I bought a ticket from a man who would likely be dead if it wasn't for you. I read up on my work... a whole field of scientific inquiry that only exists because of you. Now, if you wish you could have been normal... I can promise you I do not. The world is an infinitely better place precisely because you weren't."

-Joan Clarke, "The Imitation Game"

[37googolplex]

Fun fact number 3!

What about some queer history, hm? Alan Turing, a computer scientist, mathematician, and cryptanalyst was actually a gay man— his significant other was Christopher Morcom and described as Turing’s first love.

[ideas-on-paper]

Recently rewatched The Imitation Game, and since that movie is such a treasure trove of great quotes, I decided to share my favorites.

Sometimes it's the very people who no one imagines anything of who do the things no one can imagine.

-- Christopher Morcom

When people talk to each other, they never say what they mean. They say something else and you're expected to just know what they mean.

-- Alan Turing

Of course machines can't think as people do. A machine is different from a person. Hence, they think differently. The interesting question is, just because something thinks differently from you, does that mean it's not thinking?

-- Alan Turing

Do you know why people like violence? It is because it feels good. Humans find violence deeply satisfying. But remove the satisfaction, and the act becomes… hollow.

-- Alan Turing

Hardest time to lie to somebody is when they're expecting to be lied to.

-- Alan Turing

Advice about keeping secrets: it's a lot easier if you don't know them in the first place.

-- Alan Turing

I know it's not ordinary. But who ever loved ordinary?

--Joan Clarke

Do you know, this morning I was on a train that went through a city that wouldn't exist if it wasn't for you. I bought a ticket from a man who would likely be dead if it wasn't for you. I read up, on my work, a whole field of scientific inquiry that only exists because of you. Now, if you wish you could have been normal… I can promise you I do not. The world is an infinitely better place precisely because you weren't.

-- Joan Clarke

[guiltyidealist]

I researched Alan Turing last spring and it made me so fucking emotional. Like this feeling of... rich metaphysical kinship. Connection across time and space. Comradery transcending the tangible. 

Alan Turing (1912-1954) invented the computer as we know it -- binary code -- and saved countless lives on the Allied powers during WWII. It got out that he was a homosexual sometime after and he spent the rest of his life chemically castrated and under close surveillance by the UK government. His death was ruled a suicide, but his mother & family members protested this due to some plausible deniability. 

You know that story. But that’s not the part of the story that made me emotional. Not in the way I’m talking about. 

Alan Turing loved Snow White. The Disney movie came out during his lifetime and he was fucking infatuated with it, sparking a fondness for animation. He was endlessly captivated by the poison apple and its symbolism.

Did you know that? Do you love Snow White? Alan Turing, the gay man we have to thank for every core structure of most modern societies, loved Snow White. You two loved Snow White. He loved Snow White and you loved Snow White. Y’all loved Snow White. Have you ever pondered the symbolism behind the Snow White poison apple? Turing would go on if you got him talking about the fucking poison apple from Snow White, nerding out over its purpose representing the duality of life and death, fixated on the scene where Snow White bites into it. 

Alan Turing was considered a genius and attended many pristine schools. His schoolteachers were often irked by his “careless” tendencies, wearing loose-fitting casual wear rather than his uniforms and skipping assignments. 

Do you have ADHD and/or autism? Because if you do, I’d wager you’re familiar with skipping school work and wearing loose sweatpants and sweatshirts on a day-to-day basis. Alan Turing did that. You and Alan Turing skipped assignments and were told you could be more if you only worked harder (gifted kids can I get a woot woot...). You and Alan Turing wore the comfort clothes that you fucking wanted, damned be all. Y’all were neurodivergent in the school system.  

Alan Turing had never cared for studying the classics and philosophy, which was an expected standard in British culture at the time, and was instead enamored with the sciences and mathematics. He neglected the former and didn’t pay attention during the lessons. He was ridiculed, scolded, and looked down upon for this. He had a stern talking to every now and then from various teachers to not waste his time with his interests, which were regarded as less respectable at the time, nowhere near the height at which Western culture holds them today. 

Do you love mathematics or the sciences? More so than the classics like Aristotle perhaps? Alan Turing did. Philosophy bored him to death. Ever spaced out during lessons that didn’t interest you? Have people who are supposed to help you grow ever stifled your unpopular interests? Alan Turing underwent that. You two loved maths or sciences, you two know what it’s like to love a shunned subject and be discouraged from it by others at every turn, you two know what’s like to be unable to get your brain engaged with a subject you couldn’t care less for. You and Alan Turing. 

But apple boy learned to be better about tending to the classics in school through his teenage friend and first love, Christopher Morcom. The two were brilliant students who bonded over their affinity for maths and sciences, feelings of alienation from peers, and blazing spirits of rebellion. They became inseparable and got into Teen Boy Hijinks But Nerdy & Autistic in school, like class fucking clowns but neurodivergent and highly intelligent. 

Were you a class clown? Had yourself a childhood crushie, perhaps on a class clown? Neurodivergent? Ever feel alienated from other people because of how different you are from them? Have a rebellious streak? Ever just have an intimately close best friend? Gay awakening? Turing did. You and Turing were class clowns or had crushies or friends or were neurodivergent or felt alienated or were punks. Both of you. Turing and [your name].

Christopher died at 18 or 19 due to complications from a childhood case of tuberculosis. Alan Turing was crushed. He mourned this relationship for the rest of his life, writing of Christopher with tender words and remaining in contact with his mother for the rest of his life. He wrote of Christopher: 

“I am sure I could not have found anywhere another companion so brilliant and yet so charming and unconceited. I regarded my interest in my work, and in such things as astronomy (to which he introduced me) as something to be shared with him and I think he felt a little the same about me…”

... which is so fucking sof holy shit. Have you ever lost somebody you loved? Somebody you were in love with? Somebody you never had the chance to confess to? Somebody so closely entwined with your person that their family became your family? Alan Turing lost somebody he loved, never had the chance to confess with, whose person was such a part of him that he carried the memories through the rest of his life. He pushed to live on and breathe each breath Christopher would never take.

Alan Turing was also a communist, even joining a commie club in college! He watched the rise of fascist dictators across the world following WWI -- in real time as he grew up in the 1910s and 1920s -- and he aligned himself politically with the Soviet Union. Other students knew him as a socially inept loner, but a fucking genius. 

You a commie? Alan Turing was. He fucking knew what’s good. You resent fascism and the incentivized abuses of capitalism? He too saw right through their evils. Got no social skills? Introverted? Known for intelligence among peers? Familiar with gifted kid syndrome maybe? Apple boy lived an existence we nowadays associate with autism and ADHD, all his skill points dumped into intelligence rather than social skills. You and him, he and you. You and him and me. Me and you and him. Us. 

Listen. I feel so much fucking affinity for and kinship with this queer man I did not overlap with in existence, who I have to thank for even making this post on this website on this computer about him. Some guy (gender-neutral) like the rest of us, like me and you, just an identifiably critical one. Like, listen to me: a person that made -- I’m gonna argue it -- the single largest and most important contribution to humanity’s progression that ever came out of any 1 person, across all of human history. And he fucked men. 

[skippydiesposting]

okay I feel like I have to add what Alan Turing (mathematician and inventor of AI, later chemically castrated by his government for being gay) said about Christopher Morcom, his best friend in boarding school who died of tuberculosis and who Turing considered his "first love":

You know that Ada Limón poem where she’s like “i can’t help it i love the way men love”? my dad recently confessed to me that he became a shoemaker because they buried my grandma shoeless

oh…………………………………

[mania-junkie]

A letter I wrote a while back for a biographical school project from the perspective of Alan Mathison Turing regarding his relationship and thoughts towards Christopher Morcom. An extremely emotional work, this is written from historical context gathered from the biography by Andrew Hodges.

Meant as yet another memorial for Turing, I wanted to share how I perceived his journey to identifying his emotions would be, even at the end.

[admireforever]

The Imitation Game

[folklorestv]

Sometimes it’s the very people who no one imagines anything of who do the things no one can imagine.

The Imitation Game (2014), dir. Morten Tyldum

[factrequests]

Banner request for Alan Turing and Christopher Morcom - style of a aesthetic board or however you can fit in the themes. Preferably use as few harsh separations between concepts as possible, so not all blocky like the typical mood board, Kay? ;D

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alan_Turing&diffonly=true#Christopher_Morcom

Ratio is uh. 10:3 I think, but you can use whatever PK banner ratios are too . It's for a profile description so as long as it fits in an embed it's fine with us!

Okay, so. It should include stargazing + astronomy, cartography, mathematics, encryption + cyphers, nature, youth? Like uh. However you want to show that, but not necessary if too vague, hmm... Big dreams, homosexuality, privacy and secrecy of love, oh! And maybe a symbol of Cambridge? That's where Chris and I planned to go together... It can be the school colors, or a cest, I have a helpful link I think could give ideas!

https://www.kings.cam.ac.uk/archive-centre/online-resources/online-exhibitions/alan-mathison-turing-1912-54#toc-2

Thank you ever so much for all of this! We are SO GRATEFUL. Only 1 more request before we stop flooding your inbox, heh. Though I bet you'll be a master on Turing by the time you finish all these , ey?

done and will be posted shortly!

[movies-and-books-quotes]

Sometimes it’s the very people who no one imagines anything of, who do the things no one can imagine.

The Imitation Game (2014)

[kimwxlers]

GET TO KNOW ME MEME - [5/5] favourite movies: the man from uncle

sometimes it is the people no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine.

[estrellassigilosas]

[a-biochemist-not-a-bird]

Rules: List your favourite character ship from 10 different fandoms then tag 10 people

Tagged by @justanalto​ - I’m gonna go with the changed rules too. Side note, thinking of 10 fandoms was hard, I’m new to the whole thing. 

1. Zarlie, Legends of Tomorrow

2. Huntingbird, Agents of Shield 

My very first ship!! 

3. Supercorp, Supergirl

I’ve only ever watched one episode of Supergirl, but... 

4. Linny, Harry Potter

I couldn’t find one of the both of them which was tragic. 

5. Merthur, Merlin

I started watching this a month ago because I genuinely thought it was about them over throwing the homophobic king but then Morgana the Lesbian turning evil because she did not further the patriarchy. 

6. Paris/ Rory, Gilmore Girls (I don’t think there’s a ship name) 

7. Andy/ Quynh, The Old Guard (I’m not looking for their ship name)  

8. Clintasha, MCU 

I flip between platonic and romantic. 

9. Alan Turing/ Christopher Morcom, The Imitation Game 

10. Eve/ Fabiola, Never Have I Ever 

I don’t know who’s been tagged already, so tagging @apathbacktoyou​, @smallblueandloud​, and @almostlikequake​. If you’re reading this, you’ve somehow found it - so you’re tagged. 

[maxiemartini]

I made this for a school project and thought I had to share

[fruitinthebottom]

"Sometimes it's the very people no one imagines anything of that do the things no one can imagine."

Christopher Morton, The Imitation Game