John C. Wright ([info]johncwright) wrote,
@ 2007-12-24 08:50:00
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Father of a Superdetective
So Mrs. Wright and I have settled down on the day before Christmas Eve, (the antepenultimate Day of Christmas, 4th Sunday in Advent) with the three children (Orville age 9, Roland 7, Juss 4) to watch the Rankin and Bass RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER. Two comments from the kids I thought were interesting. The first was that my eldest, Orv, did not know what stop-motion animation was. He knew we were looking at puppets, but he could not see how they were being moved, or why they moved in such a jerky Ray Harryhausen way. I should not have been surprised, except that sometimes you forget what children know or notice, and what they don't.

The second concerned, if you remember the show, Hermie the Elf who wants to be a Dentist.



Remember this guy? Too busy studying dentistry to learn important elf-skills like wiggling his ears? Well, my four-year-old pointed out something that I had not noticed in 35-some-odd years of watching this Christmas Special. Little Juss points at the screen and says, "He doesn't have elf ears. He's not an elf."

It was true. All the other elves had noses shaped like doorknobs, were bald, and Vulcan-eared. Most of them have little black beads for eyes rather than showing a pupil like a human eye.


Same species? We report, you decide.

The grim truth was borne home. Hermie is a Changling, one of those humans kidnapped at birth and swapped for a an elf-cub by malignant Svartalfar. Check out the picture above. Hermie is clearly a homo sapiens; Celebrimbor the Artificer there is clearly a Noldor of the house of Feanor, who of all elves was the proudest and most selfwilled.

Hermie the Dentist, victim of Human Trafficking! No wonder he does not fit in.

Shocking. I never noticed--it took a four year old to point it out to me.

Merry Christmas to all! Peace on Earth, good will toward Men!

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[info]kokorognosis
2007-12-24 03:14 pm UTC (link)
No wonder the old stop motion stuff is vaguely creepy. Rudolf is about the only one I can stand to watch.... Imagine what other horrors lay in these shows! Dread Cthulhu, ruler of the island of misfit toys?

Merry Christmas, Mr. Wright :)

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[info]kokorognosis
2007-12-24 03:15 pm UTC (link)
And Wright family :p

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[info]juliet_winters
2007-12-24 05:16 pm UTC (link)
No, he's busy on Billy and Mandy. See episode "Prank Call of Cthulu."

I kid you not.

http://www.tv.com/the-grim-adventures-of-billy-and-mandy/prank-call-of-cthulu/episode/525917/summary.html

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Peace on, in and in orbit of, Earth! Inter and intrahuman good will!
(Anonymous)
2007-12-24 04:37 pm UTC (link)
Shocking. I never noticed--it took a four year old to point it out to me.

Hmmmm, perhaps you have something here, Mr. Wright. We should involve four year olds in all branchs of science, and philosophy! Who knows what we might uncover?

(Reply to this)

Peace on, in and in orbit of, Earth! Inter and intrahuman good will!
[info]bibliophile112
2007-12-24 04:38 pm UTC (link)
Shocking. I never noticed--it took a four year old to point it out to me.

Hmmmm, perhaps you have something here, Mr. Wright. We should involve four year olds in all branchs of science, and philosophy! Who knows what we might uncover?

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oops!
(Anonymous)
2007-12-24 04:40 pm UTC (link)
My apologies for the double post

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Re: oops!
[info]johncwright
2007-12-24 08:35 pm UTC (link)
no problem

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Re: oops!
[info]johncwright
2007-12-24 08:35 pm UTC (link)
No problem

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Re: oops!
(Anonymous)
2007-12-26 09:29 pm UTC (link)
I believe Evil Overlords are required by Best Practices to employ five-year-olds on their staffs to point out holes in their plans. Four-year-olds would seem even better.

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Re: oops!
[info]arhyalon
2007-12-30 03:37 am UTC (link)
Especially if it was this four-year old. He's make a great minion for an evil overlord. Probably, he'd make a much better evil overlord minion than a scientist...scientists need qualities like patience.

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[info]princejvstin
2007-12-24 04:52 pm UTC (link)
Amazing!

This little bit is also interesting:

Misfit Doll is an unnamed, but seemingly normal girl rag doll. Her presence on the island is never explained on the special. According to NPR's "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me," news quiz show broadcasted December 8, 2007, Arthur Rankin, in an interview, revealed that the Misfit Doll was abandoned by her mistress and suffered from depression.

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[info]saintjoi
2007-12-24 08:12 pm UTC (link)
I never noticed that. But it explains a LOT. But not the dentistry. Nothing explains that.

A friend of mine did a great fisking of Rudoplh here: http://www.scriptoriumdaily.com/2007/12/18/a-brief-defense-of-all-of-the-other-reindeer-fisking-a-carol/

My company Christmas party was at a bowling alley that had movie screens at the end of the lanes. They played this movie. About 5 times over the course of the night. Ugh.

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[info]asakiyume
2007-12-24 08:44 pm UTC (link)
LOL!! You made me laugh out loud. Yeah, clearly a member of the house of Feanor on the right, there.

Merry Christmas :-)

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[info]dirigibletrance
2007-12-24 10:02 pm UTC (link)
Perhaps he was not kidnapped, but instead an orphan found who was brought to live with them raised as one of their own? It would certainly explain why he does not have a fairy, after all.

It is not a lineage to be ashamed of. The Hero of Time himself, after all, was an orphan boy raised by the Kokiri. ^_^

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Speaking of Changelings...
[info]djmahon
2007-12-25 03:02 am UTC (link)
...I was wondering what you thought of this?

One could readily see your son's observation as a plot-line in an episode of this game.

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Re: Speaking of Changelings...
[info]dirigibletrance
2007-12-25 04:56 am UTC (link)
I *have* been curious as to whether John's a White Wolf player as well, rather than just D&D. Shadowrun too, for that matter.

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Re: Speaking of Changelings...
[info]dirigibletrance
2007-12-25 05:00 am UTC (link)
Actually, come to thin of it, I really would like to know if John has taken a look at this:

http://secure1.white-wolf.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=851

Sort of the idea of Orphans of Chaos, but turned on it's head. Orphans of Divinity, instead.

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Re: Speaking of Changelings...
[info]johncwright
2007-12-28 07:19 pm UTC (link)
I have a good friend who moderates World of Darkness games, but he lives out of state, so I have played in his game maybe once or twice, not on a regular basis. He generally tends to run his vampire games without that humanity score meaning much of anything, so the characters are just supervillains with fangs, if you see what I mean.

Each game I played was a one-shot, either a vampire, or a mage or a fairy.

I played the vampire lord David LoPan, a Ventru who was seeking a way to return to a normal human life, and had to satisfy the curse of Cheng-di and the first sovereign emperor to do it.

I played the Mage Shiwan Khan, who was a member of the Akashkic brotherhood, and had the power to cloud men's minds.

I played Koschei the Deathless, a Nosferatu-- a character I later used in my ORPHANS OF CHAOS book. I

played a mage named Professor Tesseract, who was a member of the Hermetic Brotherhood, and I had an aetheric airship called the Phantom Dreadnaught. Really got to use him in a book someday: he was a great character.

I played a Fairy named Comus, who had basically the same powers and limitations as the magician Comus in Milton-- he was the son of Circe and Dionysus, and he could transform the shape of drunks into whatever animal best represented their sins. Being in the modern age, Comus dressed like a pimp in a purple zoot suit, with heroine needles and baggies of maryjane in his pockets, with enormous platform shoes to cover his split hoofs.

"Comus enters with a Charming Rod in one hand, his Glass in the other, with him a rout of Monsters, headed like sundry sorts of wilde Beasts, but otherwise like Men and Women, their Apparel glistring, they com in making a riotous and unruly noise, with Torches in their hands."

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Uncle of a Spy!
[info]belriose
2007-12-25 05:17 am UTC (link)
Well, I'm actually even more surprised by the fact a 4-years-old boy knows what an elf is. May be it's because we dont have in Spain any Christmas tradition regarding elfs, but I can tell you that my 5-years-old little cousin doesnt know about them.

He has some other extraordinary habilities thought. Like his talent to sneak out of his room to open his christmas gifts before morning without being spoted. Which, in an old house with noisy wood flors crowded with more than 20 people, some of them (well, just me actually) insomniacs, it's an unbelievably difficult task.

The spys everywhere should use those cotton pajama trausers with socks included instead of keep spending so much money in high-tech gadgets. I tell you: my cousin is a master of deception and stealth. In fact, I'm right now (5 am here) guarding the christmas tree. Well, I'd to sleep in the sofa anyway...

Oh God, how great is to be back home after months abroad :)


Merry Christmas to you and your lovely family Mr. Wright!

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Re: Uncle of a Spy!
[info]arhyalon
2007-12-30 03:44 am UTC (link)
Love the description of your spy!

Our four year old has more talents than just detective. He also has 16 invisible brothers. The other day, he was telling me where they 'popped out from" (the way he 'popped out from' Mommy.)

Arko, the eldest, popped out of the ark. (He's called Arko because he was born on the Ark.)

One popped out of a tree. One popped out of a shark. He can bite through metal!

One is shy and popped out of tears. He told me: "The mommy could not have a bady, and on the day the baby would have been born, she cried and he popped out of her tears."

Where do they get these things?

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