Sunday 14 October 2007

The Pharyngula Mutating Genre Meme

From Pharyngula via MythusMage :
The Pharyngula mutating genre meme.

There are a set of questions below that are all of the form, “The best [subgenre] [medium] in [genre] is‚ …”. Copy the questions, and before answering them, you may modify them in a limited way, carrying out no more than two of these operations:

A. You can leave them exactly as is.

B. You can delete any one question.

C. You can mutate either the genre, medium, or subgenre of any one question. For instance, you could change “The best time travel novel in SF/Fantasy is‚” to “The best time travel novel in Westerns is‚ …”, or “The best time travel movie in SF/Fantasy is‚ …”, or “The best romance novel in SF/Fantasy is‚ …”.

D. You can add a completely new question of your choice to the end of the list, as long as it is still in the form “The best [subgenre] [medium] in [genre] is‚ …”.

*You must have at least one question in your set, or you’ve gone extinct, and you must be able to answer it yourself, or you’re not viable.

*Then answer your possibly mutant set of questions. Please do include a link back to the blog you got them from, to simplify tracing the ancestry, and include these instructions.

*Finally, pass it along to any number of your fellow bloggers. Remember, though, your success as a Darwinian replicator is going to be measured by the propagation of your variants, which is going to be a function of both the interest your well-honed questions generate and the number of successful attempts at reproducing them.

My parent is: Mythusmage

1. The best time travel novel in SF/Fantasy is…
All You Zombies By Robert Heinlein

2. The best romantic movie in science fiction is…
Time after Time

3. The best romantic song in rock is…
Macarthur Park by Richard Harris

4. The best medical novel series in sf/fantasy is…
The Sector General series by James White.

My victims for this meme are…

Lloyd
Matt
Morgan
Calamity Jane

5 comments:

mythusmage said...

A formatting note here. The practice is to list the line of descent from ancestor to parent. Thus, in your case the progression would be...

Grandfather: Pharyngula
Father: Mythusmage.

For the next generation you would be...

Father: Zoe

Yes, you get to be a meme dad! :)

Calamity Jane said...

'Tis done. Hope I got it right.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the victimization!

It might take me a short while to get around to it. And I can't remember when I last read a whole book all the way through...

Anonymous said...

Just out of interest, Zoe, why did you make those choices? Something fun to justify :)

Zoe Brain said...

Fun? I'm afraid not. All far too symbolic and emotional I'm afraid. Not that I knew it until I thought about it.

All You Zombies is fairly obvious, when you consider the plot. The last line always made me cry though.

There isn’t anyone but me — Jane — here alone in the dark.
I miss you dreadfully!


I've always been a girl. But I had to hide that from myself, as it just wasn't a feasible way to live, pining for the impossible. Stories like this though always struck a chord. Yes, including the "alone in the dark" bit. Especially in my teens.

Time after Time has one of the most emotionally heartwrenching scenes in any movie. When "H.G" is prevented by some incompetent police from saving his beloved from being butchered in the most horrible manner. Then when it's all to late, the mumbled apology, and he's released into an empty, miserable existence and not a Life.

And I'm a sucker for happy endings - not so happy for Amy's friend though.

Macarthur Park, again a real tearjerker. One that is all too appropriate for a transsexual woman in her 27th year of marriage:
There will be another song for me
For I will sing it
There will be another dream for me
Someone will bring it
I will drink the wine while it is warm
And never let you catch me looking at the sun
And after all the loves of my life
After all the loves of my life
You'll still be the one

I will take my life into my hands and I will use it
I will win the worship in their eyes and I will lose it
I will have the things that I desire
And my passion flow like rivers through the sky
And after all the loves of my life
After all the loves of my life
I'll be thinking of you
And wondering why

MacArthur's Park is melting in the dark
All the sweet, green icing flowing down
Someone left the cake out in the rain
I don't think that I can take it
'Cause it took so long to bake it
And I'll never have that recipe again
Oh No!


If only we both were Lesbian! But we're not. And I love her just as much as I did the day I married her, even though guys now ring my bell, and girls don't.

What we had is lost. What we may just possibly have is unknown. She needs a man in her life. I don't think I do, life is already far too complicated.

I'm an old-fashioned gal who wants marriage you see. And I can't see that ever happening. For one thing, I'm still married.... as I said, life is far too complicated.

I've met, and wed, the Love of my Life. So many never do. I should be grateful for what I've had. There is no-one else for me. Pity she's the wrong Sex!!!!!

As for Sector General :
The genders of characters other than the species of the protagonist of a given story are rarely mentioned, with third-person pronouns being replaced by 'it'. This is explained as a linguistic convenience for 'species that have more than two genders or change sex during their lifespan'.
And until you asked the question, Morgan, I didn't realise that that is why I chose it! Nor why it's always been one of my favourite SF series.

The total denial that had to be practiced every moment of every day just to live had ramifications I'm still finding out.