Cylon, Alan Tudyk, and more (oh my!)

[shah_of_blah]

This funny thing happened in my Greek Archaeology class yesterday.  Just before class started, I was actually writing the beginnings of a (bsg) fic in the back of my notebook, and I look up and what is my professor writing on the board?  CYLON.  I did a double-take in my seat.

Apparently, Cylon was this Athenian guy around the 7th century (BCE).  He tried to oust the ruling aristocracy in Athens, and he failed spectacularly.  He had the support of the army, and others (I think it was basically a populist movement), but yeah, he failed.  Most of his followers were killed, and he took refuge in the altar of Athena, where he should have been safe.  But he was dragged out and put to death by the Alcmaeonidae (the head honcho family).  And this is where the Alcmaeonidae (try spelling that five times fast) picked up a nifty little curse, on account of how you're really not supposed to drag people from the altar.  So then the family was cursed; supposedly, they were banned from Athens, but they were only actually kicked out on the rare occasion that someone had enough power to depose them.  I wonder if Glen Larson was up on his Ancient Greek history.

Ummmmmm Alan Tudyk...oh yes!  I was watching Arrested Development instead of working yesterday (like you do) and started cackling when Alan Tudyk appeared as Pastor Veal.  Too funny.  I love him.  I miss Wash. 

And then I took a break from Arrested Development to acquire and watch a certain episode of Robot Chicken, the one with Katee Sackhoff, Michael Hogan, Tahmoh Penikett, and Joss Whedon.  Yeah, it was hilarious, although the battlestar bit was unfortunately about 30 seconds long.  But still, the whole thing was very funny.  I recommend it.  The episode is called "Rabbits on a Roller Coaster" for no discernable reason.  I don't think there were any rabbits.

I said "and more," was there anything else...?  Oh, yes, there was.  So I was re-reading old fic of mine (like you do) and this odd thing happened.  I was reading Counting Breaths and there's one sentence in the last segment that says the exact opposite of what I meant.  The sentence: "She is too tired to miss anyone, and it seems unnatural to be glad they aren’t going through the same hell."  I'm not sure how it got all convoluted, but there's that double negative, with the "unnatural" and the "they aren't," and really I think it should have said "sad" instead of "glad" or some variant on that.  Nobody commented on it, so I wonder if they assumed that was what I meant or, like me, subconsciously rewrote it in their head to mean what it ought to?  Ah well.

Comments

[lunar47.livejournal.com]

that is pretty freaky about the cylon stuff. Actually kind of interesting when you apply it to bsg.

I miss Wash too. But I did love his turn on AD

[shah-of-blah.livejournal.com]

I was rather freaked out in class. The world was conspiring to make me think of bsg all the time.

And then I tried and failed to draw meaningful conclusions about the "Cylon" thing (I got stuck around if the Cylons are obviously Cylon, then the humans are the Alcmaeonidae...)

[stardust-20.livejournal.com]

I think Glen Larsen knew exactly what he was doing when he wrote the mythology for BSG. Thankfully Ron Moore has decided to continue it - I find it quite fascinating. I never learned any ancient history (stupid Ontario schools!) and I think perhaps someday I'm going to have to go back to school and take classes. I would love to know more.

As for your slip in Counting Breaths, I think we all just did the correction in our heads, assuming we knew what you meant. I know I did. :)

[shah-of-blah.livejournal.com]

I've never seen the original BSG, so I had no idea if Glen Larson included all the references to Greek mythology, or if that was RDM's touch. It's an interesting choice, regardless, as my understanding of this Cylon fellow is that he was a very sympathetic figure.

[stardust-20.livejournal.com]

Considering Apollo and Athena were Adama's children (no kidding - their real names, they didn't do 'callsigns' in the original) I'd say GL had a few mythology thoughts when he first put the show together. :) I'm sure there's much more but I was a sporadic watcher then and didn't really pay much attention to the mythology of the show. It was similar to this but different in a way since there were no skinjobs and no cylon civil war. But the centurions were sentient (ish) back then, unlike now. Until now of course. :)

[vulcanfic.livejournal.com]

Thucydides? Now that you mention it, I do remember reading that, though it was before the new show, so it didn't ring any bells. I settled for arguing that the ancient Greeks were Klingons. (I also begged Bert Lott to let me write on something other than Thucydides for my final. Ugh.)

[shah-of-blah.livejournal.com]

Ha. Ancient Greeks = Klingons. Or Cylons. Or the Thirteenth Tribe. Excellent.

I have been spared from Thucydides, as my class isn't dealing much with primary sources like that.

[visualthinker11.livejournal.com]

i still need to see the alan tudyk episodes of AD... this makes me sad.

[shah-of-blah.livejournal.com]

Well I've only seen the one so far...also sad.