Things I learned from fanfic today

[beccaelizabeth]

I'm reading through the recs on Torchwood House.
This one starts with a quote. Which usually irritates me, because there's too much song fic in the world that never got beyond 'that quote reminds me of x' in the bunny stage. But this is a good quote.

What we call the beginning is often the end
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
The end is where we start from.

--T. S. Eliot, "Little Gidding"


... Jack was quoting? "The end is where we start from." Right there in the episode.
Which I thought sounded pretty dumb. Er, cultural literacy fail.

http://www.tristan.icom43.net/quartets/gidding.html
LITTLE GIDDING
(No. 4 of 'Four Quartets')
T.S. Eliot

I don't think I've read it before, but I know this bit

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

This bit is neat

We die with the dying:
See, they depart, and we go with them.
We are born with the dead:
See, they return, and bring us with them.


I should probably read the whole thing but my brain keeps sliding off it.

... yes, I'm a lit student. I wanted to be a film student. Actually having studied film I think I wanted to be a Doctor Who and Buffy student, but *shrugs*

I go read fanfic now.

Comments

[julia-here.livejournal.com]

T.S. Elliot is a tough one- but he was human enough to carry on a long correspondance with Groucho Marx, so he couldn't have been all bad?

Julia, Four Quartets is tougher than most, too, there's a whole lot of that work which seems profound on the surface, but when you look deeper the meaning pops like a soap bubble