Elisi! Long time no...random flailing on your LJ! I devoured this beautiful, beautiful meta as soon as you posted it (right after sending the following text to such_heights: "ahahahaha oh f*ck elisi just posted the EPIC CLARA META she's been talking about since xmas. I was planning on getting some actual work done today...". I did not get any work done that day.) but then I was too overwhelmed to actually say anything coherent. Last night's meltdown over the new trailer has finally prompted me into action :-) FIRSTLY: thank you so much for the vid rec! <333 I’ve said before and I’ll say again how completely delighted I am that the vid helped you clarify some of your meta thoughts. It’s also kind of funny, as the vid was largely inspired by your meta in the first place, and definitely wouldn’t exist without it – it’s a META OUROUBOROS. HELP.
Um anyway – some things I wanted to comment on:
- Your analysis of Clara’s leaf as representing both Infinity/infinite possibility and a fixed point at the same time is just *perfect*. Perfectly identified and perfectly expressed. <3 I have nothing to add, just wanted to flail.
- “The thing that comes immediately to mind is quantum mechanics and the idea that things only become fixed when they are observed.” – YES. Brilliant. My vid was absolutely trying to capture the continued scrutiny between the Doctor and Clara, their determination to figure each other out, and their duality/mutability - but this is a further step I hadn’t taken. (Ugh, like you with this meta, I had to cut a LOT of shiny parallels because they didn’t quite fit. It’s so hard!) But this is an idea that Moffat’s been obsessed with for a long time, isn’t it? You brilliantly link it back to the Library (fantastic quote from Donna’s children there) – but also, just think of the ‘quantum locked’ Weeping Angels, and the Silence who you only remember when you’re looking at them. And…the whole Schrodinger thing is kind of there in The Girl in the Fireplace, isn’t it? When the Doctor is on the 51st Century spaceship, Reinette could be any age, could be alive or dead, (or both) – it’s only when he ‘opens the box’ to look into her pocket of time that he has to face one set reality. MOFFAT. He is obsessed…
- …which makes me think of that quote I love so much – “The eyes are not the window to the soul, they are the doors. Beware what may enter them.” – Looking at someone, really looking at someone is a two way process – you risk opening yourself up to the same scrutiny, and to the possibility that you will be changed by what you see. As Clara is, as you so wonderfully point out. She changes to be who/what is needed by the company she keeps. And of course everyone does that to a certain extent, but in Clara it’s taken to the next level because as you discuss she literally becomes a different person for each of the Doctors she encounters throughout time and space. "That which holds the image of an angel becomes itself an angel". As you say at the beginning of your meta – Clara sees the Doctor’s mystery, and becomes a mystery herself. She takes on his role, after looking at him.
Splitting this into two comments because it got vvv long...
FIRSTLY: thank you so much for the vid rec! <333 I’ve said before and I’ll say again how completely delighted I am that the vid helped you clarify some of your meta thoughts. It’s also kind of funny, as the vid was largely inspired by your meta in the first place, and definitely wouldn’t exist without it – it’s a META OUROUBOROS. HELP.
Um anyway – some things I wanted to comment on:
- Your analysis of Clara’s leaf as representing both Infinity/infinite possibility and a fixed point at the same time is just *perfect*. Perfectly identified and perfectly expressed. <3 I have nothing to add, just wanted to flail.
- “The thing that comes immediately to mind is quantum mechanics and the idea that things only become fixed when they are observed.” – YES. Brilliant. My vid was absolutely trying to capture the continued scrutiny between the Doctor and Clara, their determination to figure each other out, and their duality/mutability - but this is a further step I hadn’t taken. (Ugh, like you with this meta, I had to cut a LOT of shiny parallels because they didn’t quite fit. It’s so hard!) But this is an idea that Moffat’s been obsessed with for a long time, isn’t it? You brilliantly link it back to the Library (fantastic quote from Donna’s children there) – but also, just think of the ‘quantum locked’ Weeping Angels, and the Silence who you only remember when you’re looking at them. And…the whole Schrodinger thing is kind of there in The Girl in the Fireplace, isn’t it? When the Doctor is on the 51st Century spaceship, Reinette could be any age, could be alive or dead, (or both) – it’s only when he ‘opens the box’ to look into her pocket of time that he has to face one set reality. MOFFAT. He is obsessed…
- …which makes me think of that quote I love so much – “The eyes are not the window to the soul, they are the doors. Beware what may enter them.” – Looking at someone, really looking at someone is a two way process – you risk opening yourself up to the same scrutiny, and to the possibility that you will be changed by what you see. As Clara is, as you so wonderfully point out. She changes to be who/what is needed by the company she keeps. And of course everyone does that to a certain extent, but in Clara it’s taken to the next level because as you discuss she literally becomes a different person for each of the Doctors she encounters throughout time and space. "That which holds the image of an angel becomes itself an angel". As you say at the beginning of your meta – Clara sees the Doctor’s mystery, and becomes a mystery herself. She takes on his role, after looking at him.