the train versus God
A few metres from where I'm sat is a girl, most likely a Cambridge undergrad., judging from the orgillous drone of wordy and slightly comical psychobabble of a not-so-great-philosopher in the making. I could be mistaken; not about her being a student, she's quite clearly cast of the mould, but of her potential; if she can get around talking about the things she mistakenly thinks her audience will be interested in (her comrade is glazed over, just look at him) when clearly not informed enough to make the rather terminal observations that she is, she might very well get somewhere.
Ack. I take it back; she descends steeply...
"I think that rationalists are taking away from nature in denying its obvious divinity." She's a hardened creationist. Also a bible quoter. While I'm not a proponent of blind faith, I care little about what people choose to believe in provided they don't make a point of forcing their logic, particularly the unprovable, upon others. She's explaining the flaws of evolutionary theory now; natural selection is not possible because there's no way that a random process could give rise to the kinds of adaptations that we see in nature. Further, the laws of physics state (I can only assume that she's referring to the second law of thermodynamics) that disordered states are more probable than ordered ones, and that there can be no rational explanation for our [ordered] existence when there's nothing there to drive the unfavourable coalescence of energy into living systems.
Bleh. First off, I think that the ascription of the divine to nature is far worse a thing than 'denying its divinity'; nature isn't miraculous, it's better than that; it is brilliant, wonderful and inspiring in its complex diversity, and putting it all down to supernatural intervention diminishes its awful splendour. As for her treatment of Darwinism, sorry sister, but natural selection is not random; the mutations that drive it occur spontaneously, and yes, randomly, but selection itself is about as stringent and non-random a process as you can get; it's only the beasties with greater developmental advantages that survive and reproduce most successfully in the long run.
As for Law Thermodynamicus No. 2, Madame, I offer you... the sun. The ball of fusing hydrogen, that is, not the newspaper; the latter would very well demand divine intervention to do anything more than irritate.
The Cambridge-London route always has something interesting to offer.
In other news, I bumped into someone special on Portobello Road today; she stopped to ask me for directions to Ledbury Road (Notting Hill), and as we parted, I exclaimed, "Hey, you look just like Maggie Gyllenhaal!"
"I am!" came her smiley reply. Bloody obvious too.
Cue the broad, embarassed grin, "Oh, right!"
I turned and walked away a bit giggly. Stairs, you big idiot. Still, a nice coincidence in light of the last post.
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You're kidding! I'm incredibly jealous, I love her. Love her!
Well, once I get those doppelganger agreement contracts signed, that experience will be 50% mine, right?
In theory, but I'm still not sure that the experience'd be quite so satisfying when enjoyed vicariously. In any case, it was the briefest exchange, so you didn't miss out on anything more than a cute smile.
You know, you're supposed to die shortly after encountering your doppelganger :)
So I've heard. Guess it's a good thing that you won't be in London when I am! ;)
Just out of interest, was the student girl wearing the Cambridge Uni Uniform (College scarf, long woolen coat, etc)?
Why didn't you ask Maggie about her brother? Tsk tsk.
The scarf - of the college kind - involved turquoise and another pastel; it wasn't familiar to me, which is just as well as there was something distinctly emetic about it ;)
I forget what she was wearing otherwise; I'm not great at noticing fashion on other people unless it's really nice, or really terrible, or simply very becoming on the person in question.
[Frank] Well, interesting as Jake probably is, I wasn't about to go and interrogate her; I imagine it must get pretty tired having people coming up to you and making like they have the right to talk to you just because you're on a screen. Yes, there's some soul-sellage about being in the business, but I'd appreciate people keeping their distance if I were in that position. Anyway, I was caught unawares by her affirmation :)
But you *are* in that position. At least, you're on a screen and we keep coming up and talking to you :)
I agree, Stairs...I'm sure she appreciated the fact that you didn't fawn all over her and let her go on her way. Similar story: about a year ago my man and I were in Los Angeles eating dinner with some friends at a Mexican restaurant. Along comes Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick and they sit at the next table. We were smitten, sure, but we didn't stare or even get up to say 'hello' or anything...we just let them enjoy their dinner in peace.
At the age of 18 I met David Gedge, the lead singer of the Wedding Present, on a bus from Otley (where he lives) to Leeds. After a short while I started to talk to him. (Hey, I was 18, man!) Sadly, I couldn't really discuss their music: I loved the Ukrainian EP, but I hated the rest of their stuff. Suddenly he noticed that I was clutching photocopies of what was my forth-coming address in Denmark, where I was about to move. He then started asking me questions about that, and my future plans.
In other words, the one time I met a famous person, we talked about ME!!!! :-)
Actually, on a ferry from Brindisi to Patras I once chatted to some Ossie who'd played the mechanic on Ramsey St at the same time as 'Charlene', ie Kylie, but my only memory of that was that he was an obnoxious w*nker. At least your lack of conversation with Ms Golden Hole didn't shatter any illusions about her, Stairs!
And with that I rest my beer-weary fingers for another day!