The Media made me do it, Episode II

[oloriel]

Oh, for fuck's...

Dear German Media,

No, it is not that absurd to name a child Sparrow. Aside from the fact that the kid also features a perfectly normal name, it's kind of silly of you to point out triumphantly that Sparrow means Spatz. So? Yes, in German "mein Spatz" is a common enough endearment, but this is not necessarily the case in the English-speaking world (or is it? Quick flist poll: How many of you were nicknamed "my sparrow" by parents or grandmothers?). Even if it is, a sparrow is still a normal term for a small bird.

But you caaaaan't name a boy for a bird, I hear you cry.

Yeah right, idiots. Because there are no Robins or Merlins - or, for those who speak no English and needed the explanation about what Sparrow means in the first place, Falks running around. And none of them are male. Nuh-uh.

So Robin's a perfectly normal male name, and Sparrow isn't?

Buy yourself a babybook and stop being idiots. I mean, why do you even care what other people name their kids? If you're so bothered about naming babies, make your own. For serious. I mean, an online acquaintance of mine named her offspring Emma Josephine Anoriel, but am I giving her any grief?

Srsly.

Not yours,
The mad linguist

- - -

Dear other German media,

So you're airing Firefly. The complete first season (hah!). Congratulations. I hope you are aware that you're about three to four years too late.
I can already hear it. Same way with Doctor Who. "See? Nobody is interested in this kind of thing. Nobody watched the series!"

No, you're just too late. Everybody in this country interested in the series has LONG SINCE bought the DVDs, the soundtrack, and the RPG.
AND the cunning hat.
Everybody interested in Firefly can watch it at any time they please - not at 10 past 10 in the evening on a Saturday, when even nerds have other things to do than watch TV.

Really clever.

Not yours either,
The occasional nerd girl


- - -

When I am too tired to write about, like, real life, all I do is rant. *nods*

Memes are upcoming.

Comments

[chili-das-schaf.livejournal.com]

This is still no reason for people who aren't in the fandom to buy it ;) they just watch it on TV. Like I did with Star Trek back then. I didn't even realise I was "too late" until I got really deep into it and realised that for US watchers this was already old news. Didn't stop me or millions of others become ST:TNG fans although the airing times were horrible (first on ZDF weekly, then on SAT1 daily, right in the middle of the day at kiddie hour).

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Nooo, just for people in the fandom to be kind and spread the love. ;)
And I'd say things were kind of different before the massive spread of the internet and the easy and quick availability of all kinds of obscure films on video and DVD. Back in the late 80s, it would've been a real specialist effort to a) hear about ST:TNG in Germany, b) get hold of the videos via your American penpal or something of the sort, c) get them transposed from NTSC to PAL, and d) understand the English or get them fan-subbed. That takes real dedication, which, as you rightly point out, isn't there if you aren't really deep into fandom in the first place.

This is the 21st century. Information is easily available, torrents are downloadable, DVDs are importable and *coughcough*copiable. All it takes is a kid/friend/colleague at work/presentation partner/guest at a video night/sparring partner/whatever who says "Hey, I've seen this awesome series, you might like it too, want to have a look?"
I know that doesn't have to happen all the time. It obviously doesn't. But the chances are waaaay higher than they were 20 years ago.
Which is why 1990 (or a 1994 re-run, which is a different matter anyway, because, well, it's "re-") was not "too late" in my book for a 1987 series, whereas 2009 for a 2002 series kind of is. At least it is when you're looking for a blockbuster effect (which, I assume, is what TV stations are still dreaming of).

[chili-das-schaf.livejournal.com]

Can only repeat: Geek bubble.

Nobody outside the Sci-Fi fandom gives a dead rat's ass about cowboys in space. There's a reason that Firefly massively flopped both on TV and in the cinema. The only people in my surroundings would recommend Firefly to have already seen it. My other friends would be left unfazed, probably even bored. Star Trek and Harry Potter are huge things but I still know tons of people who have never even glanced at them sideways and I can only repeat: Why should they?

It's a very specialized, very focussed interest. I want to have fun on a DVD night, why choose something that has the chance of boring me? I've seen movies "forced" on me that were great, but quite a few of them I thought were crap. If a movie or show I don't know anything about runs on TV, I can zap in, get hooked ( like in my case for example Totoro, which I watched because it was aired on Super RTL on a boring afternoon) or be unfazed and move on (like for me Babylon 5, Stargate, Monk, Psych and dozens of others).