The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

🎬 Peter Jackson

+ IMDb trivia

Patrick after his & David’s first kiss requested by seadeepy

king george frederick in every episode of queen charlotte 

'Piranesi' again, albatross in The Lower Halls. Damn, I'd give everything to find the House

Introduction to The Iliad, Emily Wilson

The fact that there’s an actually functional website for the library of Babel is one of those things that fucks me up more and more the more I think about the implications.

So, if anyone hasn’t encountered the concept of the library of Babel, the idea comes from a story of the same name by Jorge Luis Borges, which is set inside a seemingly infinite library which contains every possible combination of letters, periods, commas and spaces that fits within 410 pages.

So like… It isn’t THAT out there that someone was able to make a digital version of it. Making an algorithm that randomly generates every possible combination of those 29 characters within that space and making a website that lets you explore those combinations are things that are pretty squarely within the scope of things you’d expect someone to be able to make a computer do.

But it begins to get pretty out there when you start thinking about all the things that are technically contained there (and that someone randomly browsing it could THEORETICALLY stumble upon) just by virtue of being one of those possible combinations of letters, spaces, commas, and periods.

Somewhere in that website there IS a book that specifically mentions me by full name before giving an accurate, excruciatingly detailed, 410-page long physical description of me. There’ also many more books that SEEM to be that but are actually factually inaccurate. There’s also versions of all of those containing every possible combination of every possible typo, spelling mistake, and grammatical error.

Somewhere in that website there IS a book that’s a perfectly accurate prediction of how and when I will die narrated in third person over the course of 410 pages. There’s also a book that contains the exact same events narrated in first person. Not only for me, but for every person in the world. There are many more that claim to be that but are actually inaccurate.

Somewhere in that website there IS a book that’s completely blank except for the world’s funniest dick joke written right at the end of the very last page.

But chances are no one browsing that website is EVER going to see any of that because for every book we would consider useful, interesting, or even intelligible there are millions upon millions upon millions more that are just completely full of gibberish from cover to cover.

Every single thing I will ever write (barring punctuation marks that arent periods or commas and the letter ñ) is already contained somewhere on that website.

I have a volume from the Library of Babel! it’s one of my most treasured books.

on the second to last page, about halfway down it reads “OH TIME THY PYRAMIDS” a singular grain of order in the sea of chaos.

The library of babel contains every book to ever exist and moreover it contains all information that can be encoded in a finite string of characters from its alphabet.

I cannot overstate how much I love the Library of Babel. it’s wonderful, it is my heart and soul.

at last we created the perplexing nexus, from the novel “wouldnt it be weird if there was a perplexing nexus?”

The Library of Babel is one of my favorite science fiction concepts of all time! Especially because now that the digital version of the Library exists, we may be on the verge of resolving the Perplexing Nexus.

So in the book, the library of Babel consists of a bunch of hexagonical rooms, arranged more or less like a beehive. Two walls are doors connecting them to adjoining hexagons. One wall contains the supplies necessary for human life. the other three walls contain these 410-page books (it’s 410 pages because that’s how long Borges’ copy of Don Quixote was), most of which are gibberish.

The story is mostly focused on what life is like for the humans inside the Library- their only source of stimulation is the books, they have no idea why they’re here, and they can’t get out. It’s generally agreed that the answer to why they’re here and how to get out is somewhere in the library, but there are literally TRILLIONS of books, and as stated above, even if you find one that makes sense, there’s no way to know if it’s true. some people have devoted themselves to searching for the way out, some just collect anything that makes sense, and some are wholesale burning every book they find to try to break the library.

Borges wrote his story in the 1930’s well before the advent of databases, and the mechanics of the library weren’t the main focus- the effect on people when confronted with the dubiousness of The Truth was. We now live in an era where the Library is Real- or at least, a digital version of it is, and we may be able to do something none of Borges’ characters could:

Actually sort the damn thing.

Text AI is unfortunately being used for stupid purposes, but we’re getting close to machines that can read text and reasonably judge if the text is gibberish or Real Words, and do so at speed. There are Trillions of Books, but we crunch bigger datasets than that.

Imagine a sorting algorithm that moves through the library, room by room, reading every book in the room in a flash, and flagging it as “total gibberish” or “some comprehensible text”, highlighting any comprehensible text, and perhaps even searching for cryptographic clues in the nonsense. It’s going through the library much, much faster than any human can, and methodically, room-by-room, never returning to a room it’s already processed, a but like the old phone game of Snake.

Acutally, kind of literally. I imagine it would manifest in the database as a sort of enormous serpent, twisting through the labyrinthine library, devouring books whole. The Comprehensible ones are left standing on the shelves in its wake, survivors not of a force of nature, but a cataclysm of technology.

…But can you trust it?

Who created this monster? What parameters did they use? Why the hell did they make this thing? Can you trust the creator’s motives? and what about the serpent itself? Is it a mindless thing, following it’s creator’s orders, or is there a spark of self with in it? Has the consumption of this data changed it? Or are we talking to

So how about a sequel: The Serpent of Babel.

Schitt’s Creek Gif Advent Calendar || 9/25 - Something that should have won an award: Meet the Parents

ask not for who the willy wonks... it wonks for thee

stop reblogging this

imagine: you are chilling in front you your house getting high. along comes an old family friend who you last saw when you were six, you are now in your 50s. after a brief convo where he is kind of a dick to you, he’s like damn you’ve changed :/. and your like yeah bestie it’s been five decades why the fuck are you here. he leaves. later that night a shit ton of people show up and trash your house. just throw and absolute rager. halfway through the family friend from earlier shows up. he announces in full earshot of everyone that he wants you to come with him to rob a bank. you of course say wtf??? one of the people who broke into your house calls you a pussy. another person shoves you a contract which declares if you get shot robbing the bank they will not pay for your funeral. you pass out. when you wake up you find the contract on your table and your house almost completely back to normal. you stare at the contract for a moment and decide, fuck it this is just as a good a midlife crisis than anything.

this is what happened to bilbo baggins

Schitt’s Creek + text posts

↳ Patrick Brewer

from the introduction to emily wilsons translation of the iliad

[Text: You already know the story. You will die. Everyone you love will also die. You will lose them forever. You will be sad and angry. You will weep. You will bargain. You will make demands. You will beg. You will pray. It will make no difference. Nothing you can do will bring them back. You know this. Your knowing changes nothing. This poem will make you understand this unfathomable truth again and again, as if for the very first time.]

Here's THE masterpost of free and full adaptations, by which I mean that it's a post made by the master.

Anthony and Cleopatra: here's the BBC version, here's a 2017 version.

As you like it: you'll find here an outdoor stage adaptation and here the BBC version. Here's Kenneth Brannagh's 2006 one.

Coriolanus: Here's a college play, here's the 1984 telefilm, here's the 2014 one with tom hiddleston. Here's the Ralph Fiennes 2011 one.

Cymbelline: Here's the 2014 one.

Hamlet: the 1948 Laurence Olivier one is here. The 1964 russian version is here and the 1964 american version is here. The 1964 Broadway production is here, the 1969 Williamson-Parfitt-Hopkins one is there, and the 1980 version is here. Here are part 1 and 2 of the 1990 BBC adaptation, the Kenneth Branagh 1996 Hamlet is here, the 2000 Ethan Hawke one is here. 2009 Tennant's here. And have the 2018 Almeida version here. On a sidenote, here's A Midwinter's Tale, about a man trying to make Hamlet.

Henry IV: part 1 and part 2 of the BBC 1989 version. And here's part 1 of a corwall school version.

Henry V: Laurence Olivier (who would have guessed) 1944 version. The 1989 Branagh version here. The BBC version is here.

Julius Caesar: here's the 1979 BBC adaptation, here the 1970 John Gielgud one. A theater Live from the late 2010's here.

King Lear: Laurence Olivier once again plays in here. And Gregory Kozintsev, who was I think in charge of the russian hamlet, has a king lear here. The 1975 BBC version is here. The Royal Shakespeare Compagny's 2008 version is here. The 1974 version with James Earl Jones is here. The 1953 Orson Wells one is here.

Macbeth: Here's the 1948 one, there the 1955 Joe McBeth. Here's the 1961 one with Sean Connery, and the 1966 BBC version is here. The 1969 radio one with Ian McKellen and Judi Dench is here, here's the 1971 by Roman Polanski, with spanish subtitles. The 1988 BBC one with portugese subtitles, and here the 2001 one). Here's Scotland, PA, the 2001 modern retelling. Rave Macbeth for anyone interested is here. And 2017 brings you this.

Measure for Measure: BBC version here. Hugo Weaving here.

The Merchant of Venice: here's a stage version, here's the 1980 movie, here the 1973 Lawrence Olivier movie, here's the 2004 movie with Al Pacino. The 2001 movie is here.

The Merry Wives of Windsor: the Royal Shakespeare Compagny gives you this movie.

A Midsummer Night's Dream: have this sponsored by the City of Columbia, and here the BBC version. Have the 1986 Duncan-Jennings version here. 2019 Live Theater version? Have it here!

Much Ado About Nothing: Here is the kenneth branagh version and here the Tennant and Tate 2011 version. Here's the 1984 version.

Othello: A Massachussets Performance here, the 2001 movie her is the Orson Wells movie with portuguese subtitles theree, and a fifteen minutes long lego adaptation here. THen if you want more good ole reliable you've got the BBC version here and there.

Richard II: here is the BBC version. If you want a more meta approach, here's the commentary for the Tennant version. 1997 one here.

Richard III: here's the 1955 one with Laurence Olivier. The 1995 one with Ian McKellen is no longer available at the previous link but I found it HERE.

Romeo and Juliet: here's the 1988 BBC version. Here's a stage production. 1954 brings you this. The french musical with english subtitles is here!

The Taming of the Shrew: the 1980 BBC version here and the 1988 one is here, sorry for the prior confusion. The 1929 version here, some Ontario stuff here, and here is the 1967 one with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. This one is the Shakespeare Retold modern retelling.

The Tempest: the 1979 one is here, the 2010 is here. Here is the 1988 one. Theater Live did a show of it in the late 2010's too.

Timon of Athens: here is the 1981 movie with Jonathan Pryce,

Troilus and Cressida can be found here

Titus Andronicus: the 1999 movie with Anthony Hopkins here

Twelfth night: here for the BBC, here for the 1970 version with Alec Guinness, Joan Plowright and Ralph Richardson.

Two Gentlemen of Verona: have the 2018 one here. The BBC version is here.

The Winter's Tale: the BBC version is here

Please do contribute if you find more. This is far from exhaustive.

(also look up the original post from time to time for more plays)

reblogging because I NEED to be able to find this again

Me too!

you know what line from Shakespeare makes me go feral. that one line that’s like “I will live in thy heart, die in thy lap, and be buried in thy eyes (and also I will go with thee to thy Uncle)” from Much Ado About Nothing because like. that line is objectively really funny because Beatrice is just talking about going with Benedick to have a conversation with her uncle and he’s. being an overdramatic bitch again. but the other thing is that. that line is so unbearably tender. imagine you ask someone to go with you to your uncle’s and they seriously tell you not only do they want to do that but they also want to die in your lap and be buried in your eyes, sort of in a joking tone but also completely meaning it. i cant think about that too long or ill absolutely go insane

We’re really never gonna be over Much Ado About Nothing huh

I will never be over it.

Like her first line?  The first thing out of her mouth.

“Is Benedick alive?”

“I pray you, is Signor Montanto returned from the wars or no?”

She throws in the insult in the hopes no one will notice that her first fucking line is “Tell me Benedick’s not dead.”

Like the way he clearly swore something to her in the past and (she thinks he) broke that oath.

“He hath every month a new sworn brother.”  “I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me.”  “Do not swear and eat it.”  “Will you not eat your word?”  “He is now as valiant as Hercules who only tells a lie and swears it.”  “Use it for my love some other way than swearing by it.”

In this essay I will

Y'ALL. ACT TWO, SCENE ONE.

They were clearly together at least for a little bit before Benedick went to war and a promise was made. But she’s got reason to believe he was unfaithful afterward or that he was otherwise insincere in his promise, so now she doesn’t trust his ass farther than she can punt it.

And since everyone seems to be aware of their repeated skirmishes of wit, there had to be a public falling-out at some point, but everyone is still secretly hoping they come to their senses and make up. Perhaps no one more than Benedick and Beatrice themselves.

Lovers to enemies to allies and back to lovers again.

I FUCKING LOVE THIS PLAY.