David Tennant thinks astrology is bunk, which makes me love him even more. Gorgeous, talented, and rational? Oh, baby…
Of course, the British newspaper article in which this tidbit can be found is shocked, shocked to have such news to be passing on. The Mirror article starts out like this:
Doctor Who may travel the universe but the star who plays him has branded astrology “absolute nonsense”.
Say what? An actor — someone who pretends for a living — starring in a show that is more accurately termed science fantasy than science fiction doesn’t actually accept as true a completely different fantasy about the universe? How can this be?
More seriously, is The Mirror suggesting that Doctor Who is as accurate a representation of reality as it seems to suggest astrology is? Or does it secretly realize that it is acknowledging that astrology is just as big a fantasy as Doctor Who is?
I’ve had people, quite solemnly, ask me how I can be so ga-ga over, say, The Lord of the Rings and still not believe in the Bible. Which never fails to leave me speechless. Either most people honestly do not grasp the difference between something presented as fantasy and intended as nothing more than that, and something presented as reality and intended to be a guide to living your life. Or they do, and are simply unable to acknowledge, even to themselves, that the one fantasy they really, really want to believe is true is nothing but hokum after all.
(Technorati tags: David Tennant, astrology)
I’ve had people, quite solemnly, ask me how I can be so ga-ga over, say, The Lord of the Rings and still not believe in the Bible.
That’s easy. The Lord of the Rings is better written.
British tabloids pretend to be stupid all the time because it makes for a better story. They think they can get away with it because their readers are stupid. I think they get away with it because their readers don’t expect any better.
If you can spare half an hour, it’s worth listening to the radio programme the quote is coming from. It was broadcast in the UK last evening and it’s available in the BBC website the next six days (it works for people outside the UK as well). Catherine Tate interviewing David Tennant in front of a live audience and it is very funny:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/comedy/chainreaction.shtml
Just a note…. that comment made by those LotR fans does stem from the fact that Tolkien, himself, was a staunch catholic, and the original novel portrayed some of his sensibilities.
Jackson…. I dunno. I don’t think he is.