The 12 Days of Christmas
December 30th, 2014 by G.
Some say that ever ‘gainst that season comes
Wherein our Saviour’s birth is celebrated,
The bird of dawning singeth all night long:
And then, they say, no spirit dare stir abroad;
The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike,
No fairy takes, no witch has power to charm,
So hallow’d and gracious is the time. –Hamlet
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Filed under: We transcend your bourgeois categories | No Tag
Filed under: We transcend your bourgeois categories | No Tag
December 30th, 2014 13:31:28
John Sabotta
January 6, 2015
(from an interview with the great writer Gene Wolfe)
LP: This year you’re up for a Hugo for “No Planets Strike,” which might be summarized as “talking animals in the Holy Manger on another planet.”
GW: Yes.
LP: What gave you the idea to write that?
GW: I have to think for a moment. I was reading a book on clowns, and I came across this quotation from Shakespeare about the sacredness of Christmas Eve, and how fairies have no power to wound, no planets strike, meaning this is a reference to astrology, where Saturn and things like that are the evildoers. Saturn enters your astrological house and you have all sorts of troubles, etc. And I thought (laughs) well, isn’t that interesting? Shakespeare felt the aliens could not attack on Christmas Eve.