HAPPY 44th BIRTHDAY MARTIN FREEMAN

44 Reasons Why We Love You

Well, I don’t know about now but back in 2006 he said this in a interview:

What is your signature scent?

My other half bought me some Jo Malone cologne. It’s unisex so it’d suit any man, woman or plant.

[HQ] Here is the first look at Martin Freeman as Steve Marriott.! (Short Film : Midnight Of My Life)

The Romans were the first to introduce the elephant to Europe, but most Europeans became familiar with the animal in the 1200s, through drawings in bestiaries and illuminated manuscripts.  Under the Romans, elephants were used as war machines but were later given to royalty as exotic gifts.

Here’s an early 13th century drawing of an elephant carrying people.  Looks like fun!

Let’s look at another medieval drawing of an elephant:

This seems to depict a mother, a baby and a dragon. The elephants are kind of derpy looking, but not too bad.  Not sure why the dragon is there though.

Okay, this next elephant is way more derpy than the first two.  And also has a dragon friend.

Oh wait, I see what’s going on here…

This will not end well.

After doing a bit of reading, it appears most scholars believe the medieval elephant and the dragon were mortal enemies.  

“The dragon is the enemy of the elephant, and hides near paths where elephants walk so that it can catch them with its tail and kill them by suffocation.” (source: somewhere on the internet)

I can’t find any drawings or accounts of dragons actually eating the derpy elephants they’re attacking.  I also can’t find any drawings of non-derpy elephants being attacked, so I have to assume the dragons are just being assholes and going for the lowest hanging fruit.

Somewhere in this drawing is a total asshole dragon:

Which brings me to the Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell comparison.  Guess who is the derpy elephant in this photo?

Some who have read the book or watched the tv series have expressed pity for Mr. Drawlight, especially during his final moments. Maybe similar to the pity a person could feel for the derpy elephants as they are being stalked by the asshole dragons (or Mr. Lascelles in this case).

But I don’t think Drawlight deserves any pity at all, because if you remember correctly, he threw a cat out of a window in case it might get its’ fur on his clothes.

Which doesn’t make Lascelles any less of an asshole, it’s just that the derpy elephants might have been asking for it.

After reading this ill-informed opinion piece from the Guardian’s art critic Jonathan Jones, I had to write a rebuttal:

The article characterizes Pratchett as a symbol of society’s failure to embrace true literature, emblematic of a “middlebrow cult of the popular” that promotes “mental laziness.”

It’s essentially a bingo card of literary snob clichés, finishing up with praise for the “morally sombre plot” of Mansfield Park. Ironically, Jane Austen’s work experienced a similar reception to Terry Pratchett’s during her own lifetime: popular for its witty social satire, but rarely viewed as deep literature.

Person: *tag MF*

Fan: *browse MF tag*

Fan:

seriously

look

at

this