Aurora's Sundry Notes

I wanted to join the fandom_snowflake challenge this year, but I didn't have the energy for it right away after New Year, so I'm catching up now. I'm doing Days 1 & 2 today, though in separate posts as they got a bit long. I'll hopefully continue with other ones in the following days, though I may do things out of order and/or skip some.




Day 1

In your own space, talk about your Happy Place—the things that give you joy, calms you or keeps you sane. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.


1) Without a doubt, recently my happiest of fannish happy places has been Classic Doctor Who, in particular the 1960s and especially the Second Doctor era. It turns out I adore TV being black and white and kind of slow and sometimes clumsy with special effects because 1960s and budget, but so full of heart and fun and spirit, and lovely characters with great chemistry, and willing to try out just about anything they manage and then some. The stories have a certain old-fashioned charm, and while that unfortunately sometimes also means old-fashioned values and attitudes, generally they do aim to be progressive for their time despite some unfortunate blind spots, and e.g. many of the female characters are quite awesome.

There's also such a strong found family vibe in the whole First and Second Doctor era - and to some extent through all of Doctor Who, especially Classic Who, but I feel it's particularly strong in that early era. Also, Patrick Troughton's Doctor is totally someone I'd enjoy spending time with, which doesn't go for all Doctors, but that doesn't mean he's in any way too nice - he's got rough edges and temper and will certainly stand up whenever it counts. I feel so at home with these characters and they make me happy and I can't stop thinking about them and wanting more of their adventures and imagining them in other stories. Watching something from that era will always make me feel better, more grounded and more at home with myself.


2) Another happy place for me is reading. I love books. Fiction books: modern diverse science fiction and fantasy that give space to women, queer characters, people of colour, mental health etc.; historical fiction; 19th century and early 20th century classics, especially by female authors or by such male authors who were capable of imagining intelligent and active women (Alexandre Dumas); poetry; history books; easy-to-read but not too dumbed down popularized science books, especially physics, astronomy and natural history. I love losing myself into the pages of a book and widening the world around me, and it can cut me off from anything that's preying on me, stressing me out, depressing me, making me feel lacking. Books also frequently show me a way to do things differently, be different, make a change. I'll escape into a book and emerge with more hope.

3) Finally, in terms of physical places, forests are happy places for me, as are high enough hills that you can see the landscape around you, and the shores of natural waters like lakes and rivers. Even just a few minutes in such a place washes away some of the worry and grime and stress of ordinary life, and being able to spend a an hour or two is really cleansing and soothing, and makes me feel alive. It does usually need to be real, wild nature, not just a park or a garden, though something living and growing is better than nothing, being that it's hard to find much wild nature when you live in a city.


Be back soon with Day 2!