Saturday, February 21, 2009

Pisces No. 1: Alan Rickman

ANOTHER POST ON ALAN RICKMAN: gugeo.blogspot.com/2010/11/alan-rickman-neruda-truly-madly-deeply/Barchester Chronicles/Galaxy Quest

I thought I'd put together a list of quotes from Pisceans (my sign) to illustrate the sign, as I've done for Gemini and Scorpio (I have family members in both signs). Assembling these takes a while, you can imagine; but I see that today is Alan Rickman's birthday (2-21-46), so I'll let him kick it off right away.

He first caught my eye in Truly, Madly, Deeply (1990), but one of his best roles may be Mr Obadiah Slope in the BBC version of Barchester Towers (1982), here, with Geraldine McEwan as Mrs Proudie, the power behind the bishop. In their scenes together, two schemers of the highest caliber, they vibrate like high-tension wires. And of course Rickman's Snape is the only reason some of us bother with the Harry Potter movies.

Pisces' sign is two fish swimming in opposite directions, but joined by a ribbon, so they move multidimensionally but not unidirectionally.
Almost every Rickman quote I've read strikes me as classically Piscean, so I chose a few representative ones:

"I want to swim in both directions at once. Desire success, court failure."

"I've never been able to plan my life. I just lurch from indecision to indecision."

"I'm a quite serious actor who doesn't mind being ridiculously comic."

"If only life could be a little more tender and art a little more robust."


And with that, I'm off to the YWCA for the Saturday "Cycling to the Movies" workout. Today's movie, amazingly: Galaxy Quest, a movie so excellent, I would love it even if Alan Rickman weren't in it. But he is, wearing a rubber head throughout the entire film.
Could those be gills?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

OMGoddess!!! You are wonderful!! NOW I comprehend even more multidimensionally my peculiar form of Piscean existentialism: i never "knew", or "knew that i knew"--(hey! is dick cheney a Piscean?!)-- that our fishies are joined by some kind of umbilicus/cosmic streamer..."'splains" also my being drawn to monotremes and marsupials and lotus flowersand other multifaceted beings and why, 'tho' I've always been fascinated by maps and those circular constellation charts that you can change the months on, I much prefer globes and a trip to the planetarium, if I haven't seen a starry sky or been up in a spaceship viewing Home from space for awhile.
Have a cosmic workout! Happy fresh snowfall! Enjoy your "ingula"--(veri-word)-- as much as humanly possible for women of our ages!

Love,

Stefalala

Anonymous said...

Alan Rickman first popped out at me as the delightfully wicked Sheriff of Nottingham in the dreadfully stupid Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. I walked out of that horrible clunker by Kevin Costner (what an embarrassment of an actor!) saying who was that wonderful man playing the sheriff?! I've loved Alan Rickman ever since and will see practically anything he is in.

Of course, Galaxy Quest is completely delightful!
As are Pisceans.

Darwi said...

I love this actor. His performances and that flavor he gives to his work.
But I do not think that astrology has any true value. Sorry.

Fresca said...

STEF: Yeah, the original Greek myth goes that the two characters (I forget their names) are fleeing a monster so they turn into two fish connected by a ribbon so they don't lose each other.

BINK: Oh right, I'd totally forgotten how Rickman made the sheriff the most alluring character in the movie! I find Costner to be such a stick, but AR would shine next to anyone (like McEwan).

DARWI: No worries! I don't know any scientists who enjoy astrology. I see its "value" not as scientific fact but as art and story--like the Greek myths that illustrate it.

Anonymous said...

Hey! me again! Gonna haveta google some Greek myth stuff to find out about those fishy origins! Thanks for that meze of knowledge. i realized, as i tossed and turned at about three a. m. this morn, trying to fall asleep, that i'd confused cheney with rumsfeld once again in that referenece to things we know we know and things we don't know we know ad nauseum...[I think there is some word that should be out there, like "the brumchenrovush", which combines all those evils into one; they always got mixed up in my head after their various faux pas and exploits]... thinkin' of such mysteries o' life, and listening to the questions and reasonings the students I work with come up with...the stuff we call facts are only perceptions of what we call evidence: physical, material, which are all part of the bigger story/reality. Astrology is just as much part of everything as is rocket science, but, you know that! just chiming in on this precious corner of cybersoapbox you create.

Love and wondrous journeys to ya!

Stefalala

Joni S said...

I ran across this totally by accident and I love your description of the brilliant Alan Rickman. Did you read how much he helped younger actors and encouraged them. That he was the type of friend if you called him, he absolutely called back. I love these quotes, had no idea. One of the few actors that I truly get teary when I think about him leaving us so soon.

From a Pisces to a Pisces. Thank you.

Frex said...

(Frex = Fresca)

Aw, thanks, Joni, for leaving a comment!
What a Piscean thing to do.
I too felt an unusual sense of personal loss when Alan Rickman died.