Things Amelia Pond Learned In School (and some she didn't) - There are no stars. What precisely they are, and why old stories mention them, is a little less clear. (She learns this from everyone, more precisely. She has spent most of her life being told that this thing and this are not true.) - The Nile Pharoah Penguins are among the largest birds in the world, standing almost four feet tall and rivaling the North American Ostrich (as opposed to the two foot tall Australian Ostrich, a rare breed only sighted a few times over the centuries). - Everyone in England finds Scottish accents annoying and difficult to understand. There's a reason she refuses to lose hers. - She doesn't learn about Finland, or Norway, or Sweden, because they don't exist. Neither do any of the islands in the Mediterranean, or most of the West Coast of America. - She does, however, learn about the United Federation of The Pacific, because they and China might go to war any day now. - 2 +2 = 4. Maybe. - Every so often, there are these blimps that sort of float over England and then disappear. No one's actually sure where they're from. - She learns three different versions of German, one for each year she's taken it. She doesn't remember that - each time she learns a new version, it's the one that's always existed. - There's something wrong with her. Everyone says so. - She doesn't learn that there's something wrong with the world - that's just something she knows, instinctively, like she knows that there should be stars in the sky, that the Van Gogh exhibit at the museum is missing a painting, and that she used to have parents even if she can't remember them and there aren't any photos and nobody ever talks about them. Everyone has parents, don't they? - Then again, she isn't everybody. That's obvious enough.
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branchandroot
a world without stars
Date: 2010-06-29 05:37 pm (UTC)Things Amelia Pond Learned In School (and some she didn't)
- There are no stars. What precisely they are, and why old stories mention them, is a little less clear. (She learns this from everyone, more precisely. She has spent most of her life being told that this thing and this are not true.)
- The Nile Pharoah Penguins are among the largest birds in the world, standing almost four feet tall and rivaling the North American Ostrich (as opposed to the two foot tall Australian Ostrich, a rare breed only sighted a few times over the centuries).
- Everyone in England finds Scottish accents annoying and difficult to understand. There's a reason she refuses to lose hers.
- She doesn't learn about Finland, or Norway, or Sweden, because they don't exist. Neither do any of the islands in the Mediterranean, or most of the West Coast of America.
- She does, however, learn about the United Federation of The Pacific, because they and China might go to war any day now.
- 2 +2 = 4. Maybe.
- Every so often, there are these blimps that sort of float over England and then disappear. No one's actually sure where they're from.
- She learns three different versions of German, one for each year she's taken it. She doesn't remember that - each time she learns a new version, it's the one that's always existed.
- There's something wrong with her. Everyone says so.
- She doesn't learn that there's something wrong with the world - that's just something she knows, instinctively, like she knows that there should be stars in the sky, that the Van Gogh exhibit at the museum is missing a painting, and that she used to have parents even if she can't remember them and there aren't any photos and nobody ever talks about them. Everyone has parents, don't they?
- Then again, she isn't everybody. That's obvious enough.