notapipe @ July 15 2003, 01:16:20 UTC Alien Klansmen!

When I googled "I too have spent a life the sages' way." I got only Mulder quotes. Which rocks. Now I need someone to tell me where Mulder got it.

vellum @ July 15 2003, 01:20:28 UTC crop circles?

http://www.wisdomworld.org/setting/browningtwo.html

it's like, down towards the middle of the page somewhere.

snowballjane @ July 15 2003, 03:04:42 UTC Re: crop circles?

Ooo, Browning! I didn't recognise this one, but I love the way potions_master's player is throwing us a poem every few days.

Reading the next few lines - hmm, very interesting. I'm deeply impressed by the finding of such relevant verse! Especially since it's the sort of introspection that would be totally out-of-character if Snape actually wrote it. 20 points for subtlty.

notapipe @ July 15 2003, 01:24:55 UTC

The goal in sight again.

Any theories?

musesong @ July 15 2003, 04:11:00 UTC

The X-Files quote and the location suggests some link perhaps with extra-terrestrials linked to ancient civilizations. Good fun!

hobaggins @ July 15 2003, 10:50:56 UTC

Do you have any idea how happy that would make me?

*dredges up last vestiges of X-Files fandom-ing*

musesong @ July 16 2003, 03:08:00 UTC

Me too. X-Files was brilliant fun but got itself tangled up in its own conspiracy theories. The section Mulder quotes ends with the last line Snape uses in his post:

MULDER: ...at times I almost dream
I, too, have spent a life the sages' way,
And tread once more familiar paths. Perchance
I perished in an arrogant self-reliance
Ages ago; and in that act, a prayer
For one more chance went up so earnest, so
Instinct with better light let in by death,
That life was blotted out-not so completely
But scattered wrecks enough of it remain,
Dim memories, as now, when once more seems
The goal in sight again...

The epsiode it was quoted in was quite a mystical one, The Field Where I Died.. Red Herring, well if so it's proving a fascinating trip. Our own Snape in sphogwarts is more staid though realisation their Potions Master has 'a life' proving shocking enough for some students.

shusu @ July 16 2003, 06:15:07 UTC

<333333333333333 !!!

Thought Duchovny's acting was dodgy in that, but really a wonderful story on past lives. Meta up, and we have characters born and reborn in myth... people living same archetypes generation after generation.

I will stop now before I recommend Milagro, Jose Chung's From Outer Space, Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose and since NA is doing this odd couple of Cho and Snape, Bad Blood.

And yes we were very shocked.

caersidi @ July 16 2003, 09:26:41 UTC

Interesting counterpoint because the idea of we have characters born and reborn in myth... people living same archetypes generation after generation is certainly something we are exploring. All those are fav X-files and some of the Millennium ones as well with angelic/demonic themes. Stepping way into the 'what is reality' question.

I like the odd couple aspect here in NA. She connected with him and the kitten earlier on as well.

saffronlie @ July 15 2003, 06:18:37 UTC

I actually thought it might be some kind of code, a la "the eagle has landed". Code for, uh... a goal being in sight. :s

notapipe @ July 15 2003, 11:19:17 UTC

Yes, brilliant deduction. The question is: WHAT goal?

notapipe @ July 15 2003, 11:24:39 UTC

Though it doesn't change that I think there IS a goal, the origin of that line is from the browning poem in the subject. This makes me think the goal may be more general than an object or weapon or whatever, and less immediate than in the next few days or weeks.

babytyggeryss @ July 15 2003, 21:41:07 UTC

During the long evolutionary journey of the Soul, a point is reached where mere brain knowledge no longer satisfies, where a philosophy is demanded which feeds not only the mind, but the heart as well.

That paragraph jumped out at me; what if Snape isn't doing this for anyone but himself?

He travels around in the most arid and unpleasant places; perhaps this is some kind of cleansing? When Cho checked in, they were in a port city and getting ready to leave. Japan is nearby, maybe they are leaving so Snape can meditate at one of the country's many temples?

His life wasn't easy by any means. Yes, he joined the right side but think of what he did and saw before then. How heavy do those regrets rest on his shoulders?

black_dog @ July 15 2003, 21:19:39 UTC

Well, I think we've been misdirected by the emphasis on Vladivostok. Remember Snape's first stop, where he found Cho, was Murmansk, on the Arctic Circle near Finland. So if he went from Murmansk to Vladivostok, he might have been skirting the Siberian far north. Which, when you put it together with the X-Files reference, suggests a possible stopover near the location of the Tunguska "event" of 1908 . . .

Does anyone who know this stuff better want to run with this theory?

shusu @ July 16 2003, 06:18:38 UTC X-FILES SPOILER.

Well there's one really good parallel from this, if a bit of a reach.

In the X-Files episodes in question, "Tunguska" and "Terma", Mulder travels to the site in question, gets caught in a gulag, and Krycek earns his colors as the one-armed man.

!!!

(And yes, I am X-Philing from memory.)

babytyggeryss @ July 15 2003, 01:34:38 UTC

It's nice to know that Cho has been found; she'll be safe with Snape.

Snape has always been tolerant of Cho. He did find her crying in the hall that one time, starting the tradition of Cho taking over the feedings of the Vampire Kitty.

I do wonder what Snape is after. It sounds like he's on the Eastern Coast. Japan is quite near, so that might be his destination as well.

babytyggeryss @ July 15 2003, 01:49:13 UTC

http://www.livejournal.com/community/nocturne_alley/173522.html?mode=reply

Cho says that they are in Russia but are leaving. Their next stop might be Japan or some other place that requires the use of a boat.

babytyggeryss @ July 15 2003, 01:40:31 UTC

http://www.f8.com/FP/Russia/Avlad.html

This is a very general over-view of Vladivostok, in case people are interested.

notapipe @ July 15 2003, 01:51:24 UTC

Factoid: There was also a nice section of an article devoted to Valdivostok in the March 1993 issue of GQ. The article was on a proposal by Walter Russell Mead that the US should buy Siberia.

dry_your_eyes @ July 15 2003, 11:33:22 UTC

The article was on a proposal by Walter Russell Mead that the US should buy Siberia.
though i'm not russian but ukrainian, I'm laughing myself into fits about this suggestion.
I'm glad there's no russian to answer this, they are really vulnerable about things like that :)

Snape-player's indeed great. I suspect he might have actually been to Vladivostok:)
It is more interesting than speaking to the natives, at any rate.
i can imagine :D

stanharding @ July 15 2003, 14:28:48 UTC

*blinks*

Walter's my downstairs neighbor. I walked with him to the subway this morning. Boy, he's all over the place.

(nice guy - very smart - travels a lot, as you can imagine)

notapipe @ July 16 2003, 02:17:28 UTC

Wow. As a former debater, Mead has a prominent place in my personal pantheon (here's why), so that is very very cool. Also cool? I am now only two (or is it one) degrees of seperation from him. That's like being friends with Jesus.

stanharding @ July 16 2003, 03:51:11 UTC Mead

Heh, that's great! But Walter's not scary in person, he's a big teddy bear.

el_erzulie @ July 16 2003, 00:15:43 UTC

This is so bizarre. Cho travelling with Severus? *L*

Anonymous @ July 17 2003, 00:47:00 UTC

Just imagine WHAT will poor muggles think seeing a Chinese girl without an arm but with 5 moving fingers!!!!!! Personally I would be a little bit shocked!