#arthur young

[twilightofthesandwiches]

[thefugitivesaint]

Art Young (1866-1943), ''Art Young's Inferno'', 1934

[vidavalor]

Why didn't Crowley realize that Arthur thought he was a doctor when he called him a doctor? He says the word doctor and Crowley still doesn't get it? Is this a word thing?

Hi there! 💕*begs you to help me eat these Christmas cookies* Thanks for the ask. Is it a word thing? Yeah, it is. Why doesn't Crowley get that Arthur thinks that Crowley is a doctor there to deliver his wife's baby when Arthur literally says: "I think we were getting on with it, doctor"?

Because the original meaning of a doctor was a priest or a minister-- really, any religious teacher or scholar. Crowley, technically, is a doctor in that sense of the word-- or was during the time period of Eleven Years Ago, anyway-- and so was Aziraphale. They are both doctors in the original meaning of the word.

Crowley was so in his head in that Eleven Years Ago scene that he mistook Arthur Young for a demonic sentry-- either a low-level demon Crowley had never seen before, or a human aligned with the demons, like the nuns inside. He thought Arthur was there to assist with The Baby Swap.

That was why he was asking Arthur if he knew how much time they all had before Armageddon happened, and if it (the end of the world) had started yet, and how much time they might have left. It was all Crowley could think about because Aziraphale was all he could think about.

Crowley thought Arthur knew what was going on with Hell's actions that night, which would have included knowing who Crowley was, and that is why it didn't raise any alarm bells to Crowley that this man thought he was a doctor. He thought Arthur was just showing him deference-- referring to him as a demon or a demon-aligned human would refer to a powerful and high-ranking diabolical minister.

It was little different to Crowley than Sister Mary referring to him as "Master Crowley" and seeing him with the Prince of Hell image he had cultivated to keep himself safe.

The etymology of the word doctor is played with a bit in other scenes, too-- particularly in 1827, with Dalrymple's insistence on not being referred to as a doctor. He was a doctor in our modern definition of it but not in the definition that existed during his time.

In Dalrymple's time, those who actually studied science and medicine and knew what the fuck they were doing didn't want to be associated with the men who were calling themselves doctors because doctors back then were largely wealthy men with little to no formal training who were cosplaying as healers and tarnishing the profession. That is why Dalrymple was quick to insist that he was Mister Dalrymple, not Doctor Dalrymple.

For Crowley and Aziraphale, though, the etymological history of the word goes back much further, to the religious figures they both were.

When those ancient word-oriented angelic beings hear the word doctor, they hear its original meaning of a person whose profession is related to a religion. Consider Crowley's flirting-- the dry, knowing tone of voice-- in 1827 on "How much, Doctor McFell?"

The moment was filmed in a sly way, too-- with the camera angle shifting when Crowley spoke that line to be on Aziraphale from above, with him looking down hiding part of his expression from the audience. If you look closely, though, you can see Aziraphale smile, loving Crowley knowingly using doctor in its original meaning, and so really calling his priest "Father McFell." 😉

[fuckyeahgoodomens]

From the DVD commentary, episode 1:

Douglas: And there's Danny saying 'Doctor' to David Tennant.

Neil: That was his favourite bit, to get to call David Tennant, 'Doctor'.

[lickthecowhappy]

Ineffable Prompt-a-thon - Mistaken Identity

Ineffable Prompt-a-thon Repository | Main Poetry List

That summer evening Arthur Young was taken for Thaddeus Dowling

@ineffablyruined

Read my other poems here. This poem is also available on AO3.

[mametupa]

“It can’t be that simple, can it?“

[enbymurderhusbands]

THE LICENSE PLACE ON THE YOUNG’S CAR IS SID RAT HAHDHHAD TARDIS BACKWARDS dying thats very funny

[noosphe-re]

What are the elements of an act of knowing? At least two are immediately obvious: that which is known, and the consciousness which knows it. The knower's status is at least as important as that of the known, a point which modern physics has been forced to recognize in the uncertainty principle, which reveals the fact that, in order to know something about it, an observer must act upon, and thus disturb, an object. The act of knowing is thus a transaction between the object and the knower which involves physical exchanges of energy. Thus the concept of pure "parallelism”—a reflection within the knower of the known—is not tenable. We cannot think of the known as pure reflection within the knower, like the image of a flying swan on the smooth surface of a pond. When the swan lights on the water, its pure image is shattered by the broken surface.

Arthur M. Young, The Geometry of Meaning