The aqueducts?

Doctor Who episodes! Doctor Who episodes!

Angry Drunk Bureaucrat: Doctor Who episodes! Doctor Who episodes!

NO! That episode, while good and the opera singer was well built, completely destroyed the idea of the paradox of the same person touching themselves from a different point in time. The fabric of space-time should have ripped, instead we got a heart warming scene of redemption.

Charles Dickens invented "a sympathetic view of poverty"? Really?

He caused snickers in the back of High School English classes everywhere with his character in Oliver Twist, Master Bates.

I thought that was all done by Edmund Wells.

7. write like you were being paid by the word.

He also made sure that the only people punished harder than the bad guys were the good guys.

evilmousse: I thought that was all done by Edmund Wells.

Ah, the well known Dutch author.

Scrooge was a job creator! HOW DARE YOU CRITICIZE HIM!

He founded Urania Cottage (new window) for "fallen" women where he would sometimes "personally interview" them (a.k.a. give them the Dickens) and then made them conveniently emigrate to the colonies.


So...Victorian Mack Daddy?

Am I the only one who is skeptical when someone (or some organization/institution) makes a claim like "without author x we wouldn't have y!" and y is usually some huge literary theme or style. I mean, we wouldn't have modern character comedy without Dickens? Are you sure? He figured out we use slang and interrupt each other? All him?

Rex_Banner: He created a great brand of cider.

/I can't start my day until I've had my Dickens Cider


Came to say the wife loves his cider.

"You don't believe in me," observed the Ghost.

"I don't." said Scrooge.

"What evidence would you have of my reality, beyond that of your senses?"

"I don't know," said Scrooge.

"Why do you doubt your senses?"

"Because," said Scrooge, "a little thing affects them. A slight disorder of the stomach makes them cheats. You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. There's more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!"

"Making it worse? How can it be worse? You're not real!"

"I'm warning you! If you say I'm not real one more time (gets hit with rock) RIGHT! Who did that? Come on, who did it? "

"You're only making it worse for yourself!"

"Making it worse? How can it be worse? You're not real!"

"I'm warning you! If you say I'm not real one more time (gets hit with rock) RIGHT! Who did that? Come on, who did it? "

/(fail)

"A Christmas Carol" does not make up for "Great Expectations."

Highways?

i herd he once denied a poor orphan some soup. jerk.

Cagey B: Charles Dickens invented "a sympathetic view of poverty"? Really?

Yes. Really. Criticism of the British class system and it's horrific treatment of the poor is at least a minor theme in all of Dickens' novels, stories and essays.

Hello? He wrote Tom Sawyer.

Err The Adventures of

/dammit

What about ethel the aardvark goes quantity surveying?

Buttbone McGillicutty: "A Christmas Carol" does not make up for "Great Expectations."

"Great Expectations" was pretty fantastic, although not as good as "David Copperfield". It's much better with the original ending rather than the feel-good crap his publishers forced him to replace it with, though.

"Hey kids, here's a great story of time travel and redemption!"

Then you get to High School:

"Here, read Bleak House and write a 1000 word essay on it"

"Meaningful character names" are among the *worst* stylistic conventions/practices that Dickens ever helped popularize. The plot contrivances are bad enough already; there's no need to lay it on even thicker.

His writing style is almost as bad as are the socialists' attempts to pass off his drivel as literature.

Seriously, Dickens' work should be excised from the canon.

SlowTimedRapid: "Meaningful character names" are among the *worst* stylistic conventions/practices that Dickens ever helped popularize. The plot contrivances are bad enough already; there's no need to lay it on even thicker.

His writing style is almost as bad as are the socialists' attempts to pass off his drivel as literature.

Seriously, Dickens' work should be excised from the canon.

Yeah. I have to agree. Clever or "meaningful" character names beat the reader over the head. They're not cute, they're stupid.

Hmmm. I can't think of anything else myself.

What he gave me was an appreciation for Dickensian characters, who do exist. Legendary larger than life people who engage in strange but repeated behaviors.

They're rare but I have met one. A woman who could have stepped off the pages of Great Expectations or Bleak House. The kind of person who shifted easily between harmless little old lady and scary harridan and had high-ranking people quaking in their boots. She was insane, but not in any way that would permit institutionalization (until the very end of her life when she got senile). And she literally drove somebody to death with her nagging.

\ glad she's dead and you should be too
\\ I mean you should be glad, not dead

malaktaus: Buttbone McGillicutty: "A Christmas Carol" does not make up for "Great Expectations."

"Great Expectations" was pretty fantastic, although not as good as "David Copperfield". It's much better with the original ending rather than the feel-good crap his publishers forced him to replace it with, though.

Other than "A Christmas Carol", I don't think I've ever read any of his other works. I'll have to put those on a to do list.

Didn't he write Michael Steele's favorite episode of Star Trek--The City on the Edge of Forever?

As someone who is portraying Bob Cratchit on stage this holiday season, I would like to thank Mr. Dickens for giving me something to do to keep me from having to sit at home like a hermit.

yogaFLAME: McManus_brothers: hosalabad: Hello? He wrote Tom Sawyer.

Bzzt. That was Twain. However, Dickens did write Les Miserables.

No, no. That was Voltaire.

No, that was Alexander Dumbass.

He gave us one of the most beloved Christmas stories that is guaranteed to be played during the Christmas season, it different movie forms, at least a hundred times yet never once mentions "Jesus," "Christ," or "Mary." Suck it Bill O'Reilly!

JackieRabbit: Cagey B: Charles Dickens invented "a sympathetic view of poverty"? Really?

Yes. Really. Criticism of the British class system and it's horrific treatment of the poor is at least a minor theme in all of Dickens' novels, stories and essays.

Which would make him a target of Conservative and Libertarian hate.