I suspect that even the Thameses

[commodorified]

Would find meeting the locus genii of the Fraser river ... unnerving.

Comments

[graydon]

The Thameses are people?

And why the Fraser in particular? Because it's undammed and so plausibly wild?

[commodorified]

This is where you need specifically Rivers of London canon knowledge, but because of its and its watershed's size and volume/wildness, both of which would confer significant power, plus the presumed vast age of said genus locii and their comparative lack of interaction with large numbers of pre- or -post invasion humanity.

ETA: I mean, the Thames, in a London- or at least UK- centred fictional universe, is quite properly a Very Big Deal. Once I get to trying to superimpose those assumptions on my own native landscape, some things just sort of ... jump out, and that's one.

Now working out if lakes have genus locii or not. If they do, my villians have accidentally bitten off not just more than they can chew, but a piece of a steak which is still attached to an animal capable of eating both of them and bawling for dessert.

[graydon]

The Thames and the Fraser are in some sense about the same age -- 10,000 years, more or less -- because they're both post-glacial rivers. But yes, more water and many fewer people.

(The Mississippi gets vast age. It's interesting to imagine what waking up the Deh-Cho/Kuukpak/MacKenzie would do, even if it is also post-glacially young.)

[staranise]

AHAHAHA YES SURPRISE GREAT LAKES IN THE THIRD ACT!

[xinef]

Makes me think of a cross-over between "Rivers of London" series and the NFB film "Rise and Fall of the Great Lakes".

[mmegaera]

Yeah, I suspect the Columbia's locus genii (at least before it was dammed to a faretheewell) would have been pretty scary, too.

What a wonderful thought. I wonder if the serial numbers would file off sufficiently.

[recessional]

Once I get to trying to superimpose those assumptions on my own native landscape, some things just sort of ... jump out, and that's one.

HAHAHAHAHA YEAH.

[wychwood]

I'm suddenly imagining due South done... differently.

[mmegaera]

I'd never heard of that film! I looked it up on IMDB and WorldCat, though, and it looks like my chances of being able to watch it are slim to none (a couple of relatively local university libraries have it, but I have no access to those libraries, and ILL doesn't stretch to DVDs, alas). Sigh.

[commodorified]

Check the National Film Board website or app - quite a lot of their stuff is available for streaming for free. They have a YouTube channel as well.

[mmegaera]

I'll do that. Thanks!

[mmegaera]

You do realize you've introduced me to a time sink of massive proportions. Thank you.

[commodorified]

Well. CanCon is really big :-)

[sara]

I had the deeply amusing experience last winter of hiking up a very rough hillside in the far northern part of the state...very remote, etc etc...and looking down into the Fraser valley. At a Target.

Canadians, man.

The Doctor offers an observation

[thnidu]

I'm seeing a couple of quasi-Latin phrases being floated around this thread, and I'm pretty sure they're all attempts at the same expression, none of them quite on target. Genius loci is Latin for "spirit of a/the place". The first word is the same one we took into English to describe people like Isaac Newton, Marie Curie, and Albert Einstein: "genius" (not "genus", which means "tribe, type, kind"). The second is the genitive (possessive) form of "locus", meaning "place", and has only one "i": "loci". It looks and sounds the same as the plural form. But if you want to pluralize the phrase it's "genii loci", "spirits of place", for the same reason why the English plural is not "spirit of places".

Respectfully submitted,
Dr. Whom
Consulting Linguist, Grammarian, Orthoëpist, and Philological Busybody

[xinef]

https://www.nfb.ca/film/rise_and_fall_of_the_great_lakes

[mmegaera]

Thanks! I am enjoying the fantastic timesink that is the NFB's YouTube channel [g].

Re: The Doctor offers an observation

[mmegaera]

The term is a direct draw from Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London series. I'm afraid you'll have to take that up with Detective Chief Inspector Nightingale [g].

[xinef]

Warning, do NOT search for "The Cat Came Back" if you want to avoid earworms. :D

And one of my favourites on there is "The log driver's waltz".

[mmegaera]

Thank you for the heads-up [g].