Memoirs of an English Major

“Do you not like me with my clown? I can see I make you frown. When on Earth will all this end? I’m your friend, your only friend” - Test Card Girl

Welcome to day two of Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes week. Before I begin the post, I’m going to quickly write about my experience with Project Wonderful for those of you whoa re curious how’s it’s gone. My current impressions is that it’s not a great as it sounds, at least for my site. The bottom line is that when you run a PW ad bar, you’re auctioning off your site and much like any auction, if you have something that no one wants, it won’t sell. I have yet to see a bid that actually pays me. At one point I set the minimum bid to a dismal five cents. I soon learned that you can make a bid for a site for the cost without any funds. I think if you’re running a bigger site, Project Wonderful’s a great way to get some ad revenue, but not for a small blog like mine. It’s a good idea, just has yet to pull its weight much like Entrecard has. I’m going to continue to run it on the sidebar for the reminder of the month, but these are my first impressions. In any case, on with the post.

It’s amazing what sort of idea pop into my head while I’m on the road, driving along with nothing more than the wheel in my hand, music blaring, and the open road. As I was driving, Ashes to Ashes by David Bowie started playing on my Ipod and I began to think more on the series finale and the series as a whole. In Ashes to Ashes, much like Life on Mars, there is a reoccurring element of a violent clown ready to attack the main character Alex Drake. It’s a consent image and one the viewer finds out what it means. It’s not the first time the clown has appeared in the show’s history.

As stated, the series has a history of reoccurring elements. For example, Life on Mars has not only the reoccurring elements of flashing back to the real world, but also the deadly little girl from the BBC test screens, carrying an innocent clown. This connection did not click until the last episode of Ashes to Ashes, reveling that the clown is in fact death himself and is shown through her father’s suicide. It was one of those moments on television that, much like the last episode of Life on Mars, left me more confused, happy, and pissed off at the exact same time. I was happy to see the last episode, confused about the ending, and pissed off that I wouldn’t get complete resolution until next year. The last episode is definitely one of the best episode in the series and its made me reconsider everything on the show and the concept of using the innocent as a sign of death.

It’s not the first time a seemingly innocent thing is used a a figure of death and destruction. in the novel It, a clown is the scary element of King’s novel. In the world of The Shinning, possibly the creepiest element in the movie are the two little girls asking to simply play. I’m not sure, but I think it’s that innocence that seems to put us into a state of paranoia. Perhaps it’s the fact that in situation of pure chaos, innocence is something that is unnatural and that is what scares us. This is possible a topic that should be left to more depth than a simple post can cover. I’m curious as to what everyone thinks.