Introduce yourself

[Hamlet]

Welcome to WLF, Hamlet. It seems you have quite a background. I look forward to your posts.

Thanks Stiffelio,

Looking forward to hearing about many new books.

And Liam, I suspected it was Harvard, you kind of gave it away, That's exceptional. It sounds like it's an exciting time for you, and busy, right now.


(nb- Oh and Liam, I'd be interested in hearing more about your NYC experiences later in, the city, how you negotiate it and all of that. But there's plenty of time for all that. I once got diverted on a flight to USA, Houston was taken out by weather, a Hurricane, so with no hotel or chance to book, I spent a night at Newark, not ideal, and I had a NY moment when some dude approached me for money.... ).

[Shinjini]

Congratulations, Liam! What is your area?

[pesahson]

Not really, , I told the folks at the other forum, I guess I just didn't have the opportunity to do so here (without parading it, rah-rah Liam!)--but yeah, I'm going to Harvard, and will be the first person in my family to shoot for a PhD. Overall, Mother's more excited than I am, LOL. The baby's finally out of the house--

Congratulations from me, too! That's great news!

[Liam]

Thanks, guys, I appreciate it!

Shinji: I specialize in medieval British literature with a special concentration on the Celtic "fringe": especially late medieval Irish and Welsh secular poetry.

I noticed that you've been studying Old English recently, and I've had my share of both that and Middle English, naturally, but although they are part of what I read, it's not really my area.

I guess if I had to list the languages I have worked with, or will be working with, in the order of importance, they would be: Welsh, Irish, Latin, English (Old and Middle), and French.

[Anne Saunders]

Greetings. I'm interested in learning about Italian texts that have not been translated and would appeal to an English-language audience. There must be hundreds. I also translate from Latin to English, but the market for those texts is rather small!

[writing90]

Nice to meet you. I just join here. I hope everyone will funny and welcome me when I joined here. Thanks again.

[mommietiger]

Hi, my name is Maria and I am from San Jose, California. I started writing short stories when I was a teenager. I also sporadically write poetry. I wrote my first novella in my early twenties and then a full length novel back in 1989. I have written nothing significant since then. The novel I wrote is a romance fiction and I self published it with Authorhouse.com. I did write a children's story with my daughter and together we did the illustrations for the book. That was also published with Authorhouse. Authorhouse is great if you are really good at selling your own product. I am a writer and when it comes to selling my book I seriously suck at it. So, I am on here hopefully to connect with someone that knows of someone that could help me out. I should also say that I am a much better writer now that I am older. Reading does wonders for the writing craft. Life gets busy and I don't read as much as I would like to these days, but I am cramming in time here and there. My husband was murdered back in 2006 and I am about to start writing a book on that. Moving away from fiction to non-fiction, at least for now. I have been asked to write a script on my story, but that will come in time. First I need to find out if at all possible, who did it. It's been almost six years now and the local CSI isn't anything like what you see on TV.

[Yumi03]

Hi! I'm Yumi. I am a literature instructor yet I am still studying for my Master's degree. I am looking forward to learn with you.

[Jessica.Lambert]

Hellooooooooooooo! I'm Jess! I'm eighteen years old and love to read as well as write! I've recently uploaded a book onto Amazon called 'Seduce Me' and I wanted to share it on here where people appreciate literature. I'd really appreciate it if anyone would read the book as well as review or rate it. Thank you very much! Adios!

[tyucelboru]

Hi all,
Tuba from Istanbul, Turkey. Reading book is an essential element in my life just like drinking water. I read all types of books, I never limit myself with specific types. I adore Nazim Hikmet Ran (a Turkish poet), Orhan Veli Kanik (another Turkish poet), Haruki Murakami, and Jose Saramago. Next month I'll be on vacation and start reading 1Q84.

Sincerely,
Tuba

[Hamlet]

Welcome Tuba.

[Wolfgirl]

Hello, my username is Wolfgirl. I have my honours BA in English with an almost major in Comparative Literature. I blog book reviews at www.boudicabooks.org and www.dreammirrors.org. I have always enjoyed reading literature from various countries and am fascinated by the mythologies that you can find in with them. My friends occassionally refer to my place as the library because I have so many books. I hope to have many detailed and fascinating discussion on this site. Happy reading to all.

[Flint]

Hi, I've been following the forum for ages but I never seemed to find the time to register. I hope I'll now find the time to participate!
Unfortunately I didn't inherit enough money to live on, so I have to spend an inordinate amount of time doing a job, which prevents me from reading and writing as much as I'd like to - my poetic output is larkinesque, about one poem a year.
Ahem, what else? Oh, yes, my literary tastes. Well, my literary tastes are fairly ecumenical - I read all sorts of stuff.

[Eric]

It would be nice if people would fill in (truthfully!) where they are writing from, unless the country they live in is one of those where freedom of speech is frowned upon and where they could be arrested and sent to a labour camp. It is not healthy for people that purport to be decent individuals to remove every geographical vestige from their descriptions. If you're just another student living pretty cushily in a safe country like (most of) the USA or Western Europe, why all the secrecy? You can protect your immediate identity by using a pseudonym which only the monitors know. But some people here erode confidence in their goodwill by hiding everything about their identity and then writing rather eccentric, sometimes totally irrelevant, posts. It's like those groomers who pretend to be 15-year-old girls and turn out to be hairy-sweaty men in their late forties, sitting there at their computers with parts of their anatomy peeking out of their flies (quite accidentally, of course).

[Flint]

Hi Eric,
Thank you for replying to my post. The reason I tend to give as little personal information as possible is a very simple one: I want people to focus on what I say, not on who I am.
In our interaction with people, the perception we have of what they are saying to us tends to be clouded by our preconceived notions about the social or professional group they belong to, their age group, etc.
I take the general idea of your post to be that you need to know who you are talking to. Yes, if we were going to do business together, you'd want to have as much information as possible about your interlocutor. But in order to discuss literature you want to know as little as possible. Whether I am a professor of literature or a chartered accountant, a civil servant or a doctor, a loss adjuster or a minicab driver, a journalist or a police officer, has no relevance on my literary views. Or whether I am young, middle-aged, or elderly.
I've already given you enough information on my introduction post: I do a job, I am old enough to have inherited money (though not enough to have given up my job), I am interested in literature (which means literature, not gossip), I write poetry (though my output has been rather scanty)...
I certainly do not intend to use anonymity to act in any dishonourable way, or to be discourteous to anyone on this forum, and I would like to be treated courteously.
As for the alleged eccentricity or irrelevance of my posts, I am really sorry that that is your perception: I am a writer, and writers tend, you know, to use metaphors, hyperboles, ellipsis, shifts of focus and all the other tricks in the narrative bag - and we are often saying the opposite of what we claim to be saying (ever heard about unreliable narrators?).
As a great writer said, “The poet is a faker”.
All the best,
C.J.Flint

[Hamlet]

Hey Flint, welcome.

[Eric]

Flint, #1175.

Who you are, specifically and personally, is of no consequence. Obviously if Prince Charles, Martin Amis, A.S. Byatt, Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, Emily Maitlis, Mitt Romney, or the acquisitions head of Random House, starts posting here (slightly unlikely events) a total silence as to identity is very wise. Otherwise every groupie and sycophant in town will start drooling, begging and crawling, or lambasting, hating and fuming.

But it does interest people where you're coming from, e.g. if you have spent all your reading career reading American 19th century novels, Latvian or Thai poetry, German or Wendish essays on bricklaying and literature, etc. Your background, in vague terms, could help explain why you talk a lot about for instance, Emily Dickinson, but never about Philip Larkin.

When I wrote for a previous chatsite like this one, I called myself "Miss Haversham". I played a game of "they don't need to know whether I'm a man or a woman; what fun". But the game began to pall. This identity mystery was becoming an end in itself and hampering certain things I said on the chatsite. And when some kind soul pointed out that the Dickensian character was in fact Miss Havisham, I thought to myself, to use the vernacular: "sod this for a lark, why shouldn't they know who I am and, horror of horrors, a man". So since then I've been Eric, although I use one of my literary heroes, Witold Gombrowicz, as my avatar.

[Flint]

Hey Flint, welcome.

Thanks so much!

[Liam]

Well, no one should feel pressed to reveal more personal details than they want to, but I agree with Eric that the basic sex/age/location stats are a common decency to your fellow posters; it helps ground the otherwise anonymous new member in reality.

[Flint]

Well, no one should feel pressed to reveal more personal details than they want to, but I agree with Eric that the basic sex/age/location stats are a common decency to your fellow posters; it helps ground the otherwise anonymous new member in reality.

I beg to disagree. What do you mean by 'reality'? What I write is not reality? My ideas are not reality? My quotes are not reality? The literary references I give are not reality?
What bearing has on what I write the fact that I'm writing it in Thessaloniki, in Bochum or in Durham?
As soon as I fill in my particulars about age, profession, place of residence, and so on, I know there will be somebody who will judge my opinions on the basis of his preconceptions about this particular age group, profession, status, etc. There will be somebody who cannot base his judgements on anything but gossip and anecdote. So let us have no gossip or anecdote, as far as I'm concerned.
I joined this forum in order to discuss literature, not in order to advertise myself, so there's no reason for me to give the name and address of my shop. People who come here to advertise themselves have no right to be smug about their openness.
And please let us not misuse the word 'decency'. Decency is not being rude to fellow forum members, decency is not using offensive language, decency is not being a bully - not that I am a person who will let myself be bullied by anyone.
Anyway, if stating age, occupation and place of residence is so important, make it compulsory, and I will comply or leave the forum.
So kindly stop going on about this. Whoever is uncomfortable with my anonymity, please ignore me.

And tomorrow I'm going on holiday. See you in a couple of weeks.