Dolimir asks me stuff and I answer... at length...

[fajrdrako]

dolimir suggested the interview game on her LJ today and I thought it sounded like fun.

Here are the parameters of the game, from Dolimir's LJ:

...In an attempt to play at my journalism career that never quite got off the ground, I'm gacking this from timian.

THE RULES
1. Leave a comment, saying you want to be interviewed.
2. I will respond; I'll ask you five questions.
3. You'll update your journal with my five questions, and your five answers.
4. You'll include this explanation.
5. You'll ask other people five questions when they want to be interviewed.

Think of this as my way of getting to know you.

I had a never-got-off-the-ground journalism career too!

So here are the questions she gave me:

1. What is "eyeless psychobeauty" and what about it interests you?

Woo - I had to think for a moment, since I didn't at first recall using the phrase. It was a phrase I used to refer to Agent Sands (Johnny Depp)in Once Upon a Time in Mexico. There were many things about that movie that I didn't like, but many things in it reverberated at a subconscious and visceral level and I found myself thinking about it, reacting to it afterwards. One favourite image was the visual of Agent Sands at the climactic moments, blinded, dressed in black, carrying and shooting a gun in each hand, walking down the street surrounded by corpses, with blood running down his cheeks from his eyes in butterfly pattern. I found it beautiful and terrifying: Agent Sands as an image of blind, dark chaos in all its beauty and power.

It appeals to me because it is frightening, beautiful and haunting.

The "beauty" part owes a lot to its being played by Johnny Depp so ... convincingly.


2. Why don't you own a car? (I have a friend who lives in NYC who doesn't have one either, but the subway system there is fantastic and has a ton of buses. Is the situation similar there as well?)

I suppose so. It's both simple and complex - circumstantial and deliberate at the same time. When I was growing up my parents did not have a car, so I wasn't used to having one around. I didn't learn to drive when young because I had no access to a car to learn on. I then married (and subsequently divorced) a man who didn't drive. I've had no need of a car; they are expensive and require a lot of maintenance, and Ottawa has a good basic transit system (though I could rant at length about its various inadequacies); and I live centrally enough that I can walk to most of the places I need to go to on a routine basis - work, the library, the comic book shop. So the incentive to get a car has never been great. There are things I would rather spend my money on, and goodness knows I have little enough of it. Add to that my belief that most sane human beings, when they are driving a car, become vicious and bad-tempered; that cars pollute the air and that parking lots are unaesthetic, I am rather glad that I have been able to live with such circumstances.

There are times it would be convenient, but I really believe I am happier without a car.

Add to all of that, the legal requirements of getting a driving license at present more or less prohibit me from getting one unless I own a car first, a sort of catch-22 situation that I don't want to deal with.


3. What got you interested in budgies? Did your family raise them? How long have you had them? How long do they live? How many of them have you had?

When I was five or six my family briefly had a budgie named Lucky - he was a quiet, shy bird who didn't express his personality and I don't remember him well, except that he was blue.

No, the budgie thing happened just in the past few years. My friend maboroshimaki's canary died and I went to the pet store with her to get a replacement. We were both quite taken with the handsome budgies chirping around the budgie cage, and they were reasonably priced. I bought two of them - so they wouldn't be lonely while I'm at work. These were Wisdom (green and yellow) and Pryde (white and blue). Note that at that time, maboroshimaki didn't buy anything.

Some time later, a friend of mine had two budgies she couldn't keep, and was looking for a good home for them. Word got to her that I was a pushover for budgies and her two, Simon and Kaylee, took up residence with my little guys.

Simon and Wisdom fell in love. Kaylee tried to kill Simon for dumping her - I had to put them in separate cages. Blissfully together, Simon and Wisdom started laying eggs, and so, last June, little Domino was born. He's yellow and green, like his parents.

So that's five budgies altogether: the green ones in one cage (Simon, Wisdom and Domino) and the white and blue ones in the other (Kaylee and Pryde).


4. What is Esperanto? (I know it's a language but not really where it was derived from.) What got you interested in it?

Esperanto is an artificial language invented in 1888 by a Polish man named Zamenhof. Its purpose was to increase international understanding and communication by being a neutral second language; its primary characteristic is that it's easy to learn.

I studied it when I was fourteen, taking classes on Saturday mornings at a local high school. I suppose there are three reasons I learned it. First is that it's different: I have always loved studying languages, but I am particularly intrigued by them when they are unusual in some way. Esperanto is remarkable and unique. (I am aware that there are other international and artificial languages.) A lot of books have been written in Esperanto, and a lot of works have been translated into it - I'm currently reading Tolkien in Esperanto. As languages go, it sounds particularly beautiful.

The second reason is that I like the philosophy inherent in the very existence of the language: its internationalism, its concern to be politically neutral, its thrust towards intellectual equality, and its fostering of worldwide peace. These things have all been very important to me.

Add a third reason - it makes it easy to talk with people of different countries. I have had lovely AIM chats with people from Brazil and France who know no English. Not to mention pen-pals in the past.


5. Where did you get the name "Fajrdrako"? What does it mean? How long have you had it?

Fajrdrako is Esperanto for "fire-dragon", pronounced "fire-draco". When I started to post slash online I was told by many that I should use a pseudonym - until that point, I'd put all my slash in zines and published under my real name, Elizabeth Holden. I don't like pseudonyms and I am uncomfortable using them. After a while I learned that I was hopeless at keeping my 'real' identity and my fannish identity separate, it was all the same as far as I was concerned and my identity was an open secret from the beginning. At the same time, I came to like the name Fajrdrako, and enjoy using it.

Why fire-dragon? My Chinese astrological sign is the Dragon, and I'm rather fond of the concept. (Smaug is my favourite character in The Hobbit!) I liked the exotic sound of "fakrdrako", even though, technical speaking, I am an air dragon, and I sometimes use that name on various lists and sites too - Aerdrako.

Comments

[dolimir-k.livejournal.com]

I love your explanation for eyeless pyschobeauty. It makes quite a bit of sense actually.

I love that Simon fell in love but feel bad for Kaylee. Poor little jilted thing.

With regard to Esperanto, would you consider writing out a paragraph, then translating it. Just to give us a looksee?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I love that Simon fell in love

They are so cute, cuddling wing to wing, kissing, staying close to each other. For a while there was so much staring into each other's eyes going on that you'd think the budgies were Lex and Clark!

but feel bad for Kaylee. Poor little jilted thing.

She seems to be living quite happily in the other cage with Pryde now. Still, I don't want to take a chance and put her back in the same cage as Simon, though they seem to be all right together if I let them fly around the room together as a flock. Perhaps all is forgiven, but I wouldn't count on it.

With regard to Esperanto, would you consider writing out a paragraph, then translating it. Just to give us a looksee?

Sure. No problem. Let me see.... How about a passage from "The Lord of the Rings":


Grinĉjo elrigardis de la ŝirmo de l'mantelo de Gandalfo. Li scivolas, ĉu li vekiĝis aŭ plue dormas, daŭre en la rapidmova sonĝo, en kiu li estis tiom longe volvita kiam komenciĝis la granda rajdado.



I hope the Esperanto diacritical marks come out all right!

I'm transtlating off the cuff here, so it won't be quite as Tolkien had it:



Pippin looked out from the shelter of Gandalf's cloak. He wondered whether he was awake or dreaming still, continuously in the fast-moving dream in which he had been wrapped ever since this long ride had begun.


This is from the chapter entitled "Minaso Tirit".

[dolimir-k.livejournal.com]

Very interesting!



Grinĉjo (Pippin) elrigardis (looked out from) de la ŝirmo (the shelter) de l'mantelo de Gandalfo (of Gandolf's cloak). Li scivolas, ĉu li vekiĝis (was awake) aŭ (or) plue dormas (was dreaming), daŭre (continuously) en la rapidmova sonĝo (fast-moving dream), en kiu li estis tiom longe volvita kiam komenciĝis la granda rajdado (long ride).

Right? Of what I did?

Very cool. Thanks for doing this for me. *g*

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes - very good. See, I told you Esperanto wasn't difficult!

You're welcome. My pleasure!