h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hiya Sasha
I'm the sub-editor for your entry on Quentin Crisp.
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(transferred from the Trello board as I was unable to log into h2g2 earlier)

>>went to school, although he<<

I have removed that as it's superfluous as you say he won a scholarship on the next line.

I'm all done subbing (just in time as I'm going to pick Andy up from work very soon)

You begin some paragraphs with "He" - I think his name should be used there. You call him "Mr Crisp" whereas I think the convention is to call him Crisp (or Quentin, your choice). I can change this or leave it as it's your entry and as you said in the PR thread, he's a hero of yours
I saw the Naked Civil Servant on TV and I could have sworn his hair was pink but that's my sieve-like memory for you
I also admired him, I particularly liked the comment about his home not getting any dirtier, although I remembered it as the "dust not getting any thicker" (I too am not a dustaholic, but the thought of not cleaning for years made me shudder). The film made me a lifelong fan of John Hurt.

Did you know we have an EGE on tap dancing?

"At the age of ninety, it has finally been explained to me that I am not really homosexual, I'm transgender" that's quite a powerful statement and I had not realised that. Would that he could be born again, today - would he choose to change sex or not, I guess we'll never know.

Thank you GB Well done on battling the login screen and winning eventually...

Yes, that's a good change to remove the double mention of school. I did not know we had an Entry on Tap Dancing - great find!

You picked up on the challenge I had when writing the Entry... I agree that starting paragraphs with 'He' does sound a bit impersonal, but I struggled to find a better way... 'Quentin' seemed a bit too personal, given that he generally referred to people using formal titles (hence my use of 'Mr Crisp' occasionally)... On the other hand 'Crisp' sounds too impersonal as well... Hmm... How about leaving the two 'Mr Crisp's in their specific contexts and adding a sprinkling of 'Quentin's so that it is a mixture of friendly and formal?

Change 'He' to 'Quentin' in:

"he more often became the victim of violence"
"He had taken evening classes in Art"
"illustration work dried up, so he again had to live frugally"
"he soon found more work as an artist's model"
"He played a role in a 1976 film"
"At Christmas 1993 he"

"His generalisations about homosexuality" - Quentin's generalisations
"The interest in his life story encouraged him to write more books" - encouraged Quentin to write more books

Do you think that will work?

It is a very interesting quote that one - the words 'it has been explained to me' speak volumes, and yet don't give away Mr Crisp's own personal view... I recall mention in 'The Naked Civil Servant' that he once went out wearing a dress but it didn't feel right, hence he didn't transition in a binary sense (although he did transition in a non-binary sense, being androgynous in style).

We can't know indeed, but I like to think he would have been happier in his youth if he had been born today - it's not perfect, but there is a lot more opportunity to avoid internalised homophobia... (I know there was once a view that 'men like women and women like men' so if you were a man that liked men then you must be a woman in a man's body, and vice versa, whereas now it is more recognised that some men like men, some women like women, and binary trans people can be LGB, too!)

It is fascinating about memory and colour - like when you watch a black and white film but imagine the colours, and like TC said the TV film had a memory of sepia tint! The henna hairdo https://edthemanicstreetpreacher.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/quentincrisp.jpg would probably be described as more red than pink, and then Mr Crisp chose a blue rinse later on

I've tweaked all those, see what you think!

By the way did you know that when I went to record my appearance on "The Chase", one of my teammates was a life model?

Are you ok with me returning this now, Sasha?

Perfect - thanks GB

I didn't know one of your teammates was a life model Not the job for me, either as I am a big fan of wearing clothes!

The Entry looks great with the image applied, too

You're welcomeand yes, it does, although I had visions of you creating your own artwork of Quentin.

It was the young man, Liam, he said he was supplementing his income to fund himself through university

I remember Bradley Walsh made a joke of it but can't remember if it aired or not.

I am still in touch (on Facebook) with Micky, teammate #4, who's a singer/dj

Ah, yeah artwork would be good, but I don't have an 'iconic' image in mind for Mr Crisp like I did for the people I have painted (apart from the smiley ). I shall have to ponder that next time I'm in an mood

I recorded your episode on my old TV via a USB stick but I'm not sure the recording will work with my new TV - would be interesting to see if it will... That is great that FB allows you to keep in touch with Micky

Speaking of The Chase, my Tivo box recorded me an old episode of Celebrity Chase, which had Chris Packham as a team member (one of my heroes). He was in seat three - same as myself, about a couple of years later

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