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

Hi Speckly.

Just thought I'd drag my new name in here for a moment. Yes, it was a pity to lose the reference to V Woolf, but it had to be done. One must be true to oneself after all .

But back to V Woolf. Is there anything in the Guide to do with her, or Bloomsbury? I haven't noticed anything, but I'm hopeless at searching for things so I might have overlooked it. That's a sad admission. Now, VW is such a massive subject... I'll write some other entry first to get into the swing of things, but I wouldn't mind writing something on VW one of these days, if I haven't been beaten to it.

Do you have any thoughts on this?

Ivan.

Ooh a visitor

*scurries round hiding mess under furniture*

? ?

Yes your name is yours to do with etc and most people probably wouldn't get the referance anyway!

There is nothing on HER or Bloomsbury in the edited guide. The closest match I found was this A718544 which is not very close at all. I've always meant to write something on her but I would have trouble being concise enough for an edited guide encyclopedia style piece. I have written this: A1045685 which is a work in (very slow) progress but that's not intended for the EG, just for fun. Something on Lytton would be good too. The Vita SW-Violet Trefusis-Harold Nicholson are also deserving of something, but again where to start!.

Hmm, If you want to write something on any subject in this area I'll be happy to collaborate or contibute. I would have already done it myself but I seriously lack time. Writing a novel (which is entirely VW's fault) is horribly time consuming and when I do come on here I'm kept busy with the Underguide.

*surreptitiously pins on her 'I'm a miner wit the UG! Ask me how!' badge*

So how did you come to have a VW referance in your name in the first place? If you don't mind me asking.

Speckly

Thanks for the and . You needn't have bothered to tidy up; my space is littered with old newspapers and empty glasses and things. Tidying up is something that only the Angel in the House would bother with. (Yes, I just read your 'VW & the legacy of feminism' piece. A valuable piece, in my humble opinion; it restores some perspective.)

I'm horribly short of time too; not because of a novel-in-progress (I've made no progress with it in months) but because I'm trying to get another job, and that takes precedence. But I do intend to write Something about VW/Bloomsbury/Lytton S one of these days. I'd be delighted to have a collaborator. Before I get carried away, I need to pick one particular aspect & work on that - otherwise we'll end up with a 1000-page epic that nobody will ever read. Maybe I'll start with Lytton - 'the man who redefined biography' - and ease myself into it.

The VW reference in the name - it's a long story. The easy bit is that when I signed up to H2G2 I was stuck for a name, and I'd had a drink or two. I looked at the bookshelves and saw a shelf of VW books and another shelf of books on Bloomsbury, and there was a tiger cub on the telly for some reason. Hey presto - a name is born.

As for why the interest in VW... a very long story. (Thinks: Is it possible for a gay male to be a feminist?) Anyway. My family is female-dominated. My mother's a strong woman, so's my sister, and my grandmother is a rebel from way back; she didn't marry Mum's father - the scandal of 1943. In fact, it still scandalises the Baltic community at home in Adelaide. (My own father was a good man, who travelled a lot and was sometimes away for months on end. He's now dead.) The women ran the show. Mum would never think of herself as a feminist, oddly enough; she sees her independent stance as sheer practicality devoid of political implications.

At any rate, I was about 12 when I came across the Quentin Bell bio of VW; I'd just seen 'Who's afraid of VW' on telly, and thought I'd better find out who this VW person was. So I read the book, then any other Bloomsbury stuff I could get hold of. Fascinating, of course, but it made me think. I knew my family was a bit odd and out-of-context in the suburbs, and I found parallels in Bloomsbury. Bloomsbury must have made it easier for the old girl to defy convention. She'd still have lived her own life, but they'd prepared the way for her I think. (Who'd have thought that the Gordon Sq crowd could impact on an Estonian peasant girl?)

Of course when I turned out queer the Bloomsbury parallels became more pronounced...

Eventually I tackled VW's novels.

But to get back to the point. VW's writings are the most lucid I've come across. The writing style is something I admire, which I could never hope to emulate. But VW gives me something to aspire to.

Sorry to witter on.

I owe you . Do drop in sometime.

Ivan.