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

Hi there Didactylos,

I'm also a fan of Pratchett and greek philosophy and mythology.

Have you read Plato or Sappho, she was a right on woman you know!

We (that's my girl, our Crony John and me) all live in a strange homo-utopia in wales. Unlikely but fun. We're all quite insane, clinically and socially.

I'm around if you'd like to talk.

Hi speckly,

Thanks for the note - unfortunately, I can’t say I’ve read any Greek philosophers, not even Sappho. Mind you, I believe there’s not a lot happening on Lesbos these days.

Haven’t even read Pratchett’s last 3 books yet - I’ve been off work with depression for over a year and can’t muster up the energy to take in what I read. But I’ve finally got an appointment with the shrink this week, and (ever the optimist) no doubt things will start moving now.

Watch out for a Pratchett-inspired thing I plan to post next weekend. It’ll probly go down like a lead balloon, mind.

How did you happen on my page? I don’t imagine it’s signposted anywhere yet.

And what’s with the fish? Is this a reference to the Adams books (looks like it could be the Babel f.) or a religious thing?

D.

I stumbled across you while lurking around Sir Mort's page . You sounded interesting and I'm still pretty new and friendless so I thought I'd drop you a note.

I can't tell you how much it's not religious . No, it's just the symbol of me. My girlfriend's pet name for me is kipper, there are strange and uninteresting reasons for that. So I'm a smoked fish or a small speckled fish for H2G2 purposes.

Plato, particularly the symposium is very enjoyable, full of humour and the end is so very gay, I though with all the greek referances on your page that you might be a fan. What else do you read when you are reading?

I'm sorry to hear about your depression. Our crony and housemate suffers depression quite severely and I have episodes of BPD, so I know how debilitating it can be. I hope the shrink helps, it can't hurt that you are optimistic, a willingness to be helped being so important and all. Good luck.

So Sir Mort must be your ACE as well? I wonder if they allocate him to people who specifically mention Tel the Pratch?

Just had a look at your Space. Judging by the number of Conversations you’ve got involved in, you won’t be friendless for too long! (I’d love to browse more widely, but I’ve got to think of the phone bill in my present situation - plus the fact that I can’t keep up the concentration.)

So the fish is not religious, just a smoked kipper.

That’s a relief, then (I think).

On your Space, you sound awfully bright and breezy (if not spaced). This must be a terrible drag for your depressed crony...

So “the Symposium is very enjoyable, full of humour and the end is so very gay”? Goodness me, I never knew. I might look into it sometime. But all the Greek references I put in are just there because I’m a linguist (see A1060769 for some more learned glosses). Somebody on the box last night said she used to speak Welsh till she was 8, but since she came to London she’s forgotten it all. This goeth beyond my comprehension - I do have a little difficulty with my memory, wot wiv me depression, but I don’t think I’ve forgotten any of the languages I’ve learned. I guess I’ve just got that sort of head.

It’s so long since I’ve read anything but the Radio Times and h2g2 (to wake up my brain in the afternoons) that I can’t really remember what I used to read. I gathered quite a large bookshelf of gay fiction from Amazon back in the days when I could afford it - mostly quasi-comic/romantic or detective fiction and related stuff. My favourite among the authors is Robert Rodi, but he’s not nearly prolific enough.

Thanks for the good wishes. Gotta be up early (by my standards) for my first visit to the shrink tomorrow.

I'm nor really so very spacey, except when I'm manic. In real life I'm rather serious and most of the things I enjoy are rather dry and academic, but my girl has reminded me how to have fun and play. It's not so very bad, and I'm told laughing is good for you. I'm lucky that depression doesn't affect my memory. My ability to express myself can be impared sometimes though. I can get locked up inside my own head, forget words and lose my train of thought easily, I'm just lucky that it doesn't happen too often at the moment.

Yes, sir Mort was my ACE. They pick their own I think, and keep an eye out for people who have activated their spaces but don't have any messages on them yet. She's a great ACE, and like you I have several things in common with her.

Thankfully I don't have to think about bills. We're with NTL so we have a flat fee at home and I'm mostly on here while I'm at work, so much free H2G2 time.

Lizardy has a quet passion for linguistics, though she only manages the one language. She'd like to learn more, particularly french, and she'd probably be good at it but we've no time at the moment. She did do a Welsh A' Level but that was because she had a crush on the teacher. Have you read Bill Bryson's books on linguistics? They're even better than his travel writing.

I enjoy sociolinguistics and the etymology of some words can be fascinating, but the overall history of english is really more her thing than mine. I'm far more of a one for literature, we have masses of books, bookcases in every room. That's what happens when two lit students get together. Our collection of obscure women writers is getting to be quite impressive. We also have a vast collection of books on music. My girl is a fan of The Beatles, Buddy Holly and music in general.

I hope your appointment with the shrinker of heads went well and that you found it helpful.

Sir Mort is a SHE??!?! I’m new to this game, and tend to take people at face value. And s/he didn’t mention Sappho.

It can be a bugger, this gender business. Like Jan Morris being welcomed throughout rural Spain as a woman travelling alone in the 50s and 60s - which only makes sense when you remember that she was still James Morris at the time.

Or the Spanish translation of Mort, where Death becomes La Muerte. And with a name like that, the character has to be a woman (Albert calls her ‘Mistress’). I must read the book again - it must lead to her doing some very unmistresslike things (or maybe the translator has recast some bits).

Lucky you, having ntl. I had cable before I moved, but this is one of the few pockets of the realm that never got cabled. Not covered by Freeview either, so the only way to get all 8 of the Beeb’s channels is to pay Murdoch and get 300 you don’t want. And it gives BT the monopoly on phones, of course.

I have one of Bill Bryson's books on words. His enthusiasm didn’t quite manage to carry over to me - I think I see him as a bit of a dilettante. Wasn’t aware he’d written books on linguistics, though.

Most of my books are still in the boxes they came here in, as I’ve never yet found the energy to unpack them - not that I’ve got enough bookshelves anyway. (In an earlier life, I amassed quite a big collection of paperback sf.) Sorry to be awkward, but books on music seem to me to be a contradiction. Music is for listening to, not reading about (but then, I’m not a reader at the moment).

The shrink is starting me on Venlafaxine (Efexor), an SSRI. Told me that if it’s going to do me any good I should begin to notice the FX in around 6 weeks, but the earliest follow-up appointment they could give me was in almost 14 weeks’ time. Ho hum.

D.

I do wish I could read books in the origional language. My main motivation for getting round to learning french is so that I can read Colette, the translations are wonderful and I can only imagine how much better the novels are in their origional language.

It isn't so much reading about music as biography, most of the books on the boys are more about them and their impact than analysis of just the music. Although 'Revolution in the Head' is one of her favourite books and that is very much about the music. I don't read them myself, like you I'd rather listen to it than read about it, and I don't see that that's awkward, just a preferance.

All the gender neutral names on here can be a bit of a pain, and then you run across someone like Sir Mort whose name suggest the opposite gender and it gets even more confusing. It's been interesting for me to see how often I make gendered assumptions.

I hope the SSRI works for you. I've avoided being medicated (or indeed diagnosed). I just don't think that would be the best thing for me. Our crony has tried a few different antidepressants but so far they have all had bad side effects so he hasn't stayed on them. Do you have a good support network? I think that can be just as important as good medical care.

You might be just as well off reading Colette in translation! I’ve heard of a number of cases where the translation has been judged to be an improvement on the original, but I don’t remember whether Colette was one of them.

Of course, it can also go the other way. The German translations of the Discworld books are a crime. It goes without saying that a translator will have to use his imagination to make up something to replace an untranslatable pun (I think this is mentioned in the Discworld Companion), but the German translator of the Discworld often misses the point of what Pratchett is writing completely, and at other times he launches off on flights of fancy of his own because he cant be bothered to deal with Tel’s clever writing.

It may be that Pratchett is too Englishly subtle for the Germans, but I’d prefer to think they’ve just picked the wrong translator. What can you say of a publisher who’s happy to issue ‘Wyrd Sisters’ in German under the title of ‘MacBest’?

The Spanish have done better. The Discworld books in Spanish will certainly get Tel accused of literature, the way they’re written, but at least they’re faithful to the original. And their version of ‘Only you . . .’ (Sólo tú puedes salvar a la humanidad) is so hip it hurts.

You must have a very different sort of depression to mine if you’re happy not to be medicated or diagnosed. I only have a few hours of useful brain per day, and that’s only useful in terms of keeping me interested in being awake, but no use for any serious work. What’s a support network look like? Not sure I need one; besides, it sounds rather strenuous for someone who can only manage a couple of hours even visiting his best friends before he gets tired and anxious and has to leave!

D.

The spanish translations sound like a blast, wish I could read them! And I wish he'd been on the sillabus when I was studying literature, though I doubt I could get any more out of them than I already do.

Manic depression is quite different, and I don't think I have it very badly. It's episodic and when it's bad it's terrible, but 70% of the year I'm not affected at all. I had a bad few weeks last month, I couldn't write at all and it became hard to function, I got very distant with my girl and things weren't great between us because of that, and I was scared and deeply unhappy. But it passed and I mended things with my love and I wrote like a deamon over the weekend and got caught up on the wrting I'd neglected. So no harm done and back to normal now.

Medication would stop it happening, but the side effects for anti-psychotic drugs can be quite severe and I'd be effected by them all the time. I'd rather stick with the devil I know. If it were unremitting it would be a different story.

As I said, I'm not anti-medication, I just don't think it would be the right choice for me. Having my girl and our crony in the house with me is wonderful. They both look after me when I need it and we look after our friend as much as he will let us. Sometimes that's just making him eat and being patient with him, but we have talked him through some very dark nights as well.

You write? Or are you referring to your input to h2g2?

Yes, BPD is obviously quite different to ordinary depression. If you’re not affected at all for 70% of the time you’re relatively well off, and I guess it must be worth putting up with the bad times to avoid having the medication.

My new medication did not start off well - it brought me down immediately with constipation. It’s one I’d had before (only in the starter dose) without this effect, but I’m taking other tablets (for bp and lipids) which are different now, and there must’ve been an interaction. Things can get complicated!

(I’m told that GPs are unwilling to raise the dose of brain-drugs above the starter dose, and this is usually sub-therapeutic, so I may have been wasting quite a lot of my time.)

Anyhow, I now have to get up early one day this week to book an appointment with my GP (that’s the way they do things at my surgery), as the shrink has apparently faxed instructions to him. Ho hum.

Meantime, I’ve been having wild dreams. I’ve put one up in my Diary.

D.

That is a great dream! Aren't dreams of flying supposed to mean something? I don't know much about dream analysis but anyway, I think if I had that dream I'd rather enjoy the memory of it than examine its meaning. It sounds joyous. I generally don't remember mine but my girl has incredibly lavish dreams with expensive sets and a huge cast of extras.

I don't envy you having to get up early, the morning isn't my favourite time of day either. My doctors is probably worse though. It's one of those clinics where you can't make appointments at all, you just have to go up during surgery hours and wait your turn, which usually means sitting about for some hours. I suppose it weeds out the people who don't genuinely need to see a doctor, but it's an absolute nuisance if you have anything else you want to do with your day.

Yes I write. I'm doing an MPhil in writing at the moment and working on my first novel for it. I took creative writing as part of my first degree and discovered that a lifelong fondness for scribbling was actually a real talent. I always thought of myself as a short story writer but when I came to do this course I got bullied into writing a novel for it and I'm glad I was. It's a completely different challenge and I'm loving it. I should be getting short stories published in magazines as well, or so my lecturors and friends tell me. The reason I haven't is laziness and fear. If I start trying to be published I'll have to deal with the consequences of being rejected, which would shake my confidance, or being sucessful, which would put more pressure on me to suceed with my novel. Plus I'd have to work over my backlog of short fiction to make it ready for the world to see, and I'm too lazy to want to.

Good luck with the doctor.

The interpretation of dreams is something I might get into one day. I’ve also had dreams of sort of ‘swimming’ a foot or two off the ground (in air, not water) - but I’m a non-swimmer. Mebbe I was a fish in a former life. I also dreamt once that I was hopping, kangaroo-fashion. Big hops they were, as well (and I threw my legs sideways to take corners, just like I’ve seen the roos do (on the box)).

Good luck with the writing. I enjoy writing when I have something to write about - which is not remotely often enough to make a career out of it. JK Rowling I’m not! And I prefer non-fiction, as well.

My doctor used to work the same as yours. But they closed the doors at 10:30. Get there by then and you’d be seen by 12:30 if you were lucky. Then a few months ago they changed it to an appointments system (same day only). To get one of the few afternoon appointments you have to be on the phone soon after 8:30 in the wossname, so, having phoned about 1/4 past 9, I had to make do with one at 11:50. Then back to bed for a couple of hours in the afty - quite spoiled my day.

My last doctor (in London) ran a system where you could book days ahead, even weeks. They seemed to manage to get their heads round it OK. But these days people have computers to blame: ‘We’ve just put a new system in’ - which is the excuse the Council are using for cocking up my benefit payments.

Any road up, the quack has acted on my shrink’s instrux and given me yet another SSRI I haven’t heard of - Escitalopram this time, which I’ll start taking next week after I’ve come off the Imipramine.

Looking on the bright side, we’re only two days off the longest day now. Then the days start getting shorter again. Ho hum.

There's a page you might be interested in: A855704 all about dream analysis.

It's been rainy down here for the last two days, which is just infuriating. While the weather was wonderful last week I was ill and couldn't enjoy it. Now I'm feeling better the sun's gone.

Thanks for the Dreams page. It doesn’t seem to offer an awful lot, but one or two of the links look promising, and I’ve bookmarked it for later attention.

Meanwhile, I just put up another page, @ A1085573

It’s really designed for people who will appreciate a hopeful pastiche of the style of Terry Pratchett AND have a good acquaintance with South London, but you might decide to give it a look-in anyway.

Enjoy! (Or not. What the hell.)

D.

My knowledge of south London is sorely limited, but I thoroughly enjoyed the piece anyway. I thought it was a VERRY GOOD pastiche. I looked at the other entries you've done as well and though cars aren't my thing either I found them both highly entertaining and witty. You have a great writing style, though I'm sure you must already know that.

I asked Kilted Jedi (useful and all round helpfull bloke) what he thought you should do wih them. I hope you don't mind. The convo is at F121638?thread=288688. He suggested the Alternative writing workshop if you want to submit them and had other useful suggestions.

Would you be interested in being involved in the Book project? An online collaborative book. We need writers editors and proof readers, I think you would be invaluable in any capacity. The main page for it is at A1072234.

Thanks for a good read.

Thanks for the compliment!

And thanks for the tip and the invitation. Sadly, I have to take a rain-check on both of them. I just haven’t got the energy to commit myself to the book project (if I had, I’d be working instead of scraping by on benefits) and I can’t manage the energy or the patience to have my stuff picked over in a workshop (or to pick over other people’s). OK, it would get me a bigger audience, but it would over stretch me otherwise. (Besides, I’ve been honing my style for 40 years or so now, and I know it stands up.)

I’ve been feeling particularly droopy these last few days. Can’t be the weather, which has been pretty glorious throughout. Mebbe going off to visit friends a couple of days ago, the day after I’d slept badly, was pushing the boat out too far. Any road up, although I don’t suspect for a moment I’ve got BPD, I have noticed a very happy feeling after I get back to bed after 10 or 11 hours.

Ho hum. Mebbe the new tablets will get me somewhere. And there’s always Wimbledon to watch.

Talking of widening the audience, I had a note from another lesbian (some synchronicity here) who had found my home page after doing a search on ‘Troon’. Small world, innit?

D.