User:Clio the Muse
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I sent my soul through the infinite,
Some message of that afterlife to spell;
And by and by my soul returned to me and said;
'I myself am heaven and hell'
In case anybody's wondering Clio will be in Mexico until 19 February, hence the lengthy silence.
Have you seen her all all in gold
Like a queen in days of old
She shoots colours all around
Like a sunset going down
Have you seen the lady fairer.
She comes in colours everywhere
She combs her hair
She's like a rainbow
Coming colours in the air
Oh, everywhere
Contents |
[edit] ME
Who am I? No fancy colours, no designs, no mission statements, just a few simple facts. My name, part of it anyway, is Anastasia (not the grand duchess, though both my mother and my boyfriend claim I act like one), and I will be 24 this coming August. I am British, conservative and patriotic. I love history, politics, literature, philosophy and travel. I have been fortunate to have covered a good bit of the globe, in one capacity or another, and hope to catch up with most of the rest over the next few years. My prime function here on Wikipedia is to answer questions, chiefly on the Humanities Desk, when I am able, and within the limits of my intellectual competence. I enjoy good company, both men and women, but I have a great problem in tolerating fools. This has been my chief weakness. Apart from that I am practically perfect in every way!
At present I am based at Cambridge, where I am in the process of completing a history PhD, a study of the devlopment of English party politics in the reign of Charles II. I have already published articles in a variety of periodicals, in both England and North America, on this and other historical subjects. I am spending a lot of time on my computer at the present, enabling me, for sheer amusement and diversion, to dip into Wikipedia from time to time. I like dealing with empirical issues mostly, with questions that have a definite aim and purpose. I also like to challenge mistaken assumptions. But I really hate the long and windy discussions, which never reach a definite conclusion and simply allow people to drone on interminably. Pure prejudice on may part, I confess, and I am sure some people must find them constructive; but I will continue to avoid these 'baggy monsters', or exit quickly when a decent question turns into yet another drone fest!
Yes, I am a bluestocking and a feminist, though I am also-from my public school days (Wycombe Abbey)-quite sporty (not that one precludes the other!). I play golf, tennis, netball, hockey and polo, being a reasonably good horsewoman. I also enjoy sailing in my brother's yacht, especially along the south coast of England. In addition, I go mountaineering from time to time, mainly in Scotland, but also in Spain and Norway, and I am an avid skier. An all rounder, in every good sense.
Why Clio? Because Clio, daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne, is the muse of history and heroic poetry, and has been my ever present mentor since I was a very little girl.
Begin thou, unforgetting Clio, for all the ages are in thy keeping, and all the storied annals of the past. Statius.
To resolve any confusion on the matter this girl is a good-old double A: Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Catholic!
Who would I be if I was not Clio? I would be Nobody. Why? Because Nobody's perfect!
[edit] WOMEN I ADMIRE
(In no particular order)
- Margaret Thatcher
- Emmeline Pankhurst
- Christabel Pankhurst
- Eva Peron
- Boadicea
- Jane Austen
- Margaret of Anjou
- Elizabeth I
- Catherine the Great
- Mary Wolstonecraft
- Queen Zenobia
- George Sand
- Leni Riefensthal
- Hypatia
- Emily Brontë
- Joan of Arc
- Aphra Behn
- Amelia Erhart
- Edith Piaf
- Käthe Kollwitz
[edit] Jonathan Swift
Perhaps the greatest satirist who ever lived-I love him to bits! My favourite quotations?
- When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.
- It is useless to try to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into.
- Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.
- There is nothing in this world constant but inconstancy
[edit] MEN I ADMIRE
(Apart from Swift, and again in no particular order)
- Charles Dickens
- Winston Churchill
- Egon Schiele
- Eric Bloodaxe
- George Orwell
- Stonewall Jackson
- Arthur Schopenhauer
- Friedrich Nietzsche
- Douglas Haig
- Edward III
- Franz Kafka
- Guy de Maupassant
- Ivan the Terrible
- William Pitt the Elder
- Francis Drake
- Marcus Aurelius
- Horatio Nelson
- Graham Greene
- Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck
- Edmund Burke
[edit] Why I do not edit mainpages
It has been suggested-quite recently over the question of extermination camps-that I should also edit main pages. I did consider this when I first joined Wikipedia last October, but I was quickly discouraged. I raised some issues of interpretation on the Juan Peron talk page as a preliminary step, questioning in particular the contention that he could be accurately described as a 'fascist.' The argument I put forward was effectively silenced by the 'no original research' cudgel, though my reasoned contentions were not based on 'original research', whatever that is supposed to mean. Since then I have seen pages butchered by editing and counter-editing to the point where I consider them practically worthless. I cannot tell you just how many simple errors I have discovered, and the quality of 'collective writing' is in many cases quite atrocious. Hence the reference desk, where no-one can butcher what I write, and where I act as a guide and a mentor. Long may it continue.
[edit] Clio's favourite fictions
In no particular order, and confining myself to one book for each author (and restricting myself also to twenty out of hundreds), these are as follows;
- Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens. A wonderful book with one of my favourite minor charcters, Lavvy the Irrepressible. Like her 'I don't care whether I am a Minx, or a Sphinx.'
- Emma by Jane Austen. I adore Jane Austen, but I did say I was confining myself to one book for each author, so Emma it is. Again, she is a lot like me, and I once almost fell into the same trap!
- Ulysses by James Joyce. What can I say about this book other than it's certainly the greatest Irish novel, and possibly one of the greatest books ever written. Joyce's insight into the history, culture and psychology of his country is quite breathtaking. If Ireland disappeared off the face of the earth I think it might be possible, in large measure, to recreate it on the basis of the information in Ulysses. My favourite section is Oxen of the Sun, where the author explores the differing modes of literary discourse.
- The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham. The very best childrens' book. I read it when I was seven, and fell in love with the Great God Pan, the Piper at the Gates of Dawn.
- Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote. Ah, the wonderful, life-enhancing Holly Golightly, the freest of free spirits. I identify with her more than any other female in fiction.
- Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky. I read this over a wet and feverish weekend as an undergraduate at Cambridge, and it filled my mind with all sorts of alarming thoughts, Napoleonic in intensity!
- Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry. A tremendous tour de force, a great whirlwind of images, impressions and ideas. In my view the best English novel of the last century.
- The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. Most of Hemingway's work leaves me quite cold, but not this little book. It was one of the set books in my forth form English class. Most of the girls thought it silly, but I, being a lover of Greek and Roman myths and legends, saw in it some of the great eternal values. A book that transforms the mundane.
- Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. The greatest of all the Brontë books. I still cannot bring the story of Cathy and Heathcliff to mind without feeling the tears welling up.
- Victoria by Knut Hamsun. I love all of Hamsun's early work, but Victoria edges slightly ahead of Hunger and Pan.
- Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges. His 'fictions' are inspired works of genius.
- Plain Tales from the Hills by Rudyard Kipling. I do not give a damm about the imperialism, Kipling is one of the great craftsmen of English prose, now sadly underestimated.
- Journey the the End of the Night by Celine. Another 'politically incorrect' choice, but a great book.
- The Castle by Franz Kafka. Who could ever forget Arthur and Jeremiah?
- Short Stories by Guy de Maupassant. All of them, but The Necklace in particular. The irony is heart-breaking.
- Animal Farm by George Orwell. Orwell is a far better essayist than novelist, but Animal Farm deserves a place amongst the very best of English political satire.
- The Quiet American by Graham Greene. Every American President should be made to read this before taking office.
- Le Grand Meaulnes by Alain-Fournier. A little book of outstanding lyrical beauty.
- The Last of the Just by André Schwarz-Bart. A book that deserves to be far better known. The last few pages tore my heart out.
- La Bas by Joris-Karl Huysmans. Satanism in La Belle Epoch! Worth reading for the insight it gives into the career of Gilles de Rais, all the more horrifying because he really lived.
