There's no simple answer. I've always lived here, so I have a support network; plus the cost of living, at least in the part of the state I'm in, is low, which is good considering that I'm not in ideal shape employment-wise at the moment. Also there are good universities within driving distance, so that helps my research.
However, it's also because I never really had the guts to take risks and put myself out there. When I did go into a graduate program, it was still within the state. I'm trying to find jobs in places like Boston and New York, but it hasn't been going well and, I don't know, maybe I'm still missing something.
And, of course, if you can offer any help toward escaping Virginia, I'd gladly accept it.
Do you look like any of your LJ icons?
This one does, except I rarely smoke.
I don't think I photograph well so I don't like putting up photos of myself online. Still, if you're really curious, go to okcupid.com and look for reluctantlychad. There's a (somewhat old) headshot of me there.
In light of the above: why are you still in the US and not in Poland? :P
HA! Get me a good job there and I'd consider emigrating.
Actually, I can't remember if I ever told you, but I was deeply interested in Polish history and seriously considered specializing in early modern Polish and eastern European history. I was particularly fascinated by Poland in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when it was one of the very few religiously tolerant countries (along with, if I remember right, just Translyvania and parts of Scandinavia) in Europe.
LOL - cute! Although I think okcupid has to be the most dumbed-down dating site i've ever seen.
Why do I get the feeling that you're ignoring me when I try to communicate with you?
Probably because you apparently have no idea when someone is trying to be polite.
I will trouble you no more. I am terminating relations immediately.
I'll try to pick up the shattered pieces of my life and move on.
Oh, and by the way, when you say something that starts with "I'm not a racist, but...", most of the time that does mean that you are, in fact, a racist. Just thought you should know.
Are you going for your PhD ?
If so, where and when?
Also, when will you admit that Foucault is awesome?
;P
Are you going for your PhD ?
Oh yes. I was hoping to enter a program this year, but the three I applied to all turned me down flat. To be fair, I didn't put as much effort as I could have into the process, which is fine, because I think I needed a break.
Also, when will you admit that Foucault is awesome?
That will be the same day I suffer severe brain damage and/or I start wanting to see gay history destroyed.
Are you only gay to back-ratchet yourself against becoming more conservative as you grow older?
Being gay is no defense. Look at *shudder* Andrew Sullivan.
I think the mere reminder of the sort of bizarre, antiquated notions entertained by my biological family will be enough of a totem against any encroaching conservatism (that and the chilling example set by Orson Scott Card).
Why do you want to come to Britain? What do we have that the USA doesn't?
Well, first I should say Britain actually isn't my top choice for a place to live. That would be either Provence, Scandinavia, Montreal, or Tuscany. Unfortunately, I am very bad at learning any aspect of languages except the written word, so I'm terrified of being seen as a willfully ignorant Anglocentric. Britain has the appeal of being foreign and speaking my language (more or less).
At any rate, I can't really say "why" for sure. A large part of it is the appeal of making a complete break with my past. I've never lived more than a few hours' drive from where I was born, and I haven't really travelled that far (the furthest I've ever gone was to the western United States and even that was just a two week trip with my parents, so it barely counts), so just the prospect of living in a foreign nation is exhilerating.
As for why it must be Britain, part of it is that, aside from my Native American ancestry, I am Welsh and English, so seeing my "other" ancestral home has great sentimental value to me (not to mention the chance of continuing the genealogical research a few of my family members have attempted). I've always been fascinated by British culture, enough so that my area of interest when I was an English major was British literature, and I honestly think if there is such a thing as a "British character" I'm more in tune with that than any "American character." But probably the most pressing reason is that my area of interest is in British and European history, and the slimmest opportunity to actually experience in every possible way the places and cities and monuments and relics I've only read about in books or written about in essays makes my heart ache. So it's not just that I would be in Britain, but that only a channel and land, not a huge ocean, would separate me from Prague, Vienna, Lisbon, Florence, St. Petersburg, Stockholm; from where the Athenians and the Romans and the Popes and the Renaissance painters and writers and the Hapsburgs and the Bourbons and the Jacobins and all the rest lived and died.
So if I got the chance to visit Britain - or, much better, live there - I would have more faith in Providence than any saint that ever lived. And as melodramatic as that sounds I mean it.
Who is your favorite Achewood character and why?
Who is your least favorite and why?
I know, I'm kind of a deep guy.
My favorite: Cornelius Bear. I have a soft spot for intellectual quasi-snobs.
My least favorite: and this is kind of ironic, because he's the strip's most popular character and its star, but it's Roast Beef. I can't really say why, except that maybe it's from overexposure.
I like Cornelius a lot too. If I had to pick a favorite Ray might win by a nose, perhaps because I have a soft spot for blithe, generous hedonists, but I love Roast Beef, Teodor, and Philippe almost as much. I understand what you mean about the overexposure, though it doesn't affect me in this case.
My least favorite is easy: Nice Pete. He's brilliantly written, and I know he's supposed to, but he really makes my skin crawl.
Hey, I need an Achewood icon!
Why is Robert Downey Jr. so awesome?
Probably because in a Hollywood where all you need to get movie deals is to be famous and have a pretty face he actually tries to act?
Did Orson Scott Card eat a lot of paintchips or stand to close to the microwave as a child?
Bonus question! What will hell look like for James Lileks?
I think Orson Scott Card was a victim of whatever illness strikes so many sci-fi writers (and is the cause of Libertarianism).
Hell for James Lileks would, I suspect, simply be a world where only good, intelligent, insightful writing is awarded.
We call that doohickey "the Brain Eater," by the way. Doesn't just apply to political beliefs, necessary; it's more like the point where a writer becomes so buffeted by their work that they feel the need to bloviate unimpeded. Noted victims include Anne McCaffrey (the "tent peg" incident), Frank Miller, Larry Niven, and possibly Dan Simmons (he posted a story on his website where a time traveler warned him about the rise of "Eurabia").
Do you have hot (and straight) female friends you can introduce me to?
Only if you have hot, gay, male friends!
What was the first comic book that really seized your attention, and why?
Hmm, I have to think about that one. Well, the first comic book I remember reading at all was an issue of "Amazing Spider-Man" where Spider-Man teamed up with the Hulk (during his "Professor" era) against the Sinister Six. Rather than being overwhelmed by the continuity (and having gone back and reread that issue a couple of years ago, it was very continuity-heavy, with references to stories in other "Spider-Man" titles, "Fantastic Four", and "Incredible Hulk"), I was thrilled at the dialogue that hinted at other stories and the idea that there was this entire universe filled to the brim with characters who all had deep, complex histories. That's why I always disagree with people who say that it's continuity that drives away new readers. I know at least in my case it was exactly what attracted me to Marvel and DC in the first place.
The first, though, that really made me fall in love with the medium came along when I had just entered my teenage years. It was an issue of Alan Moore's run on "Swamp Thing" that my cousin, a lifelong comics geek, showed me. It was, if I remember right, the issue where Swamp Thing confronts a resurrected Anton Arcane. The grotesque depiction of Arcane and the powerful dialogue ("You have taught me the meaning of abomination" stands out especially) intercut over these truly gothic visuals really awakened me to the medium's potential. In fact, sometimes I still wish I had been born a decade earlier so I could have experienced things like the start of Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman's careers and the birth of Vertigo first-hand.
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