[HPFGU-London] Getting to know you...

[GulPlum]

I've been meaning to do one of these for another forum for some time, so 
this is as good a time to get around to it as any other... Beware of 
tangents/ flying soap-boxes.

*** Name and nicknames
Richard Sliwa, GulPlum on Yahoo, otherwise Plumski

*** Age
42

*** Birthplace/Home
Birmingham; my life/residence divides roughly into quarters; the first in 
Birmingham, the second in Paris (where I was at school and then at 
university), then in London (partially West, partly South) for 16 years. I 
came back to Birmingham 3 years ago to look after my elderly parents (79 
and 90) and live in the house in which I was brought up.

*** Family
I have six siblings (five sisters, one brother), and I'm the 
second-youngest. For such a large (and long-lived) family (my dad has/had 3 
sisters and 2 brothers; my mum 3 sisters), I have ONE first cousin (whom 
I've not seen for about 30 years), three nieces (one sister has one 
daughter, currently 28; another sister has two daughters, 23 and 19) and 
two nephews by my younger sister (8 and 5). I have no desire to have kids 
of my own.

*** Work/Study
I was going to be Catholic priest during my youth and early adulthood. That 
got a knock on the head during my fourth (of six) years of theological 
study. There are several reasons for this, which could, I suppose, be 
summarised as "losing my faith" although there was no single anti-Damascus 
moment. My current religious feelings are agnostic verging on 
atheistic/humanist. I certainly don't subscribe to any organised religious 
view. In fact, I've become quite bitter about it partially because it is an 
incontrovertible fact that organised religion (or the fight against it) 
accounts for more human suffering throughout history than any other single 
element. I am particularly concerned about societies in which religion and 
politics become intermingled, and I am especially horrified about the 
politics of the USA which despite its constitutional separation of church 
and state has such an ingrained fundamentalist Christian world-view that I 
am seriously scared.

Sorry, I digress. I shall now get off my soap-box.

After giving up on my past, I moved to London (as all vaguely educated 
people in the early 80s seemingly did) where I did a variety of things, but 
ended up working on the fringes of the legal profession for several years 
(in several fields and in various guises). At Christmas 2000 my dad asked 
if I could move back to Birmingham to give him and my mum a hand, and I 
ended up doing so in April 2001. I now get a meagre allowance from the 
state for doing this which I supplement with well-paid freelance 
translation work (being fluent in English, French and Polish). One of the 
downsides of this is that it's difficult for me to absent myself for more 
than 24 hours at a time, although I have been able to get away for the odd 
break, the best of which was to visit my sister in South Africa for a month 
in February.

*** Anything else you'd like us to know?
I am seriously involved in all kinds of social (rather than "political") 
activism. I am a fervent believer in social equality and the power of 
education. I smoke *far* too much (getting through PoA at the IMAX without 
a break for a fag is going to be VERY difficult). I also eat too much 
(which is evident from my girth). Although I don't believe in astrology, 
palmistry, etc (basically, anything Trelawney-like), I have been examined 
by several people in those fields and told that I'll live to 92 and die 
healthy... (one of the reasons I have little motivation to give up 
smoking). :-)

I am strict to the point of pedantry about (ab)use of the English language. 
I get angry every time I see a misplaced apostrophe (there are few other 
things about the English language which are as strict, logical, without 
exceptions, and above all as straightforward and easy to learn) ; I cannot 
abide the spreading usage of "alot" instead of "a lot". Where did it come 
from and who decided there was no space between those words? (I am one of 
few users of SMS texting who write out every word in full, using complete 
sentences and correct punctuation.)

Sorry, I'm on my soap-box again...

*** HP fandom history
I resisted the pull of HP of which I first became aware when GoF came out. 
I am in some ways a cultural/intellectual snob (although apart from Carmen 
I can't stand opera) and considered kid-lit beneath me.

As I've not tired of saying to all and sundry (and as some members of the 
fandom are doubtless tired of hearing me say), I saw a preview of the HPPS 
movie a week before it was released (I go to the cinema a LOT, and I see 
almost every movie commercially released; cinema is my preferred artistic 
medium) and I left the cinema wondering why Snape hated Harry but was 
prepared to save him (an issue which is all but COMPLETELY lost on Harry 
even five books down the line) and hoped that the book might enlighten me. 
I ended up buying the book on the way home and read it that evening. I was 
sufficiently intrigued to buy CoS the next day, read it by bedtime and 
bought (and read) PoA the day after that. A couple of days later, I had to 
take a trip to London so I bought GoF to read on the train. I ended up 
staying up until 3am to finish it.

On my return home, I looked for Usenet discussion groups to talk about what 
I'd read (and seen) and found alt.fan.harry-potter (newsgroups are my 
preferred form of online discussion) where I stuck around. The HPFGU-movie 
list was mentioned there and I joined to talk about the movie in a way 
beyond spotting changes from the book (with people who weren't fixated on 
the potions puzzle and saw its cutting from the movie to be a major loss - 
HUH!). From there I moved to the main list where I was a regular until the 
beginning of this year, when I left in somewhat acrimonious circumstances. 
I was since invited to join two off-shoot lists which are far more to my 
liking.

My first meeting with HPFGU types was last summer, just after OoP came out, 
when I had to make a trip to London and I met Catherine and Michelle at a 
get-together which was even more riushed than our plans for tomorrow. ;-)

OoP was a major disappointment for me. Whilst I've enjoyed the HP series 
despite its ups and downs, I can't in any way consider it to "great 
literature" and OoP proved this in spades. Badly plotted, badly written and 
sorely in need of serious editing, it hasn't given me any motivation to 
become involved in any in-depth analysis or discussion. I therefore haven't 
been particularly active over the last year and came out of my slumbers to 
discuss the PoA movie on the movie list for a while. I've been very busy 
and/or away for several short periods throughout July so I'm currently 
playing catch-up on the various lists and hope to get involved again next week.

I have only one item of HP merchandise (which you'll see tomorrow), which 
was a Christmas present from my younger sister. Otherwise, I have no toys, 
posters or anything else. Nevertheless, I have the first four books in 
French (which I acquired mainly to check if I liked the translation, which 
I can't say I do). My brother's meant to be coming for a visit form Poland 
next week and has promised to bring me the Polish paperbacks (although 
seeing as he's as reliable as British summer sunshine, I'm not holding my 
breath).

On the other hand, I have got several items for my 8 year-old nephew who's 
seriously addicted to all things HP (you should see his bedroom...). Last 
year, his teacher at school was reading CoS at a rate of half a chapter at 
the end of each day, but he got frustrated with waiting for the next 
instalment, so he ended up reading the second half himself (my copy, 
actually!). He's currently battling with OoP (mostly because of the 
physical size of the book).

*** Favourite reading
I was a ravenous reader as a child and teenager. Since then, I've let 
myself go and nowadays rarely read anything longer than a magazine article 
unless it's work-related. I mainly read on trains and thus generally stick 
to shorter books which won't last more than a single journey. Occasionally 
I get guilt pangs and pick up something "worthy" at the library, but 
generally it's pap. I read a lot of French detective fiction which I find 
is superior to the English/American variety (a lot of it is on a par with 
the greats in literary terms).

*** Favourite music
I haven't bought an English pop/rock chart CD for probably 3 years. I 
listen to a lot of classical music, which isn't to say that I don't have a 
rocky side. There's very little on the current British (or American) scene 
which grabs my fancy. "Bat of of Hell" was released when I was 15 (the 
perfect audience) and so I have a bit of a soft spot for Meat Loaf since then.

Otherwise, I tend to stick to French artists who are completely unknown on 
this side of the Channel despite being mega-huge in French-speaking 
countries (no, I don't mean Johnny-bloody-Hallyday). Currently playing on 
my DVD is a concert of Michel Sardou from 2001 (I told you you'd never 
heard of him!). ;-) To give an idea of his following, he took up residence 
at the Bercy sports stadium in Paris (17,000 seats) for *three months*, 
playing to capacity audiences pretty much day in, day out. This was on top 
of a six-month tour of France, Belgium and Switzerland. He's going on tour 
again from the end of this year until March next and I didn't find out 
until two days after the tickets went on sale. Every performance had 
already been sold out.

*** Other interests
I'm a huge movie freak (at the cinema, please; not on TV!) and average one 
film a day. I don't watch a great of television, although I am attracted to 
the naffness and implausibility of CSI and its spinoffs. I used to watch a 
lot of Sci-fi and was once heavily into Star Trek. Voyager, however, was 
just naff and largely stupid re-treads of the same plots over and over, and 
I haven't really been able to get into Enterprise.

Most of my TV watching is news or "cultural" stuff. I will admit to having 
a weakness for Big Brother, though, and have ended up with a recording of 
almost everything from this year's shows on Channel 4 (which was mainly for 
my brother).

I think I'll shut up now, as all of that was probably *far* too much.