Introduction

[Nora Renka]

I'm incredibly flattered to have been invited onto here, especially 
as I don't feel very old...thanks to my life right now, I feel 
incredibly young.  And I feel even younger looking at some of you on 
here, you true veterans...

For the obligatory about me part:  I'm a second-year graduate student 
in music history, probably going to write a Richard Strauss 
dissertation, but that's a little further off, and someone keeps 
trying to pull me into doing Gluck, for some reason.  Did my 
undergraduate work as a classicist, and still try to dabble in that 
every once in a while. 

Got into the fandom after I graduated from college, taking a year off 
and preparing applications--a friend of mine had been a big fan but 
I'd always been a skeptic, having a great love of fantasy novels but 
wondering why THIS series was getting all the attention.  Borrowed 
them, read them at work, and went on the Net to get some break from 
working, as my job at the time was hard-core catalog searching.  
Lurked for a while, then started to get confident enough to post...

Main discussion interests:

Analysis of the books (as opposed to either criticism or 
interpretation), and how to keep each beast separate.

Moral theories (Shklar's 'Ordinary Vices', especially) and reading 
the series in light of them.

Political organization in the WW, and the possibility of reading the 
series as a struggle for the Open Society.

Almost anything that's not shipping, to be honest.

I look forward to some fun discussions on here--now, anyone want to 
take my exams on Tuesday?  :)

-Nora considers listening to opera excellent studying for exams