HM (& I think I'll skip the D for now)

[liv]

On 13^th October 2003, to livredor a new blogchild. Welcome to the LJ world, lethargic_man
Because it amuses me to mess with the implications of defining my bf as my memetic child. On that note, while I'm generally in the habit of writing a little introductory piece on the subject of why a new LJ person is cool, it's not considered good form to keep on about how cool one's boyfriend is. But anyway, here he is at last! And those of my friends who haven't yet met him should all be introduced. Thanks to everybody who helped persuade him that LJ is a good thing.

Now I'm getting very close to the stage where I can give up socializing altogether and just hang out here. Still need to entice J, EM and maybe a couple of others. *cackles*

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Oh dear, the last of those who resist having a LJ really are falling, arne't they? But I will continue the struggle, if nothing else then because of the alarming idea of your giving up having a real social life. I know most of our friendship is conducted by phone, but I like seeing you in person, damn it!

Are you planning to write up our nice shiny Succot service and general weekend? It was absolutely lovely seeing you, hope you got home ok.

I find your referring to M as your child *deeply* disturbing, miss, and I've not even been reading any Freudian critics lately. (Though I did get through Portnoy's Complaint, and hated it.) And you told me off for getting broody in shul on Saturday!

EM

[liv]

I will continue the struggle
You're already at the stage where the only difference between succumbing and resisting is your own convenience, you know. But resist if it pleases you.

the alarming idea of your giving up having a real social life
Real social life... final year of PhD, hmm, could be a bad combination.

I like seeing you in person
I like seeing you in person too, dear. I will endeavour to find myself in Edinburgh at least not too rarely.

Are you planning to write up our nice shiny Succot service and general weekend?
Planning to, yes, along with about two dozen other topics, including finishing the NY series, and a heap of book reviews, and Yom Kippur, and some of the more interesting memes currently doing the rounds, and and and. One thing I didn't expect when I started this journal was that people would be impatient to see my posts about activities they were involved in. (Another reason you should get your own journal, then you could write it up yourself, you know.)

[liv]

I find your referring to M as your child *deeply* disturbing, miss
More or less so than my regarding darcydodo as my blogmother? *smiles sweetly*

And you told me off for getting broody in shul on Saturday!
I hardly think I told you off. I just found your behaviour around babies amusing.

I did get through Portnoy's Complaint, and hated it
I hated it quite a lot too. That's one of the things on my list to do a post about when I have spare time (as opposed to in snatches between timepoints...)

[(Anonymous)]

So this is why you didn't want to read out the stuff about incest laws in shul on Yom Kippur!

EM

[liv]

Rather than because it's about the least spiritually uplifting section of the whole Bible? Or because it has nothing at all to do with Yom Kippur? Or because I was already fighting an uphill struggle to make mincha meaningful or memorable?

I did my best but really, some parts of the Orthodox liturgy are just irredeemable.

LJ-style incest, on the other hand, is wholly a good thing!

Re: HM (& I think I'll skip the D for now)

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

HM (& I think I'll skip the D for now)

?

Because it amuses me to mess with the implications of defining my bf as my memetic child.

If I'm anyone's memetic child as an LJer, I'm rysmiel's and yours. This is even more worrying. But if anyone's anyone's memetic child in general, I think you're as much mine as I am yours. Can we stop this metaphor before it goes any further?

Re: HM (& I think I'll skip the D for now)

[liv]

HM&D is hatches, matches and dispatches; it was a reference to the Announcements section of a newspaper, since that was the style I used to announce your arrival on LJ.

If I'm anyone's memetic child as an LJer, I'm rysmiel's and yours
Yes, true. I was hoping this prospect would occur to you. Can I point you in the direction of Blogtree and ask you to claim me as a parent, please? My ID there is 11994.

Can we stop this metaphor before it goes any further?
But it's far too amusing making everybody squirm! I think we could really run with it, actually...

Re: HM (& I think I'll skip the D for now)

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

If I'm anyone's memetic child as an LJer, I'm rysmiel's and yours. This is even more worrying.

And now my team are looking at me and wondering what on earth could have prompted such a diabolical cackle.

Welcome, welcome, thrice welcome.

Re: HM (& I think I'll skip the D for now)

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

It also occurs to me that this makes you memetically Nephilim.

Re: HM (& I think I'll skip the D for now)

[liv]

How??? The assocations I have with Nephilim are antediluvian giants; something to do with 'falling'; and a rather fun goth (ish; I'm not very good at musical subclassifications) band. Obviously all those meanings are connected, as the falling thing is an interpretation of the name of the mythical creatures, and the band is presumably named after them.

But I really don't see how we (or maybe just lethargic_man? can Nephilim be singular in English, like Cherubim?) can be memetically Nephilim, on any of those definitions. Explain?

Re: HM (& I think I'll skip the D for now)

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

My understanding of the nature of the Nephilim, from the snippets in Genesis and such apocrypha as I have read, is that they represent the offspring of errant angels and human women. They're about the only fringe of Christian mytho-theology I'm not interested in having in AD, as there are some stunningly awful New Age writings about them, both fantasy novels and pseudoarchaeology.

nephilim

[liv]

Ahh, I see where you're coming from. Cute! Sorry to be slow.

It's not an impossible reading, to identify the nephilim with the offspring of the 'sons of god'¹ and the 'daughters of man' discussed in Genesis, I just hadn't thought of it before. Given how little sense the whole section makes anyway (and Snunit's habit of arbitrary punctuation really doesn't help). After all, there's a fairly prevalent theory that the whole section is actually about lesbians(!)

Open season: does anyone reading this want to have a go at trying for a sensible reading of the first few verses of Genesis 6?!

there are some stunningly awful New Age writings about them
You mean, more stunningly awful than all the stuff on other kinds of angels and supernatural beings? Why particularly them?

pseudoarchaeology
I shudder to think!

1] Deliberately lower-case; I'm not sure which interpretation is less unpalatable!

Re: nephilim

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

there are some stunningly awful New Age writings about them

You mean, more stunningly awful than all the stuff on other kinds of angels and supernatural beings? Why particularly them?

Goodness knows. I'm thinking particularly of Storm Constantine's Grigori trilogy.

pseudoarchaeology
I shudder to think!

Andrew Collins is the name to look for; or not, depending on how masochistic you're feeling at the time.

Re: nephilim

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

It's not an impossible reading, to identify the nephilim with the offspring of the 'sons of god' and the 'daughters of man' discussed in Genesis, I just hadn't thought of it before.

It's much more coherently supported by a chunk near the start of 1 Enoch, if I'm recalling which Enoch is which correctly off the top of my head.

Re: nephilim

[liv]

OK, I didn't mean to imply that the unexpected reading of Genesis was yours. It is interesting to know that the tradition goes back to Enoch, thanks.

Woah, but Enoch is weird! I have to admit that the Apocrypha come fairly low on my list of other people's scriptures that I ought to read. But you've made me sufficiently curious to at least skim over the relevant section of Enoch. And it is very, very odd. Oh well, I've certainly learnt something.

Re: nephilim

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

Enoch is deeply weird. I must actually read it again, considering what I am working on at the moment.

I hope there are people out there who will want to read hard science fiction in which the science is fringe theology.

Re: nephilim

[liv]

I hope there are people out there who will want to read hard science fiction in which the science is fringe theology
This sounds like it might be quite a reasonable description of Foucault's Pendulum which I'm currently in the middle of. Anyway, to me it sounds an enticing tagline.

I'm someone who read

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<i>I hope there are people out there who will want to read hard science fiction in which the science is fringe theology</i>
This sounds like it might be quite a reasonable description of <a href="http://allconsuming.net/item.cgi?id=0345368754">Foucault's Pendulum</a> which I'm currently in the middle of. Anyway, to me it sounds an enticing tagline.

I'm someone who read <a "http://bible.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/bible?language=english&passage=revelation&version=KJV">Revelation</a> in order to make better sense of <a href="http://allconsuming.net/item.cgi?isbn=0552137030">Good Omens</a>, though. I suspect this is not an entirely typical sort of behaviour in a reader.

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

Because it amuses me to mess with the implications of defining my bf as my memetic child.

I can't actually think of who would be my memetic parent, in that case. It would be some complex multi-person thing.

it's not considered good form to keep on about how cool one's boyfriend is.

But for someone as self-evidently cool as lethargic_man, all that will need is to make sure he has time enough..

Now I'm getting very close to the stage where I can give up socializing altogether and just hang out here.

Yay ! [ Umm, was that overly selfish ? ]

[liv]

I can't actually think of who would be my memetic parent, in that case. It would be some complex multi-person thing.
I like the idea of a complex multi-person parent. (And I thought I was being subversive by listing four blogmothers!) Memetic genealogy is so much fun.

[liv]

But for someone as self-evidently cool as lethargic_man, all that will need is to make sure he has time enough.
I think lethargic_man is evidently cool, but not self-evidently cool to the extent that people are going to notice it without even interacting with him. So I needed to draw general attention to his journal, I think.

[liv]

Now I'm getting very close to the stage where I can give up socializing altogether and just hang out here.

Yay ! [ Umm, was that overly selfish ? ]
Goodness, I'm starting to feel like you and EM are practically fighting over me! While this is somewhat flattering, I think you're both missing the point: the majority of the time I spent not seeing my in-person friends is not time spent interacting with my online friends, and vice versa. It's just that most of the time I'm working, or running community and interfaith stuff. Hence more efficiency is required for the little socializing time I do have, and collecting everybody together on LJ would be one obvious way to achieve this!

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

I'm starting to feel like you and EM are practically fighting over me!

Oh, far be it from me to be competitive in any way.

the majority of the time I spent not seeing my in-person friends is not time spent interacting with my online friends, and vice versa. It's just that most of the time I'm working, or running community and interfaith stuff.

Fair enough; my in-person friends are sufficiently geographically scattered that almost all of them I see in brief intense doses, and my online interaction is something I multitask with work in order to keep me balanced.

[shreena.livejournal.com]

I'm a bit late on this as I've not been on LJ much recently, but welcome to lethargic_man! Everything I've heard about you has led me to believe that you are a very good thing.