Hello (warning: long-winded introduction)
Hello – I thought I would write and introduce myself to the forum - so here it is, my introduction for your delectation (or something like that, anyway).
I am a 25 year old Postgraduate student living in Hertfordshire, just north of London, in the UK. I have always been passionate about literature and I enjoy an eclectic range of fiction, poetry and non-fiction.
In career terms, I originally trained as an engineer and I have spent a large amount of my career as a project manager (yawn). I always found the work dull and uninspiring – I supposed I chose this career at a young age to please my family. To be honest, I was equally proficient in science and the arts, and I could really have picked anything. Anyway, while working in this role I saved as much money as I could and I funded my Bachelors degree as a means of escape. Over the last year I have made some huge changes in my life, quitting my job to follow my dream of studying literature at Postgraduate level. Thus, I am now enjoying every moment of my exploration in the wonderful world of literature!
The first author who I fell in love with, and read again and again, is Charles Bukowski. I still name him among my favourite authors despite my tastes having matured since those early days. Reading Bukowski at a young and impressionable age helped me to begin my journey. He was my companion throughout my teen angst (!) and what a good friend - he introduced me to Dostoevsky, Franz Kafka, Louis-Ferdinand Celine, Knut Hamsen, D.H. Lawrence, James Joyce, and also to classical music - so began an incredible adventure in literature and music.
My favourite authors include: James Joyce, George Gissing, Thomas Hardy, Charles Dickens, Homer, Shakespeare, Louis-Ferdinand Celine, Franz Kafka, Fyodor Dostoevsky, George Orwell, Knut Hamsen, John Fante, Charles Bukowski, Albert Camus, J.D. Salinger, D.H. Lawrence and there are, of course, many more that I have neglected to mention here.
I also love poetry, my favourite poets including T.S. Eliot, W.B. Yeats, D.H. Lawrence and Thomas Hardy. I particularly enjoy Modernist novels and poetry.
Pushed to name my favourite novel of all time, I would be extremely evasive and try to give a huge list of works that have touched me... however, if you woke me up in the middle of the night and demanded an answer, I would say, undoubtedly, that Ulysses by James Joyce is the greatest and most incredible work I have ever read (also the most complex and challenging).
I enjoy classical music and my favourite composer is Gustav Mahler. I also enjoy listening to the 'three Bs', i.e. Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, and Mozart, Handel, Elgar and Sibelius.
I have picked the name Stephen Dedalus (a character from Joyce's novels) to represent my escape from the labyrinth of my past (i.e. the job that I despised) to follow my dream of studying literature. If you don't understand the link, then I can suggest no better way of working it out than by reading A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (another favourite novel).
I think that’s about it for now. I hope that I will enjoy using the forum and that I will have some fantastic discussions about literature and art here.
Yours Faithfully,
Stephen Dedalus.
