Who Writes: At the Desk

Going around the room: at the desk
from the Valve
http://www.thevalve.org/go

It’s been a little while, but I still feel we’re not best friends yet, so if you could just answer the following questions:

1. Do you compose on the computer? Why or why not?
Oh definitely the computer. When the magic gets hot, its like the thoughts just appear on the screen. The hands, the keyboard--not even there.

2. Does carbon paper make you nostalgic?
nope, just itchy.

3. Do you have a stationery and/or a pen fetish?
I have 8 glass quills that I still think I will write with. And sometimes I do write letters on high quality paper, pen dipped in an inkwell.

4. Do you remember the first “grown-up” book that you ever read?
nope. Does the Hobbit count?

5. What embarrassing book from the distant past brings back a flood of recognition?
The absolute devotion I had after reading either Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead or Allan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind

6. Are you a scholar, or a critic? Or neither?
Can I be both--I do criticism for newspapers, scholarly work for...well, apparently not for much reason at all.

7. When did you decide to become a scholar/critic/neither? Did you decide?
1993, when Judy was going to graduate and I had to figure out what I was going to do with life.

8. Has blog writing affected the way you write in other venues? The way you read?
No, not at all.

9. Do you still read blogs or other webpages even if the design/print is unappealing or difficult to read?
Yes, but not as often.

10. Have you ever bought a book because of the cover/design? Which book(s)?
Nope, I don't think so. But I was strongly influenced to by Bad Subjects when I saw the book itself.

11. Do you think these questions are irrelevant?'
8-10, yes.