Welcome

[Nigel E. Richardson]

Last to jump on the bandwagon, as usual, is Nigel E. Richardson,
shuffling into the moth-fluttered limelight after everyone else has
gone home. He read V and Gravity's Rainbow in 1975, prompted by the
urge to read something other than science fiction. He was 17 at the
time. 

He went on to fail his A levels, ending up at Sheffield Polytechnic
where he was soon kicked off some grim, industrial type course for
getting 3% in his Organic Chemistry re-takes. Punk rock changed his
life, as did the novels of Philip K. Dick. He re-read Pynchon. He
spend a lot of time on the dole and doing McJobs before they were
called McJobs. He became a computer operator just before computers
stopped needing a dozen operators to load the paper tape. More
unemployment followed.

He re-read Pynchon and understood more. He read the writers Pynchon
was compared to, worked his way backwards through the various canons.
He eventually became a technical writer, just like Pynchon, except he
wrote about spreadsheet software and stuff like that instead of
"safety procedures for the Bomarc guided missiles". 

His last ex-girlfriend was born in Long Island, another Pynchonesque
touch. He has stumbled across two UK first editions of V, one in the
cupboard of a room he rented, the other on a bookcase at a very dull
party. 

Currently he is reading Infinite Jest (stalled, page 303), The Pope's
Rhinoceros (ditto, page 143), Civilwarland in Bad Decline (great
stuff! - as we non-academics say), the new issue of Granta and the
highly under-rated John Ed Bradley's The Billionaire. 

The nearest half dozen CDs are by Aulis Sallinen, Plug, Pizzicato 5,
Moloko, PJ Harvey and u-Zig. He has never listened to a Grateful
Dead album all the way through.

The only films he has ever watched more than three times are
Miller's Crossing, Citizen Kane and The Life and Death of 
Colonel Blimp.

Today his mindless pleasures have included espresso, Ting Ting 
Jahe ginger candy, traditional Piedmonte biscuits and the Stormy
Leather web site. He lives in Leeds, within walking distance of
an S&M dungeon, the ruins of a 12th century abbey and the
saddest-looking cyber cafe in creation.

He is still searching for his Fire of Paradise, his Kirghiz Light and
his Rachael Owlglass....

Thank you and goodnight.
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nigel at impolex.demon.co.uk : grinder at netlink.co.uk
   "a flaneur on the information boulevard..."
                THE USUAL GUBBINS        
http://www.netlink.co.uk/users/grinder/index.html
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