I think there's a lesson to be learnt here. Anonymity leads to awkwardness. Anyhow --

Who would win in a poetry-slam battle: T. S. Eliot or Rabindranath Tagore?

It'd be a weird match. Why would you pick those two poets? Because one is Indian and the other is not?

Anyway, I personally prefer Eliot. Bengali poets don't translate well to English, in my opinion.

If they were performing in their own languages, I think Tagore might win, but you'd need a bilingual audience.

2 people who dont understand each other's language----2 people who are Deaf & Mute.

Am i being mean?

No, just stupid. Most deaf and mute individuals can communicate quite effectively through sign language.

I'm not answering any more questions. This is inane.

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If you were marooned on a desolate island along with a Frenchman, an American and an Egyptian (all of them poets, btw), who would be be most succesful in courting you?

That's tough. I don't recall meeting any Egyptians ever. I've met French and American men, and one of the Americans was a poet (but I think he was gay, and terribly morose). These are very small samples and I can't draw any definite conclusions.

Um, let's see. Frenchmen are generally better looking, better turned out, but the French are also a bit snobby. The Americans I've met are unlike the stereotypes, so maybe I'm luckier with Americans than with the French?

I think I'll stick with Egyptian. Safest.

[There was also one blank question. I don't know if that was on purpose or not.]


END OF EDIT

in chronological order

Who would you invite to your ideal imaginary dinner party?

If there's anything I've learnt from Virginia Woolf (besides the manifold uses of semicolons) is that it's very hard to plan parties. But here are, in no particular order, some people I'd love to have over for dinner:

David Cronenberg, my favourite living director
Susie Bright, feminist and erotica anthologist
HM, a mathematician/reader/critic I met recently who is easily the best conversationalist I know and altogether a very stylish man
Jee Leong Koh, one of my favourite living poets
Padma Laksmi, because she's hot

How come you're not around as much sicne you stopped being a GM? And why did you stand down from a GM when you were the best?

Um.

Well, it's natural for one to stop being active on the site when you're no longer GM. I expected that would happen, but not to this extent. I thought, for example, that I might keep posting resources -- this did not happen.

I can't pick out specific reasons, but one is that I had a lot of school work to do soon after I resigned. Another reason was that I found it difficult to return to my pre-GM-hood dA activities, like critiquing. Meanwhile I had begun critiquing actively at an online poetry workshop, where the guidelines are much stricter and my work was cut out for me. This is no good reason not to comment here, though. That's just how it turned out. And of course my oft mentioned blog meant I was posting my usual journal content elsewhere. Finally, it's much easier to be disgusted my dA's flaws when you're not such a big part of it. (Don't worry, I won't turn into a, what's the word, hater?)

My stepping down is a much clearer situation, and in fact, could have been anticipated. I'm not sure if I mentioned it earlier, but I knew very clearly when I applied for the post that it was only going to be for a year. I knew when I'd be graduating in a year and what kind of work I'd have to do, and that it would be best not to have other things on my plate. I also believed, and still do, that a volunteer position should not be permanent, that the literature community needs new people doing new things.

What the fuck?

I don't know, but I do like verbs.

Can I have some of your talent? Please?

Heh, firstly, thank you for the implied compliment. Secondly, I won't fall into the trap of answering that question, because it would require me to agree to my having talent. Thirdly, I don't know who you are, but something tells me you have talent of your own.

You often review pornography or other erotic work and it begs the question: what would you ideal sexual encounter be like?

Haha. If I hadn't read so much erotica and porn, I'd probably have a specific ideal sexual encounter in mind that was also a giant cliche. Currently it's easier for me to eliminate certain things. I'm not a very romantic person, so candles and rose petals are out. None of that whipped cream nonsense. No orgies. Reading BDSM is fun, but in real life, I don't think so. No beaches; I hate sand.

I've lately wondered what it would be like to have sex with someone who didn't know any of the languages I knew.

[For anyone who doesn't know what's going on, I let people ask me anonymous questions using this link. You can ask more, if you like, but now that my sexual fantasies have been discussed, what's left to ask?]

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I really miss those memes. They seem to have fallen into disuse. I have a thing for lists and numbering stuff, so memes are a perfect release. I've noticed a few 'ask me a question' things, which seem fun. I don't think I'd get too many questions since I'm not around much anymore and watchers have noticed and drifted away, but still, if you'd like to ask me something, you may do so here. It's completely anonymous, but you can leave your name/username at the bottom if you feel like it. Just make sure you let me know whether it's OK to mention your name or not. : )

some translation. One of the most flattering things you can do, I've discovered, is to write to a poet and say, 'May I please translate your poem?' Just some friendly advice.

I'm translating them into French, which is absurd. I should be doing it the other way round, but when you're learning, it helps to do it both ways.

I attended my first poetry slam last night. Slam poetry hasn't really caught on in India. There are a few performance poets (not very good), but the nature of a slam hasn't been fully understand. From reading about it, I understand that it's a competition with several rounds. The performers are either judged by the audience or by judges like on a reality TV show.

Anyway, an ex-classmate of mine was hosting this, so I went to show support. (Also because I was curious.) Of the twelve people who signed up, only five showed up. My friend decided to do away with the competition side of it, so they were just performing in rounds. Weird.

The blog has been doing well lately. Lots of interaction, which is all I could ask for. The less cool, but still mildly amusing, aspect of it all is the search phrases people use that lead to my blog. I occasionally write about erotica, pornography and sex work. It's mostly feminist commentary, as I was telling `Iscariot-Priest earlier today, but if you google 'Savita Bhabhi' (Indian cartoon porn star) you are likely to find a blog post of mine or two. Sometimes people looking to be serviced find my blog. But this one, which I saw today, is unforgivable: i had anal sex with my grandmother

I should stop checking my stats plugin. Then I won't have to know how many pervs find my blog as opposed to the far more desirable intellectually competent occasional viewer of porn. (Just look at those modifiers!)

oldest to newest

Small moments of violence
Is Delhi India's New York?
Of interest: Tarantino, Exit Wounds, Foster Wallace, etc
Divers
Poets on Poetry: Salvatore Quasimodo
Literary corpses
Women watch strippers for fun. Men are evil. Right.
Talk about guts
Nine short stories
You! Freaks! Goddammit!
The Man in the Lower-Left Corner of the Photograph, Robert Morgan, 1999
Myth and contemporary writing
Poets on Poetry: Ted Hughes
July '09 in books and movies
Two poems; Translation
Translation: Pagnol compares theatre and the novel
Borges on Kafka
Translation: Three poems by Jacques Prévert
I wrote this. I sweat I did.
The Great Indian Novel
Of interest: The appalling prose of one Mr Brown and other delights