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Author Topic: Introduce Yourself: Newcomers and Lurkers, We Mean You!  (Read 755479 times)

oneaprilday

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Re: Introduce Yourself: Newcomers and Lurkers, We Mean You!
« Reply #1050 on: January 04, 2008, 06:48:54 PM »
classes started already?  so wrong!

I know - I've been thoroughly depressed as of the day after Christmas when I had to start cramming for my next quarter. Grrrrr. Have been trying to paste on a smile for the students and my attitude is slowly catching up with my classroom face. It'll take another week or two though until I'm thoroughly reconciled to having started class on January 2.

part of using partner, instead of wife/husband/boyfriend/girlfriend is an issue of queerness.  i think that being able to introduce yourself, especially on a first day, and mention your husband speaks to the comfort of seemingly normal relationships (in this case, i'll call it hetero).  while many queer folk are comfortable enough to mention their queer relationship(s) on the first day of class, i'd expect there to be some wondering about how students accept such sharing.  for other queer folks, concerns about job security, student resistance, or community reprisals make "coming out" something unlikely and/or undesired.

Yes, I suppose you're right - I admit I don't always associate "partner" with queerness anymore, and so I assume my students don't either. Perhaps because I live in such a liberal-minded state or perhaps because there are several gay, long-time faculty members where I teach whose orientation is not ever an issue with the students or anyone else as far as I can tell, I'm not as aware of the kinds of issues that might face other college faculties. I take the openness here for granted. Thanks for reminding me that my world can get pretty small without my realizing it.  :)

with the example of "my children" versus "the children", i think "my children" clearly sounds less cold, but i would also submit that "adam and stevie" sounds even less cold than "my children". 

But I can't just use their names with no introduction. "The children I have given birth to, (insert names), . . . " and then always refer to them henceforth by their names?  :)

of course "my" doesn't always signify possession to the listener/reader but it does impart meaning - it seems pretty safe to claim that the meaning is possessive.  if you are at a park with some other people, your kids are playing with your neighbor's kids - you point out "your kids" differentiating them against "their kids" - that is possessive.  is that wrong?  no.  but does it say something about how families are understood, communities defined?  obviously yes.  tapping into the noble ideal illustrated in Griffith's The Country Doctor, doctor harcourt is running between his home with his own sick child and his neighbor's home [note the possessiveness of land ownership:] with their sick child, harcourt ends up saving the neighbor's child and his own dies, seemingly telling us something about a greater ideal of care and community, shared "parenting".  does this possessive use go toward solving that problem?  i wouldn't say it did, but i don't think it hurts:)

If only we could gain back some of that community-spiritedness in which I trust other people to help and protect and teach "my" children.

while i do take this stuff seriously, i reckon it is coming off as much less light-hearted than i live it (as with other exchanges on the boards:)

I know, me, too - love ya for it.   ;)

skjerva

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Re: Introduce Yourself: Newcomers and Lurkers, We Mean You!
« Reply #1051 on: January 04, 2008, 09:46:31 PM »
thanks, you too  :)
But I wish the public could, in the midst of its pleasures, see how blatantly it is being spoon-fed, and ask for slightly better dreams. 
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roujin

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Re: Introduce Yourself: Newcomers and Lurkers, We Mean You!
« Reply #1052 on: January 04, 2008, 10:25:38 PM »
So...who art thou?

That's a very good question.

roujin, you're teasing us . . . come on!  :)

Yes, I am.

Even though I've been on the forums for a while now I figure I should introduce myself properly.

My name is [insert text here] and I have been alive for more than 19 years. I live in Dallas, Texas and commute to the University of North Texas where I am studying many, many things. I plan to major in English though I've no idea what I could do with a degree in it. Although I do love writing, my primary love will always be the movies and all that they have to offer.

If there's anything else that you for some reason want to know about me, simply ask.
« Last Edit: July 30, 2008, 11:15:19 PM by roujin »

skjerva

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Re: Introduce Yourself: Newcomers and Lurkers, We Mean You!
« Reply #1053 on: January 04, 2008, 11:10:22 PM »
welcome, roujin!  i feel i've seen you around somewhere :)
But I wish the public could, in the midst of its pleasures, see how blatantly it is being spoon-fed, and ask for slightly better dreams. 
                        - Iris Barry from "The Public's Pleasure" (1926)

roujin

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Re: Introduce Yourself: Newcomers and Lurkers, We Mean You!
« Reply #1054 on: January 05, 2008, 12:45:22 AM »
Yes, skjerva, I feel as if we've met before. I can't quite place when though.

oneaprilday

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Re: Introduce Yourself: Newcomers and Lurkers, We Mean You!
« Reply #1055 on: January 05, 2008, 01:53:20 AM »
I plan to major in English though I've no idea what I could do with a degree in it. Although I do love writing, my primary love will always be the movies and all that they have to offer.

I majored in English and had no idea what I was going to do with it either. I rather like where I ended up.

Maybe you should pair writing and films?  :) Guess you already are in a way here . . .

cinechic

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Re: Introduce Yourself: Newcomers and Lurkers, We Mean You!
« Reply #1056 on: January 06, 2008, 06:41:05 PM »
Comparative lit?

skjerva

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Re: Introduce Yourself: Newcomers and Lurkers, We Mean You!
« Reply #1057 on: January 06, 2008, 06:45:33 PM »
Comparative lit?

just like it sounds - comparing literatures.  usually considered as national literatures, if i'm not mistaken, though i think it can refer to any two or more conceptions of literature.
But I wish the public could, in the midst of its pleasures, see how blatantly it is being spoon-fed, and ask for slightly better dreams. 
                        - Iris Barry from "The Public's Pleasure" (1926)

pixote

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Re: Introduce Yourself: Newcomers and Lurkers, We Mean You!
« Reply #1058 on: January 06, 2008, 07:11:34 PM »
Even though I've been on the forums for a while now I figure I should introduce myself properly.

Traitor!

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pixote

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Re: Introduce Yourself: Newcomers and Lurkers, We Mean You!
« Reply #1059 on: January 06, 2008, 07:31:21 PM »
A single person can't really own a partnership, right?

Brilliance.

So how about partnerr to indicate a romantic partner and partnerb to indicate a business partner?

Brilliance squared.  Though I assumed partnerb referred to bridge partners.

I'm glad the nature of the partnership between faceboy and irma vep has been clarified.  I had previously assumed (again) that face was an active bridge player (since his grad school path made a pre-IPO entrepreneurship less likely).  That being said, isn't there a less depressing (i.e., sonically ugly) word than "partner" that could be used to describe such a personal relationship.  I can only hear it as shorthand for "life partner" and that makes me cringe.  (This might say more about me than the word itself.)

skjerva, I applaud your paranoid fear the paranoid fear of the genitive case you feel in regard to the genitive case (without regard for whether the use is subjective or objective, or even possessive).  Please join me in abandoning that entire pernicious grammatical category in favor of the dative.  The partner to me and I have been doing this for years, and we believe the world is a better place for it.

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