Member: vito90

Thank you! I will let you know if I go to Seattle.

posted by helendewitt at 3:57 pm (EST) on Jul 8, 2007

I'm SO glad The Last Samurai encouraged you to take up Japanese. Of course, I'm sure the first thing you thought, on studying the language properly, was: And just why does the book show the hiragana but not katakana? This goes on bothering me -- I did not have time to work out how to bring in katakana without interrupting an already fractured narrative, and so the table never got in, and this was bad. But I'm VERY glad that the book gave you the extra impetus to study Japanese.

posted by helendewitt at 3:11 am (EST) on Jul 6, 2007

Oh, and she's also a LT user.

posted by languagehat at 3:51 pm (EST) on May 12, 2007

Hey, I'm really glad you like Strachan, and of course delighted to find another DeWitt fan! Have you seen her blog, paperpools? (She has a post in which she talks about her suicide attempt and says "I've been trying to work out how to tackle the subject of suicide, which I wanted to have a blog of its own, Tender Only to One.") As for DFW, as I've said before, I have nothing against him as a writer (he's not a favorite of mine, but I enjoy his verbal panache), but I object to his posing as an authority on language (and especially to his denigrating those who actually are authorities). Sorry my rant bothered you, but I'm glad you seem to have forgiven me!

posted by languagehat at 3:39 pm (EST) on May 12, 2007