User Profile

"To venture, to defy, to persevere, to be true to one's self, to grapple with destiny, to dismay calamity by not being afraid of it, to challenge now unrighteous powers and now victory run wild, to stand fast and hold firm — these are the examples that the peoples need, the spark that electrifies them." -- Victor Hugo, Les Miserables (III.1.xi)

"You must know that there is nothing higher, or stronger, or sounder, or more useful afterwards in life, than some good memory, especially a memory from childhood, from the parental home. You hear a lot said about your education, yet some such beautiful, sacred memory, preserved from childhood, is perhaps the best education. If a man stores up many such memories to take into life, then he is saved for his whole life. And even if only one good memory remains with us in our hearts, that alone may serve some day for our salvation. Perhaps we will even become wicked later on, will even be unable to resist a bad action, will laugh at people's tears and at those who say, as Kolya exclaimed today: 'I want to suffer for all people'—perhaps we will scoff wickedly at such people. And yet, no matter how wicked we may be—and God preserve us from it—as soon as we remember how we buried Ilyusha, how we loved him in his last days, and how we've been talking just now, so much as friends, so together, by this stone, the most cruel and jeering man among us, if we should become so, will still not dare laugh within himself at how kind and good he was at this present moment! Moreover, perhaps just this memory alone will keep him from great evil, and he will think better of it and say: 'Yes, I was kind, brave, and honest then.' Let him laugh to himself, it's no matter, a man often laughs at what is kind and good; it just comes from thoughtlessness; but I assure you, gentlemen, that as soon as he laughs, he will say at once in his heart: 'No, it's a bad thing for me to laugh, because one should not laugh at that!'" -- Alyosha Karamazov, The Brothers Karamazov (Epilogue, III)

"'Suppose I am God,' said the voice, 'and suppose I made the world in idleness. Suppose the stars, that you think eternal, are only the idiot fireworks of an everlasting schoolboy. Suppose the sun and the moon, to which you sing alternately, are only the two eyes of one vast and sneering giant, opened alternately in a never-ending wink. Suppose the trees, in my eyes, are as foolish as enormous toad-stools. Suppose Socrates and Charlemagne are to me only beasts, made funnier by walking on their hind legs. Suppose I am God, and having made things, laugh at them.'

'And suppose I am man,' answered the other. 'And suppose that I give the answer that shatters even a laugh. Suppose I do not laugh back at you, do not blaspheme you, do not curse you. But suppose, standing up straight under the sky, with every power of my being, I thank you for the fools' paradise you have made.'" -- Gilbert K. Chesterton, The Napoleon of Notting Hill (V, iii)

Name: Harlock Hero
Race: Newtype
Ambition: 1. To wholeheartedly pursue the arts (specifically literature and manga) in order to unlock as many of their secrets as possible; 2. to write at least one great novel, but hopefully many great novels; 3. to study and practice virtue in hopes of living a good life; 4. save the world. In that order.
Metaphysics: Fleetingly nihilistic with a healthy smattering of naive optimism and delusional idealism.
Ethics: An assortment of completely unjustifiable personal standards that have no universal authority whatsoever, including such things as "don't kill people" and "don't rob from people".
Epistemology: Reason, observation, experience.
Politics: 100 years of Socialism, followed by 10,000 years of anarchy.
Aesthetics: Anything that acts as a microcosmic crystallization of something infinite.

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NOTE: The following biographies are not necessarily accurate or truthful, but rather represent each author's understanding of me. Consider the truth to be some unknowable sum of all these accounts, a la Rashomon.

The Life of Harlock Hero, as recounted by
rinku.

i met harlock in the ohrrpgce community in about 1999. my first impression is that he was a typical anime-loving newbie, which at the time he was. an experience with him plagurizing blade of the immortal, chrono trigger, and my plotscripts confirmed his stupidity. later, in about early 2001, i started talking to him in icq. by that time he was much more intelligent and heroic, probably because of several self-overcoming experiences. on april 1st of that year we decided to start a group to build an airship and inspire the world with awesome moral excellence. there is now much more to it, involving an artistic revolution, a hidden country, and so forth.

i then learned various interesting things about his past, such as that he cut off his father's hand with a sword, that his schoolfriends tossed him into an insane asylum, that his father once threw him to the father's dog when he was fairly young and told the dog to maul him, how he convinced a kendo/iaido master to teach him and a friend martial arts, and other unbelievable-but-true stories. he has the most eventful and interesting life of anyone i know.

since then our group and plans and knowledge have gradually expanded. next to komera, i've talked more to him online than anyone else. i get a strong feeling of 'comrade-ness' when talking to him, like two soldiers standing next to eachother in some great battlefield to save or doom the earth. i've worked with him on innumeral projects (including a game named after both of us, and on tilde, and on lj quizzes) and know that this will continue.

he intends to be the greatest manga artist in the world, but struggles with lethargy and bad habits, but is progressing. his artistic sensibility is high and next to wynand he's the greatest fiction writer i know in terms of sheer storytelling, although in style he lacks; that's his main artistic weakness: he has little sense of style, he's more the stephen king and j.k. rowling type.

he is as big and strong as an ox, from what i've seen of his pictures: at least twice my weight and almost my height. he owns several short-range weapons: swords, an axe, a crossbow, probably more. he sometimes wears a beret. he doesn't eat right, nor is he very careful about his health, leading to many health problems which are bound to get worse.

he has a girlfriend named linda who pays for all his food and buys him thousands of dollars worth of games for christmas. recently novakaiser moved into his closet. the friend he learned iaido with recently betrayed harlock in favor of drink and hedonism. his parents are cult-maniacs and surpreme christians, although recently he discovered his father is an aspiring novelist and philosopher, but that this was kept secret from harlock for all of his life. his grandmother used to put bugs in his cereal and laugh like mad when harlock discovered them.

fin

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