About

By now you know you’re at Charlotte’s Website. That banner with the big letters clued you in. But after looking at the page names, the links, the current blog entries, you’ve still got no idea what this place is about, or whether you want to stay. So I’ve prepared a list of the questions any newcomer wonders to themself. I’ve even answered a few of them. Look out below!!!

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Who is Charlotte?

Charlotte is the heroine of E.B. White’s well-known children’s novel, Charlotte’s Web, a wise and magnanimous spider who befriends a lonely young pig named Wilbur. Wilbur is doomed to be killed and eaten by his human overlords, but Charlotte saves him by writing messages in her web which convince the bloodthirsty but gullible humans that Wilbur is really too special to kill.

Charlotte is also me, the (also gullible but hopefully less bloodthirsty every day) human who writes and administers this site.

So you’re not actually a spider?

No. Spiders have better things to do with their time than writing and administering websites, like catching flies, saving pigs, threatening hobbits, and showing up the goddess Athena in weaving contests. Also spiders have many things that I lack, like exoskeletons and spinnerets. Sorry if you were misled.

Aside from being named Charlotte and not being a spider, who are you?

See those words waaaay up there at the top of the webpage? Starting with “vegan”? They should give you a pretty good idea who I am, my outlook on life, and why I might want to have a website. In addition, you could also say I am a 25-five-year-old woman, a transplant to the DC Metro area, a graduate of Montclair State University, a University of Maryland alum, a total geek, or a level-3 bard with +2 Constitution and -1 Strength and Chaotic Good alignment. And if you did say any of those things, I would venture that you know me very well already.

Can you be more specific? Why did you start this website?

True story: in the summer of 2007, I awoke from restless slumber with the absolute certainty that I must start a website. It’d be great, I thought: I already had written works floundering unseen in digital obscurity, why not put them on the interwebs where readers could get to them? Writing without readers is like a tree that falls in a forest with no one there to hear. It’s frustrating. But there are lots of people to hear online, right? And the bar was set low. Since no one was reading my work at the moment, one viewing by any websurfer who happened by represented a 100% increase in my readership. Go me!

It took nigh on a year to act on this impulse to join the online world, however. Like many of the ideas my subconscious comes up with, my ego took some time to be convinced and invest precious waking hours into seeing it through. So what brought me here? I guess it’s that nagging sense that I must do more with my life than simply get by, enjoy writing in my little corner, and silently criticize the world. That’s like being a tree in a forest that decides never to fall, lest the crash disturb one of the hundreds of thousands of people standing in earshot.

What this means is I didn’t just start this website to post pieces I’ve already written. A fair share of it is political and social commentary, between the lines and occasionally smack dab on the lines. Blame it on my graduation. Blame it on my little brother. Say I have too much time on my hands or I’ve been reading too much Noam Chomsky, but now that I’m no longer a student, I want to know what I am when I’ve grown up. And as I try to figure that out, why the heck shouldn’t I chronicle it on a website? There must be people out there trying to figure out the same thing, testing ideas, seeing what sticks, what makes sense, where the connections are.

That’s kind of where the web part comes in. Webs show us how one thing relates to another and another after that. It’s a tendency I’ve noticed more and more throughout my intellectual life. You start off with a narrow topic to explore, like one single little 20-line incident in Virgil’s Aeneid, maybe, just sitting there like a bull’s eye, easy to hit, easy to define. But this thread leads to that, and that leads to this, until the whole crazy complex fabric of the cosmos is caught up in your rinky-dink thesis topic. And before you know it you’re in Malaysia studying tree spirits. With this place I figured I could drop on into the wider web and see where the threads take me.

Then came the final straw that pushed me over the edge, from weblog reader to weblog writer: three weeks off work. With that kind of time, I figured God or the fates or somebody had arranged things just right for me to finally get this place going. And if possible, I don’t argue with God. Or the fates. Or my subconscious. It’ll sell me out every time, like by inserting Freudian slips into my speech in lecture-halls full of undergraduates.

Hmm. That’s all very interesting, if rambling.

Yes. Thank you.

So what’s a vegan, anyway?

To paraphrase George Bernard Shaw, a vegan is a decent human being.

The most obvious mark of a vegan is dietary: a vegan eats an entirely plant-based diet, which means no animal flesh (that means no fish, Catholics!), dairy, eggs, honey, or any other by-product derived from animal sources. In addition, a vegan wears no animal products like fur or leather, and avoids other products which come from animal sources as well as products that are plant-based but are tested on animals.

Some people choose a vegan diet for their health. Some choose a vegan diet because it’s more environmentally sustainable than other diets. Or people choose a vegan diet because it just tastes better. All of these are valid reasons for eating vegan food.

At its heart, however, veganism is an ethical standpoint: an expression of respect for animal rights. Ethical vegans recognize that every sentient being has interests that deserve to be respected, most importantly an interest in living, and living without pain and without suffering. Animals are sentient: they have nervous systems, they experience pain and emotions like fear, anxiety, and pleasure. Humans and other animals are alike in this way; plants, bacteria, and viruses are different. So vegans choose a lifestyle that conforms to this basic truth by refusing to take part in activities (like eating them) that violate animals’ rights.

Whoa. You sound serious.

Yes, I know. I’ll try not to let it happen too often.

But wait! You’re Catholic too! Is it possible to be Catholic and vegan at the same time?

Yes. In fact Catholicism and veganism are very compatible. Consider:

1) Catholicism and veganism are both defined by certain “rules” (more like guidelines…) such as “Love your neighbor as yourself,” and “Don’t eat rotting flesh.”

2) To the casual observer, both Catholics and vegans are “holier-than-thou” masochists whose rigidly defined lifestyle is untenable for the masses, even if by some miracle individual Catholics and vegans manage to survive.

3) When people learn that you are vegan, you are likely hear, “I was vegetarian in college, but then I got married…” “I could give up meat but I’m addicted to cheese,” “I don’t eat animals but I enjoy kicking puppies on the weekends,” and other such ridiculous confessions. And there’s nothing Catholics like more than confessions.

These are but a few of the many ways vegans and Catholics can find common ground.

I’d like to learn more – could you elaborate on these “many ways”? Not here, but perhaps in another section of the website?

I’m glad you asked. One of my on-going writerly projects involves working out the mystical connections between Catholicism and veganism. Keep your eye on the Prose page. I’m sure it will be fun watching me flounder around theology with my quaint big-city liberal ways.

I’m starting to get your web metaphor. Your being a vegan and being a Catholic are also connected to your being a writer, because you write from the perspective of a vegan and a Catholic?

Yes. Sometimes. Funny how that works out.

What about being underemployed?

That has no connection to the other three things in any way. Whatsoever. Shape or form.

What else can I find on this website?

Since we’ve established that I am a writer, you will find many things that I have written. When not otherwise engaged, I primarily spend my time on long fiction. But variety is the spice of life, and this website is a great place for me to put out shorter side projects. The Poetry page (shockingly) contains poetry. The Prose page contains both short stories and non-fiction.

You will also find a blog on the homepage, categorized into cupcake recipe reviews, random posts from me about the stuff I happen to fancy at the moment, and stringent objections from Archie, one of the two oryctolagi cuniculi who share my apartment. To learn more about Archie and his bonded partner Horatio, visit the Disapproval page.

I’m a busy person. Do you actually expect me to read the pieces you have linked here?

There is no greater satisfaction for a writer than having her words read and understood. The next best thing is having her words read and misunderstood. So, yes. Go for it. If you open up a piece, start reading, and get bored/offended/annoyed or otherwise find yourself disinclined to go on, you can always stop. I won’t know. But if you do read through to the end, my literary spider sense will tingle, bells will chime, birds will sing, rainbows and moonbeams with cartoon hearts will bubble out my ears, and somewhere a vegan Catholic angel will get its wings. Plus you and I will share an inextricable karmic bond that means I must wash your car and help you move. It’s kind of a good deal for you.

And if you feel moved to make a comment, please do.