User:Lucien Raven

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[edit] Lucien who?

Lucien Raven is a 'nom de plume', also known as a 'pen name', inspired on literary elements that I admire. The most obvious being Edgar Alan Poe, author of the poem 'The Raven'.

Lucien is the name of the librarian in the library of The Dreaming, a place ruled by Dream of the Endless, a.k.a. Sandman or Morpheus. All these names and places are part of the mithology created by Neil Gaiman to 'Sandman' story. Lucien is also known, in this story, as the first raven of The Dreaming. In fact, Lucien was 'a very obscure spooky librarian created in 1975 by writer Paul Levitz (...) and artist Joe Orlando.' said Hy Bender on 'The Sandman Companion' book (1999, Vertigo/DC Comics). Neil Gaiman complemented stating that the comic book in which Lucien appeared was 'Tales of Ghost Castle'. This comic lasted only three issues. Neil Gaiman just borrowed the character and gave a new life to him. Other source of inspiration to the character was 'George MacDonald's book 'Lilith', which describes a tall man in a frock coat who turns into a raven, and who is actually Adam, the first man. This (...) definitely informed my handling of Lucien, who's dressed in a frock coat and (...) began as the first raven.', said Gaiman.

And why chosing the bird raven as a symbol? Besides all I said before about Lucien from 'Sandman' and the fact that he was the first raven, there are several aspects about ravens that I found out very interesting when researching for the creation of the pen name. Most appealing, ravens are very intelligent, monogamic and eat about everything. But this is barely something I'm bragging myself about. It acts more like an inspirational icon. You can learn more about this wonderful bird in Wikipedia. BTW, did you know that a group of ravens are sometimes collectively referred to as an unkindness or a conspiracy? The Shades of the night has an extensive list on how to say raven, crow or rook around the world.

As the character Caim says in 'The parliament of rooks' tale (Sandman -- Fable and Reflections/Convergence, issue 40): "It's a mystery from which we derive the collective noun we use for these birds. Like a murder of crows, a tiding of magpies, an unkindness of raven... a parliament of rooks."

So, what's the point in using a pen name? Some people use it as a disguise, as way to remain anonymous and untouchable. That's not really my intention. For me it's just a way to try separating my personal, my professional and my internet life. I've just started a new career, trying to get involved in open-source documentation translation. Some of the things I did or am doing now can be seen in other parts of this site.

If you must know, I'm around my 40's. My wife and kids are the most important things in my life. I love music and books. I've been in the computer business for a very long time. I work with computers all day long, get home and sit by my computer to do the stuff you see in this site. So, as you can imagine, I don't really 'work'. I have fun!