Arguably the most definitive statement to be made about life as I have lived it up to this point is, predictably, that I was born. No use crying over spilt milk; most things may never happen, but this one did, and another one will only too sure sooner or later. Preferably later, though. I'd like to spill some milk of my own.
My state of living in the world as we know it started on September 4, 1978 in Roeselare, a town at the centre of Belgium's coastal province West Flanders. I had a wonderful home, being the youngest of four children in a house filled with books and giving out onto a large garden full of flowers, but with enough lawn to do some physical exercise - although the latter never was to be my specialty. I studied Latin-Mathematics at the Instituut Klein Seminarie in Roeselare, where I was able to feel well at home, liking the friends, most of the teachers and even the work.
After secondary school, I went on to university to study Germanic Philology at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. I graduated in June 2000 with the greatest fulfillment at having finished my thesis on free indirect speech or thought in time. I started working as a research assistant at the Department of Linguistics of the K.U.Leuven in October. The project I started working on along with a set of fine colleagues is called 'A functional explanation of the noun group'. After one year of that, I got started on my PhD project on noncanonical forms of speech or thought representation. If that sounds like jabberwocky to you, don't worry. You're probably the healthier.
Next to things I've been doing, there are things and qualities and vices I've been being, acquiring, having and losing. I don't pretend to know myself well enough to bore you with those for too long, but allow me to single out one or two. I think I used to be rather cynical and, contrary to what some people may think, I'm quite sure I no longer am. Good thing to lose, cynicism. I try to appreciate people for their ability for genuine kindness, not for their inevitable ability for unkindness. I love people who are of good will and who are not defeated by the fact that good intentions do not always spell good results.
I have become rather fond of the word 'transcendence'. I know that may sound pedantic, but that's not what I intend it to be. Transcendence is readily at hand for everyone, "Like nakedness... / A plentiful and obvious thing / Not at all hard to understand" (Philip Larkin, "Best Society"). It is, quite simply, what separates our lives from the unthinking lives of animals - a 'more than sense' that lifts our lives up from the stage of mere survival. Religion may offer transcendence for some, sure, but so may science, or love, or forgiveness, or nature. Or just the things around us, the tables and chairs and walls and trees: to realize that they are there and that we give names to them, and to realize that what-they-are without those names we assemble into a language and a mode of thinking, remains the great unknown. A Kantian Unbekanntes. Try telling that to your dog. Not that I don't love dogs, by the way. We have the sweetest one at home.
 

Contact information

Apart from my dearly beloved ulyssis-address, these co-ordinates are work-related. Please bear that in mind.

E-mail

(private)

(work)

Snail mail

Lieven Vandelanotte
Faculty of Arts - Department of Linguistics
Blijde-Inkomststraat 21
B-3000 Leuven
Belgium

The real thing

Faculty of Arts
Erasmus building, office 01.18
 

Visual testimonies to my existence in the world as we know it

Somewhere along the way, I must have lost the touch when it comes to carefree, spontaneous picture posing. Even so, here are a few recent photographic efforts...

-- brought to you by the wonderful Jonathan --

-- vintage Goya --

-- another masterpiece by Patrick --

Oh well, here's a comforting thought for all you fellow-non-photogenics:

But o, photography! as no art is,
Faithful and disappointing! that records
Dull days as dull, and hold-it smiles as frauds (...)

(Philip Larkin, "Lines on a Young Lady's Photograph Album")