Talk:Leonard Oprea

Justification for adding the books published in the USA to the publication list

As has been discussed here, at the moment Oprea’s books published through Xlibris have not been included in the article, and according to Wikipedia rules they should qualify for inclusion. I base this claim on the article Wikipedia:Identifying_and_using_self-published_sources. Cases like Oprea’s, in which the self-published book is a direct continuation of other works, are specifically mentioned as acceptable. In the section “Using self-published sources” it says: “Self-published sources may not be used for any claims about living people, except for claims made by the author about himself (or herself)”. The paragraph goes on to say “...Self-published expert sources may be considered reliable when produced by an established expert on the topic of the article whose work in the relevant field has previously been published by reliable third-party publications.” The series “Theophil Magus” fits this description exactly.

The following books in English are part of the Theophil Magus series and can be found on worldcat: 1. Translation (The Romanian version is included in the article already). • The Book Of Theophil Magus Or 40 Tales About Man (Cartea lui Theophil Magus sau 40 de Poveşti despre Om) (Translated by Bogdan Stefanescu) Ingram Book Group, 2003; 2nd edition Authorhouse 2004, also: e-book LiterNet 2004.

2. In English in original: • Theophil Magus in Baton Rouge—a haiku novel (Foreword - Bogdan Stefanescu) Xlibris, 2007 • Trilogy of Theophil Magus—the Truth (Foreword - Vladimir Tismaneanu, Afterword - Liviu Antonesei), Xlibris, 2008 • Theophil Magus living in Boston—Anna-Maria 101 Breathings, Xlibris 2011 • The Daily Agony of Theophil Magus—Jazz & Blues Haiku Novel for Anna-Maria, Xlibris 2012 Sensei2004 (talk) 20:26, 10 April 2013 (UTC)

I made some additions to Oprea's biography, all based on citations. I did not modify the text written by Biruitorul except for a small change in one line.Sensei2004 (talk) 14:53, 5 May 2013 (UTC)

I am sorry, I don't understand what was wrong with the quote from Gelu Vlasin's praise for "The Straitjacket", and what was wrong with the description of the element "Breathing"...all based on verifiable sources.Sensei2004 (talk) 04:18, 7 May 2013 (UTC)

May 2013

I have a couple of remarks for Orangemike:

1) I've seen the "this whole article is a biography" claim before in other places, and it's a red herring. Plenty of fine articles have "biography" subsections - for a random sampling of FAs, see Myles Standish, Chinua Achebe, André Kertész, Margaret Fuller, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Richard Wagner. At times, it makes sense to delineate between an artist's life and other sections (say, a list of works).

2) As for the claim that "we need some structure" - indeed we do. And we have it. And it's in conformity with WP:BODY. But just to humor you, not because it's at all necessary for improving readability, I've split the body into two sections. Hopefully that will assuage your concerns.

As for "especially if the article is to be expanded": well, not really. I've done a pretty thorough job of looking for material on Oprea, and there simply isn't a great deal. But feel free to prove me wrong here.

3) "Do not remove useful information": sorry, but I reject the premise of your admonition. Surely you must be familiar with WP:V: "In Wikipedia, verifiability means that people reading and editing the encyclopedia can check that the information comes from a reliable source... content is determined by previously published information rather than the beliefs or experiences of its editors. Even if you're sure something is true, it must be verifiable before you can add it."

Now, I do not contest that Oprea has self-published in the past decade. But we do need a source attesting this, first because we rely on verifiable material, and second because, for our purposes, a fact is only relevant if a secondary source has commented on it. So, in the same spirit: do not add unverified information, particularly to a BLP. - Biruitorul ^Talk 18:18, 7 May 2013 (UTC) I agree with User:Biruitorul on the issue of self publishing. In Oprea's case, think outside the box: someone who owned a publishing house and knows a few things in the field comes to the US and sees that in this country there are ways by which you can publish and sell your own books, get an ISBN, etc, why not take this route? I do not agree however with the statement that 'there isn't a great deal (of material on Oprea)'. There are commentaries of known critics on books such as 'The X-ray of an instant' and 'The Trilogy' that have been cut out of my edits, and User:Biruitorul has chosen to include only two critics (Urian and Napristoc) and whenever I compile material from other critics the edit is deleted. Also, I tried a number of times to correct the sentence in the introduction that says that after he was banned by the Securitate Oprea gained "repute among dissidents." This is not historically accurate. More accurate would be "He gained repute as a dissident writer" and I brought (in this talk) verifiable sources on this issue. In addition, there are sources showing that in the years before being banned he received literary awards year after year in the RomCon competition and in others, so when he was banned in '87 he was known as a writer and contributor to literary magazines. User:Biruitorul mentioned a problem with one of my sources that it partially quoted wiki, but that article (from an on-line Sci-Fi magazine called 'Galileo') also contained quite a lot of original material (the said list of prizes). In other words, what I am trying to say is that the article should be open to justified additions.15:03, 14 May 2013 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sensei2004 (talk • contribs)

I'm unclear what you mean by "an on-line Sci-Fi magazine called 'Galileo'"; the science fiction magazine Galileo was a glossy print magazine which ceased publication before Oprea was first published. --Orange Mike | Talk 18:19, 14 May 2013 (UTC)

He means this self-published rag; not really worth discussing. This, however, is something that makes you go hmm, as others have noted. - Biruitorul ^Talk 18:28, 14 May 2013 (UTC)

Sept. 2013

-New book added on Sept 29, at a Publishing House that is also an art gallery in Brasov, Romania. http://reteaualiterara.ning.com/profiles/blogs/aparitie-editoriala-in-romania-theophil-magus-in-america-1001 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sensei2004 (talk • contribs) 08:37, 29 September 2013 (UTC) Apologies for not signing. The added book was launched in Brasov, Romania and the launch was reported in the local press ("Brasovul tau" (Your Brasov))[1] (in Romanian of course). I am not going to translate the article, but it talks about a multiple event of two book launches and an exhibition at the Kronart Gallery in Brasov. Sensei2004 (talk) 22:58, 29 September 2013 (UTC)Sensei2004 (talk) 23:02, 29 September 2013 (UTC)

NLR identifier at Wikidata:Leonard Oprea

Hi! There is a bug with the navigation in the catalog of the National Library of Romania. The NLR (Romania) identifier is 000163962 .
However an appropriate link to identify the works / books is

http://alephnew.bibnat.ro:8991/F?func=find-b&request=OPREA+LEONARD+&find_code=WRD&adjacent=Y

Best regards ‫·‏לערי ריינהארט‏·‏T‏·‏m‏:‏Th‏·‏T‏·‏email me‏·‏‬ 09:35, 5 February 2014 (UTC)