The Proust Questionnaire ... A Newbie's initiation

[sisyphus]

ritalinpants said:

sisyphus said:

ha ha...r.i.t. i was so close to counting franny from franny & zoey as my heroine...good one...

thorn, reading and sex...very good....and great motto!

i'm glad i did not read anyone's responses before i made my own.... i feel untainted...

yeah, i love that character of Franny. and Zooey too, although he strikes somepeople as a bit arrogant.

looking over yuor answers, i see that we had quite a bit of overlap.

yeah....zooey is a bit arrogant sulkin around in the bathroom....but his wit makes up for it...you just say to yourself, "this guy can't be anything BUT arrogant.."

[Rit]

sisyphus said:

la, oops. where did i get the chicagaaaan idea? i dunno.

r.i.t., the american religion was great, and nearly spot on with regard to mormon elements as far as i'm concerned... the only other book i've read by bloom was "The Book of J," and various essays and crit analysis... i've been meaning to pick up Jesus and Yaweh one of these days too. that, along with Hegemony or Survival, will probably be my next bookstore purchases....i'm definitely excited to consume all the bloomin' bloom that i can... i feel as passionate about it as i felt during my 19 year old joseph campbell/james frazer days...lol

awesome. you'll be just as inspired as your memories of the Campbell/Frazer days. Bloom is nothing if not intensely passionate about what he loves -- which is powerful canonical literature. I'd warn you he's a huge elitist, but you've probably already got that sense from him by now.

I'd recommend his "Where Can Wisdom Be Found" next. He wrote it right after a major stroke at the age of like 70 years, when he had a crisis of fear of his own mortality. In that, he hones in on the authors he thinks were the pinnacle of Western wisdom tradition, based on his decades and decades of teaching the stuff at Yale.

Some of the authors he mentions as the absolute pinnacle are Plato, Homer, Shakespeare, Goethe, Samuel Johnson, Emerson, St Augustine, who ever wrote the biblical Book of Job, and a few others. I found the book quite challenging and rigourous. But readable, and hugely infectious, once you get accustomed to Bloom's biases and idiosyncracies.

[Rit]

sisyphus said:

ritalinpants said:

yeah, i love that character of Franny. and Zooey too, although he strikes somepeople as a bit arrogant.

looking over yuor answers, i see that we had quite a bit of overlap.

yeah....zooey is a bit arrogant sulkin around in the bathroom....but his wit makes up for it...you just say to yourself, "this guy can't be anything BUT arrogant.."

aww yeeah.

Zooey sulking in the bathtub is an indelible literary memory that will stay with me till i die. The way he pores over Buddy's letter, and then backtalks his mom, when she barges in... Zooey just impressed the hell out of me when i was in highschool. I never ever took to Salinger's most famous book, "Catcher in the Rye" -- i thought it was terrible and overweening. But funnily enough, i was tremendously inspired by "Franny and Zooey", yet that's the book that most average Salinger readers find interminable and pretentious.

[sisyphus]

lol...yeah, i've picked up on his elitism, that's fo' sure, but it does not bother me in the least...nor does the focus on white anglo saxon male lit, lol....i just inhabit his passion and when i wanna read toni morrison or sandra cisneros or whomever else has been excluded from the canon at Yale, i do it. what do they want with the canon anyway? i'll definitely bump "where can wisdom be found" to the top of the purchasing que now....i love reading books written on the verge of existential melt down. you found my poison. i'll definitely return and report.

ya know, i think it borders on absurd (sometimes) when people try so hard to be objective and erase all bias....it's impossible. i prefer those who are upfront about their passions. other pepes just get caught up nit-picking over the surface and ignoring the marrow.

for some reason this feels applicable:

"Philosophy is the question: from which side shall we look at life, God, the idea or other phenomena. Everything one looks at is false. I do not consider the relative result more important than the choice between cake and cherries after dinner. The system of quickly looking at the other side of a thing in order to impose your opinion indirectly is called dialectics, in other words, haggling over the spirit of fried potatoes while dancing method around it."

~Tristan Tzara

i shall return and report, upon completion of said bloomin' book!

[Rit]

yeah, i completely agree. you express yourself very clearly, and your dedication to these kinds of grey areas inbetween ideas/ideals is great to see

[someone]

- Your most marked characteristic?
I always smell good. Always.

- The quality you most like in a man?
Someone who makes me laugh more than I make myself laugh. Which is a lot. I'm hilarious.

- The quality you most like in a woman?
Anyone who can keep up with me at the bar.

- What do you most value in your friends?
Their loyalty and humor. My friends are funnier than yours.

- What is your principle defect?
I procrastinate with just about everything, homework, wedding plans. Everything. I'd rather be sleeping.

- What is your favorite occupation?
I'd just like to own a bookstore or a record store and spend my day reading and smoking and drinking chai lattes.

- What is your dream of happiness?
Independently wealthy.

- What to your mind would be the greatest of misfortunes?
To settle for comfort or money instead of love.

- What would you like to be?
A travel writer.

- In what country would you like to live?
Canada.

- What is your favorite color?
Lately? Pink. It's a bizarre development.

- What is your favorite flower?
Tulip.

- What is your favorite bird?
Do people really have such things as favorite birds? Weirdos.

- Who are your favorite prose writers?
Kerouac, Camus, Dostoyevsky, Eggers, Fitzgerald, O'Brien, Kafka, Hemingway

- Who are your favorite poets?
Gregory Corso, Lew Welch, Dylan Thomas, John Keats

- Who is your favorite hero of fiction?
Dean Moriarty

- Who is your favorite poster(beside Phil) ?
Shin, Layla, Dolly, Slick, Mark, Riley, Clubber, among others. And not in that order.

- Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?
Tristessa

- Who are your favorite composers?
Beethoven and Tchaikovsky

- Who are your favorite painters?
Van Gogh, Picasso, Matisse, Pollock

- Who are your heroes in real life?
My mom and sister

- What is it you most dislike?
The service industry and all the young males who manage it.

- What natural gift would you most like to possess?
I wish I could draw and paint.

- How would you like to die?
While sleeping.

- What is your present state of mind?
I'm always manic and stressed, but I'm pretty content. I'll be happier when I've graduated and gotten the fuck out of Vegas, though.

- To what faults do you feel most indulgent?
Self criticism.

- What is your motto?
The older you get, the more rules they are going to try and get you to follow. You just gotta keep on livin', man. L-I-V-I-N.

[sisyphus]

ritalinpants said:

yeah, i completely agree. you express yourself very clearly, and your dedication to these kinds of grey areas inbetween ideas/ideals is great to see

but is it great to smell? this is the question that concerns me most.

[poseidon]

sisyphus said:

ritalinpants said:

yeah, i completely agree. you express yourself very clearly, and your dedication to these kinds of grey areas inbetween ideas/ideals is great to see

but is it great to smell? this is the question that concerns me most.

Depends on "who" you are smelling...some are ripe, some are sweet, some are disgusting...how do you smell?

[RocDoc]

_{Pssst Pat...it was a nonsequitur...she dusts her path with them liberally ...s'posed to be thought-provokin' or sumthin'...}

[sisyphus]

_{pssst...roc doc, not so much thought-provokin as dork-botiness insertin.' i am a shameless dork bot.}

[sisyphus]

- What is your favorite bird?
Do people really have such things as favorite birds? Weirdos.

senor someone, touche! that's the fooniest thing i've read all day.

[phil]

Just put your favorite alcohol instead of a bird ... !!

[tuneschick]

- Your most marked characteristic?
My smile, my ability to raise just one eyebrow (I'm rather proud of that talent) and the fact that I cry far too easily.

-The quality you most like in a man?
Sense of humour - followed closely by humility, a laid-back personality and dark hair.

- The quality you most like in a woman?
Camaraderie. Women are far too competitive for no good reason.

- What do you most value in your friends?
Loyalty and caring.

- What is your principle defect?
I'm the biggest procrastinator alive and I'm too damn stubborn. And I have too many cavities.

- What is your favorite occupation?
If we're talking jobs, then I'd love to be an anthropologist or professional kayaker (not that those exist, I'm sure.) If we're talking pastimes, then listening to music, swimming, sleeping, kayaking (I will finally own one soon - AND have a place to keep it!!), sex and drinking wine. Those last two, preferably at the same time.

- What is your dream of happiness?
Living on the water with my husband, a couple of kids, a couple of dogs and a kayak. Sitting on the dock, watching the sun set over the water while the loons call... wrapped in a blanket with a bottle of wine at hand.

- What to your mind would be the greatest of misfortunes?
"Living" as a vegetable, hooked up to machines. Never!

- What would you like to be?
Independently wealthy.

- In what country would you like to live?
Canada.

- What is your favorite color?
If we're talking clothing, black. If we're talking in general - well, I painted my house in shades of cream, light sage green and pale yellow - those last two being colours that I'd never wear but find soothing to be surrounded by.

- What is your favorite flower?
Gerbera daisy

- What is your favorite bird?
Penguin.

- Who are your favorite prose writers?
John Steinbeck, Harper Lee and Roald Dahl.

- Who are your favorite poets?
Leonard Cohen

- Who is your favorite hero of fiction?
Sorry to steal your answer, Chrisfan, but Atticus Finch has to be mine too. And James, of giant peach fame.

- Who is your favorite poster (besides Phil) ?
Too many to choose... a copout, I know.

- Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?
Didn't I just answer this?

- Who are your favorite composers?
Strummer/Jones, Paul Simon and Mozart.

- Who are your favorite painters?
Not sure.

- Who are your heroes in real life?
I wrote this sentence about 13 times and still can't make my answer seem non-cheesy. So I'm just going to pass, OK?

- What is it you most dislike?
Rudeness/lack of basic courtesy.

- What natural gift would you most like to possess?
A beautiful singing voice - Ken, you and I would be a good team!

- How would you like to die?
Just like the Blake Babies said... I hope I die in the nighttime with my TV on and a beer in my hand... and you by my side.

- What is your present state of mind?
Stressed... I have three major communications strategies due by end of day tomorrow, two of which I haven't yet started . But yet, here I am.

- To what faults do you feel most indulgent?
Considering my answer above, I'd have to say procrasination, at least for the moment. And I love junk food, though I've been trying to keep that in check.

- What is your motto?
Don't have one, sorry.

[Thorngrub]

"dork bot", *snicker*

[Kensterberg]

Great answers there Tunes ... though why you didn't give a laundry list of favorite posters is beyond me!