1. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?PROUST (aged 13): To be separated from MamaYOU:
2. Where would you like to live?PROUST (aged 13): In the country of the Ideal, or, rather, of my idealYOU:
3. What is your idea of earthly happiness?PROUST (aged 13): To live in contact with those I love, with the beauties of nature, with a quantity of books and music, and to have, within easy distance, a French theaterYOU:
4. To what faults do you feel most indulgent?PROUST (aged 13): To a life deprived of the works of geniusYOU:
5. Who are your favorite heroes of fiction?PROUST (aged 13): Those of romance and poetry, those who are the expression of an ideal rather than an imitation of the realYOU:
6. Who are your favorite characters in history?PROUST (aged 13): A mixture of Socrates, Pericles, Mahomet, Pliny the Younger and Augustin ThierryYOU:
7. Who are your favorite heroines in real life?PROUST (aged 13): A woman of genius leading an ordinary lifeYOU:
8. Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?PROUST (aged 13): Those who are more than women without ceasing to be womanly; everything that is tender, poetic, pure and in every way beautifulYOU:
9. Your favorite painter?PROUST (aged 13): MeissonierYOU:
10. Your favorite musician?PROUST (aged 13): MozartYOU:
11. The quality you most admire in a man?PROUST (aged 13): Intelligence, moral senseYOU:
12. The quality you most admire in a woman?PROUST (aged 13): Gentleness, naturalness, intelligenceYOU:
13. Your favorite virtue?PROUST (aged 13): All virtues that are not limited to a sect: the universal virtuesYOU:
14. Your favorite occupation?PROUST (aged 13): Reading, dreaming, and writing verseYOU:
15. Who would you have liked to be?PROUST (aged 13): Since the question does not arise, I prefer not to answer it. All the same, I should very much have liked to be Pliny the Younger.YOU:
QUESTIONNAIRE 2
16. Your most marked characteristic?PROUST (aged 20): A craving to be loved, or, to be more precise, to be caressed and spoiled rather than to be admiredYOU:
17. The quality you most like in a man?PROUST (aged 20): Feminine charmYOU:
18. The quality you most like in a woman?PROUST (aged 20): A man's virtues, and frankness in friendshipYOU:
19. What do you most value in your friends?PROUST (aged 20): Tenderness - provided they possess a physical charm which makes their tenderness worth havingYOU:
20. What is your principle defect?PROUST (aged 20): Lack of understanding; weakness of willYOU:
21. What is your favorite occupation?PROUST (aged 20): LovingYOU:
22. What is your dream of happiness?PROUST (aged 20): Not, I fear, a very elevated one. I really haven't the courage to say what it is, and if I did I should probably destroy it by the mere fact of putting it into words.YOU:
23. What to your mind would be the greatest of misfortunes?PROUST (aged 20): Never to have known my mother or my grandmotherYOU:
24. What would you like to be?PROUST (aged 20): Myself - as those whom I admire would like me to beYOU:
25. In what country would you like to live?PROUST (aged 20): One where certain things that I want would be realized - and where feelings of tenderness would always be reciprocated.YOU:
26. What is your favorite color?PROUST (aged 20): Beauty lies not in colors but in thier harmonyYOU:
27. What is your favorite flower?PROUST (aged 20): Hers - but apart from that, allYOU:
28. What is your favorite bird?PROUST (aged 20): The swallowYOU:
29. Who are your favorite prose writers?PROUST (aged 20): At the moment, Anatole France and Pierre LotiYOU:
30. Who are your favoite poets?PROUST (aged 20): Baudelaire and Alfred de VignyYOU:
31. Who is your favorite hero of fiction?PROUST (aged 20): HamletYOU:
32. Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?PROUST (aged 20): Phedre (crossed out) BereniceYOU:
33. Who are your favorite composers?PROUST (aged 20): Beethoven, Wagner, ShuhmannYOU:
34. Who are your favorite painters?PROUST (aged 20): Leonardo da Vinci, RembrandtYOU:
35. Who are your heroes in real life?PROUST (aged 20): Monsieur Darlu, Monsieur Boutroux (professors)YOU:
36. Who are your favorite heroines of history?PROUST (aged 20): CleopatraYOU:
37. What are your favorite names? PROUST (aged 20): I only have one at a timeYOU:
38. What is it you most dislike?PROUST (aged 20): My own worst qualitiesYOU:
39. What historical figures do you most despise?PROUST (aged 20): I am not sufficiently educated to sayYOU:
40. What event in military history do you most admire?PROUST (aged 20): My own enlistment as a volunteer!YOU:
41. What reform do you most admire?PROUST (aged 20): (no response)YOU:
42. What natural gift would you most like to possess?PROUST (aged 20): Will power and irresistible charmYOU:
43. How would you like to die?PROUST (aged 20): A better man than I am, and much belovedYOU:
44. What is your present state of mind?PROUST (aged 20): Annoyance at having to think about myself in order to answer these questionsYOU:
45. To what faults do you feel most indulgent?PROUST (aged 20): Those that I understandYOU:
46. What is your motto?PROUST (aged 20): I prefer not to say, for fear it might bring me bad luck.YOU:
― Momus (Momus), Sunday, 3 November 2002 05:51 (twenty-two years ago)
1. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?Writer's block
2. Where would you like to live?If not New York, possibly Portland again
3. What is your idea of earthly happiness?I'm really happy when I can just hang out with some like-minded people in a low-key environment (pref. somewhere with comfy couches and a good selection of CDs), drinking beer and shooting the shit until the wee hours of the morning. It reminds me that I'm not as antisocial as I pretend to be.
4. To what faults do you feel most indulgent?I'm not sure what this means. I've read the question and Proust's answer three times.
5. Who are your favorite heroes of fiction?The bums, the outcasts, the loonies, the perverts, the sociopaths...
6. Who are your favorite characters in history?The Marquis de Sade
7. Who are your favorite heroines in real life?Jody Beth Rosen
8. Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?Women who are sexy, smart, and headstrong, and not completely consumed by their love lives
9. Your favorite painter?Cezanne
10. Your favorite musician?Don't get me started.
11. The quality you most admire in a man?12. The quality you most admire in a woman?The ability to be observant and intuitive without becoming embittered or mean
13. Your favorite virtue?I dunno if I believe in virtues.
14. Your favorite occupation?Music -- listening to it, making it, reading about it, writing about it, etc.
15. Who would you have liked to be?Myself, only prettier and less insecure
16. Your most marked characteristic?The weird dichotomy between my craving for attention and my need for privacy
19. What do you most value in your friends?That they respect me, that they think I'm cool in spite of my quirks
24. What would you like to be?Well-adjusted.
25. In what country would you like to live?This one. Warts and all.
26. What is your favorite color?I wear black on the outside cuz black is how I...... um, red.
27. What is your favorite flower?Orchids
28. What is your favorite bird?The pelican.
29. Who are your favorite prose writers?David Foster Wallace, W. Somerset Maugham, Richard Meltzer, Pauline Kael, Joseph Heller, Thomas Mann, Jim Knipfel
30. Who are your favoite poets?Dorothy Parker, Walt Whitman, W.C. Williams, W.H. Auden
31. Who is your favorite hero of fiction?Probably some as-yet-unwritten hybrid of Don Quixote and Max Fischer
32. Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?Some as-yet-unwritten hybrid of Foxy Brown, Nancy Drew, and Enid Coleslaw
33. Who are your favorite composers?Arvo Part, Benjamin Britten, Erik Satie
36. Who are your favorite heroines of history?Emma Goldman, Harriet Tubman, Hildegard Von Bingen, and Ivy Rorschach.
37. What are your favorite names? I'm drawn to Germanic/Jewish-sounding names.
38. What is it you most dislike?Willful stupidity.
39. What historical figures do you most despise?The ones (take your pick) who've set out to rid the earth of Jews.
40. What event in military history do you most admire?Napoleon's surrender. Cuz then ABBA went and wrote a great song about it.
42. What natural gift would you most like to possess?Discipline, ability to keep a clear head under pressure
43. How would you like to die?In my sleep.
44. What is your present state of mind?Anxious, slightly irritable, tired.
46. What is your motto?"The best Who is early Who."
― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 3 November 2002 07:43 (twenty-two years ago)
― what what (whatwhat), Sunday, 3 November 2002 17:19 (twenty-two years ago)
― Chupa-Cabras (vicc13), Sunday, 3 November 2002 20:39 (twenty-two years ago)
― Kim (Kim), Sunday, 3 November 2002 20:57 (twenty-two years ago)
― boxcubed (boxcubed), Sunday, 3 November 2002 21:07 (twenty-two years ago)
1. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?Regretting everything.
2. Where would you like to live?I have no wish to move.
3. What is your idea of earthly happiness?Regretting nothing.
4. To what faults do you feel most indulgent?Vanity and hatred.
5. Who are your favorite heroes of fiction?Raskolnikov; Jesus in John 8:1-11 (astonishing sense of drama to stoop, to write in the dust, to produce the quote of the century).
6. Who are your favorite characters in history?The writer of Ecclesiastes, if that counts as history.
7. Who are your favorite heroines in real life?The woman who lives with me.
8. Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?Lolita (Dolores Haze); Eve.
9. Your favorite painter?Paul Delaroche, or John William Waterhouse, maybe. I like specific paintings rather than painters.
10. Your favorite musician?Nobody anyone here knows.
11. The quality you most admire in a man?Intelligence, and height.
12. The quality you most admire in a woman?Intelligence, and confidence.
13. Your favorite virtue?Silent self-inspection.
14. Your favorite occupation?Remembering sex.
15. Who would you have liked to be?Someone (something) aborted. I always would prefer to have not been born, no matter how happy I am. There's a quote I like that puts this better, but I can't remember it just now.
16. Your most marked characteristic?I would like to know.
19. What do you most value in your friends?Ideas.
20. What is your principle defect?Impatience leading to inaction.
23. What to your mind would be the greatest of misfortunes?Amputation of limbs / combination of amputations / blindness.
24. What would you like to be?Satisfied with life, and ready to die.
25. In what country would you like to live?All, temporarily. Permamently, this one.
26. What is your favorite color?I am never honest about my name, my age, or my favourite colour.
27. What is your favorite flower?Sunflower. Lilies.
28. What is your favorite bird?Penguin.
29. Who are your favorite prose writers?Nabokov; George Eliot.
30. Who are your favourite poets?Henry Vaughan, Baudelaire, Apollinaire, Larkin.
35. Who are your heroes in real life?None. Idealised selfs, maybe.
37. What are your favorite names? God, Proust asked himself some daft questions.
38. What is it you most dislike?I'm with him here, though. "My own worst qualities."
39. What historical figures do you most despise?And here: "I am not sufficiently educated to say."
40. What event in military history do you most admire?It's hard to admire events in military history. In a cold admiration of strategy, I think the World Trade Center attack was as clever, in its own way, as, say, a big wooden horse.
41. What reform do you most admire?None. Until Morrissey and Marr get round to it.
42. What natural gift would you most like to possess?Same as Proust again: "Will power and irresistable charm".
43. How would you like to die?Awake.
44. What is your present state of mind?Inactive.
46. What is your motto?None. If anything, all opposites of 'Arbeit Macht Frei'.
― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Sunday, 3 November 2002 22:32 (twenty-two years ago)
― A Nairn (moretap), Sunday, 3 November 2002 22:47 (twenty-two years ago)
― j.lu (j.lu), Monday, 4 November 2002 01:33 (twenty-two years ago)
― toraneko (toraneko), Monday, 4 November 2002 01:39 (twenty-two years ago)
― rosemary (rosemary), Monday, 4 November 2002 02:53 (twenty-two years ago)
― A Nairn (moretap), Monday, 4 November 2002 04:41 (twenty-two years ago)
― Momus (Momus), Monday, 4 November 2002 04:49 (twenty-two years ago)
who? proust? a barely-adolescent homosexual in 1884? for saying that Those who are more than women without ceasing to be womanly; everything that is tender, poetic, pure and in every way beautiful are his fictional heroines?
― ch. (synkro), Monday, 4 November 2002 05:14 (twenty-two years ago)
― jess (dubplatestyle), Monday, 4 November 2002 05:34 (twenty-two years ago)
― ch. (synkro), Monday, 4 November 2002 05:35 (twenty-two years ago)
― ch. (synkro), Monday, 4 November 2002 05:50 (twenty-two years ago)
Man: Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?
Marcel [nervously]: Those who are more than women without ceasing to be womanly; [pause] everything that is tender, poetic, pure and in every way beautiful.
Toraneko: You sexist little cunt.
― ch. (synkro), Monday, 4 November 2002 06:29 (twenty-two years ago)
and "presently" doesn't mean "at present."
― Denise Lambert, Monday, 4 November 2002 09:30 (twenty-two years ago)
Here's Merriam-Webster:
Main Entry: pres·ent·ly Pronunciation: 'pre-z&nt-lEFunction: adverbDate: 14th century1 a archaic : at once b : before long : without undue delay2 : at the present time : NOWusage Both senses 1b and 2 are flourishing in current English, but many commentators have objected to sense 2. Since this sense has been in continuous use since the 15th century, it is not clear why it is objectionable. Perhaps a note in the Oxford English Dictionary (1909) that the sense has been obsolete since the 17th century in literary English is to blame, but the note goes on to observe that the sense is in regular use in most English dialects. The last citation in that dictionary is from a 1901 Leeds newspaper, written in Standard English. Sense 2 is most common in contexts relating to business and politics ― Momus (Momus), Monday, 4 November 2002 10:49 (twenty-two years ago)
― Momus (Momus), Monday, 4 November 2002 10:49 (twenty-two years ago)
("Kenneth Williams Diaries")
― Denise Lambert, Monday, 4 November 2002 10:54 (twenty-two years ago)
Here is a British dictionary, the Collins Cobuild courtesy of the Birmingham University International Language Database. Their usage guide says:
presently // 1 You use presently to indicate that something happened quite a short time after something you have just mentioned. Presently I got the whole story. ADV2 If you say that something will happen presently, you mean that it will happen quite soon. He will be here presently. ADV3 If something is presently happening, it is happening now. ...the oil rigs that are presently in operation. ADV
― Momus (Momus), Monday, 4 November 2002 11:41 (twenty-two years ago)
presently (NOW)adverb [not gradable] ESPECIALLY BRITISH AND AUSTRALIAN now; at the present time Of 200 boats, only 20 are presently operational.They are presently trying to pick a suitable successor.Three sites are presently under consideration for the new hotel
So enough of this foolishness and back to Proust, already!
― Momus (Momus), Monday, 4 November 2002 11:45 (twenty-two years ago)
i am an oxford graduate and don't recognise cantab cantinflas bumpf.
― Denise Lambert, Monday, 4 November 2002 11:48 (twenty-two years ago)
― Denise Lambert, Monday, 4 November 2002 11:49 (twenty-two years ago)
Is such acrid contempt for Proust really what they teach at Oxford these days?
― Momus (Momus), Monday, 4 November 2002 11:53 (twenty-two years ago)
no idea, we made a quantum leap from aphra behn to julio cortazar.
― Denise Lambert, Monday, 4 November 2002 11:58 (twenty-two years ago)
― mark s (mark s), Monday, 4 November 2002 12:26 (twenty-two years ago)
― Momus (Momus), Monday, 4 November 2002 12:27 (twenty-two years ago)
I read this as 'What traits generally considered weaknesses or failings (in yourself or in others) do you find it most easy to understand, forgive, and even indulge?'
Proust puts a slight twist on his interpretation. Rather than faults, he speaks of what, to him, is the greatest misfortune -- to be deprived of the works of genius. This may mean that he sees a link between illiteracy (say) and all sorts of vices, and is inclined to forgive these vices because of the allowances he makes for their perpetrators' lack of exposure to beauty and genius, or it may mean that he pities those deprived of the works of genius and intends to 'indulge' them with culture as a mother would spoil her child, by giving him too much chocolate.
― Momus (Momus), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 02:48 (twenty-two years ago)
― erik, Sunday, 24 November 2002 16:03 (twenty-two years ago)
― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 24 November 2002 20:30 (twenty-two years ago)
2. Where would you like to live?YOU: Edmonton, vacations are much better.
3. What is your idea of earthly happiness?YOU: a warm bed, food in my belly, something to write about and acess to a good library.
4. To what faults do you feel most indulgent?YOU: sloth
5. Who are your favorite heroes of fiction?YOU: Dean Mortiarty(sp), Sherlock Holmes
6. Who are your favorite characters in history?YOU: Cleopatra, Liz I, Mdme Pompidu, Pope John Paul the Second.
7. Who are your favorite heroines in real life?YOU: My Mother
8. Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?YOU: Nancy Drew
9. Your favorite painter?YOU: Andy Warhol, Poussin, The fellows who did the Lascucx(sp) Caves, Henry Danger,Zoubian(sp), Manet, Agnes Martin, Rothko
10. Your favorite musician?YOU: Dolly Parton, John Cage, Marrian Faithful, Lou Reed, Richard Thompson, Crumb.
11. The quality you most admire in a man?a well porpotioned cock.
12. The quality you most admire in a woman?the mouth of a sailor
13. Your favorite virtue?Chairty
14. Your favorite occupation?Reading
15. Who would you have liked to be?YOU: Wilde w/o the Wife or the Charges, Auden, Isherwood.
16. Your most marked characteristic?YOU: a cripling insecuirty
17. The quality you most like in a man?YOU: a wide and clever mind
18. The quality you most like in a woman?YOU: see man.
19. What do you most value in your friends?YOU: comfort
20. What is your principle defect?YOU: i hate myself.
21. What is your favorite occupation?YOU: the library
22. What is your dream of happiness?YOU: summers in london, springs in vancouver
23. What to your mind would be the greatest of misfortunes?YOU: being an orphan
24. What would you like to be?YOU:a writer
25. In what country would you like to live?YOU: england,canada
26. What is your favorite color?YOU:pink
27. What is your favorite flower?YOU: orchids, lillies, snap dragons
28. What is your favorite bird?YOU: crow
29. Who are your favorite prose writers?YOU:borges,disch,camus
30. Who are your favoite poets?YOU:spenser,olds,elurad,whitman,dickinson,cohen,riding,stevens,donne,rochester
31. Who is your favorite hero of fiction?YOU:Herzog
32. Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?YOU: Judith
33. Who are your favorite composers?YOU:Schubert,Cage,Crumb
34. Who are your favorite painters?YOU:Balthus,Beckman,Bonnard,Chardin,De Kooning,Krasner,Freidich,Freud,Velaquez, Warhol
35. Who are your heroes in real life?YOU: Romero,Day,Eramsus
36. Who are your favorite heroines of history?YOU: Anne Frank, Cleoparta,Esther
37. What are your favorite names? YOU: Osbert
38. What is it you most dislike?YOU: sadness,hate
39. What historical figures do you most despise?YOU:Hitler
40. What event in military history do you most admire?YOU: Hannibal
41. What reform do you most admire?YOU: V2
42. What natural gift would you most like to possess?YOU: Musical Gifts
43. How would you like to die?YOU: in my lovers arms
44. What is your present state of mind?YOU:Depressive
45. To what faults do you feel most indulgent?YOU:sexual sin
46. What is your motto?YOU:eat rice, wash bowl
― anthony easton (anthony), Sunday, 24 November 2002 21:20 (twenty-two years ago)
2. Where would you like to live?YOU: I want to die in Africa. I want to get everywhere else sometime before then.
3. What is your idea of earthly happiness?YOU: Celebration of the transience of moments of perfection.
4. To what faults do you feel most indulgent?YOU: Fear
5. Who are your favorite heroes of fiction?YOU: Lawrence of Arabia - the Lawrence of the movie, not the real Lawrence, Harold Shand
6. Who are your favorite characters in history?YOU: Savonarola. Basically anyone self-righteous, however misguided they or their methods may be.
7. Who are your favorite heroines in real life?YOU: The few girls that befriended me in high school.
8. Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?YOU: Catherine from "Jules and Jim".
9. Your favorite painter?YOU: Seurat
10. Your favorite musician?YOU: Mission of Burma
11. The quality you most admire in a man?YOU: Detached bemusement at any situation
12. The quality you most admire in a woman?YOU: Directness
13. Your favorite virtue?YOU: Whatever I'm worst at
14. Your favorite occupation?YOU: Making films, or at least watching them.
15. Who would you have liked to be?YOU: Suetonius
16. Your most marked characteristic?YOU: A totally incoherent sense of the world.
17. The quality you most like in a man?YOU: Openness
18. The quality you most like in a woman?YOU: A lack of sentiment.
19. What do you most value in your friends?YOU: Candor
20. What is your principle defect?YOU: Never establishing a consistent sleep pattern.
21. What is your favorite occupation?YOU: Filming
22. What is your dream of happiness?YOU: Feeling sated without spoiling it with a feeling of completeness.
23. What to your mind would be the greatest of misfortunes?YOU: For a butterfly to have flapped its wings at any point in the past, thus irrevocably altering the course of events as they proceeded.
24. What would you like to be?YOU: A creator.
25. In what country would you like to live?YOU: Anywhere but here in the US
26. What is your favorite color?YOU: Gray
27. What is your favorite flower?YOU: Violets
28. What is your favorite bird?YOU: the Oriole
29. Who are your favorite prose writers?YOU: Barth, Cervantes, Huxley, Dante, Rushdie, Sterne (if only because he renders all post-modernism as the hollow corpse it is)
30. Who are your favoite poets?YOU: Beau Sia
31. Who is your favorite hero of fiction?YOU: Tristram Shandy
32. Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?YOU: Beatrice
33. Who are your favorite composers?YOU: Orff, Tchaikovsky, Vaughan Williams
34. Who are your favorite painters?YOU: Still Seurat
35. Who are your heroes in real life?YOU: Kieslowski
36. Who are your favorite heroines of history?YOU: Sei Shonagon
37. What are your favorite names? YOU: Bukarov
38. What is it you most dislike?YOU: Completion
39. What historical figures do you most despise?YOU: Anyone who seeks to control and consolidate their own power without just and ordinate cause
40. What event in military history do you most admire?YOU: The few prudent moments.
41. What reform do you most admire?YOU: Anything done by those who do not have massive amounts of money.
42. What natural gift would you most like to possess?YOU: More affability.
43. How would you like to die?YOU: I can think of no situation that pekes the mind.
44. What is your present state of mind?YOU: Conscious
45. To what faults do you feel most indulgent?YOU: Those I have the power to indulge.
46. What is your motto?YOU: Fuck 'em if they can't take a joke.
― Girolamo Savonarola, Wednesday, 25 June 2003 03:44 (twenty-two years ago)
1. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?Having to leave somewhere before it's time.2. Where would you like to live?Right now, Jamaica.3. What is your idea of earthly happiness?Friends, good sex, enjoying my job, feeling helpful.4. To what faults do you feel most indulgent?Geez...too many.5. Who are your favorite heroes (or heroines) of fiction?All of Jean Rhys's heroines, Leopold Bloom, Booky (of "That Scatterbrain Booky"), Jim (from "Lucky Jim")6. Who are your favorite characters in history?Billy the Kid, Sojourner Truth, Pierre Trudeau, hell, I don't know.7. Who are your favorite heroines in real life?My friend Anne, my ma8. see 6.9. Your favorite painter?Norval Morrisseau10. Your favorite musician?Sizzla Kalonji11. The quality you most admire in a man?Smarts.12. The quality you most admire in a woman?See 11.13. Your favorite virtue?Compassion.14. Your favorite occupation?Reading. Talking.15. Who would you have liked to be?anyone with musical talent.QUESTIONNAIRE 216. Your most marked characteristic?I tend to tell stories.19. What do you most value in your friends?Their listening skills.20. What is your principle defect?Me and Proust both--Lack of understanding; weakness of will22. What is your dream of happiness?God knows.23. What to your mind would be the greatest of misfortunes?To never know something different than my own everyday life.24. What would you like to be?One of those folks who has a "thing" that they do...you know, something they are so very passionate about.25. In what country would you like to live?I repeat--Jamaica.26. What is your favorite color?Purple.27. What is your favorite flower?Marigolds.28. What is your favorite bird?Wren.29. Who are your favorite prose writers?Hell, right now Rohinton Mistry, Samuel Johnson, and Martin Amis.30. Who are your favoite poets?Goodness, I guess David McGimpsey, Keats, and George Elliot Clarke.35. Who are your heroes in real life?Okay, too tired. Must stop here. I'm afraid that I'm not really trying hard enough.
― cybele (cybele), Wednesday, 25 June 2003 04:36 (twenty-two years ago)
1. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? at 13: trying to figure it (as in: IT) out
2. Where would you like to live? at 13: NYC
3. What is your idea of earthly happiness? at 13: chocolate milk and comic books
4. To what faults do you feel most indulgent? at 13: jealousy and anger
5. Who are your favorite heroes of fiction?at 13: the DC superheroes, esp. Green Lantern and Green Arrow 6. Who are your favorite characters in history? at 13: can't think of any
7. Who are your favorite heroines in real life? at 13: can't think of any
8. Who are your favorite heroines of fiction? at 13: I honestly can't think of any.
9. Your favorite painter? at 13: probably Picasso or Dali
10. Your favorite musician? at 13: Lou Reed
11. The quality you most admire in a man? at 13: Strength, courage, sense of justice 12. The quality you most admire in a woman? at 13: hotness (this is at 13 mind you)
13. Your favorite virtue? at 13: sense of humour
14. Your favorite occupation? at 13: writing stories
15. Who would you have liked to be? at 13: Indiana Jones
16. Your most marked characteristic? YOU: my sense of humour
17. The quality you most like in a man? YOU: compassion, sense of justice/fairness/humour
18. The quality you most like in a woman? YOU: compassion, sense of justice/fairness/humour
19. What do you most value in your friends? YOU: their forgiveness
20. What is your principle defect? YOU: insecurity of self
21. What is your favorite occupation? YOU: writing
22. What is your dream of happiness? YOU: making a decent living at my writing, not having to hold an outside job
23. What to your mind would be the greatest of misfortunes?YOU: losing the love of my family
24. What would you like to be? YOU: taller
25. In what country would you like to live? YOU: in terms of dull ideals like security and tolerance and stuff, Canada is great. in terms of excitement, romance etc, why not Spain?
26. What is your favorite color? YOU: blue, for that's the colour of my beautiful eyes
27. What is your favorite flower? YOU: uh, daisies are nice
28. What is your favorite bird? YOU: "Surfin' Bird"
29. Who are your favorite prose writers? YOU: Carl Hiaasen, Elmore Leonard, Jimmy Breslin, Glen David Gold (Carter Beats the Devil)
30. Who are your favoite poets? YOU: Richard Brautigan, Lew Welch
31. Who is your favorite hero of fiction? YOU: the Count of Monte Cristo
32. Who are your favorite heroines of fiction? YOU: ugh, reading recommendations please!
33. Who are your favorite composers? YOU: Otis Blackwell, Willie Nelson
34. Who are your favorite painters? YOU: Modigliani
35. Who are your heroes in real life? YOU: Louis CK
36. Who are your favorite heroines of history? YOU: Nellie McClung?
37. What are your favorite names? YOU: Malcolm, Lillian
38. What is it you most dislike? YOU: greed
39. What historical figures do you most despise? YOU: Hitler, Reagan
40. What event in military history do you most admire? YOU: none
41. What reform do you most admire? YOU: Campaign Finance Reform
42. What natural gift would you most like to possess? YOU: height, a great singing voice
43. How would you like to die? YOU: surrounded by people I love
44. What is your present state of mind? YOU: concerned that I can't think of any fictional women that I admire
45. To what faults do you feel most indulgent? YOU: lust
46. What is your motto? YOU: DYB, DYB, DYB; DOB, DOB, DOB
― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Wednesday, 25 June 2003 15:08 (twenty-two years ago)
1. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?YOU: Not being able to break the inertia of your life.
2. Where would you like to live?YOU: NYCity or a little desert town in the southwest
3. What is your idea of earthly happiness?YOU: A life filled with activity and experiences without constantly fearing of/for the future.
4. To what faults do you feel most indulgent?YOU: (I'm with JBR above, but I take it to mean - what difficulties do you pity the most, Proust saying he felt worst for those who never experienced genius, either their own or others) I suppose the same as Proust.
5. Who are your favorite heroes of fiction?YOU: The underdogs, ala Tom Joad.
6. Who are your favorite characters in history?YOU: Um, the underdogs, people willing to give up everything for something greater
7. Who are your favorite heroines in real life?YOU: see 5
8. Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?YOU: see 6
9. Your favorite painter?YOU: Picasso, Bosch, Grunewald
10. Your favorite musician?YOU: Lou Reed, maybe? No real idea.
11. The quality you most admire in a man?YOU: Intelligence, sense of humor, lack of pretense.
12. The quality you most admire in a woman?YOU: see 11
13. Your favorite virtue?YOU: Honesty with mercy.
14. Your favorite occupation?YOU: 'artist'/layabout
15. Who would you have liked to be?YOU: A romantic expat/writer (ie young Hemingway), but not really
16. Your most marked characteristic?YOU: Highly disconnected at times, I just space off into my own world.
19. What do you most value in your friends?YOU: Mercy, honesty, empathy, modesty
20. What is your principle defect?YOU: Too willing to just give up rather than fight through problems, too willing to accomodate others
22. What is your dream of happiness?YOU: Not have to worry about money, but not be wealthy, to be able to do what I want for once
23. What to your mind would be the greatest of misfortunes?YOU: 55 hours a week at some office job to pay for my Escalade, a wife and three kids and a mortgage with no sense of passion or adventure.
24. What would you like to be?YOU: Left alone?
25. In what country would you like to live?YOU: Somehow, the US.
26. What is your favorite color?YOU: British racing green
27. What is your favorite flower?YOU: 'flower'
28. What is your favorite bird?YOU: Don't care for birds
29. Who are your favorite prose writers?YOU: Tim O'Brien, Albert Camus
30. Who are your favoite poets?YOU: Diane di Prima, Dylan Thomas
31. Who is your favorite hero of fiction?YOU: Tom Joad
32. Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?YOU: Cher from Clueless
35. Who are your heroes in real life?YOU: Robert Frank, Samuel Mockbee, George Orwell
36. Who are your favorite heroines of history?YOU: Emma Goldman, Helen Keller, Mother Jones
37. What are your favorite names? YOU: Katherine
38. What is it you most dislike?YOU: Rudeness in general
39. What historical figures do you most despise?YOU: Most of them. Hitler, I suppose.
40. What event in military history do you most admire?YOU: (sad, sad, awful 'once-was-a-young-socialist' answer) - fighting for the anarchists in Spain
41. What reform do you most admire?YOU: Labor laws/civil rights/etc.
42. What natural gift would you most like to possess?YOU: The ability to pretend to care when I don't. (I'm singularly incapable of pretending to be excited about things that don't interest me.)
43. How would you like to die?YOU: Naked, screaming and bloody.
44. What is your present state of mind?YOU: Despondent
― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Monday, 22 March 2004 03:29 (twenty-one years ago)
― youn (youn), Monday, 12 June 2006 03:02 (nineteen years ago)
As I presently am.
1. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?YOU: A severe imbalance in neurotransmitters.
2. Where would you like to live?YOU: Somewhere with a great view of a large city.
3. What is your idea of earthly happiness?YOU: Conversation that's about something.
4. To what faults do you feel most indulgent?YOU: Self-imposed solitude.
5. Who are your favorite heroes of fiction?YOU: I like an anti-hero. Humbert Humbert or Henry Hill. Lately Don Draper.
6. Who are your favorite characters in history?YOU: Abraham Lincoln. Charles Darwin. Some other people.
7. Who are your favorite heroines in real life?YOU: My girlfriend.
8. Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?YOU: Annie Hall, the ghost of Catherine Earnshaw.
9. Your favorite painter?YOU: Odilon Redon.
10. Your favorite musician?YOU: Brian Eno.
11. The quality you most admire in a man?YOU: Intelligence and composure.
12. The quality you most admire in a woman?YOU: Intelligence and composure.
13. Your favorite virtue?YOU: Intelligence and composure.
14. Your favorite occupation?YOU: Writer. I wish I had the focus and patience.
15. Who would you have liked to be?YOU: Oh hell, I have no idea.
― so glitchy (kenan), Friday, 19 September 2008 02:58 (seventeen years ago)
1. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?YOU: Living alone in an unfamiliar city with bills unpaid & future food uncertain.
2. Where would you like to live?YOU: An apartment in an active part of a major metro. Location of said metro will largely be determined by the speed of the decline of the US into a third world country.
3. What is your idea of earthly happiness?YOU: A serious conversation (perhaps over beers) with a good friend that veers into laughter & gasping for air. Alternately--sitting on the couch alone with a cool drink listening to Nat King Cole.
4. To what faults do you feel most indulgent?YOU: Narcissism. I'm filling out "The Proust Questionnaire" on an internet forum for Christ's sake. Overthinking, and taking some degree of pride in doing so, when really it's just a waste of time.
5. Who are your favorite heroes of fiction?YOU: Philip Marlowe. William Munny. Jake Barnes.
6. Who are your favorite characters in history?YOU: Chaucer. Eugene V. Debs.
7. Who are your favorite heroines in real life?YOU: My grandmother, who raised 11 kids on a dirt floor in a border town on a her husband's tractor mechanic income.
8. Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?YOU: Mary Wilkie (Diane Keaton in Manhattan).
9. Your favorite painter?YOU: Michaelangelo. Maybe an obvious choice, but inarguably unfuckwithable.
10. Your favorite musician?YOU: Miles Davis.
11. The quality you most admire in a man?YOU: An ability to intelligently discuss contemporary events while maintaining a sense of humor.
12. The quality you most admire in a woman?YOU: An ability to intelligently discuss contemporary events while maintaining a sense of humor.
13. Your favorite virtue?YOU: Compassion.
14. Your favorite occupation?YOU: English teacher.
15. Who would you have liked to be?YOU: Rimbaud. He was a prick, but he fucking lived.
― HOOS em out to your friends and shit (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Friday, 19 September 2008 03:52 (seventeen years ago)
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/proust-questionnaire
― hills like white people (Hurting 2), Tuesday, 11 May 2010 12:59 (fifteen years ago)
My second match was Ray Charles.
Which is weird, because I hate Diet Pepsi.
― hills like white people (Hurting 2), Tuesday, 11 May 2010 13:00 (fifteen years ago)
My first match was Karl Rove.
Which is weird, because I hate Karl Rove.
― nick (killah priest), Tuesday, 11 May 2010 13:51 (fifteen years ago)
Mostly Timothy Leary. O_ORunner-up Jane Goodall.
― kkvgz, Tuesday, 11 May 2010 14:01 (fifteen years ago)
92.52% - Tom Waits83.72% - Kirk Douglas
― Pazuzu's petals (kenan), Tuesday, 11 May 2010 14:22 (fifteen years ago)
This is always a horrible thing to say about someone, but I didn't realize that Kirk Douglas was still alive. He's 93 and looks every year of it. He's getting that thing where your eyebrows start to outgrow your head. Poor old guy. He's a great one.
― Pazuzu's petals (kenan), Tuesday, 11 May 2010 14:32 (fifteen years ago)
The poor old man won't live to see his grandson get out of prison, that's for sure. Sad, sad, sad.
― kkvgz, Tuesday, 11 May 2010 14:36 (fifteen years ago)
"Mostly Timothy Leary. O_O"
I was 94% Timothy Leary
― hills like white people (Hurting 2), Tuesday, 11 May 2010 17:13 (fifteen years ago)
Got any blotter?
― kkvgz, Tuesday, 11 May 2010 17:13 (fifteen years ago)
joan didion
― plax (ico), Tuesday, 11 May 2010 17:24 (fifteen years ago)
Hmm, a suspicious number of people I've talked to have reported getting Timothy Leary, Joan Didion, Karl Rove, Jane Goodall. I wonder how big the pool actually is.
― hills like white people (Hurting 2), Wednesday, 12 May 2010 03:25 (fifteen years ago)