Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Let's take the Proust questionnaire

You know it's my duty as a pseudo-literary narcissist.

My favorite virtue: reserve

My favorite quality in a man: warmth

My favorite quality in a woman: wit

My chief characteristic: self - awareness

What I appreciate the most in my friends: generosity of spirit

My main fault: my perhaps excessive self regard

My favorite occupation: eating, drinking, and hearing people say funny and interesting things - in short, going to dinner parties

My idea of happiness: a warm beach with my boyfriend

My idea of misery: being confined to bed with illness

If not myself, who would I be? Preferably, an elephant

Where would you like to live: Paris, in October

My favorite color and flower: Green and poppies

My favorite prose authors: Roberto Bolaño, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Marguerite Yourcenar

My favorite poets: Edna St Vincent Millay

My favorite heroes in fiction: Nick Carraway

My favorite heroines in fiction: I find so little to admire about women in fiction

My favorite painters and composers: Anselm Kiefer, Cézanne, Rachmaninov

My heroes in real life: William F. Buckley, my dad

My favorite heroines in real life: Michelle Obama, Kristin Scott Thomas

What characters in history do I most dislike? Anyone dull and obsequious

My heroines in world history: Elizabeth I of England

My favorite food and drink: Unsure. However, I had a delicious and simple dish the other day. It was braised pork shoulder on a bed of rice and asparagus. I had it with white wine, which may have been incorrect.

My favorite names: For girls, Wilhelmina, Penelope, Gertrude. For boys, I've yet to come across any that really strike me as desirable - each seems as good as the next.

What I hate the most: betrayal by my friends, or those whom I mistook to be.

World history characters I hate the most: I find it difficult to hate historical figures; knowing them a little, one comes to understand why they did such stupid things.

The military event I admire the most: the D-Day landings in Normandy.

The reform I admire the most: the legalization of same-sex marriage in Spain, 2005.

The natural talent I'd like to be gifted with: I would love to be able to dance.

How I wish to die: after those I love.

My present state of mind: Rather bored from thinking about myself so much to answer these questions.

For what fault have I the most toleration? The fault of believing one's own engagements to be more important than anyone else's.

My motto: Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!