Proust Questionnaire: Michael's answers

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On Tue, 25 May 10 11:03:52 +0000 Michael (46) answered the Proust Questionnaire (click on a question to read other answers):

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?: A failure in my belief that things are impermanent, always changing and will always change
Where would you like to live?: In a place with interesting things to do, to read, and people to love
What is your idea of earthly happiness?: Being independent, able to approach love and company when I please, being surprised
To what faults do you feel most indulgent?: The capacity to make mistakes and admit them without loss of personal self-worth
Who are your favorite heroes of fiction?: Jerry Cornelius, Oswald Bastable, characters who move through events observing them interestedly
Who are your favorite characters in history?: William Shakespeare, George Orwell, Samuel Pepys, Dante Alighieri, Ovid, Socrates (not Plato)
Who are your favorite heroines in real life?: PJ Harvey, Emily Bronte, Aun Sang Suu Kyi, Mary Wollstonecraft, George Eliot
Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?: Miss Smilla, Ellen Ripley, Lyra Belacqua, Hermione Granger, Amelie Poulain
Your favorite painter?: Breughel, Turner, Banksy
Your favorite musician?: PJ Harvey, Beethoven
The quality you most admire in a man?: Humour, intelligence, imagination, originality, common sense, give-and-take, compassion, empathy
The quality you most admire in a woman?: Humour, intelligence, imagination, originality, common sense, give-and-take, compassion, empathy
Your favorite virtue?: Forgiveness
Your favorite occupation?: Reading, going to sleep, writing something witty to a friend
Who would you have liked to be?: Byron, Jim Lovell, William Shakespeare, Jimmy Page
Your most marked characteristic?: Swinging between brief enthusiasm and lack of hope
What do you most value in your friends?: Their ability to keep their distance without going away entirely
What is your principle defect?: Laziness
What to your mind would be the greatest of misfortunes?: Unlikely, but the end of hope
What would you like to be?: A better, more understanding, happier, quieter, more giving person
What is your favorite color?: They're all good, seen individually, but I do like black
What is your favorite flower?: Camomile
What is your favorite bird?: Sparrow
Who are your favorite prose writers?: Jonathan Swift, Stephen Fry, Flann O'Brien, Peter Ackroyd
Who are your favorite poets?: Ted Hughes, Homer, Sylvia Plath, Philip Larkin, Seamus Heaney
Who are your heroes in real life?: Marc Ketels (he sums up the qualities I most admire in a man)
Who are your favorite heroines of history?: Boudicca, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Seacole
What are your favorite names?: Suki, Michael, Sam
What is it you most dislike?: Me at my worst
What historical figures do you most despise?: Hitler, George W. Bush et al, anyone who acted upon their own inadequacies to enslave or cow down or injure others
What event in military history do you most admire?: The Battle of Britain, the Pass of Thermopylae, Christmas Day 1914
What natural gift would you most like to possess?: Persuasion
How would you like to die?: Quickly, doing something I would be proud of if I had survived it
What is your present state of mind?: Restless, tired, unfocussed, impatient
What is your motto?: If I had one, it might be Nil Desperandum, though I wouldn't always believe it

This is a great exercise. Thanks for providing it.

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