Proust Questionnaire: nools's answers

[Answer the Proust Questionnaire] [Answers by name or age] [Random answer] [Image gallery]

On Sat, 02 Jul 11 05:56:03 UTC nools (23) answered the Proust Questionnaire (click on a question to read other answers):

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?: Having no purpose. Also: being fat.
Where would you like to live?: Berlin or Moscow or San Francisco or the Berkeley Hills. Where I am now is not so bad.
What is your idea of earthly happiness?: A room with large windows, sunlight, a view, tall ceilings. Walls covered in books and books. Wood floors, carpeted. A recliner that is simultaneously comfortable and ergonomically sound. Fireplace, reading lamp, tea.
To what faults do you feel most indulgent?: I am not sufficiently particular about the things I partake in -- mentally or physically. I feed myself too much junk.
Who are your favorite heroes of fiction?: Alyosha and Ivan. Ivan is not so much a hero, but I loved him so much.
Who are your favorite characters in history?: Thinkers and writers. Dostoevsky demands all my love and admiration and sympathy. Dante. Mendel.
Who are your favorite heroines in real life?: I could not say. I may be a chauvinist.
Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?: Right now, all I can think of is Cassandra Mortmain from I Capture the Castle. Generally, women who are wise, underestimated, and quietly influential.
Your favorite painter?: Still Vermeer. I'm not so well versed in paintings, sorry to say. Ought to amend that.
Your favorite musician?: Beethoven. Sufjan Stevens. Depends on the mood.
The quality you most admire in a man?: Rigorous, honest intellect. Goes down very well with some compassion and modesty on the side.
The quality you most admire in a woman?: Mystery, a gentle sharpness in their eyes. Not the ones who would cut, but who could yet choose not to out of kindness.
Your favorite virtue?: Consistency -- of which I haven't the slightest shred, so not my favorite to practice. I should say I admire this most because it seems impossible to me.
Your favorite occupation?: Reading, thinking, looking out from high places
Who would you have liked to be?: Varmus (Harold) got to do everything I want to. Dostoevsky, Proust, and Nabokov said better words than I could ever hope to. Honest answer: an intellectual giant. "Correct" answer: someone honest, happy, and kind.
Your most marked characteristic?: As far as I can tell: I'd like to be perfect, totally beyond reproach. As far as I think others can tell: I'm unusually tall for my sex and ethnicity.
What do you most value in your friends?: Straightforwardness
What is your principle defect?: Too many: no discipline, ignorance, tendency to make excuses
What to your mind would be the greatest of misfortunes?: The answer should be: never to have known Jesus. My actual answer: to be poor, despised, and incapable of helping myself.
What would you like to be?: Perfect
What is your favorite color?: I like muted shades of blue. Earthy greens and blacks and greys are all right, too.
What is your favorite flower?: Honeysuckle blossoms
What is your favorite bird?: Would that I gave a damn about birds. Penguins are cute?
Who are your favorite prose writers?: Proust, Dostoevsky, Nabokov, Lewis, Hemingway, Robinson (M)
Who are your favorite poets?: Baudelaire, Ashbery, maybe Eliot
Who are your heroes in real life?: Nabokov. Dr. W. Prof.s J, N, and L in particular, though the last is so unassuming and would never guess it.
Who are your favorite heroines of history?: I don't know. The only one I ever remember is that Korean patriot martyr girl, Yu. If the Bible counts, I liked Rahab. Esther was cool, too.
What are your favorite names?: Names with gold in them. Names with lots of vowels.
What is it you most dislike?: My imperfections, my weaknesses. I am my own idol, after all. Also: working, and especially working on weekends.
What event in military history do you most admire?: The turtle ship thing? With Admiral Yi? I don't know anything about military history, except that wars were often fought for questionable reasons and paid for by innocents.
What natural gift would you most like to possess?: Proust and I are the same again. But genius and well-aging beauty sound good, too.
How would you like to die?: This time, Proust is infinitely better. I was going to say: peacefully, in bed, in my sleep.
What is your present state of mind?: Annoyance that I'm procrastinating for a major project. Annoyance that the major project will not whisk itself away.
What is your motto?: I think we may be too postmodern for this question. But I guess I've had some. In the last years, I've had: "every second is a choice", "we can live like this", "utopia is worth fighting for", and now... "just let me go back to sleep."

Clicking on the left button will increase the likelihood of nools's answers being displayed as featured answer.