Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Proust Questionnaire


What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Not being ‘up to’ an important task. Knowing I have failed at something that could have helped others.

Where would you like to live?
Chicago.

What is your idea of earthly happiness?
debt free, good people to talk to and go on walks with, able to write, read, and think.

To what faults do you feel most indulgent?
I’m always sympathetic to people who try to take on more than they can handle. I understand the impulse, and think it’s noble (even if it’s shortsighted). It’s far superior to waiting around for a hero to deliver you.

Who is your favorite hero of fiction?
Satan

Who are your favorite characters in history?
Josephine Baker, Vladmir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, Christopher Hitchens

Who is your favorite heroine of fiction?
Eve

Your favorite painter?
Vincent Van Gogh

Your favorite musician?
Leonard Cohen

The quality you most admire in a man?
A deep respect for me, and an appreciation for my sense of humor and many charms.

The quality you most admire in a woman?
See above.

Your favorite virtue?
Empathy.

Your least favorite virtue, or the one you think is most overrated?
Respect for authority

Your proudest achievement?
Whatever role I have played in raising my children (who are some of the most interesting and basically good children I have ever met).

Your favorite occupation?
Lounging.

Who would you have liked to be?
Myself. Because if I was someone else, I would have liked to be someone else still. Better to stop this violent cycle before it starts.

Your most marked characteristic?
Selective enthusiasm.

What do you most value in your friends?
Loyalty

What is your principle defect?
Periodic existential despair.

What to your mind would be the greatest misfortune?
Causing some irreparable harm to my wife or children.

What would you like to be?
Effective at everything I do. Barring that, I would settle for being happy.

What is your favorite color?
I always say black, but I really think it’s yellow. Bright colors cheer me up.

What is your favorite flower?
Lilac.

What is your favorite bird?
Owl.

What word or expression do you most overuse?
‘experience’.

Who are your favorite poets?
Charles Simic, Guilliame Appollinaire.

What are your favorite names?
Langston, Jack, Spencer, Abby.

What is it you most dislike?
People who ‘tell it like it is’. I like honesty, but people who claim this as a trait are usually stupid, arrogant, vulgar, and cruel. And often wrong.

Which historical figures do you most despise?
Woodrow Wilson, Joseph Stalin

Which contemporary figures do you most despise?
Sarah Palin, Mahmoud Ahmadinijad

Which events in military history do you most admire?
Harpers fairy, October Revolution.

Which natural gift would you most like to possess?
The patience to learn a musical instrument.

How would you like to die?
At an old age, in a comfortable bed, with a clear conscience, surrounded by my wife and children, and my brother and sister.

What do you most dislike about your appearance?
I’m about 50 pounds heavier than I care to be, and way low on muscle mass.

What is your motto?
‘Life is a great balancing act’-Dr. Seuss.

9 comments:

  1. Damn Spence! You're gonna put Che Guevera and Woodrow Wilson in with Josef Stalin? You must really hate those guys! That's reserved, Hall of Fame ignominy there.

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  2. Woodrow Wilson: A racist & a stuffed shirt. His emphasis on nationalism, and the work he did for nationalist propaganda are horrible. I have to hold him to a higher standard because he was an internationalist and progressive liberal, like myself.

    Stalin: The embodiment of tyranny.

    Che: In life he was a thug and a terrorist, but there are countless of those. I hate what he represents more than I hate him. He has become a leftist fetish item and saint, and saints have to be held accountable, especially the secular ones.

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  3. It would have been boring if I had listed all dictators. I did consider Ryan Seacrest for a minute though...

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  4. Mao Ze-Dong (China, 1958-61 and 1966-69, Tibet 1949-50) 49-78,000,000
    Jozef Stalin (USSR, 1932-39) 23,000,000 (the purges plus Ukraine's famine

    put's mao no.1 with a bullet (sorry)

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  5. I'd have to place Hitler over both Stalin and Mao as all-time most degenerate despotic leaders. As bad as Stalin and Mao were, you could argue that they came from backward--poverty infected countries. True, they tried to bring them into the 20th century with a sledgehammer and machine gun; but Germany had been an advanced country. Probably the most advanced country (along w/ Britain) of Europe prior to WWI. To descend into what they did--well, it was de-evolution. At least the results of Stalin and Mao brought their countries into the industrial world and international community.

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  6. Good point, Lodo. Hitler was a super douche.

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