proust questionnaire
weather: 🌤️ warm
critters: egret in flight
maybe we'll get a chain of prousts going
your favorite virtue
catholic: temperance
aristotelian: friendliness
confucian: honesty
new testament: mercy
your favorite qualities in a person
i like conversational skills (to prop up my lack of them) and at least one interesting, um, interest
your chief characteristic
outsourced the answer to this one to the boyfriend because i am not sure: "a lack of temerity" and "a penetrating gaze"
what you appreciate the most in your friends
spontaneity
your main fault
zero resilience
your favorite occupation
currently, painting, but i have a lot of favorite occupations
your idea of happiness
dozing on the beach
your idea of misery
being worn the fuck out but miles away from a bed
if not yourself, who would you be?
somebody charming and intelligent and capable, or a eurasian collared dove
where would you like to live?
i like it here, though i'd like to live for a short time in tottori or lisbon
your favourite color and flower
colors: cute pastels, high-saturation hues, the colors of seas and lakes
flowers: irises, hyacinths, violets, roses, jasmine, sea lavenders, tulips, ceanothuses, poppies
your favorite bird
global: dove/pigeon, secretary bird, quetzal, toucan, shima enaga
local: western bluebird, steller's jay, western tanager, raven
your favorite prose authors
mervyn peake, jeffrey eugenides, anne rice, angela carter, susanna clarke, dennis cooper, f. scott fitzgerald, t. h. white. i'd like to add hesse, mann, flaubert, borges, and musil, but i've only read them in translation
your favourite poets
robert burns, elinor wylie, peter cooley, phillis wheatley, william butler yeats. in translation, i like kobayashi issa, khayyam, pessoa, rilke, baudelaire, and li bo
your favorite heroes in fiction
sinbad the sailor or captain harlock types
your favorite painters and composers
painters: walter crane, jean delville, gustave moreau, dante gabriel rossetti, max ernst, stuart davis, hiroo isono, leonora carrington, remedios varo, george sanders bickerstaff, 19th c landscape artists generally (e.g. frederic edwin church). favorite living painters are vanessa stockard and brandi milne
composers: stravinsky, debussy, saint-saëns, susumu hirasawa, hildegard von bingen, don cherry, colin stetson, zihvya
your favorite food and drink
food: anything describable as a dumpling (whether they're called gyoza, pierogi, ravioli, &c.)
drink: milk tea, any tropical fruit juice
your favorite names
i've always liked the names of the capulets and montagues, including the names "capulet" and "montague"
your pet aversion
aldehydic fragrances. most seafood
what characters in history do you most dislike?
there are so many obvious options. for purely professional reasons, heinrich schliemann
what is your present state of mind?
sad
for what fault have you the most toleration?
ducking out on plans. as long as i'm warned ahead of time (and not waiting around for you), i understand why you'd want to stay home and turn to dust for the night
your favourite motto
vidi nihil permanere sub sole