Proust Questionnaire: Ray of Mars's answers

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On Tue, 04 Aug 2009 21:20:56 UTC Ray of Mars (36) answered the Proust Questionnaire (click on a question to read other answers):

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?: To be so lonely for companionship that I am starved of it enough to feel incapable of it.
Where would you like to live?: In a cool place with short days, long nights, and people who are tolerant of my fickle sociability.
What is your idea of earthly happiness?: To spend time in ideas, to have a kiss before sleep, to have some new wonder each day.
To what faults do you feel most indulgent?: Allowing my emotions too much control over my action or inaction.
Who are your favorite heroes of fiction?: Those which I've made myself, I made them for myself.
Who are your favorite characters in history?: Those who have discovered, championed, or experimented with the perception of Truth. Einstein, Lemaitre, Sagan, James Randi, Darwin, Barnum, Lewis Carrol.
Who are your favorite heroines in real life?: Women of science and art without pretension.
Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?: The women who forget about the virgin / whore dichotomy or any binary gender based role, or negation of it. Analog women who are human before all else.
Your favorite painter?: Classical - Vincent van Gogh. Contemporary - Banksy.
Your favorite musician?: Choosing only one is hard. I never cared much for David Bowie until a few years go, now his music is precious to me.
The quality you most admire in a man?: Plain-ness, holding truth above self.
The quality you most admire in a woman?: Gentleness, the ability to let things be, a forgiving nature, and an appreciation in wonder.
Your favorite virtue?: Logic should be considered a virtue, when it isn't cruel or manipulated for some self-serving purpose.
Your favorite occupation?: Dreaming, writing, learning about the universe, drinking. Not in that order.
Who would you have liked to be?: I think that maybe I was born too early. The person I would like to be the most probably hasn't been born yet.
Your most marked characteristic?: Intellect, shyness, incapacity for common talk of common things, near misanthropic avoidance of people, and a strong desire for affection.
What do you most value in your friends?: The ability to marvel in ideas larger than here and now.
What is your principle defect?: I don't relate well with people, even though it's something I crave I can't ape the common niceties.
What to your mind would be the greatest of misfortunes?: To live the rest of my life in solitude.
What would you like to be?: The discoverer of some great truth.
What is your favorite color?: The purple that tints everything outside right before dark.
What is your favorite flower?: I've never had an appreciation of flowers. Dandelions were fun to play with when I was a kid.
What is your favorite bird?: Killdeer. I love the elaborate ploys they use to protect their families.
Who are your favorite prose writers?: Cory Doctorow and Neil Gaiman.
Who are your favorite poets?: Carrol, because of his appreciation of truth and nonsense.
Who are your heroes in real life?: Sagan, James Randi. Didn't I answer this already?
Who are your favorite heroines of history?: Rosa Parks, Eleanor Roosevelt, Sally Ride.
What are your favorite names?: Female: Kate (not Katie, Cathy, or Catherine). I've never known a Kate, and I'm not particularly attracted to any famous Kates. I just like that name. Male: Jack. I've always wished my name was Jack.
What is it you most dislike?: Small talk, assumed familiarity by those I consider to still be strangers, the inexactness of social situations.
What historical figures do you most despise?: Those who have impeded the idea that morality can exist within mankind without outside influence.
What event in military history do you most admire?: I'm not so much a dove that I don't believe there is a place for nations to keep militaries, but it's hard to admire a military event without the feeling that it's been romanticized. Nelson's command based on love rather than authority.
What natural gift would you most like to possess?: Handsomeness.
How would you like to die?: Painlessly, quickly, and without time to know it's coming.
What is your present state of mind?: I'm hopeful, looking forward to a little break from my usual routine next week.
What is your motto?: It's not a motto, who the hell has a motto? But, I remind myself not to complain about anything I volunteer to do. It keeps from complaining as much, and also from volunteering for some things I really don't want any part of anyway.

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