RICK'S IPQ
My friend Rick, whose uncanny likeness you see at right, has agreed to answer the Infamous Proust Questionnaire for me.
Here are his delightful answers:
What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
There is no lowest depth: no matter how bad, there is worse. But since any suffering is compounded knowing that it is inflicted by other people, I’ll say war.
Where would you like to live?
Assuming that I had no problem learning the languages — an entirely unreasonable assumption — I’d like to live in Norway at least until the dark winters drove me mad. But the summer climbing season would be worth one of those winters or two, and I could always slip off to Spain to climb in the sun a bit. I’d also like to live for a year or so in Prague. I’ve met some really cool people from the Czech Republic and that must be one of the world’s best cities. When I’ve finally had enough of winter, I’d go to Thailand.
What is your idea of earthly happiness?
To live in a slightly dilapidated village that is entirely owned by an old coot who hates rich people and won’t let any in. Instead the place is filled with bohemian types who are all into arts and books and stay up all night drinking coffee and arguing eloquently even over the trivial things.
To what faults do you feel most indulgent?
Many years back, The Atlantic, on the conceit that the old-fashioned sins don’t get the advertising support of the more modern indulgences, hired Madison Avenue firms to write ads for the ten deadly sins. For sloth, the ad showed a lush Garden of Eden with the slogan: SLOTH If Adam and Eve had been slothful, we would still be here. Now sloth encompasses a bit more than I can indulge, but I’ll take idleness.
Who are your favorite heroes of fiction?
I’m not sure I can separate my fondness for a character from my fondness for the novel, but here are three: Dorothea Brooke from George Eliot’s “Middlemarch”, Lily Bart from Edith Wharton’s “House of Mirth”, and Ignatius Reilly from John Kennedy Toole’s “A Confederacy of Dunces”.
Who are your favorite characters in history?
I’ve always been very taken by Emilie du Chatelet. After all, her parents gave her fencing lessons as a child. Pity that more 18th Century French families didn’t do this as it might have improved French letters considerably. In any case, Emilie turned out a remarkable woman and could hold her own with the intellects of her day. Among other things, she made a noteworthy contribution to physics. I’d much rather invite her to a dinner party than her companion, Voltaire.
Who are your favorite painters?
In college it would have been the surrealists. These days I’m rather less enamored of them directly but favor some of the artists and movements that interacted with them such as Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky. I also like a lot of the abstract expressionists and have been interested recently in Mark Rothko. If I ever get to Houston, I’ll go see his chapel.
Your favorite musician?
John Coltrane. He played during what I consider to be the most outstanding era of jazz, and he worked with some remarkable talents. Much unforgettable music resulted.
The quality you most admire in a man?
Femininity. It is the most general corrective to the more usual male faults.
The quality you most admire in a woman?
Wit.
Your favorite virtue?
Kindness. Other virtues have their moments, but it is hard to top kindness.
Your favorite occupation?
Rock Climbing. I might get too hot, too cold, thirsty, or get stuck up high with thousands of feet to descend as it gets dark. But I never get bored. I’ve been climbing more than a hundred days a year for more than a decade and plan on doing the same for the next decade.
Who would you have liked to be?
There was a Hungarian born mathematician who was really into math. He decided against a university position because of all the distractions of faculty, students, and having to actually live some place. So Paul Erdos became an itinerant genius and left everything about his life to other people except the math. So somebody would take him to the airport, pick him up there, take him home and feed him and give him a bed. Then he would spend a few days at a university or a conference doing math with any number of other mathematicians. He had so many collaborators that every mathematician now has an Erdos number. Erdos’s own number is 0 for being himself. Everybody who ever published a paper with him has an Erdos number of 1. People who published with any of those have an Erdos number of 2. And so on. It is a degree of separation thing with Erdos in the center. It would be a remarkable thing to have that kind of talent and be that consumed by it.
What is your most marked characteristic?
Other people would be far better situated to answer that.
What do you most value in your friends?
Well, to look at them I’m not sure what they might have in common. Perhaps the best answer is temperament.
What is your principle defect?
Again, it would be better to ask others, but perhaps a lack of perseverance. I’m a little less focused than Erdos.
What is your favorite color?
Teal. Although on some days it would be fuscia.
What is your favorite flower?
I’ve seen some amazing orchids, but there are so many of them, I don’t know which one I like best. The tiger lily is good.
What is your favorite bird?
Hummingbird.
Who are your favorite prose writers?
For novels, I like best many of the 19th Century and early 20th Century writers. These days I read much more non-fiction that fiction. Three very good writers who write for The Atlantic and elsewhere are William Langewiesche, Eric Schlosser, and Christopher Hitchens. Langewiesche is also an excellent speaker.
Who are your favorite poets?
I’m not sure I read enough poetry to be claiming favorites. But shall we say Allen Ginsberg and a couple of his 19th Century influences, Walt Whitman and William Blake?
Who are your favorite composers?
Sergei Prokofiev is probably my favorite overall.
What are your favorite names?
Evocative names. But not silly names with concocted spellings.
What is it you most dislike?
The illiberal and self-righteous particularly when they are indignant which they usually are.
What historical figures do you most despise?
All the egotistical conquerors from before Alexander III through Genghis Khan, Napoleon Bonaparte, to Adolf Hitler and beyond.
What event in military history do you most admire?
The evacuation of Dunkirk.
What reforms do you most admire?
The abolition of slavery is hard to top. Universal suffrage was a worthy one too.
What natural gift would you most like to possess?
To be able to write with grace and ease, or maybe the sort of athletic skill that would further my climbing.
How would you like to die?
Old and suddenly.
What is your present state of mind?
Same as it ever was.
What is your motto?
Don’t believe everything you think.
posted by kc @ 2:37 PM
18 comments
18 Comments:
Very well-answered, dw. I would second several of these.
And kudos to you once again, kc, on your artistic skills.
Very interesting, Rick and kc. It's especially interesting to contemplate what sort of things may have happened in your life to shape your answers.
I couldn't answer all of those questions in a million years. It would take a level of thought I'm not capable of. I'd get as far as "I like food" and then my head would asplode.
Good call on Emilie du Chatelet! I think even Voltaire would agree with your preference. He said: "Everything about her is noble, her countenance, her tastes, the style of her letters, her discourses, her politeness. … her conversation is agreeable and interesting." After she died, he said: "It is not a mistress I have lost but half of myself, a soul for which my soul seems to have been made."
It's so French that she had all those affairs and then, with the permission of her husband, took Voltaire for a lifelong lover. I just read this article that says she and Voltaire shared a country home and worked all day on math and philosophy. Guests were expected to stay in their rooms and read or otherwise occupy themselves. And then at night they would have these grand suppers and entertainments.
And as someone who's known you for sometime, I have to say I was surprised by "abstract expressionists" and "teal." Fantastic.
There are many wonderful answers here. The dilapidated village, Lily Bart, kindness, among others.
But mostly kindness.
Loved this post. KC, you answer next, dear.
No, you, cl! I already have your picture drawn!
Good work on the drawing.
Yes, I’m a bit surprised that Emilie du Chatelet isn’t better known. Although I thought I read that somebody has written a new biography in the last year or so. I haven’t read a biography for a long time so maybe I’ll look to see if there really is a new one on her.
Kc, do you remember that I had a Diebenkorn print? In retrospect it seems kind of strange to have a small print of a large painting, particularly of a non-representational work where space and scale are such key components of viewing it. Oh well, live and learn.
Will you do a IPQ, kc?
I’ll draw.
I also like your motto, DW: Don't believe everything you think.
Smart advice.
Glad you liked the picture. A bewitching likeness, isn't it?
You had a Diebenkorn?
Also, did you see that Wiki has an entire list of mathematicians by Erdos numbers. Mary Ellen Rudin, who was Steve's adviser at Wisconsin, has a 1. This woman cooked me a bratwurst! Cool. (Shouldn't that give ME an Erdos number? Like a 15 or something?)And Judy Roitman, mathematician and feminist Zen master extraordinaire, has a 2.
I wish I had had a Diebenkorn. Of course, the only place I could have put it in that apartment would have been on the ceiling. Alas, I had a mere small print from the “Ocean Park” series. The painting itself would not have slipped so easily out of your memory.
No, I didn’t know that Wikipedia had a list of mathematicians by their Erdos numbers but that is a perfect little bit of wiki work. Actually, I think the managers of Wikipedia try to discourage trivia. The Erdos’s numbers strike me as charmingly perched halfway between trivia and substantive cultural history. Oh, I took some classes from Roitman. Wasn’t she also an observant jew? So she would be a mathematician and feminist jewish zen master extraordinaire. Not a bad mix.
Ooh, I just looked at the Ocean Park Series. Very cool. Very San Fran, huh? Have you seen David Hockney's paintings of swimming pools in Los Angeles? I love them. They are so flat and blue and blank.
Here's one.
Oh, Hockney is the guy with the camera obscura thesis about the old masters ability to paint so realistically. I thought that was a cool idea when I first heard about it, but it seems that the physics don’t work out. The images would be too dim, and computer analysis shows that the paintings are unlikely to be based on projections. Oh well.
I like Hockney’s swimming pools, but I think I like some of his photo collage work better. And those modernist houses in the swimming pool paintings remind me of something I read last year. It must have been a review of some books, but I read a long article about minimalist modern houses in California mostly in the L.A. area. Oh, I think one of the books was of photos taken in the 60s. I hadn’t given such houses much thought, but the photos they reprinted made them look cool.
I love those Southern California houses. They evoke a whole lifestyle that has nothing to do with anything, except a very specific time and place.
Would you want to live in one now? How would you decorate it? In retro styles or something contemporary?
Yes, I could live in one of those houses, but I feel like I would need a larger social circle and a cocaine habit. Also perhaps some cosmetic surgery and an expensive pair of oversized sunglasses.
I would decorate that house with people. Pool party people.
Oh my God, that is the first time I've heard you say the T-word! Hehe. I have no idea why that is making me smile, you old feminist.
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