(no subject)

[ursula]

cija interviews me. If you'd like to be interviewed in return, please comment.

1. Is your icon from an Alice in Wonderland illustration? If not, what is it? I should know, but I don't.

It's from Alice Through the Looking Glass, actually. This is the knitting sheep that the White Queen turns into. The White Queen is quite a lot like me and even more like my maternal grandmother.

2. Is Fire and Hemlock the best Diana Wynne Jones book? If not, why not?

Fire and Hemlock was my favorite in about seventh grade, and I distrust most aesthetic opinions formed during that period. The piece involving the Tolkien rip-off and the rippling back muscles is absolutely brilliant; the very end goes a bit too quickly, I think, but Diana Wynne Jones' books usually have some sort of difficulty with endings. Right this second I like Witch Week better, because it's funnier and because it's a near-perfect school story, but I'd have to read both again to be sure.

3. Are liberal arts-ists who know no math or science really irritating?

It takes about fourteen years of standard schooling to get to the sort of math I like, and I can't fault anyone for not sticking it out when I essentially ditched PE after eighth grade. Liberal arts-ists who can't write coherent sentences are slightly irritating, however, and liberal arts-ists who insist on using science metaphors they don't understand-- particularly those who refer to the Theory of Relativity when they mean the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle-- drive me to self-righteous flailing.

4. Who is an artist or illustrator you particularly like?

There's a really fascinating illumination from a medieval manuscript of apocalyptic prophecies that consists of a beast with a spiral body, with the apocalyptic ranting spiraling along with the beast. I'm also rather fond of the bronze sculptures by miscellaneous impressionists in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and always have to restrain myself from trying to touch.

5. What sort of place would you like to live in (geographically, nationally, architecturally, whichever)?

I'm in Seattle largely because I like the weather. I prefer climates that allow me to wear jeans year-round. I'm terrifically nostalgic about Princeton's architecture, though, despite or perhaps because of the fact that I've only ever spent about three hours there.

Comments

[nobu.livejournal.com]

"Theory of Relativity when they mean the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle"
hmmm... i could be guilty of that... since i have no idea what the latter thing is. i also recall once being guilty of getting into a whopping argument with a couple of science minded folk at an event a few years ago dealing with chaos theory... but i was drunk... so not having a clue is forgiven, right?
;)

Re:

[ursula]

The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle is the rule in quantum physics that says you can't know where a particle is and how fast it's going at the same time. Anyway since you're not a philosophy professor at Georgetown your use of scientific metaphors is automatically less irritating.

[reasie.livejournal.com]

Wow... those are some of the best interview questions I've seen on Livejournal. Way to go, Cija! She clearly knows you.

Your description of your favorite art is very evocative. Reminds me personally of patting Rodin's "Age of Bronze"'s sweet round butt cheek once when there was no guard looking at me. :)

Re:

[sildra.livejournal.com]

My parents have always insisted that Rodin's bronze sculptures are meant to be touched, and climbed on, and stuff like that, and the only reason we can't is because the museum guards are ignorant. And if it gets worn down you're just supposed to make a new one from the cast. I suppose this might not be feasible now, ~120 years later, but still, he did tend to make multiple identical casts and many many bronze statues, because people were supposed to interact with them.

Re:

[ursula]

If there are enough statues, one could probably reconstruct the cast.

Re:

[ursula]

Actually I think cija doesn't know me but has read my list of interests-- interviews are more fun when both people have something to learn :)

Follow-up question

[loveschak.livejournal.com]

If, indeed, you are like the White Queen, are you turning into a knitting sheep? Is/has/did your maternal grandmother?

Re: Follow-up question

[ursula]

The resemblance is not that exact. I am much better than the White Queen at basic arithmetic; my grandmother is just as confused as the White Queen, but does not knit.

[yonmei.livejournal.com]

Interview me?

(This time around, I've been looking for people who have been interviewed by the people I interviewed to interview me... just because I thought that would make Fred more interesting.)

Re:

[ursula]

1. Do you actually know anyone named Fred?

2. What writer did you love at the age of thirteen whom you now avoid in abject horror?

3. What writer did you love at the age of thirteen, whose new novels you still rush to pick up, or whose old novels you reread every year or two?

4. What writer did you love at the age of thirteen, whose novels you really want to claim you avoid in abject horror, even though you still read them on rainy Saturdays?

5. In what sorts of situations do you appear extraverted?

Re:

[yonmei.livejournal.com]

Answered! (http://www.livejournal.com/users/yonmei/227451.html#cutid1)