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interview meme. decidedly not a GIP.
Me, upon making and keyword-ing this icon: Awesome! I expect something will happen between now and tonight that will necessitate an LJ post and thus allow me to wave it at my flist in a nonchalant and subtle manner!
Yeah, that didn't work out so well (it's the holidays. nothing happens. that is the whole point.) but then I realised that I could stop faffing around and finish those interview meme questions instead.
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darthrami -
How do you think you might have turned out (differently or similarly) had you not lived in Australia?
This is incredibly difficult to answer. Uh. Basically, I just cannot imagine being American. I can't. Because it contradicts a lot of things to do with my parents and my family context and it just messes with my self-image on too many levels to be able to give a coherent answer here. On the other hand, my identity as half-British has always been important to me, and I could probably work with the hypothetical situation that my family had stayed in England rather than moving back to Australia. It's interesting; no matter where we had lived, my parents would have insisted on giving me the best education possible, and I expect my maternal family's inherent intellectual snobbery would have been passed on. But Britain's class structure is much more pervasive than Australia's, and my family are upper-working-class Brummies with no real connections to the aristocracy at all. I am not sure whether I would have internalised the class system or actively resisted it. Actually, knowing me, I would probably have pushed my education as far as possible in order to gain as much respect as I could.
Fromschiarire -
What would your escapist bookshop be called?
The name would probably be the culmination of at least two weeks of list-making and reading and attempting to out-clever myself and then eventually just picking something off my wordie list. Zenith Books. Or Tesselation. Or Solipsism. Something along those lines (Cadence Books? very probably).
List three characters you could have a functional relationship with.
I have been staring and staring and staring at this one. Ugh. I have decided that naming Sam Winchester just because I kind of want Dean as a brother-in-law is a bit unfair on Sammy himself, so:
1) John Sheppard from SG:A. It would be fantastic. We would never have to talk about our feelings ever. We could just hang around comfortably and play with weapons and sometimes have amazing sex. I would have to learn to like watching sports, but I think I could cope with that.
2) I remain convinced that I would be the best girlfriend in the world if Addison would ever consider switching teams.
3) Dammit, dammit. Mohinder Suresh. He's a little bit touchy-feely for my liking but he's a geneticist and he's really, really hot and I just find him attractive in a really comfortable, genuine way. (I bet I would get all domestic and shit, too, and then I would never live it down.)
Frombrynnmck -
What's one of your happiest memories and why?
My stand-out happy memories are, sadly enough, mostly to do with personal achievement - winning the Australian finals of Future Problem Solving, getting my NU Scholarship to the ANU, that kind of thing. In an effort to seem like less of a selfish intellectual (ha. haha.) I will name the last time I visited London with my family. You have to understand that I adore London, I love walking in it and finding little churches and taking the Tube everywhere and losing myself in crowds and shopping at Marks & Sparks and the history and the shiny new buildings and the Globe and walking along the Thames near Tower Bridge on a cold bright day. One day I am going to live there. One day.
What's one piece of media (book, poem, play, song, movie, TV show, whatever) you wish you'd written?
The Matrix, actually. Not only would I have made huge amounts of money, I would be invited to lots of conventions (\o/) and, well, I think it's an absolutely amazing film with a great idea at the core.
What's a book I should read? :)
If you haven't already - Larklight by Philip Reeve :D It is SO FANTASTIC. It is about SPACE PIRATES and VICTORIAN SCIENCE and GIANT SPIDERS and WACKY ADVENTURES WITH ONE'S SOPPY OLDER SISTER and the illustrations are awesome and it unfailingly makes me very happy.
Fromcrazylittleme -
How do you think your writing has changed over the years? (Obviously we all get better with age, but details!)
This'll have to be dot points, I think.
- I've become hugely more comfortable with breaking rules. I will discard grammar and punctuation if they're getting in the way of what I want to achieve, although I remain very judgemental of people who don't know how to use them correctly. Learn the rules, then break them.
- For some reason I have developed an attachment to second-person POV. I don't think I use it the way many people use it, though; it's not actually designed at all to make the reader feel like they're being addressed. It's me addressing the character, because sometimes that's the easiest way for me to get them to do what I want.
- I've gone through stages of vocabulary, but I'm happy with where I am now. I had a stage of prose that teetered on the edge of being purple because I was concentrating on appearing intelligent; I can still use this if I have to, but I try to be sparing. And then I woke up to the fact that I was sounding kind of pretentious so I went the other way and started to see what I could do with simple words, arranging them in new ways and trying to construct the extraordinary out of the ordinary. Recursive language: infinite ideas from a finite set of elements. This was harder. I'm still working on it, and it's still my preferred basis for any piece, but I've loosened up about letting myself use more intricate/obscure words when the piece calls for them. I think I'm approaching a good balance.
- Parallels have become important, mostly because of the short length of things that I write. Pulling a thread of idea out again and again, like a tapestry. That's a good simile, actually - I try to work with a set amount of ideas and then weave them around each other, making only one or two visible at any one time, rather than throwing in concept after concept.
- There are a lot of writers both published and online who are responsible for the above changes. My best strides have come from deliberately striving to integrate a particular aspect of a person's style into my own work, and from RPing with people who are more talented than I.
Fromloki013 -
If you could inhabit any fictional universe, which would it be and what would you do?
Whatever one I'm currently reading/watching! Heh. Actually, thinking about it, I prefer the fictional universes that are speculative realism: our world, but with extra bits. Like Buffy/Supernatural/most Gaiman books. I like the idea of knowing the extra layers, the underworlds, even though most people might be unaware of it. I like the idea of possessing a power that has to be kept secret. I like the idea of fighting the things that others don't even know about (little wonder SPN hit me so hard, huh?). This is all caught up in one of the most basic and tangled drives of my psyche, which is the idea of not ordinary - hell, anyone who's grown up with speculative fiction has it, and knows it, and that's why these books and films about normal people discovering abnormal situations/powers are successful. But I never really wanted the grand prophecy and the eventual recognition, which is why I got bored of high fantasy after a couple of years. I wanted the secrets and the learning and the life that was difficult but strange; anything but boring. Anything but ordinary.
So...I'd like to live in a universe where the underworlds are real. I'd like to fight for as long as I wanted to fight (perhaps not literal kick-the-demon-in-the-balls fighting, I'd want to do the research and the strategy and the application of grey matter, but it'd sure be nice to have some valid outlet for violence); and then, maybe choose ordinary. Once I'd had a chance to live the other way and to appreciate normality.
I sure took that question a lot more seriously then you intended it, huh.
If you could design a museum, what would you put in it?
That's a really difficult one, but I think I would go for the history of scientific thought. Try to collect old scientific instruments and scraps of writings from people like Kepler and Newton, and arrange them loosely by scientific area: each wing being, for example, astronomy or microbiology. Arranged like a timeline, going from the historical roots right up to the present state of knowledge in the area. And I would have guest lecturers come and give interesting talks. And it would have a really nice cafe and the best gift shop in the world. (Runner-up in this question was the history of Western occultism. Just to go off in a radically different direction :D)
Which author/poet/screenwriter would you want to write your life story?
...I am very tempted to claim Tom Stoppard, except I am a bit worried about what it might turn into. Oh! Oh! I know! Tom Stoppard and Michael Ondaatje can co-write my life story. I expect it to be a glorious pastiche of script and prose and poetry. Basically I think the ideal outcome would be a hybrid of Arcadia and Running in the Family - science and wit and messing around with chronological continuity and beautiful descriptions of people and places and snappy dialogue and a Message about the coexistence of rationality and aesthetics.
Yeah, that didn't work out so well (it's the holidays. nothing happens. that is the whole point.) but then I realised that I could stop faffing around and finish those interview meme questions instead.
From
darthrami - How do you think you might have turned out (differently or similarly) had you not lived in Australia?
This is incredibly difficult to answer. Uh. Basically, I just cannot imagine being American. I can't. Because it contradicts a lot of things to do with my parents and my family context and it just messes with my self-image on too many levels to be able to give a coherent answer here. On the other hand, my identity as half-British has always been important to me, and I could probably work with the hypothetical situation that my family had stayed in England rather than moving back to Australia. It's interesting; no matter where we had lived, my parents would have insisted on giving me the best education possible, and I expect my maternal family's inherent intellectual snobbery would have been passed on. But Britain's class structure is much more pervasive than Australia's, and my family are upper-working-class Brummies with no real connections to the aristocracy at all. I am not sure whether I would have internalised the class system or actively resisted it. Actually, knowing me, I would probably have pushed my education as far as possible in order to gain as much respect as I could.
From
schiarire - What would your escapist bookshop be called?
The name would probably be the culmination of at least two weeks of list-making and reading and attempting to out-clever myself and then eventually just picking something off my wordie list. Zenith Books. Or Tesselation. Or Solipsism. Something along those lines (Cadence Books? very probably).
List three characters you could have a functional relationship with.
I have been staring and staring and staring at this one. Ugh. I have decided that naming Sam Winchester just because I kind of want Dean as a brother-in-law is a bit unfair on Sammy himself, so:
1) John Sheppard from SG:A. It would be fantastic. We would never have to talk about our feelings ever. We could just hang around comfortably and play with weapons and sometimes have amazing sex. I would have to learn to like watching sports, but I think I could cope with that.
2) I remain convinced that I would be the best girlfriend in the world if Addison would ever consider switching teams.
3) Dammit, dammit. Mohinder Suresh. He's a little bit touchy-feely for my liking but he's a geneticist and he's really, really hot and I just find him attractive in a really comfortable, genuine way. (I bet I would get all domestic and shit, too, and then I would never live it down.)
From
brynnmck - What's one of your happiest memories and why?
My stand-out happy memories are, sadly enough, mostly to do with personal achievement - winning the Australian finals of Future Problem Solving, getting my NU Scholarship to the ANU, that kind of thing. In an effort to seem like less of a selfish intellectual (ha. haha.) I will name the last time I visited London with my family. You have to understand that I adore London, I love walking in it and finding little churches and taking the Tube everywhere and losing myself in crowds and shopping at Marks & Sparks and the history and the shiny new buildings and the Globe and walking along the Thames near Tower Bridge on a cold bright day. One day I am going to live there. One day.
What's one piece of media (book, poem, play, song, movie, TV show, whatever) you wish you'd written?
The Matrix, actually. Not only would I have made huge amounts of money, I would be invited to lots of conventions (\o/) and, well, I think it's an absolutely amazing film with a great idea at the core.
What's a book I should read? :)
If you haven't already - Larklight by Philip Reeve :D It is SO FANTASTIC. It is about SPACE PIRATES and VICTORIAN SCIENCE and GIANT SPIDERS and WACKY ADVENTURES WITH ONE'S SOPPY OLDER SISTER and the illustrations are awesome and it unfailingly makes me very happy.
From
crazylittleme - How do you think your writing has changed over the years? (Obviously we all get better with age, but details!)
This'll have to be dot points, I think.
- I've become hugely more comfortable with breaking rules. I will discard grammar and punctuation if they're getting in the way of what I want to achieve, although I remain very judgemental of people who don't know how to use them correctly. Learn the rules, then break them.
- For some reason I have developed an attachment to second-person POV. I don't think I use it the way many people use it, though; it's not actually designed at all to make the reader feel like they're being addressed. It's me addressing the character, because sometimes that's the easiest way for me to get them to do what I want.
- I've gone through stages of vocabulary, but I'm happy with where I am now. I had a stage of prose that teetered on the edge of being purple because I was concentrating on appearing intelligent; I can still use this if I have to, but I try to be sparing. And then I woke up to the fact that I was sounding kind of pretentious so I went the other way and started to see what I could do with simple words, arranging them in new ways and trying to construct the extraordinary out of the ordinary. Recursive language: infinite ideas from a finite set of elements. This was harder. I'm still working on it, and it's still my preferred basis for any piece, but I've loosened up about letting myself use more intricate/obscure words when the piece calls for them. I think I'm approaching a good balance.
- Parallels have become important, mostly because of the short length of things that I write. Pulling a thread of idea out again and again, like a tapestry. That's a good simile, actually - I try to work with a set amount of ideas and then weave them around each other, making only one or two visible at any one time, rather than throwing in concept after concept.
- There are a lot of writers both published and online who are responsible for the above changes. My best strides have come from deliberately striving to integrate a particular aspect of a person's style into my own work, and from RPing with people who are more talented than I.
From
loki013 - If you could inhabit any fictional universe, which would it be and what would you do?
Whatever one I'm currently reading/watching! Heh. Actually, thinking about it, I prefer the fictional universes that are speculative realism: our world, but with extra bits. Like Buffy/Supernatural/most Gaiman books. I like the idea of knowing the extra layers, the underworlds, even though most people might be unaware of it. I like the idea of possessing a power that has to be kept secret. I like the idea of fighting the things that others don't even know about (little wonder SPN hit me so hard, huh?). This is all caught up in one of the most basic and tangled drives of my psyche, which is the idea of not ordinary - hell, anyone who's grown up with speculative fiction has it, and knows it, and that's why these books and films about normal people discovering abnormal situations/powers are successful. But I never really wanted the grand prophecy and the eventual recognition, which is why I got bored of high fantasy after a couple of years. I wanted the secrets and the learning and the life that was difficult but strange; anything but boring. Anything but ordinary.
So...I'd like to live in a universe where the underworlds are real. I'd like to fight for as long as I wanted to fight (perhaps not literal kick-the-demon-in-the-balls fighting, I'd want to do the research and the strategy and the application of grey matter, but it'd sure be nice to have some valid outlet for violence); and then, maybe choose ordinary. Once I'd had a chance to live the other way and to appreciate normality.
I sure took that question a lot more seriously then you intended it, huh.
If you could design a museum, what would you put in it?
That's a really difficult one, but I think I would go for the history of scientific thought. Try to collect old scientific instruments and scraps of writings from people like Kepler and Newton, and arrange them loosely by scientific area: each wing being, for example, astronomy or microbiology. Arranged like a timeline, going from the historical roots right up to the present state of knowledge in the area. And I would have guest lecturers come and give interesting talks. And it would have a really nice cafe and the best gift shop in the world. (Runner-up in this question was the history of Western occultism. Just to go off in a radically different direction :D)
Which author/poet/screenwriter would you want to write your life story?
...I am very tempted to claim Tom Stoppard, except I am a bit worried about what it might turn into. Oh! Oh! I know! Tom Stoppard and Michael Ondaatje can co-write my life story. I expect it to be a glorious pastiche of script and prose and poetry. Basically I think the ideal outcome would be a hybrid of Arcadia and Running in the Family - science and wit and messing around with chronological continuity and beautiful descriptions of people and places and snappy dialogue and a Message about the coexistence of rationality and aesthetics.