Five questions
May. 7th, 2006 04:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
franceslievensI like written interviews. They give the interviewed the possibility to ponder over their words and when you play it right the interviewer only has to come up with the questions and doesn't have to think up solid arguments in between the you-knows and general celebrity-gushing-crap. "I loved doing that movie! Tom Cruise is so wonderful!" An honest journalist might show a not too flattering image of the actress. Image is everything, and I prefer to have a firm grip on it. ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
frenchani provided the questions, I pondered them over and give you the answers.
Who's your favourite philosopher and why?
The easiest way out of this question would be saying that I don't have a favourite philosopher. I wouldn't be lieing, but consider it too much a cop-out. There isn't one philosopher I cherish and hold dear, for they all had their faults and there isn't one philosophical system I prefer. I have weaknesses though. There are a couple of philosophers I appreciate for different reasons – or all for one and the same reason.
If there is one constant in my ways of thinking it's that everything is turned inward onto my self. I'm always very aware of me as opposed to the other, outside of my realm of experience. It led my to an amalgame of 20th century philosophers writing about experience and the other. You can probably come up with the names already: there's Emmanuel Lévinas, Jean-Paul Sartre (obviously flawed in his thinking and too strict – he isn't one of my favourites, but I did turn to him at a moment in time), the wonderful Albert Camus (I should read more of his literature), and Ludwig Wittgenstein. The last philosopher might seem a bit strange in this line, but a wonderful class on his thinking, given by one of my favourite professors, made sure that, for me, Wittgenstein's thinking is a search for the ways in which we interact.
One more I'll add: Hannah Arendt, whose Life of the Mind is a very intuitive recount of how people think. As an added bonus she thoroughly critiques Kant.
If you didn't teach what would you do for a living?
Ah, the age-old question: What do you want to do for a living? Not answering that question is what led me to teaching in the first place, because I don't know what I want to do for a living.
The answer I can give is two-fold. First I can consider what I would be hadn't I chosen to study philosophy and ethics. I'd probably studied science then: bio-engineering. You'd have found me in a lab of some kind, meddling with the genes of plants and mice and men. I loved the couple of chapters we had on genetics in our high school biology classes. Or I could have chosen physics and specialise in quantum-physics. I have quite an interest in the unseeable.
But I didn't study any of those. I'd had enough of science when I went off to university. I wanted to do something that wasn't so mainstream (and I'm too lazy to spend all my time studying). So philosophy it was, with a master's degree in Cultural Studies. That's where I deepened my love for theatre and performance arts. If I hadn't landed a teaching job, I'd probably work in that field as a critic or a dramaturge or maybe even a writer. That's my ultimate dream job: writing for a living. If only someone would pay me for blogging...
If you could bring a CD player and only 3 CDs on a desert island (sorry no ipod, no mp3 player) which CDs would you choose?
Those CDs would have to do a couple of things: reflect a diversity of moods, entertain me and I'd never get bored of them.
Pulp, HITS, has already shown its worth, because it's the CD that kept us going in Canada.
Massive Attack's first record, Blue Lines, is coming as well. Whatever my mood, I always enjoy it, if only for the great line "I was looking back to see if you were looking back at me to see me looking back at you."
The third one is a bit more difficult. True to my icon it'll have to be Daan, but which record I'm not so sure off. I'll go for Bridge Burner, his second solo album.
Now I hope there's some electricity on that island of yours...
Lately we discussed celebrity crushes on LJ... Have you ever had an internet crush? If so, tell us about it.
Do you find it strange when I say no? A crush starts on a very unconscious level and always involves some kind of sexual tension. Developing a crush, being aware of it, is a process that can take months. I fall in love quite easily, can be struck by words, by discussions, by thoughts on screens, but I fall out of love without consciously noticing the butterflies. In hindsight there might have been crushes. I used to lurk for months on the Cross and Stake before posting and there were regulars whose posts and musings I'd read religiously. Is that a crush? Mainly I just started reading because of first impressions, i.e. the name they gave themselves. In real life, where people have faces before names, it is these first impressions that lead me to a genuine crush, the one with the missing the other and looking for his or her face in a crowd etc. I never had that kind of internet crush, maybe because I need a bit more interaction to get to that stage of having a crush, and I can add that a lot of the first impressions on the good old C&S didn't stick.
Writing reveals a lot about someone. I've read a bit of Frances' writings in English and I've always wondered what she would write in French... What would be her words? Would you write something in French for me? Topic of your choice. Just a snippet. 100 words.
This is the most difficult of the questions, because as far as the language of Molière goes, I can handle myself when someone asks for directions. I'm crap at it when expressing myself, because of a limited vocabulary. That doesn't mean I won't take up the challenge. I didn't count the words.
Une histoire d'amour
Elle ne veut plus. Ne soyant qu'un spectre, elle se traîne dans les journées. La lumière à la fin du tunnel lui a passé. Il n'y a que l'obscurité, le sombre.
Jusqu'au jeudi. Une clarté illumine son âme. En ce moment, cette petite instant, ce millième d'une seconde, elle sait ce qu'elle veut: être vivante comme elle l'est maintenant. Il y a de la lumière; il y a un but. Elle aime.
Mais le vendredi arrive avec les rêves brisées et le cœur tellement déchiré qu'elle ne veut plus. Elle ne veut plus aimer et souffrir la douleur dans son cœur.
Pourtant la souffrance finit le jeudi suivant quand elle sera ravissante.
frenchani provided the questions, I pondered them over and give you the answers.Who's your favourite philosopher and why?
The easiest way out of this question would be saying that I don't have a favourite philosopher. I wouldn't be lieing, but consider it too much a cop-out. There isn't one philosopher I cherish and hold dear, for they all had their faults and there isn't one philosophical system I prefer. I have weaknesses though. There are a couple of philosophers I appreciate for different reasons – or all for one and the same reason.
If there is one constant in my ways of thinking it's that everything is turned inward onto my self. I'm always very aware of me as opposed to the other, outside of my realm of experience. It led my to an amalgame of 20th century philosophers writing about experience and the other. You can probably come up with the names already: there's Emmanuel Lévinas, Jean-Paul Sartre (obviously flawed in his thinking and too strict – he isn't one of my favourites, but I did turn to him at a moment in time), the wonderful Albert Camus (I should read more of his literature), and Ludwig Wittgenstein. The last philosopher might seem a bit strange in this line, but a wonderful class on his thinking, given by one of my favourite professors, made sure that, for me, Wittgenstein's thinking is a search for the ways in which we interact.
One more I'll add: Hannah Arendt, whose Life of the Mind is a very intuitive recount of how people think. As an added bonus she thoroughly critiques Kant.
If you didn't teach what would you do for a living?
Ah, the age-old question: What do you want to do for a living? Not answering that question is what led me to teaching in the first place, because I don't know what I want to do for a living.
The answer I can give is two-fold. First I can consider what I would be hadn't I chosen to study philosophy and ethics. I'd probably studied science then: bio-engineering. You'd have found me in a lab of some kind, meddling with the genes of plants and mice and men. I loved the couple of chapters we had on genetics in our high school biology classes. Or I could have chosen physics and specialise in quantum-physics. I have quite an interest in the unseeable.
But I didn't study any of those. I'd had enough of science when I went off to university. I wanted to do something that wasn't so mainstream (and I'm too lazy to spend all my time studying). So philosophy it was, with a master's degree in Cultural Studies. That's where I deepened my love for theatre and performance arts. If I hadn't landed a teaching job, I'd probably work in that field as a critic or a dramaturge or maybe even a writer. That's my ultimate dream job: writing for a living. If only someone would pay me for blogging...
If you could bring a CD player and only 3 CDs on a desert island (sorry no ipod, no mp3 player) which CDs would you choose?
Those CDs would have to do a couple of things: reflect a diversity of moods, entertain me and I'd never get bored of them.
Pulp, HITS, has already shown its worth, because it's the CD that kept us going in Canada.
Massive Attack's first record, Blue Lines, is coming as well. Whatever my mood, I always enjoy it, if only for the great line "I was looking back to see if you were looking back at me to see me looking back at you."
The third one is a bit more difficult. True to my icon it'll have to be Daan, but which record I'm not so sure off. I'll go for Bridge Burner, his second solo album.
Now I hope there's some electricity on that island of yours...
Lately we discussed celebrity crushes on LJ... Have you ever had an internet crush? If so, tell us about it.
Do you find it strange when I say no? A crush starts on a very unconscious level and always involves some kind of sexual tension. Developing a crush, being aware of it, is a process that can take months. I fall in love quite easily, can be struck by words, by discussions, by thoughts on screens, but I fall out of love without consciously noticing the butterflies. In hindsight there might have been crushes. I used to lurk for months on the Cross and Stake before posting and there were regulars whose posts and musings I'd read religiously. Is that a crush? Mainly I just started reading because of first impressions, i.e. the name they gave themselves. In real life, where people have faces before names, it is these first impressions that lead me to a genuine crush, the one with the missing the other and looking for his or her face in a crowd etc. I never had that kind of internet crush, maybe because I need a bit more interaction to get to that stage of having a crush, and I can add that a lot of the first impressions on the good old C&S didn't stick.
Writing reveals a lot about someone. I've read a bit of Frances' writings in English and I've always wondered what she would write in French... What would be her words? Would you write something in French for me? Topic of your choice. Just a snippet. 100 words.
This is the most difficult of the questions, because as far as the language of Molière goes, I can handle myself when someone asks for directions. I'm crap at it when expressing myself, because of a limited vocabulary. That doesn't mean I won't take up the challenge. I didn't count the words.
Une histoire d'amour
Elle ne veut plus. Ne soyant qu'un spectre, elle se traîne dans les journées. La lumière à la fin du tunnel lui a passé. Il n'y a que l'obscurité, le sombre.
Jusqu'au jeudi. Une clarté illumine son âme. En ce moment, cette petite instant, ce millième d'une seconde, elle sait ce qu'elle veut: être vivante comme elle l'est maintenant. Il y a de la lumière; il y a un but. Elle aime.
Mais le vendredi arrive avec les rêves brisées et le cœur tellement déchiré qu'elle ne veut plus. Elle ne veut plus aimer et souffrir la douleur dans son cœur.
Pourtant la souffrance finit le jeudi suivant quand elle sera ravissante.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-05-07 08:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-07 08:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-07 08:12 am (UTC)I'm quite good with the celeb fantasies myself. Tend to call them celeb crushes and pretend to know the person, though. ;-)
So the first impressions didn't stick?
I think one thing about a crush is that you build this ideal person in your head, and then that person suddenly goes and says something you don't agree with, or you didn't think they would be like that, and your whole image is flawed, and well, goodbye crush.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-07 08:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-07 08:09 am (UTC)Thanks for replying.
Don't worry, I've been told that there's sometimes a hatch on desert islands, where you can find electricity!
I never had that kind of internet crush, maybe because I need a bit more interaction to get to that stage of having a crush, and I can add that a lot of the first impressions on the good old C&S didn't stick.
I agree that crushing implies interactions. That's why I don't believe in Celeb crushes, rather in Celeb fantasies.
But I do think that one can crush through the Internet. I saw it several times, and I had a crush on someone myself...
So the first impressions didn't stick? I'm soooooooo curious now!
And the snippet is quite poetic!
no subject
Date: 2006-05-07 08:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-07 08:17 am (UTC)I tend to hit "send" too quickly. Besides I fixed a typo.
I also forgot to say, that what I prefer in Sartre and in Camus is often the plays they wrote actually!
no subject
Date: 2006-05-07 08:24 am (UTC)