Há alguns meses estava entediada em Hollywood e fui revirar livros na livraria. Sempre vou de primeira nos livros pesados e grossos de fotografia, mas esse não era de fotografia e era pesado e grosso... Na capa: PROUST. Sim, sei quem Proust foi, além de grande escritor e crítico francês era também homosexual - o que na época queria dizer ser de outro planeta! Mas nesse caso não era um livro sobre a pessoa ou nem mesmo uma de suas obras, eram outras personalidades respondendo um famoso questionário feito a ele na tenra idade de 13 anos, que mostrou logo de cara que ali algo estava para surgir como um forte nome da literatura mundial.
Vou copiar aqui alguns desses questionários (e suas respostas), mas para você descobrir quem está respondendo cada um deles terá que ler até o final! Ah! E será em inglês porque todos estão em inglês e eu estou sem tempo de traduzir! Tenho dito!
QUESTIONÁRIO UM:
What is your current state of mind?
Bloodied and slightly doom-struck, but I am comfortable with these themes. I remain basically unbowed.
What is your greatest fear?
Beyond the normal issue of the mortality of my nearest and dearest, strangely it is a fear of inertia. If I stop, I may not be able to start again.
What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Whenever I’m lazy enough to assume people think like me. It’s a kind of vanity that gets me in trouble a lot. Also, I tend to project a purity of heart into people who impress me, which is very child-like.
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
The inability to think for themselves. Or the need to define one’s core in five-minute sound bites.
Which living person do you most admire?
Living? Nelson Mandela would have to go down as one of the three great figures of the last century.
Which living person do you most despise?
Very tough question. They exist in the realm of war profiteers. These men and women are the lowest form of human consciousness, truly and completely spiritually fucked. Theirs is an amazing satanic dance: create a new market with war, bar competitors from the aftermath, then pay your own companies at a cost-plus basis, which guarantees profits, all at the taxpayers’ expense. They are the biggest welfare freaks on the planet.
On what occasion do you lie?
Only when awake or speaking or looking at someone …
What or who is the greatest love of your life?
The great white buffalo.
When and where were you happiest?
Hunting it.
Which talent would you most like to have?
Music. It seems the closest art to prayer and where the shamans roam.
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
Take myself less seriously. And I would try not to be famous for at least a week or two as an adult.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
I couldn’t say I have one besides the small amount of good I’ve done for other people.
If you were to die and come back as a person or thing, what do you think it would it be?
An angelic (not demonic) non-corporeal presence. Would like to travel light.
What is your favorite occupation?
It would be great to be a medium.
Who are your favorite writers?
I can only speak to what has inspired me lately—meaning stuff I have read or reread by Garry Wills, Bob Dylan, Cormac McCarthy, Mark Leyner, Naomi Klein, Hunter S. Thompson, and J. D. Salinger.
Who is your favorite hero of fiction?
Just happened to reread Salinger, and Zooey Glass made me very happy indeed.
Who are your heroes in real life?
Let’s go with Jesus. Not the gay-hating, war-making political tool of the right, but the outcast, subversive, supreme adept who preferred the freaks and lepers and despised and doomed to the rich and powerful. The man Garry Wills describes “with the future in his eyes … paradoxically calming and provoking,” and whom Flannery O’Connor saw as “the ragged figure who moves from tree to tree in the back of [one’s] mind.”
What are your favorite names?
I like the name Doctor Zhivago.
What is your greatest regret?
That I have lived selfishly or fearfully (when I have).
How would you like to die?
While dreaming—would be a great transition.
What is your motto?
An old Yugoslavian proverb I always come back to: “Tell the truth and run.”
***
QUESTIONÁRIO DOIS:
Which historical figure do you most identify with?
George Sand.
Which living person do you most admire?
Aung San Suu Kyi.
What is your greatest fear?
The war.
What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Having too many things on my mind at the same time.
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Inconsistency.
What is your greatest extravagance?
Spending all my money when I was 17 years old to buy an Hermès Kelly bag.
What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
Beauty.
What do you dislike most about your appearance?
My left ear.
Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
Je ne finis pas mes phrases. [I do not finish my sentences.]
What or who is the greatest love of your life?
Nature.
Which talent would you most like to have?
The gift of a scientific mind.
What is your current state of mind?
Restless.
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
My future.
If you could change one thing about your family, what would it be?
Nothing.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
A wild garden.
If you were to die and come back as a person or thing, what do you think it would be?
A lime tree.
What is your most treasured possession?
Lucidity.
What is your favorite occupation?
Playing in the garden.
What is your most marked characteristic?
Impassivity.
What is the quality you most like in a man?
Fantasy and talent.
What do you most value in your friends?
Uniqueness.
Who are your favorite writers?
Rainer Maria Rilke.
Who is your favorite hero of fiction?
Mandrake the Magician.
What is it that you most dislike?
Insects.
How would you like to die?
In my sleep or standing.
What is your motto?
“À coeur vaillant, rien d’impossible.” [With a valiant heart, nothing is impossible.]
(Quem é esse?)
QUESTIONÁRIO TRÊS:
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Searching for it.
What is your greatest fear?
The violence of enlightenment.
Which living person do you most admire?
The people who work with and for me.
What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
My impatience, which can cause me to be really caustic and rude.
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Same. We detest in others what we detest in ourselves.
What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
Monogamy.
On what occasion do you lie?
When I eat sugar and say it doesn't matter.
What do you dislike most about your appearance?
My bloated stomach after eating sugar.
What is your greatest regret?
Not spending more time with my daughter when I was working.
What or who is the greatest love of your life?
My dog Terry. All of nature.
Which talent would you most like to have?
Being patient with people who have no work ethic. Maybe they have something to teach me.
What is your current state of mind?
Content, but discontent with the leadership worldwide.
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
Being able to do nothing.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
The way I think.
If you were to die and come back as a person or thing, what do you think it would be?
A zillionaire who gives away all his money. Yes, I would like to come back as a rich man who would live without corruption, respect nature, women, and small, insignificant things.
What is your most treasured possession?
Two necklaces from my Santiago de Compostela Camino. All of my animals.
What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Prison.
Where would you like to live?
Wherever I am with Terry, but not in a confined space. New Mexico is fine for me.
What is your most marked characteristic?
My humorous cynicism.
Who are your favorite writers?
Those who tell the truth about themselves.
Who is your favorite hero of fiction?
I don't read fiction. My life is fiction.
Who are your heroes in real life?
Those who are optimistic through pain. I am a physical pussy unless I'm dancing or working out.
What is it that you most dislike?
People who don't care about themselves.
What is your motto?
"I am part of God in Light."
(Quem é esse?)
Por agora já deu...
***
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