A Song of Ice and Fire questionnaire
May. 2nd, 2012 01:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolorosa_12I'm not sure I have the time or the inclination to participate on ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
westerosorting, but I thought the questions seemed interesting so I'm going to answer them here. That way, if I ever do change my mind, I'll have ready-made answers!
1. Describe your ideal house/home. Please go into as much detail as possible, and be sure to include your ideal geographical location in the description.
My ideal home is, I think, physically impossible, because I want it to be at once a windswept house in an isolated location and an apartment high above the streets of a bustling city. Aesthetically, the windswept house appeals to me, but I feel unsafe in anything other than an apartment building. I like to feel enclosed, surrounded by people but removed by height from the activities of the street. I want to live somewhere with views, preferably of mountains, ocean or both, and with big windows that let the light in. The walls should be filled with bookshelves. The kitchen would be huge, and well-equipped, and I would have herbs growing in windowsill gardens. I love to cook and share food with other people, so I would also want a large table (preferably old, like the one my dad has, which is several hundred years old and was first used by an ancestor of mine who was a tailor). Ideally, there would be a big bathroom with a bath. I don't have a bath right now, and I'm suffering from the lack.
There would need to be good shops nearby, especially cafes that sold decent (read: as close to Italian as possible) coffee. I need access to proper grocery stores within walking distances, as I don't drive. I can't really work out what the city is. Sometimes, when I close my eyes, it is Sydney, or an Asian city, filled with sunlight. Other times, it is London. I think, on the whole, I prefer the idea of an older European city, where the history is written in the architecture. That was a lack I always felt growing up in Australia.
2. Imagine you’re given the classic opportunity: a genie granting you three wishes. What would you wish for? Please be as elaborate as you can. Wishing for more wishes is not permitted!
This question actually paralyses me with anxiety. I have an almost crippling fear of having responsibility, and to me, being given wishes means being given a responsibility. At first I thought I would wish for something like 'the ability to take other people's pain away', but then I thought that would give me an unreasonable amount of power and authority over other people's lives. Who am I to determine how best to alleviate the pain of others? And I don't believe I have the knowledge or experience to know the consequences of taking such actions.
So then I thought to make wishes that would benefit only me, but the thought of doing so makes me feel so agonised with guilt that I couldn't even begin to articulate what it is I want.
I think if I were given three wishes, the first wish would be to give a wish to every other person in the world, the second would be that none of those wishes would harm any other person and then I'd make one wish myself, but I can't say what that wish would be.
3. In your life so far, what accomplishment are you the most proud of? Why? You can list more than one if you have trouble deciding. ;)
I am most proud of the fact that I love, and am loved. To me, to be human is to form relationships (familial, friendship, romantic), and to have people matter to you, and to matter to other people is the basis of a happy life.
4. Which of the following is most important to you: Love, Money, Knowledge, Family, Friendship, Adventure, or Pleasure? Which is the least important to you? Please explain why for each choice.
Without a doubt, love. I should clarify, though, and say that when I say 'love' I don't only mean romantic love. I love my family, and I love my friends. It is a different kind of love to romantic love, but it is equally important. If you can just love, almost all other things will follow (perhaps not money or material things, but certainly adventure, knowledge and pleasure).
On a practical level, money is important, but on an existential level, it is of the lowest importance to me. That is, I recognise that I need a certain amount of money in order to survive, but of all the things listed in this question, money is the only one I would consider possessing in decreased amounts.
5. What's one quote (or passage, song lyric, etc.) that effectively describes you and your values? Explain.
I can't narrow this down to one quote. I have to give you two. The first is 'People who read are always a little like you. You can't just tell them, you have to tell them why,' from Pagan's Crusade by Catherine Jinks. I believe life should be full of questions and wondering, a constant process of reevaluating your beliefs and morals against new experiences. If you don't ask why, you learn nothing, and I think that learning is an important part of life.
The second is 'love, love is a verb, love is a doing word' from 'Teardrop' by Massive Attack. I think this is fairly self-explanatory. Love is not just a feeling. It should be something that you show in your actions every day.
6. How do you manage your money? On that note, how important is money/financial security to you? Go into as much detail as you can.
Until I went back to university to do postgraduate study, I managed my money very well. I never spent more than I earned, and saved so well, in fact, that nothing was ever a serious dent in my finances, even if I were to impulse-buy a $300 DVD boxset. There were reasons for this, in that I lived at home as an undergrad and Australian university is relatively cheap, so that when I did finally move out of home, I had such a cushion of money that it wasn't a struggle at all.
These days, I don't save at all, and almost all my money is spent on day-to-day living: food, rent, uni fees, transport. I manage my money by not spending it on any treats: I don't buy new clothes, I don't buy books, DVDs or music, and I only rarely do things like go to the cinema. My phone is a prepaid lump of plastic that does little more than send and receive texts and calls. My computer is eight years old. I'm careful with money, but still a little extravagant in some areas - mainly relating to food. I'm a bit of a food snob, and I'll sooner give up a type of food (at the moment, that is meat) rather than eat a poor-quality version of it. That said, I don't believe the ability to save is a moral quality, and there are usually very valid reasons why people cannot save money or have financial security. I find the belief that 'anyone can make it big if they just work hard enough' to be offensive and morally abhorrent.
Financial security is important to me, but wealth isn't. As long as I can live in a part of the world I want to live in, feed and clothe myself, I'm okay.
7. Name (and elaborate on) some of your hobbies. What are your favorite things to do outside of school/the office?
My favourite things to do involve words. I love reading, writing and talking. I'm an introvert who loves interacting with other people, which is a strange combination, but I've found ways to make it work. For example, I love talking to people via IM, but hate talking on the phone. I love hanging out with a small group of people at a pub, cafe, or in someone's house, but find parties or noisy bars really draining. I really enjoy analysing and writing about various forms of media (books, TV shows, music, internet culture), and I especially enjoy participating in discussions on these things.
I also really enjoy the outdoors. I go jogging for exercise, and although I sometimes find it a bit of a chore, I always feel happier having done it. I grew up swimming in the ocean, and it is, in my opinion, the purest form of joy there is. Hiking (as long as it's not in full sun) is also fantastic.
8. Name three things you are afraid of. Explain.
Isolation. It is my greatest fear to be alone. I think it's fairly clear from some of my other answers that I value socialising and interaction with other human beings, and the one thing that truly terrifies me is the thought of having to live completely alone. It's partly because I am an overly imaginative person and when I'm alone, I start worrying about all the ways that I could be hurt or made vulnerable, but it's also because I feel that there are many things for which I may need help or assistance, and it's that much harder to be helped when you are alone.
Not being believed or understood. I value honesty and clarity of communication, and although I struggle to tell people the truth when I fear it will hurt them or turn their anger towards me, I strive to be open and clear in all my interactions with other people. It is very difficult for me to tell a lie - you can see it in my face - and I am not a very private person, so when I tell you something, you can generally be certain that I'm telling you the whole truth. I therefore find it very hurtful when people don't seem to recognise this, although I try to understand that it is other people's unique perspectives and experiences which mean that they sometimes misinterpret me, and not always due to a lack of openness or clarity on my part.
Indifference. You may have worked out by now that communication and empathy are things that I value highly. I view indifference as being the opposite of these things. Not the inability to put oneself in another's shoes, but the lack of desire to even do so.
9. Name (and elaborate on) your top three BEST and top three WORST qualities (personality-related, not physical). Please answer as fully as you can, as this is an important question.
[Note: I think that the way one sees oneself and the way others see you are very, very different, and so other people may not recognise these qualities at all.]
BEST
Empathy. I may be wrong, but I view myself as quite an empathetic and caring person. A lot of my friends come to me to talk about their problems, and while 'enjoy' is the wrong word to describe how this makes me feel, I feel fulfilled and purposeful when they do so, whether they want me to give them advice or whether they just want someone to talk to.
Self-reflection/self-knowledge. The most interesting adventure I've ever undertaken is the journey towards knowing myself completely. I don't think I will ever fully understand myself, but I think I strive every day, with every experience, to do so, and I find this quite empowering.
Work ethic. I don't stop doing things once I've started. It's partly out of a sense of shame (what would people think of me if I gave up?) and partly out of a sense of responsibility and duty to myself and others.
WORST
Passivity. Perhaps because I want everyone to like me, I have real difficulties saying no to people, or telling them things that they don't want to hear. This is a problem to the extent that I even took an assertiveness course, although what that course taught me was to understand the reasons behind my passivity. I'm not even sure that I want to be assertive, and I've found ways around it (mainly being more careful about the people I allow to be close to me).
Trust. Because I am both an honest and undemanding person, I expect other people to be the same, despite being proved, time and time again, that not everyone has my best interests at heart. I find betrayals of trust deeply, deeply hurtful because I enter all relationships assuming the other person is, at heart, kind and generous. This is not always the case.
Self-absorption. This is the flip side of self-awareness, and I have to be very careful, because there is only a thin line dividing these two qualities. It is possible to become lost in yourself, and this is something that I have struggled with in the past.
A Song of Ice and Fire Related
1.How many books from the series have you completed?
I've read the entire series.
2.Who are your favorite three characters in the series? Why?
Catelyn Stark! Oh, I love her. Let's get this out of the way. Her treatment of Jon Snow is deplorable and although it's understandable, it is not commendable. But setting that aside, I love her. She works within the confines that she's been placed in society, she works with the facts on the ground, with what she's been given, and she gets results. Or she would do if the other people around her (ugh, Robb, Ned, Lysa) weren't so bent on undoing all her good work with their naiveté, vengefulness or general incompetence. I'm a sucker for characters who are diplomats, compromisers, negotiators, and Catelyn is all of those things.
Sansa Stark. For similar reasons to Catelyn. Her journey is just incredible. She starts of the series a starry-eyed romantic, and has had cynicism forced on her through bitter experience. I think her bravery is greater than that of many other characters because she's never been taught how to be brave, or that there are forms of bravery and resistance that cannot take place on the battlefield. I admire her self-preservation.
Brienne. I deeply admire her purity of spirit, her singlemindedness and her persistence in the face of constant hardship.
3. Who are your least favorite three characters in the series? Why?
Petyr 'Littlefinger' Baelish. It should be fairly clear by now that I deplore manipulative, self-serving, dishonest people, and Petyr is this incarnate. His vengeful reaction to being unable to marry Catelyn (which is undiminished, 15 or so years on) is repellent.
Robert Baratheon. It's quite clear that he was an incompetent ruler, husband and father. While I accept that he perhaps didn't want the kingship, once he had it, he should either have stepped up, or refused to accept it. His treatment of women disgusts me.
Robb Stark. Another incompetent would-be ruler. He refused to recognise the rules of the ASoIaF universe, which are that pragmatism is the order of the day, and personal feelings need to be put to one side. He didn't listen to the advice of those more pragmatic than him. And the minute he did that, his cause was lost.
4.#1 Favorite moment in all of ASOIAF so far? Why?
When Catelyn negotiated to gain the support of the Freys. This put Robb's cause at a huge tactical advantage, and I found it exhilarating because it was an example of a different sort of power - that of diplomacy and compromise and bargaining, not violence. Of course, Robb had to go and screw everything up, though.
5. In your dream-world, how would you like to see the series end, and why?
I would like Westeros to descend into chaos, and for a fragmented, localised set of communities to emerge, each self-governing and self-sufficient. I don't believe any of the people left with aspirations to rule Westeros possess the ability to do it, and I don't believe that centralised, feudal power is a political system to be desired.
westerosorting, but I thought the questions seemed interesting so I'm going to answer them here. That way, if I ever do change my mind, I'll have ready-made answers!1. Describe your ideal house/home. Please go into as much detail as possible, and be sure to include your ideal geographical location in the description.
My ideal home is, I think, physically impossible, because I want it to be at once a windswept house in an isolated location and an apartment high above the streets of a bustling city. Aesthetically, the windswept house appeals to me, but I feel unsafe in anything other than an apartment building. I like to feel enclosed, surrounded by people but removed by height from the activities of the street. I want to live somewhere with views, preferably of mountains, ocean or both, and with big windows that let the light in. The walls should be filled with bookshelves. The kitchen would be huge, and well-equipped, and I would have herbs growing in windowsill gardens. I love to cook and share food with other people, so I would also want a large table (preferably old, like the one my dad has, which is several hundred years old and was first used by an ancestor of mine who was a tailor). Ideally, there would be a big bathroom with a bath. I don't have a bath right now, and I'm suffering from the lack.
There would need to be good shops nearby, especially cafes that sold decent (read: as close to Italian as possible) coffee. I need access to proper grocery stores within walking distances, as I don't drive. I can't really work out what the city is. Sometimes, when I close my eyes, it is Sydney, or an Asian city, filled with sunlight. Other times, it is London. I think, on the whole, I prefer the idea of an older European city, where the history is written in the architecture. That was a lack I always felt growing up in Australia.
2. Imagine you’re given the classic opportunity: a genie granting you three wishes. What would you wish for? Please be as elaborate as you can. Wishing for more wishes is not permitted!
This question actually paralyses me with anxiety. I have an almost crippling fear of having responsibility, and to me, being given wishes means being given a responsibility. At first I thought I would wish for something like 'the ability to take other people's pain away', but then I thought that would give me an unreasonable amount of power and authority over other people's lives. Who am I to determine how best to alleviate the pain of others? And I don't believe I have the knowledge or experience to know the consequences of taking such actions.
So then I thought to make wishes that would benefit only me, but the thought of doing so makes me feel so agonised with guilt that I couldn't even begin to articulate what it is I want.
I think if I were given three wishes, the first wish would be to give a wish to every other person in the world, the second would be that none of those wishes would harm any other person and then I'd make one wish myself, but I can't say what that wish would be.
3. In your life so far, what accomplishment are you the most proud of? Why? You can list more than one if you have trouble deciding. ;)
I am most proud of the fact that I love, and am loved. To me, to be human is to form relationships (familial, friendship, romantic), and to have people matter to you, and to matter to other people is the basis of a happy life.
4. Which of the following is most important to you: Love, Money, Knowledge, Family, Friendship, Adventure, or Pleasure? Which is the least important to you? Please explain why for each choice.
Without a doubt, love. I should clarify, though, and say that when I say 'love' I don't only mean romantic love. I love my family, and I love my friends. It is a different kind of love to romantic love, but it is equally important. If you can just love, almost all other things will follow (perhaps not money or material things, but certainly adventure, knowledge and pleasure).
On a practical level, money is important, but on an existential level, it is of the lowest importance to me. That is, I recognise that I need a certain amount of money in order to survive, but of all the things listed in this question, money is the only one I would consider possessing in decreased amounts.
5. What's one quote (or passage, song lyric, etc.) that effectively describes you and your values? Explain.
I can't narrow this down to one quote. I have to give you two. The first is 'People who read are always a little like you. You can't just tell them, you have to tell them why,' from Pagan's Crusade by Catherine Jinks. I believe life should be full of questions and wondering, a constant process of reevaluating your beliefs and morals against new experiences. If you don't ask why, you learn nothing, and I think that learning is an important part of life.
The second is 'love, love is a verb, love is a doing word' from 'Teardrop' by Massive Attack. I think this is fairly self-explanatory. Love is not just a feeling. It should be something that you show in your actions every day.
6. How do you manage your money? On that note, how important is money/financial security to you? Go into as much detail as you can.
Until I went back to university to do postgraduate study, I managed my money very well. I never spent more than I earned, and saved so well, in fact, that nothing was ever a serious dent in my finances, even if I were to impulse-buy a $300 DVD boxset. There were reasons for this, in that I lived at home as an undergrad and Australian university is relatively cheap, so that when I did finally move out of home, I had such a cushion of money that it wasn't a struggle at all.
These days, I don't save at all, and almost all my money is spent on day-to-day living: food, rent, uni fees, transport. I manage my money by not spending it on any treats: I don't buy new clothes, I don't buy books, DVDs or music, and I only rarely do things like go to the cinema. My phone is a prepaid lump of plastic that does little more than send and receive texts and calls. My computer is eight years old. I'm careful with money, but still a little extravagant in some areas - mainly relating to food. I'm a bit of a food snob, and I'll sooner give up a type of food (at the moment, that is meat) rather than eat a poor-quality version of it. That said, I don't believe the ability to save is a moral quality, and there are usually very valid reasons why people cannot save money or have financial security. I find the belief that 'anyone can make it big if they just work hard enough' to be offensive and morally abhorrent.
Financial security is important to me, but wealth isn't. As long as I can live in a part of the world I want to live in, feed and clothe myself, I'm okay.
7. Name (and elaborate on) some of your hobbies. What are your favorite things to do outside of school/the office?
My favourite things to do involve words. I love reading, writing and talking. I'm an introvert who loves interacting with other people, which is a strange combination, but I've found ways to make it work. For example, I love talking to people via IM, but hate talking on the phone. I love hanging out with a small group of people at a pub, cafe, or in someone's house, but find parties or noisy bars really draining. I really enjoy analysing and writing about various forms of media (books, TV shows, music, internet culture), and I especially enjoy participating in discussions on these things.
I also really enjoy the outdoors. I go jogging for exercise, and although I sometimes find it a bit of a chore, I always feel happier having done it. I grew up swimming in the ocean, and it is, in my opinion, the purest form of joy there is. Hiking (as long as it's not in full sun) is also fantastic.
8. Name three things you are afraid of. Explain.
Isolation. It is my greatest fear to be alone. I think it's fairly clear from some of my other answers that I value socialising and interaction with other human beings, and the one thing that truly terrifies me is the thought of having to live completely alone. It's partly because I am an overly imaginative person and when I'm alone, I start worrying about all the ways that I could be hurt or made vulnerable, but it's also because I feel that there are many things for which I may need help or assistance, and it's that much harder to be helped when you are alone.
Not being believed or understood. I value honesty and clarity of communication, and although I struggle to tell people the truth when I fear it will hurt them or turn their anger towards me, I strive to be open and clear in all my interactions with other people. It is very difficult for me to tell a lie - you can see it in my face - and I am not a very private person, so when I tell you something, you can generally be certain that I'm telling you the whole truth. I therefore find it very hurtful when people don't seem to recognise this, although I try to understand that it is other people's unique perspectives and experiences which mean that they sometimes misinterpret me, and not always due to a lack of openness or clarity on my part.
Indifference. You may have worked out by now that communication and empathy are things that I value highly. I view indifference as being the opposite of these things. Not the inability to put oneself in another's shoes, but the lack of desire to even do so.
9. Name (and elaborate on) your top three BEST and top three WORST qualities (personality-related, not physical). Please answer as fully as you can, as this is an important question.
[Note: I think that the way one sees oneself and the way others see you are very, very different, and so other people may not recognise these qualities at all.]
BEST
Empathy. I may be wrong, but I view myself as quite an empathetic and caring person. A lot of my friends come to me to talk about their problems, and while 'enjoy' is the wrong word to describe how this makes me feel, I feel fulfilled and purposeful when they do so, whether they want me to give them advice or whether they just want someone to talk to.
Self-reflection/self-knowledge. The most interesting adventure I've ever undertaken is the journey towards knowing myself completely. I don't think I will ever fully understand myself, but I think I strive every day, with every experience, to do so, and I find this quite empowering.
Work ethic. I don't stop doing things once I've started. It's partly out of a sense of shame (what would people think of me if I gave up?) and partly out of a sense of responsibility and duty to myself and others.
WORST
Passivity. Perhaps because I want everyone to like me, I have real difficulties saying no to people, or telling them things that they don't want to hear. This is a problem to the extent that I even took an assertiveness course, although what that course taught me was to understand the reasons behind my passivity. I'm not even sure that I want to be assertive, and I've found ways around it (mainly being more careful about the people I allow to be close to me).
Trust. Because I am both an honest and undemanding person, I expect other people to be the same, despite being proved, time and time again, that not everyone has my best interests at heart. I find betrayals of trust deeply, deeply hurtful because I enter all relationships assuming the other person is, at heart, kind and generous. This is not always the case.
Self-absorption. This is the flip side of self-awareness, and I have to be very careful, because there is only a thin line dividing these two qualities. It is possible to become lost in yourself, and this is something that I have struggled with in the past.
A Song of Ice and Fire Related
1.How many books from the series have you completed?
I've read the entire series.
2.Who are your favorite three characters in the series? Why?
Catelyn Stark! Oh, I love her. Let's get this out of the way. Her treatment of Jon Snow is deplorable and although it's understandable, it is not commendable. But setting that aside, I love her. She works within the confines that she's been placed in society, she works with the facts on the ground, with what she's been given, and she gets results. Or she would do if the other people around her (ugh, Robb, Ned, Lysa) weren't so bent on undoing all her good work with their naiveté, vengefulness or general incompetence. I'm a sucker for characters who are diplomats, compromisers, negotiators, and Catelyn is all of those things.
Sansa Stark. For similar reasons to Catelyn. Her journey is just incredible. She starts of the series a starry-eyed romantic, and has had cynicism forced on her through bitter experience. I think her bravery is greater than that of many other characters because she's never been taught how to be brave, or that there are forms of bravery and resistance that cannot take place on the battlefield. I admire her self-preservation.
Brienne. I deeply admire her purity of spirit, her singlemindedness and her persistence in the face of constant hardship.
3. Who are your least favorite three characters in the series? Why?
Petyr 'Littlefinger' Baelish. It should be fairly clear by now that I deplore manipulative, self-serving, dishonest people, and Petyr is this incarnate. His vengeful reaction to being unable to marry Catelyn (which is undiminished, 15 or so years on) is repellent.
Robert Baratheon. It's quite clear that he was an incompetent ruler, husband and father. While I accept that he perhaps didn't want the kingship, once he had it, he should either have stepped up, or refused to accept it. His treatment of women disgusts me.
Robb Stark. Another incompetent would-be ruler. He refused to recognise the rules of the ASoIaF universe, which are that pragmatism is the order of the day, and personal feelings need to be put to one side. He didn't listen to the advice of those more pragmatic than him. And the minute he did that, his cause was lost.
4.#1 Favorite moment in all of ASOIAF so far? Why?
When Catelyn negotiated to gain the support of the Freys. This put Robb's cause at a huge tactical advantage, and I found it exhilarating because it was an example of a different sort of power - that of diplomacy and compromise and bargaining, not violence. Of course, Robb had to go and screw everything up, though.
5. In your dream-world, how would you like to see the series end, and why?
I would like Westeros to descend into chaos, and for a fragmented, localised set of communities to emerge, each self-governing and self-sufficient. I don't believe any of the people left with aspirations to rule Westeros possess the ability to do it, and I don't believe that centralised, feudal power is a political system to be desired.