the interview!
I don't know if you've noticed, but there's been a rash of "interview meme's" going on around the blogosphere and I am psyched to be participating in (another) one. I may (or may not) have actually *begged* to be interviewed... who can say for sure? Either way, the esteemed Roro, over at Creampuff Revolution has sent me some very important questions, and I'm going to answer them. Ready? GO!
1. Whom would you consider an imprudent poet?
Good question. First, let me explain my weird moniker to those who didn't catch it the first time I explained it awhile back. It's a rip off of some legalese and it seemed pretty clever to me when I chose it. In tort law, when determining negligence, courts generally use the "reasonably prudent person" standard (or just the "prudent person" standard if you're lazy). When I started the blog and needed a moniker, this was the first thing that popped into my head and it stuck.
So who is an imprudent poet? I'd have to say, Sylvia Plath was imprudent. Not very prudent to stick your head in the oven while your kids are just there in the other room, is it? Not so much.
2. If you could go back and deliver a message to your 15 year old self, what would it be?
This is a funny question, because, when I was a young person, I was *constantly* leaving notes for my "older" self. I saw it as a way to connect two particular points in time directly via these weird little notes I'd leave hidden in my room to find later. In fact, I have a sealed envelope on my desk that says "DO NOT OPEN UNTIL NOVEMBER 2004" that I found in a shoebox a couple weeks ago while cleaning out my closet. I turned 30 in November of 2004, so I guess (at, like, age 16) I wrote my 30 year old self a note. I didn't get to it in time, back in 2004, and I haven't yet brought myself to open it now and see what it says. Kinda strange, really. I wonder what my 16 year old self wants from my 30 year old self? And can my 32 year old self provide it?
Anyway, back to the question. The message would be: as soon as possible, take as much money as you can, and buy microsoft stock. Trust me.
3. The aliens land and we're fucked. Lawyering will get you nowhere. What survival skill will you offer the ragtag band of survivors you fall in with as you flee the advancing hordes?
Are you kidding me? I've been waiting all my life for a survival scenerio such as this one to manifest! Have you seen the movie Red Dawn? Oh yeah. Hiding in the woods, living in huts and plotting to kill the commies. Awesome. So, first of all, I love guns, so I'd bring my superior marksmanship, etc to my 'ragtag band of survivors.' Second, I'm good under pressure, so I'll bring my coolheadedness to our struggle for survival. And third, you know I've been lifting weights recently. So, I'll bring my brute strength. (SK, please stop laughing. Seriously.)
4. Who were you in your past lives?
I don't know, but if you ask my mom, I'm sure she's got some theories. That's really her department. I used to wish I'd been Jack Kerouac. I also used to think maybe I'd been Anne Sexton (another imprudent poet who killed herself a month before I was born). Now I don't think so much about it.
5. What children's book most captured your imagination?
Ok, I loved the Chronicles of Narnia, of course. And I loved another series by Lloyd Alexander called the Chronicles of Prydain. Those books were awesome. But the ONE SINGLE book that most captured my little imagination was a book called My Side of the Mountain by a woman named Jean Craighead George. It's about this little boy who runs away from home and goes to live in the woods up in the Catskills on some land owned by a distant uncle. The land is totally isolated and undeveloped and the boy does everything for himself to survive. He hollows out a giant tree stump to live in and he tames and trains a falcon to catch his food. When his old clothes start to fall apart, he makes new clothes from deer hide and he even starts cultivating berries and growing rudimentary crops. The book is part story, part survival manual, complete with sketches which illustrate how he made fish hooks, or what his house looked like. I was in the fourth grade when I read that book and it made me want to run away to live in the woods (by the way, this is something else I bring to question 3). The excitement that book inspired stuck with me over the years, I never forgot it, and just a couple years ago I went on Amazon and bought it. I read it again and it was just as awesome as I remembered. Yay for books.
And yay for interview memes. And yay for Roro! So the rules of the interview meme are these: if you want to be interviewed, you have to post me a comment and ask for it. I'll send you the questions I make up out of my own little head, and then you have to update your blog with answers to my questions. Got it? Got it. Good. So let's go.
1. Whom would you consider an imprudent poet?
Good question. First, let me explain my weird moniker to those who didn't catch it the first time I explained it awhile back. It's a rip off of some legalese and it seemed pretty clever to me when I chose it. In tort law, when determining negligence, courts generally use the "reasonably prudent person" standard (or just the "prudent person" standard if you're lazy). When I started the blog and needed a moniker, this was the first thing that popped into my head and it stuck.
So who is an imprudent poet? I'd have to say, Sylvia Plath was imprudent. Not very prudent to stick your head in the oven while your kids are just there in the other room, is it? Not so much.
2. If you could go back and deliver a message to your 15 year old self, what would it be?
This is a funny question, because, when I was a young person, I was *constantly* leaving notes for my "older" self. I saw it as a way to connect two particular points in time directly via these weird little notes I'd leave hidden in my room to find later. In fact, I have a sealed envelope on my desk that says "DO NOT OPEN UNTIL NOVEMBER 2004" that I found in a shoebox a couple weeks ago while cleaning out my closet. I turned 30 in November of 2004, so I guess (at, like, age 16) I wrote my 30 year old self a note. I didn't get to it in time, back in 2004, and I haven't yet brought myself to open it now and see what it says. Kinda strange, really. I wonder what my 16 year old self wants from my 30 year old self? And can my 32 year old self provide it?
Anyway, back to the question. The message would be: as soon as possible, take as much money as you can, and buy microsoft stock. Trust me.
3. The aliens land and we're fucked. Lawyering will get you nowhere. What survival skill will you offer the ragtag band of survivors you fall in with as you flee the advancing hordes?
Are you kidding me? I've been waiting all my life for a survival scenerio such as this one to manifest! Have you seen the movie Red Dawn? Oh yeah. Hiding in the woods, living in huts and plotting to kill the commies. Awesome. So, first of all, I love guns, so I'd bring my superior marksmanship, etc to my 'ragtag band of survivors.' Second, I'm good under pressure, so I'll bring my coolheadedness to our struggle for survival. And third, you know I've been lifting weights recently. So, I'll bring my brute strength. (SK, please stop laughing. Seriously.)
4. Who were you in your past lives?
I don't know, but if you ask my mom, I'm sure she's got some theories. That's really her department. I used to wish I'd been Jack Kerouac. I also used to think maybe I'd been Anne Sexton (another imprudent poet who killed herself a month before I was born). Now I don't think so much about it.
5. What children's book most captured your imagination?
Ok, I loved the Chronicles of Narnia, of course. And I loved another series by Lloyd Alexander called the Chronicles of Prydain. Those books were awesome. But the ONE SINGLE book that most captured my little imagination was a book called My Side of the Mountain by a woman named Jean Craighead George. It's about this little boy who runs away from home and goes to live in the woods up in the Catskills on some land owned by a distant uncle. The land is totally isolated and undeveloped and the boy does everything for himself to survive. He hollows out a giant tree stump to live in and he tames and trains a falcon to catch his food. When his old clothes start to fall apart, he makes new clothes from deer hide and he even starts cultivating berries and growing rudimentary crops. The book is part story, part survival manual, complete with sketches which illustrate how he made fish hooks, or what his house looked like. I was in the fourth grade when I read that book and it made me want to run away to live in the woods (by the way, this is something else I bring to question 3). The excitement that book inspired stuck with me over the years, I never forgot it, and just a couple years ago I went on Amazon and bought it. I read it again and it was just as awesome as I remembered. Yay for books.
And yay for interview memes. And yay for Roro! So the rules of the interview meme are these: if you want to be interviewed, you have to post me a comment and ask for it. I'll send you the questions I make up out of my own little head, and then you have to update your blog with answers to my questions. Got it? Got it. Good. So let's go.
posted by reasonably prudent poet at 11:14 AM
4 Comments:
Okay, I'm game. Ask away. Just be warned that I can be prone to snarkiness. I know. Shocking.
meme
meme me
me, me, me please
thanks
Wicked, wicked answers! Now I'm dying to know what your 16 year old self had to say to your 30 year old self. And when the aliens land, I hope I can hang out with you. I'll be the fat, knitting comic relief.
I agree with roro. The letter from your 16 year old self really piques the reader's curiosity. I remember once at camp I had to send a letter to myself for when I arrived back home. I think my greatest piece of advice was to run instead of walk. Very outdoors-y. Not very deep.
Thanks for providing awesome answers to Roro's great questions. You have inspired me to get down to answering my set of roro questions asap!
Post a Comment
<< Home