62 Questions – Part Six – Princess Leia and the Phallus

I am working through Life Literacy Lab’s 62 power questions to reconnect to yourself. Let me know if you’re ready to take the challenge with me. I’d love to have a buddy!

1.  What are you grateful for?

   I am grateful for the opportunity to learn every day. For a body that gets me where I need to go, and senses that allow me to experience the world. For food to sustain me and drink to slake my thirst. For the opportunity to give and receive love. For the ability to choose. For books, and magical used book stores. For quiet. For the robin eating berries outside our window this morning.

2. What time of the day do you feel the most energetic? And what do you usually do in those moments?

   Early in the morning or very, very late at night. Is it possible to be a morning person and an insomniac at the same time? My muse is a fickle mistress… I usually end up writing. Sometimes I paint.

3. If you knew you had only one week to live, how and with whom would you spend it?

   With my family, in a huge cabin in Lake Tahoe or on the Mendocino coast, with easy access to fine food and wine. Reading, playing games, hiking, bird watching, swimming, singing and talking late into the night.

4. Why do you think your most favorite film touches you so deeply?

   Choosing a “most favorite” anything is nearly impossible for me. West Side Story and Moulin Rouge are both standing out at the moment. Apparently I am really into watching inevitable tragedy unfold.

   My favorite moments both occur after the protagonist’s death. Maria’s “…because now I have hate” monologue that leads into the Sharks and the Jets teaming up to carry Tony’s body. Oh, and when they sing There’s a Place For Us as he’s dying. ACK. In Moulin Rouge, when the curtain comes down and Satine is dying, and the audience is going crazy w/applause. They have no idea that she’s dying behind the curtain.  In summary: I really like over-dramatic death scenes. What the heck does that mean??

5. If you could be a fictional character from a movie or a novel, who would you want to be? Why?

   From a movie, Princess Leia, bar none, for the following reasons:

   1. She kicks ass.
   2. She gets into scrapes, but she is always looking for a way of escape. She doesn’t flip out, she watches and waits. She’s ready for the opportunity.
   3. She has really long hair.

   From a novel, Hester Prynne. No kidding. I think she’s one of the most interesting characters in American Lit–and doing a feminist reading of The Scarlet Letter is super fun! One of my best papers in school was entitled “Hester’s Needle,” in which I argued that Hester/her needle was the predominate phallic figure in the novel. She’s always described as being hard/penetrating her environment, and she ends up covering the town in her embroidery. Dimmesdale, to contrast, is described as being soft and “tremulous” CONSTANTLY. There’s more to the argument, but it was pretty cool.

   Yes, English majors are often sex-obsessed. Why do you ask?

 

 

 

Part Five
Part Four
Part Three
Part Two
Part One