A bit apprehensive (another meme)

[mary_j_59]

I got this from bluestocking79, who has answered some very fascinating questions in a most articulate manner, in spite of having the flu! Here is the meme - I've seen it before, but never dared to do it:

The problem with LJ: we all think we are so close, but really, we know nothing about each other. So ask me something you want to know about me. Something that should be obvious, but you have no idea about. Ask away. Then post this in your LJ and find out what people don't know about you.

Comments

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

Wow, good questions, and I'm not sure what to answer. As to the dream home, I'm a western New Englander, and I love the landscape and climate there - it's home. But I also lived for three years in England and Europe, and there are things about that lifestyle that are much better and saner than our American one. For one thing, it's much more human in scale, and you don't have to depend on cars so much. So - as compromise, I think maybe a college town like Northampton, MA. It has public transport, there's a lot going on in the center of town itself, the landscape is quite lovely, and it's not too isolated. I'd need to be in a place with lots of trees and gardens and easy access to real countryside, but also with some real cultural life. My sister and I loved Cambridge when we were there, actually, but I would miss having hills around.

As for books and films, I think everyone who knows me knows I was enormously impacted, as a child, by A Wrinkle in Time and The Lord of the Rings. But I think I should mention the one Spielberg film I truly love, in spite of (and perhaps because of) its flaws - Empire of the Sun. At the heart of that film is an astounding performance by young Christian Bale, and considerable honesty about the amorality of the child's imagination. What a lot of people who panned the film didn't understand is simply this: it's all happening in the child's head. And it gets at the difference between the innocence of childhood - which is, as I said, essentially amoral and self-absorbed, but which is still innocent - and the innocence of Grace. Being a Spielberg film, it's sentimental in places, but I really think it may be the most honest and least sentimental film he ever made. My two cents-

[missfloraposte.livejournal.com]

When I think of New England, the first things I think of are autumnal leaves and seafood - which suggests that this is the stereotype offered in the media. Is it really like that at all?

I've never seen Empire of the Sun - I must give it a watch.

If you don't mind one more question - who is your favourite Lord of the Rings character?

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

Yes, it is actually like that. The beautiful fall colors - which are also all around down here in southern NY - are commonplace throughout the Northeast, and especially anywhere there are sugar maples. And you can get great seafood throughout New England (just as you can throughout England!), from my home state of Connecticut, on Long Island sound, right up through Maine.

My favorite character in Tolkien's epic varied with my age. As a child, I think I may have loved Legolas as much as my sister did; I also loved Eowyn. Then Aragorn was my favorite, and then Faramir, whom I still love (I still love Eowyn, too). But, nowadays, Sam Gamgee is my hero.

[missfloraposte.livejournal.com]

Wow - so the leaves thing is actually for real? That's lovely.

I think that's the thing with Lord of the Rings isn't it? There's different things that one can take from it as grows and changes. Did the films do the book justice for you?

On a slightly more lowbrow note, I thought that Faramir was a poor neglected darling in the film. ;)