Monday, December 15, 2008

watership down the rye


If you were a book what book would you be? This quiz ran at Inside Candy and it intrigued me, so I took the test. Three times I took it. Then over the weekend I asked Mike the one early question that I answered two different ways, thus leading to the varying series of questions that led to two separate results. He agreed that I'd gotten it wrong about myself the first time, so I negated being Catcher in the Rye. Besides, I twice came out as Watership Down and that was even with a slight variation in responses. (Incidentally, the results of Mike's quiz were a work I've never heard of....)


Nevertheless, there is some truth about me in the narrative about Catcher in the Rye, so I'm including it also. Where not applicable now, it sounds like my drinking years to me. The part about running away from everything describes me to a tee then, and I imagine the part about my fans being infamous psychotics fits nicely into that former life as well.

I've had lots of books in my life, which means I have lots of books....because I rarely purge my shelves. But one of the few that I did get rid of ages ago was Watership Down! I vaguely remember not reading far before I desperately wanted to move on to something else. Could it be that I was (a la the Catcher part of me) running away from self-discovery?



My results say:

Though many think of you as a bit young, even childish, you're
actually incredibly deep and complex. You show people the need to rethink
their assumptions, and confront them on everything from how they think to
where they build their houses. You might be one of the greatest people of all
time. You'd be recognized as such if you weren't always talking about talking rabbits.



Take the Book Quiz at the Blue Pyramid.



Results say:

You are surrounded by phonies, and boy are you sick of them!
In an ongoing struggle to search for a land without phonies, you
end up running away from everything, from school to consequences.
In this process, you reveal that many people in your life have
suffered torments and all you really want to do is catch them as they
fall. Perhaps using a baseball mitt. Your biggest fans are infamous psychotics.

`

21 comments:

dianasfaria.com said...

I'm not surprised you are the Watership Down, you are definitely one of the greatest people of all time & I'd venture to say it is exactly because you do acknowledge your talking rabbits!
This is great, I can't wait to take the test.

robin ann mcintosh said...

the phonies! I forgot all about the phonies, yes I did, but now that they are back at the forefront of my mind, I'm surrounded :)

I watched Breakfast at Tiffany's recently- I think I'm a phony, but a real phony, a good one.

Maybe we all are...

ok, now I have to take the test!

Anonymous said...

Lydia,

What an interesting quiz--and you know, I thought part of the description was actually quite accurate (although I am not lonely and I don't think I am struggling all that much now). But as far as the past, right on!

You're One Hundred Years of Solitude!
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Lonely and struggling, you've been around for a very long time. Conflict has filled most of your life and torn apart nearly everyone you know. Yet there is something majestic and even epic about your presence in the world. You love life all the more for having seen its decimation. After all, it takes a village

Thanks for the book quiz--I can't wait to give it to my hubby!

Melinda

Unknown said...

i remember reading catcher in the rye a few years ago and absolutely loathing it. i've had a number of people tell me that it's one of those books that you need to re-read at different stages in your life, so i think that your post has inspired me to go back and read it again, maybe give it a second chance.

but i definitely agree with your results from watership down, minus the rabbits, and more so about being one of the greatest people of all time (:

when i took the quiz it told me that i was...

You're A Prayer for Owen Meany!
by John Irving
Despite humble and perhaps literally small beginnings, you inspire faith in almost everyone you know. You are an agent of higher powers, and you manifest this fact in mysterious and loud ways. A sense of destiny pervades your every waking moment, and you prepare with great detail for destiny fulfilled. When you speak, IT SOUNDS LIKE THIS!

i'm not sure that i frequently speak in all caps, but i like the part about inspiring faith.
what an interesting quiz!

Lydia said...

Lily,
Aw, thanks much. Please let me know what book you are. I think this is pretty interesting stuff.
I hope you're doing better day by day.....

Little Bird,
You made me want to see Breakfast at Tiffany's again. It's a marvelous movie. You pose some interesting thoughts here, also! After you take the quiz I hope you let me know your book.

Melinda,
I must say that I tingled when I read the description of You the Book! I think that in your case this quiz has hit on both your former and present selves with a lot of clarity. "Yet there is something majestic and even epic about your presence in the world." Wow, that's true!
(How did your husband's quiz turn out? My husband the book is Goedel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid, by Douglas Hofstadter....never heard of this book but the description pegged Mike!)

Rachael,
Aw, thanks much. You know, I'm not sure I'd have thought to read Catcher in the Rye again until you wrote that. Now...maybe. I must for sure read Watership Down, though.
You the Book turned out to be a big-time favorite of one of my cousins. I should read that one too! You DO inspire faith and this really sounds like you, too: "A sense of destiny pervades your every waking moment, and you prepare with great detail for destiny fulfilled."

Don't Feed The Pixies said...

I came out as Alice's Adventures In Wonderland - which in a strange way is entirely accurate...although i associate more closely with Jabberwocky cos of all the nonsense i talk!

Also - Jabberwocky is a good, but very odd film by Terry Gilliam (have i mentioned i like his stuff - oh only once or twice!)

Unknown said...

What book would I be?
Wow! That is a tough one.
Can I be a library? I think that would be an unfair answer.
At this moment I would be "The wisdom of the sand" Probable by tomorrow I would have change my mind already.
On the other hand...
You are the only person that would read my blog at 1 am!
Thank you for your comment.
I feel much better now:)

Lydia said...

DFTP,
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland does remind me of how your mind works. I wish you'd print the description so we can read more about it.
So strange, but I was just looking for a poem to post on my latest post and Jabberwocky came up on the page, but I didn't click on that link....

Buddha,
You can't get off that easily! You MUST take the quiz. Click on that link in the middle of my post. The quiz has only six questions. I'm anxious to see what book you are according to that book quiz!

I am SO glad you feel better now. Count on me to be your late (or early) reader much of the time!

Don't Feed The Pixies said...

Lydia: just for you xx:

After stumbling down the wrong turn in life, you've had your mind opened to a number of strange and curious things. As life grows curiouser and curiouser, you have to ask yourself what's real and what's the picture of illusion. Little is coming to your aid in discerning fantasy from fact, but the line between them is so blurry that it's starting not to matter. Be careful around rabbit holes and those who smile to much, and just avoid hat shops altogether.

dianasfaria.com said...

Hi again! I am feeling better everyday, thanks Lydia.
I took the quiz & posted about it over on my LHAB.
Thanks for the inspiration. It was fun.
I turned out to be Siddhartha which is funny when I think of how I responded to Buddhas Merry Christmas post.

Unknown said...

My book is "Pale Fire" by Vladimir Nabokov and this is what the test result says:
"You're really into poetry and the interpretation thereof. Along the
road of life, you have had several identity crises which make it very unclear who you are, let alone how to interpret poetry. You probably came from a foreign country, but
then again you seem foreign to everyone in ways unrelated to immigration. Most people
think you're quite funny, but maybe you're just sick. Talking to you ends up being much
like playing a round of the popular board game Clue."

Quite accurate except being unclear of whom I am.
Thanks yhat was fun!

j said...

I saw this on Inside Candy, but decided to actually take the quiz after seeing your link.

I hesitate to give you my book and my bleak bleak description, but here goes:

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

Harsh and bitter, you tell it like it is. This usually comes in short, dramatic spurts of spilling your guts in various ways. You carry a heavy load, and this has weighed you down with all the horrors that humanity has to offer. Having seen and done a great deal that you aren't proud of, you have no choice but to walk forward, trudging slowly through ongoing mud. In the next life, you will come back as a water buffalo.

Perhaps there is a grain of truth in it. Maybe the water buffalo part?

:)

Lydia said...

DFTP,
Aw, that was so nice of you to return with your book's description. So we both had books having something to do with rabbits, but yours is much more pixilated than mine!

Lily,
You've probably found my comment at your blog by now. Siddhartha, wow, one of my favorite books. This makes me wish we could have a cup of coffee and talk.....

Buddha,
Now. Your Book. Is the most. Amazing Description! That really sounds like you! How uncanny that it even picked up on the fact that you are from another country. The being unclear-of-who-you-are part doesn't fit, but I wonder if it related to your earlier years.
If you look at my profile list of favorite books you'll see SPEAK, MEMORY by Vladimir Nabokov (love that book). I will add Pale Fire to my list to read.

Jennifer,
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien. Hmmm. As with my husband's book (see comments to Melinda above) I have never heard of it. But boy am I curious about it...
Now, what it described....some of that rings true for me as one of your big fans. Here's how. The events described in the pieces you've presented at your blog ARE both harsh and bitter. I have never thought that you have been left harsh and bitter as a result of having lived through them, however. And, Jenn, you have sent them out there to your readers without fanfare in a way that could definitely be described as "spilling your guts." I've been grateful that the pieces to your story came in those relatively "short spurts" because they are so dramatic and so honest that at times I feel my heart will break. The bit about not being proud of things in your life doesn't ring true. Again, I think your expression is one of honesty and certainly not shame.

I, for one, am so very grateful that you are an accomplished human writer and have saved your incarnation as a water buffalo for another age. :)

Anonymous said...

Definitely didn't see this one coming:

You're The Guns of August!
by Barbara Tuchman
Though you're interested in war, what you really want to know is what causes war. You're out to expose imperialism, militarism, and nationalism for what they really are. Nevertheless, you're always living in the past and have a hard time dealing with what's going on today. You're also far more focused on Europe than anywhere else in the world. A fitting motto for you might be "Guns do kill, but so can diplomats."

Lydia said...

Yoga,
Dr. Jay! Are you sure you shouldn't run by an old friend/family member any question that may have been "iffy"? There are undercurrents reminding me of your writing, though. After all, you are the absolute Cynic, and nothing gets by you. I suppose that, if you cared to, you would be the one to discover what causes war....
(have you read War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, by Chris Hedges?)

Anonymous said...

Actually, some of the questions I would have liked to have checked "other"--particularly the one about history, where I disagreed completely with both statements, but checked the one I did because I definitely have an interest in history, and am shocked that so few people can name as many presidents as I can....going backwards, W. Bush, Clinton, H.W. Bush, Reagan, Carter, Ford, Nixon, Johnson, Kennedy, Eisenhower, Truman, FDR, Hoover, Coolidge, Harding, Wilson...Teddy Roosevelt? No, there was somebody in between....
Anyway, I've never been particularly interested in war...except, to some degree, in stopping it...so, I'm much more likely to read about Gandhi or King than Churchill or Robert E. Lee, and, as a PhD student of literature, was an Americanist who made fun of the Anglophilia of so many of my fellow grad. students (and tend even to take people down a peg when they sing the praises of Europe politically. I'm all for Democratic socialism, but when the British and French attack American imperialism, it kinda sounds like washed up rock stars criticizing hip-hop).... Overall, I was hoping for Leaves of Grass, the Brothers Karamazov, Light in August, or Moby Dick, and definitely would've settled for Siddhartha or 100 Years of Solitude....

Lydia said...

Yoga,
See, my responses never led to a question about history so the quiz must build question-upon-question. Having "other" in mind on several questions means, IMHO, that you aren't really that book. We can read in others' comments what it said for Siddhartha and 100 Years of Solitude, but it would be interesting to know if the other books you were hoping for are 1)on the list of books in this quiz, and 2)what the descriptions would be.
I did notice that at Inside Candy, the blog where I originally took the quiz, one of her readers came out as Anne of Green Gables. His comment was "what a hoot!" Well, I guess!

All in all, it's been fascinating to learn more about you by virtue of what you've shared in response to the results of the quiz. In the realm of literature I would definitely describe myself as an Americanist too. btw, the Chris Hedges' book I mentioned is anti-war from the perspective of a journalist who covered many of them. He's the guy who was booed off the stage when he gave the commencement address at I forget which college. The video is pretty amazing. I don't think anyone threw any shoes at him, however....
Hey, have you ever considered running for office?

Elizabeth Halt said...

Ok .. I took it and got Watership Down.

Not a bad assessment, though I'm not sure about the "greatest people of all time" thing. Humorously, I have been talking about talking animals and trees lately because I am trying to learn animal communication.

Then I re-took it because I struggled with the first question so chose the other response, and got Anne of Green Gables (one of my most favorite books/characters).

Bright, chipper, vivid, but with the emotional fortitude of cottage cheese, you make quite an impression on everyone you meet. You're impulsive, rash, honest, and probably don't have a great relationship with your parents. People hurt your feelings constantly, but your brazen honestly doesn't exactly treat others with kid gloves. Ultimately, though, you win the hearts and minds of everyone that matters. You spell your name with an E and you want everyone to know about it.


Not a bad assessment either. And I always wanted to spell my middle name (Ann) with an E, even thought about changing it, LOL.

Very interesting!

Lydia said...

Elizabeth,
Well I think you are great, so there. You found yourself in both of the books so are you a mixture, or do you think one describes you at an earlier time and the other now (that's the way I interpreted my two). Ultimately, I just hope that people don't "hurt your feelings constantly."

Anonymous said...

Run for office? Good god...a few too many skeletons in my closet, I think....

Lydia said...

Yoga,
uh, check your email then reconsider.

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