Thursday, April 22, 2010

Thursday Thirteen: Questions for You!

Today I thought I'd pose 13 questions for you. I hope you will answer one or two of them in the comments section and come back to see what others say.


1. If you read a book that is set in your hometown, do you care if the author takes literary license to add or subtract details? For instance, if the heroine goes to Costco and there isn't a Costco within 500 miles of your town, does that bother you?

2. What is your favorite genre of books, and why?

3. Do you read poetry? If so, do you have a favorite poem or poet? What do you like about him/her?

4. Do you like where you live? If so, why? (Please don't name the place, but do note if it is rural, town, city, etc.)

5. In Genesis 4:1-26, Cain slays Abel and is banished. In 4:17 it reads: "Cain lay with his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch." Who do you think Cain married?

6. Do you think women should have the right the vote in the United States? Should they be able to own property? If yes, would you protest to keep these rights? (I know we already have these rights; I am wondering if anyone wants them enough to fight for them in this new day and age.)

7. How do you define "success"?

8. Do you think there is life elsewhere in the universe? How do you define "life" in this context? Must it be sentient beings or would finding living organisms be proof enough?

9. What is your favorite thing to study or learn about?

10. Is it okay to "say what you think" and insult people at any time, or should there be rules and manners that societies follow?

11. Do you think "going green" is a good thing? Why or why not?

12. Keeping with the green theme, why do you think the grass is always greener on the other side? Is this true? Why or why not?

13. What do you think is the ideal life? What can you do to make your own life more like this ideal?

Thursday Thirteen is played by many people. You can find a list of others who play here. My Thursday Thirteens are here. This is my 136th time to play.

22 comments:

  1. #1) I don't think there is a Costco within a state or two's distance from my hometown and everyone knows that, so I think a book would have a hard time embellishing a story about my hometown with info such as that. Country folk like things left alone.

    #4) I have a love/hate relationship with where I live. I love it's beauty. I hate many of the amenities it is lacking.

    Di

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  2. If would annoy me if the author made a glaring error about my hometown.

    Mostly I just read non-fiction, especially biographies and memoirs because I find truth so much more fascinating than fiction, and I also like to "learn" something when I read.

    Going green is good as long as it's not shoved down my throat.

    Favorite poets are Rimbaud, Baudelaire and Yeats.

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  3. Good questions- wish I even had a Costco within 500 miles.

    Have a great Thursday!
    http://harrietandfriends.com/2010/04/are-you-doing-anything-special-for-earth-day/

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  4. Good list of questions, where to begin? I like Billy Collins because I feel I am in his family of writers. He's Irish and accessible and writes like I want to write.

    I mostly read non-fiction, memoirs, and my own articles over and over!

    I like where I live and miss where I used to live.

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  5. Some really good questions. Re: #2, historical fiction if facts are interwoven accurately...which sort of answers #1 doesn't it :-) Re: # 5, have no idea but it's a good example of why the Bible shouldn't be taken literally.

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  6. Costco is a big enough detail that I would mind. The presence of one says a lot about a place.

    I live in Western Montana for the scenery. You can see pictures of it on my blog regularly.

    "Going green" became such a basic part of my life so early on that the phrase has become alien to me; as if being mindful of one's environment should be any more of a choice than being mindful of your manners.

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  7. 1. Yes, it would bother me a lot if the author added stuff that didn't exist in my hometown. I probably wouldn't mind if they added things in any other place that I've been to, but in my own hometown, I'd mind.

    2. Fantasy for escapism.

    8. I always say this, the universe is so huge, so vast, so incredible that I can't believe we can be so arrogant as to think we're the only life in this world. There's definitely life elsewhere.

    Great TT! You've given me some really thought-provoking questions. =)

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  8. #1 It would be weird if an author stated that there was a Costco in my home town since we don't even have a grocery store. There is a Costco about 40 miles away though which I shop at every few weeks.
    #8 I believe that there is life elsewhere in the universe. It would be arrogant of us to think that we were the only intelligent beings.
    #12 The grass s always greener on the other side because it is human nature to want what you don't have. Eventhough it may look greener to you - in reality it is not always so.

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  9. #1. If the book is about my hometown,I want it to be specific ang true instead of using some make up story.

    #5: it is really quite confusing, no one will understand the bible.

    #8: I do think that there is "Life' out there but I hope we just leave them alone.

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  10. What a great idea for a T-13! I wonder if I'd get a response if I tried that? Anyway, here goes:

    1. Yes it does, lol. It happened once and happens in movies/TV and I get really frustrated.

    2. I like historical fiction best.

    6. Heck yes I would protest to keep my rights!!!!!

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  11. I love where I live because it's an international small town but with lots of green parcs around and even farms, and yes it would bother me if somebody writes things which are not true about my town !
    I would always fight for women's rights !! and that in the whole world !

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  12. deep deep make me think questions. i read and write poetry favorited Dickinson, Muir, Blake many more- Success to me is doing the very best you can and being content.

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  13. What a fantastic idea for a TT! I love it!

    1. I don't like seeing movies about the town I live in cause I don't like the town I live in! (that anwers two questions, right?)

    6. I would fight for the right to vote and own property.

    9. I love learning and studing Psychology and forensics. I have a degree in Psych and wish I had one in forensics!

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  14. Wow, "Say what you think." I think that the answer to this is "almost never." A rabbi I know has taught that words have the power to injure, and that the act of embarrassing someone is equivalent to killing them.

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  15. Great idea for a list. I will have to give that a try some time. Meanwhile, I'm going to answer #3: I have MANY favorite poets, but William Stafford, Sharon Olds, Galway Kinnell, Margaret Atwood and Li-Young Lee are among my very favorites. And Robert Frost. And Theodore Roetke... See, you shouldn't have asked! Now I want to go read poetry for a bit...

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  16. 1) It bothers me when authors haven't done enough research about a place. I feel very strongly about this.

    2)These days it's nice, because folks are out there mixing up genres. I like a good fantasy/mystery/romance.

    3) I love poetry, and I would recommend Billy Collins.

    4)I'd prefer to live someplace less populated.

    8)Yes. I'm sure that there is all kinds of life out there.

    11. Yes. We live in a closed system (as it were) and as such poisoning our environment poisons us.

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  17. Creative liberty with a setting is fine, if it's properly done. I can't buy a pro hockey team in Cleveland, for example, but would happily buy a minor league team. Or a Costco where there isn't one, if it's essential to the story and not sitting on top of the hockey arena.

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  18. Good questions. My two cents. When I read a book about my home town I like the details to be accurate. Otherwise, why not make up a place? Happy TT!

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  19. Very heady questions. I think there could be life somewhere else out there. And yes I think women's rights are worth fighting for.

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  20. Seamus Heaney, Donald Hall favorite poets.

    Rules and manners are a great thing, of course occasionally rules must be broken.

    Ask my farm animals why the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.

    I LOVE where I live (rural) and believe that success and contentment are somehow intertwined.

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  21. 1. I have read books set in my city and, thankfully, the authors did get the details right. I understand the concept of creative license, but it does bug me when they don't get the little details right.

    2. I read across different genres: classics, mystery/suspense, romance, lit fic... If I don't vary genres I find I grow bored with what I am reading.

    3. Yes, I do sometimes read poetry. My favorite is actually by a French author, "Il Pleur dans mon Couer," by Paul Verlaine. The rhythm and words spoke to me the first time I read it.

    4. Yes, I like where I live. It's a mid-size city but in many ways still has a small-town feel. I did a T13 on it in 2009.

    8. Scientists prooved last summer that there is water on the moon, so yes, I do believe it possible there are other life forms in the universe.

    10. There is much to be said for civility. Saying what you think/believe is one thing, but it is possible to do so without offending everyone around you.

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  22. Wow, what a good idea for a Thursday Thirteen, Anita! If I had an hour, I could write a better answer to your excellent questions, but I've only got five minutes, so...

    #2 I like literary short fiction set in the South. Writers like Tim Gautreaux, Doris Betts, Lee Smith, Jill McCorkle. What I don't like is Southern fiction with stereotyped characters (and there's a lot of that).

    #4 I love where I live. It's private so that I can bend over pulling weeds and not worry about my underwear showing. And I can see about twenty-five miles away from my front porch, including my beloved Blue Ridge mountains. And, right now, the smell of my lilacs is drifting through my window.

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