Once a king or queen in Narnia, always a king or queen
1. Name: Catharin
2. Date of birth: 8.26.83
3. Location and all the places you've lived: Two small rural cities in North Carolina, then New Orleans, Louisiana, and currently, Athens, Georgia.
4. Reason(s) for joining this community: I've always loved the books and communities like this are a great way to meet people with similar interests. :)
5. How many of the books have you read? All of them, and a couple of C.S. Lewis' other works as well.
6. Which book(s) are your favourite? Least favourite? Why? The Horse and His Boy, Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Magician's Nephew. In order...I love Talking Animals, epic voyages featuring dragons and enchanted isles, and the idea of music being used to create the world (and the lamp post growing like a tree!)
Least favorite is the Last Battle. It always confused me when I was a child, and now that I'm older and can see the parallels with the book of Revelation, I'd much rather stick to the fauns, sword fights, and talking horses of the other books.
7. Who are some of your favourite characters and why? Puddleglum, because you can't help but love poor Puddleglum, always complaining but coming to the rescue when absolutely necessary. (He reminds me so much of Marvin from HHGTTG!) I think I had a childhood crush on Prince Caspian because he was so adventuresome and brave, but I relate to Jill and Eustace more than the Pevensies. They seemed extraordinarily real, not perfect but capable of learning and bettering themselves, and eventually able to do things they never would have believed they could.
8. Who are some of your least favourite characters? Why? I was honestly a little annoyed by Reepicheep. Yes, he was heroic and faithful, but kind of obsessive, stubborn, and irritating as well. I also disliked Eustace immensely the first time I read Dawn Treader, but I've grown to like him a lot (see previous).
9. Your occupation in life: Student, journalist, teacher, and whatever else falls to me to do. :)
10. What are some of your interests and hobbies? Reading, keeping fish, canoeing, traveling, cooking, aviation, collecting 80's toys, and a whole mess of fandoms that lean strongly toward scifi.
11. If you had a choice between ending the world or saving your entire family, what would you choose? Why or why not? [If you choose to let the world live, then you're entire family would be slaughtered slowly and painfully.]
I'd have to go with saving my family because I could never knowingly let anything bad happen to them. I'd just have to trust that things on the grander scale would ultimately work out as they are meant to.
12. Let's take it back to Adam and Eve basics -- would you eat the apple? Why or why not?
I wouldn't eat the apple, but I'd probably chop down the tree and burn it. God didn't say we couldn't do THAT, now did He? ;)
13. What are some of your main pet peeves? Rude people, people who won't or can't control their screaming, squalling children in public, annoying radio DJs, restrictions placed on free speech, and most of all, news professionals who use fearmongering to sell their stories.
14. What is your heritage? [Not that this has any bearings on what or who we stamp you as, Narnia Rating doesn't discriminate. We coo' wit all y'all colors.] Scots on both sides of my family, with a little Dutch or possibly German on my mother's father's side.
15. What era do you wish you were from, or ever dreamed about visiting?
I'm just happy being where I am now. I suppose if I could visit any place from fiction, I'd choose the Isle of Numenor (from The Silmarillion) at the height of its existence, or maybe the Old Republic (from Star Wars). From the Narnia books, I'd kind of like to have been around during the golden years of the Kings and Queens' reign.
Otherwise, it would've been fun to visit San Francisco in the 1920's.
16. If you were a ruler of a formidable empire, but there was another kingdom not so formidable in battle but higher in power and rank, would you be content to live under them? Why or why not?
If they were willing to leave us in peace and not try to impose their ways on the people of my empire, I'd be perfectly happy to live *beside* them, with plenty of mutually beneficial commerce between us. That would be the best solution for everyone involved. However, I could not in good conscience accept that the people of my land be forced into *subservience*, or be made to live in fear of another empire simply because they have some higher kind of "rank". No one should have to live that way. Power, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder, and anyone taking that for granted would find him or herself in a world of trouble, should they decide to harm the citizens of my country.
17. Is it sometimes okay to cheat in games and sports? Even just a tiny bit, and the captain of the other team cheated worse than you'd think was possible to get away with? Why or why not?
No, never. It doesn't matter what the other person is doing, what counts are the decisions YOU make. Winning is not the most important thing, and besides, the truth will always out, even if it takes some time.
18. What kind of books do you like to read besides the Chronicles? What are your favourites of these books? Just about everything, with a bent toward fantasy, scifi, mystery, and contemporary fiction, with a few classics mixed in. Check out my Librarything catalog if you want further details, it would be so much easier than me rattling off my list of favorite authors.
http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?view=Catharin
19. Name a few of your favourite movies.
Gone With the Wind, Jurassic Park, Finding Nemo, To Kill a Mockingbird, His Girl Friday, Star Wars.
20. Give yourself a label, even though we hate them. If you had to, what would it be? (ex. preppy, punky, goth, weird... etc.) Brainy.
21. Name a childhood hero and why they were held as such.
My imaginary friend, a purple crocodile named Bruno. He was my hero because he would sneak out of the house at night and eat people I didn't like. >:)
22. Pick five words to describe yourself:
Independent, kind, mature, protective, imperfect.
23. Name three of your strengths and three of your talents:
Tenacity, imagination, and resiliency.
I'm a good writer, a good listener, and very good at putting bookcases together. (Don't ask.)
24. Name three of your weaknesses and three things you suck at:
I'm prideful, I worry obsessively, and I'm terminally late for everything.
Calculus, managing money, riding a bike.
25. Give us a few of your favourite quotes.
"Not all who wander are lost." --Tolkien
"I may not have gone where I intended to go,
but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." -Douglas Adams
"Belief is one of the most powerful organic forces in the multiverse.
It may not be able to move mountains, exactly.
But it can create someone who can." -Terry Pratchett
"Well-behaved women seldom make history."
26. All right, this is your one chance to bribe the mods into getting stamped as whatever you want and state something wonderfully complimenting about one or both of them. >:)
I'm sure you're both lovely people, but not knowing anything about you personally, I wouldn't know how to begin to bribe you. Er, sorry? :)
27. Anything else we've forgotten?
The kitchen sink, or my favorite color, perhaps? :P
28. Here, please attach at least three clear pictures of yourself [unless you don't have any].
I don't have any on this computer...sorry again, guess I'm not doing too well here, huh?