Question at Midnight #3
The Librarian by Arcimboldo
Which book would you live in?
Suppose there were an invention, like in The Kugelmass Episode, that could project you into any work of literature as a new character. What novel would you choose to live in?
The Kugelmass Episode by Woody Allen
Post your answers in Comments. The winner will be announced just before midnight tonight.
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The winner is allancarreon. (Yes, he does social media for the Library of Babel, but for once he is not disqualified. It’s a birthday contest, Zinfandel wins.) Congratulations, email saffron.safin@gmail.com to claim your prize.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
September 26th, 2014 at 00:05
Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian.
September 26th, 2014 at 00:32
Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time. With its seven volumes, I might be granted seven lives.
As opposed to this world, I might have a lot of time if I were transported to Proust’s world. Imagine how long my tea time will be and how long the taste of madeleines will linger. I’ll make sure that I’ll only eat good food.
September 26th, 2014 at 00:49
I would like to be transported and live in Jostein Gaarder’s A Solitaire Mystery.You get to travel through Europe, eat sticky buns and meet mysterious and fantastical characters (Especially the card people). And I also love how Gaarder brings out the kid in his readers, making them create a world through imagination and fascination (of his books’ plots and locations).
September 26th, 2014 at 01:19
Ian McEwan’s The Cement Garden
September 26th, 2014 at 03:24
“Through a Glass Darkly” by Karleen Koen
September 26th, 2014 at 05:39
Sense and Sensibility. So that I could maim Willoughby.
September 26th, 2014 at 07:27
The Secret History by Donna Tartt. Something about being only in a classroom of 6 appeals to me.
September 26th, 2014 at 09:34
The Lord of the Rings, of course. I must be an elf, and I would have a side quest during the War of the Ring to find out what really happened to the two Blue Wizards when they set out for the East.
As for my name, I’ll have to think about it, but Zinfandel son of Glorfindel does have a nice ring to it…
September 26th, 2014 at 10:36
reading this just made my day. :)
September 26th, 2014 at 10:40
A Nancy Drew mystery because the nail-biting stuff I like to lose myself in these days is a bit too much to bear. Nancy Drew dials the menace waaay down but she still gets to go on kickass clue-hunting adventures, drive her roadster and get to have a boyfriend who takes a backseat to her mystery solving. I’d be happy to be her John Watson.
September 26th, 2014 at 11:00
I would be the female third party in the Howard Roark-Dominique Francon affair in “The Fountainhead” by Ayn Rand. As an enigmatic passionate artist, my character would be a contrast to Dominique’s conceit and arrogance, highlighting a creator versus a pseudo-artist conflict between two women in the novel. After ditching Dominique he would fervently pursue me dedicating his greatest work of art on my behalf.
September 26th, 2014 at 12:24
Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. To wake up as a cockroach —how is that for a new experience?
September 26th, 2014 at 13:33
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Adding a twist of Pinoy teleserye style, I’d like to be one of Florentino Ariza’s lovers who would eventually find out about his first love Fermina and try to rouse a bitch fight with her in hopes that I would win Florentino’s heart. Of course it will all be about Fermina in the end, but I’m fairly happy to have one chapter written about my character.
September 26th, 2014 at 13:56
Of Mice and Men. George and Lennie could need another person on their farm. Maybe to feed the rabbits when Lennie’s not around.
September 26th, 2014 at 14:02
Few fantasies, if they ever become reality, ever turn out to be as satisfying as we imagine them to be. But if I were suddenly transported to the South of France, the one in Peter Mayle’s A Year in Provence, I know it’d be awesome. Drinking pastis in the afternoon, chatting with the neighbors, thinking about what to have for dinner, and then putting all of it in my mouth along with a glass of red later that day–now THAT’s my idea of a dream come true.
September 26th, 2014 at 14:29
Hercule Poirot in all his Agatha Christie appearances. I would almost always be right, get away with saying “little grey cells”, and most importantly, twirl a moustache.
September 26th, 2014 at 14:50
Might seem a little juvenile, but I would really like to be in any of the Harry Potter novels (because magic!) or in any of the Tortall world novels by Tamora Pierce (where I would be a female knight of course!).
September 26th, 2014 at 14:55
The Dark Tower books by Stephen King (all 8 of them). I’d love to share Roland’s quest, although based on his track record with his travel companions, I seriously doubt I’ll survive the journey.
If there’s an option for a non-fiction book, I’d choose The Joy of Gay Sex by Edmund White and Dr. Charles Silverstein. Because!
September 26th, 2014 at 15:49
Thankfully Thursday Next already arranged for Edward and Jane to end up together in The Eyre Affair, so no need to go into Jane Eyre.
If I could bring with me everything I know, I would like to go into Nineteen Eighty-Four and spend my life trying to bring down the Party. Then again, if I do, I just may end up being the same kind of tyrant. Power corrupts, after all.
For a far more pleasant life, I’d go and be a lecturer at Discworld’s Unseen University. They’ve mostly sorted out the issues with the things from the Dungeon Dimensions, and so long as I keep my head down and don’t actually use any magic, I should look forward to a century of tenure and large meals.
September 26th, 2014 at 16:53
I’ll be in X-Men: Age of Apocalypse. I’ve always wanted super powers. Plus the alternate reality presented in the comic book means I get to have another version of myself in a parallel universe.
September 26th, 2014 at 17:07
The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King. I would totally threw myself in with the Ka-tet to get a chance to walk (and fight) alongside the last gunslinger of In-World.
September 26th, 2014 at 17:50
Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier. Before reading this book, I never thought being a fossil hunter in the early 19th century would appeal to me. But I can definitely imagine myself as a third Philpot spinster living the rest of my days in the dreamy coastal town of Lyme Regis.
September 26th, 2014 at 20:11
I want to be the much younger, fabulously gay manservant/confidant of Maria Clara in Noli Me Tangere. I shall be named Rameling.
I will knock some much needed sense into that woman; tell her to join Elias’ revolution, kick Padre Salvi in the balls, and really MC, fuck the convent! If Ibarra is such a wuss, she should make a man out of him much much sooner. Then maybe, just maybe, Rizal will have created a much more fully-formed woman, not a wispy caricature that is there to just further Ibarra’s plot.
And when Maria Clara dies in battle heroically, like a much fiercer Gregoria de Jesus, I will join the students’ revolt in El Filibusterismo and be romantically involved with the bisexual and heartbroken Isagani. I will also go with Juli to that priest, and she will not be raped; we will kill that SOB and parade his worthless carcass on the streets, thus forcing her bf Basilio to be a man and join the revolution. Which by the way will totally succeed, because really, one of the many reasons why this goddamn country is so fatalistic, is because of this Padre-Florentino-telling-Simoun-the-revolution-didn’t-work-because-you-have-hatred-in-your-heart-and God-hates-that bullshit. It’s like saying these corrupt politicians should not be punished because in the end, God will punish them.
Such rubbish! Or so what Rameling would say.
September 26th, 2014 at 20:23
Rameling is very fond of the word “much”.
September 26th, 2014 at 21:15
InterWorld by Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves;
Why just live in one world when you can walk across multiverse.
September 26th, 2014 at 22:04
I’d like to be projected into Henry James’s The Beast in the Jungle so I can be John Marcher’s faghag. Yes, I think he’s gay and his love for May Bartram is purely platonic. The ” beast” that he waits for to spring upon him, that “fate” he uses as his reason for not marrying? It’s just him grappling with his sexual identify. He loves May, sure, but he just can’t be into her. I could be wrong, so I really need to get into the novella to know what’s going on (something I will never probably achieve, but what the heck, I’d love to meet John Marcher and May Bartram and tour that house). I have read this story a number of times for over a decade and I get a different understanding of that beast thing every time. I think I even mentioned in a LitWit challenge that I had a crush on John Marcher and would like to tour him around Manila.
September 26th, 2014 at 22:59
The Mythology Class ni Arnold Arre.
Masaya kung magiging isa ako sa mga estudyanteng napili.
September 26th, 2014 at 23:17
I’ll be a Filipino exchange student in Hogwarts, please.
September 26th, 2014 at 23:36
I think I would choose the world of any of Thomas Hardy’s works. I’ve always wondered what’s it like to live in 19th century rural England. Hardy’s superb descriptions of the moors and the heaths seem to be gravitational fields that tirelessly pull me away from my drab present-day existence. I could either be friends with his female characters (Tess’ bitchy coworker in the dairy) or I could be someone who seduces the men (Sergeant Troy is one of my all-time literary crushes).
September 27th, 2014 at 00:00
This contest is now closed. The next Question at Midnight will be up shortly.