Flâneuse
don't ask me
- Joined
- Jan 16, 2014
- Messages
- 947
- MBTI Type
- INFP
- Enneagram
- 9w1
- Instinctual Variant
- sp/sx
1. name your five favorite fiction books (and why).
Atonement (Ian McEwan) -
All-around masterpiece, in my opinion. Emotionally and intellectually profound, amazing plot, has interesting and realistic characters, excellent use of the omniscient P.O.V., ingenious narrative structure.
The Comfort of Strangers (Ian McEwan) - (A young couple on vacation lets down their guard around an intriguing (but increasingly sinister) local couple, getting drawn into their world.) Explores some of the most disturbing aspects of human nature without being gratuitously morbid -- instead of simply wallowing in darkness and misery like some other macabre works of art, it is a thought-provoking exploration of evil. Its themes include sadism, domination, and masochism, how these things may be an inherent part of sexual passion, and how many of the very qualities that make people good (compassion, innocence, etc.) can also make them vulnerable to others who lack those qualities.
Mrs. Dalloway (Virginia Woolf) - I love books that explore the inner lives of multiple characters, and contrast them with others' perceptions and with simple surface reality. I also like the concept of a book covering a single day within the minds of the characters, instead of an epic that covers the external events over the main character's lifespan.
Stones from the River (Ursula Hegi) - (During WWII in Germany, a woman with dwarfism faces discrimination and finds the courage to help those who face even more severe prejudice.) Not one of the "best" books I've read, but definitely one of my favorite because of its complex and realistic characters, emotional richness, and unflinching look at the ugliness of war and human cruelty.
1984 (George Orwell) - My favorite dystopian novel, hands down. I love Orwell's ideas about how a government could control people not only by means of threats and physical force, but also by controlling language, which limits peoples' very ability to think and coherently question their government.
2. your favorite subjects from school that you would actually read for pleasure.
history, English, biology
3. are you fascinated in the duality of good vs. evil, light vs. dark? - Yes, "good vs. evil" more than "light vs. dark", but I think more about how others define good and evil and behave according to those standards more than I think about good and evil itself. Lately, I've been especially interested in how strong convictions about good and evil paired with low compassion can actually lead someone to do great harm to others.
4. do you want to understand how evil works? Yes (most of the time). I think insight into evil is very important in being able to confront it, especially in yourself. But honestly, sometimes when I'm feeling hypersensitive and easily disturbed I would rather bury my head in the sand and pretend evil doesn't exist (the problem of sensitivity without strength).
5. what are the topics of some of your favorite daydreams? Being mutually madly in love with someone and being in a long-term relationship. However, my daydreams need some realism in them or else they just feel dishonest and unsatisfying, so many of my daydreams about romantic love end up complicated and semi-depressing. I don't daydream to soothe myself (things like fluffy movies and light reading fill that role), but instead to stir up intensity I don't often get from real life.
6. what is fascinates you most? Consciousness and its origins, the human mind and experience, individual people I've encountered, animals' minds and experiences to a lesser degree, ethics, art and how/why it moves us.
7. what do you think about the interconnection between humans and all that is?
In a nutshell: I don't know if we're spiritually/metaphysically connected to one another and to the universe, but I believe that we should act as though we are. I think it may be possible (maybe
) that there's some kind of ultimate mind that all conscious beings share that goes deeper than our impermanent individual minds and that death, or the annihilation of the individual self, results in union with this Ultimate Mind.
However, I usually lean toward the view that we're similar but ultimately entirely separate beings, that we live in a cold and spiritually vacuous universe, that death is simply total annihilation, and that "true connection" is impossible, or at least that all deeper connection is flawed, incomplete and transient. When it comes to revealing the deepest layers of ourselves, it's like we're in bubbles, trying to communicate with different forms of sign language. Still, I think that attempting to connect with others is one of the most essential things, and that without those rare moments of (partial) deeper understanding, life is barely worth it.
Most obvious difference between ISFPs and INFPs: once you get them talking, INFPs are long-winded as fuck.
Atonement (Ian McEwan) -
The Comfort of Strangers (Ian McEwan) - (A young couple on vacation lets down their guard around an intriguing (but increasingly sinister) local couple, getting drawn into their world.) Explores some of the most disturbing aspects of human nature without being gratuitously morbid -- instead of simply wallowing in darkness and misery like some other macabre works of art, it is a thought-provoking exploration of evil. Its themes include sadism, domination, and masochism, how these things may be an inherent part of sexual passion, and how many of the very qualities that make people good (compassion, innocence, etc.) can also make them vulnerable to others who lack those qualities.
Mrs. Dalloway (Virginia Woolf) - I love books that explore the inner lives of multiple characters, and contrast them with others' perceptions and with simple surface reality. I also like the concept of a book covering a single day within the minds of the characters, instead of an epic that covers the external events over the main character's lifespan.
Stones from the River (Ursula Hegi) - (During WWII in Germany, a woman with dwarfism faces discrimination and finds the courage to help those who face even more severe prejudice.) Not one of the "best" books I've read, but definitely one of my favorite because of its complex and realistic characters, emotional richness, and unflinching look at the ugliness of war and human cruelty.
1984 (George Orwell) - My favorite dystopian novel, hands down. I love Orwell's ideas about how a government could control people not only by means of threats and physical force, but also by controlling language, which limits peoples' very ability to think and coherently question their government.
2. your favorite subjects from school that you would actually read for pleasure.
history, English, biology
3. are you fascinated in the duality of good vs. evil, light vs. dark? - Yes, "good vs. evil" more than "light vs. dark", but I think more about how others define good and evil and behave according to those standards more than I think about good and evil itself. Lately, I've been especially interested in how strong convictions about good and evil paired with low compassion can actually lead someone to do great harm to others.
4. do you want to understand how evil works? Yes (most of the time). I think insight into evil is very important in being able to confront it, especially in yourself. But honestly, sometimes when I'm feeling hypersensitive and easily disturbed I would rather bury my head in the sand and pretend evil doesn't exist (the problem of sensitivity without strength).
5. what are the topics of some of your favorite daydreams? Being mutually madly in love with someone and being in a long-term relationship. However, my daydreams need some realism in them or else they just feel dishonest and unsatisfying, so many of my daydreams about romantic love end up complicated and semi-depressing. I don't daydream to soothe myself (things like fluffy movies and light reading fill that role), but instead to stir up intensity I don't often get from real life.
6. what is fascinates you most? Consciousness and its origins, the human mind and experience, individual people I've encountered, animals' minds and experiences to a lesser degree, ethics, art and how/why it moves us.
7. what do you think about the interconnection between humans and all that is?
In a nutshell: I don't know if we're spiritually/metaphysically connected to one another and to the universe, but I believe that we should act as though we are. I think it may be possible (maybe
) that there's some kind of ultimate mind that all conscious beings share that goes deeper than our impermanent individual minds and that death, or the annihilation of the individual self, results in union with this Ultimate Mind.However, I usually lean toward the view that we're similar but ultimately entirely separate beings, that we live in a cold and spiritually vacuous universe, that death is simply total annihilation, and that "true connection" is impossible, or at least that all deeper connection is flawed, incomplete and transient. When it comes to revealing the deepest layers of ourselves, it's like we're in bubbles, trying to communicate with different forms of sign language. Still, I think that attempting to connect with others is one of the most essential things, and that without those rare moments of (partial) deeper understanding, life is barely worth it.
Most obvious difference between ISFPs and INFPs: once you get them talking, INFPs are long-winded as fuck.
