The Questionnaire: Leo Braudy

By The QuestionnaireMarch 26, 2012

How do you get up in the morning? 


SLOWLY.


 


Do you succumb to nostalgia? 


ONLY AFTER THINGS ARE OVER.


 


Do you write long and cut, or short and backfill? 


LONG AND CUT.


 


How do you feel about your Wikipedia entry? 


MY TA WROTE IT.


 


Lunch with any three people who ever lived; who do you invite? 


NORMAN MAILER, HYPATIA, AND GLORIA GRAHAME.


 


Best piece of advice you ever received? 


IF YOU DON'T FINISH READING THAT NEW YORKER SEVEN-PART SERIES OF ARTICLES, NO ONE WILL EVER KNOW.


 


Disciplined or hot dog? 


OCD.


 


Have you ever been defeated by a genre?


ONLY IN ARM-WRESTLING.


 


Which classic author would you like to see kicked out of the pantheon?


PERCY SHELLEY, PHILIP ROTH.


 


Are you okay with blood? 


WHOSE?


 


What's your favorite negative emotion? 


SCHADENFREUDE.


 


Is your study neat, or, like John Muir's, is your desk and floor covered in


"lateral, medial, and terminal moraines"? 


LIKE AN ARCHEOLOGICAL DIG.


 


What are you so afraid of? 


BEING BORING.


 


How long can you go without putting paw to keyboard? 


WHAT'S THE ALTERNATIVE?


 


Do you require a high thread count? 


400 IS ENOUGH, 600 PREFERABLE.


 


Who reads you first? 


DOROTHY.


 


Sexy and dangerous, or brilliant and kind? 


WHY CHOOSE?


 


What character or story haunts you? 


"WILLIAM WILSON" STILL SEEMS SPOOKY.


 


Does plot matter? 


PRIMARILY IN THE GARDEN.


 


Does age matter? 


DOES MATTER MATTER?


 


Do you prefer to write standing, or must you lie prone in a field of dandelions with a steno pad and a good pen? Or what? 


LISTENING TO MUSIC.


 


Is there a literary community?


ONLY IN THAI RESTAURANTS.


 


 

LARB Contributor

The Questionnaire is, as her name suggests, a multifarious and mysterious interlocutor. Chameleon-like, her questions change their color as they approach each new interviewee.

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