Answering questions (including one about my name)

Originally published on 19/5. 
I want more, but okay... Thank you, Caroline and Anna, for your questions. 


What's your MBTI? 
I don't know. In recent years I generally avoid labelling myself, mostly because of my self-contradictions and inconsistency, though perhaps you could say it applies to everyone else too- human beings are too complex for that. 
This is an interesting article: http://www.wired.com/2010/08/the-personality-paradox/
For example, between introversion and extroversion, I'm more like an introvert. But living in small country of very quiet, introverted people has made me realised that I'm not as introverted as I thought- I still prefer cities to towns, being surrounded by people to being alone in a cabin in the mountain, talking to people to staring at my phone all the time... I like hanging out and talking to people and discussing things, and can talk continuously for hours. Sometimes I even feel that maybe by nature I should be more like an extrovert but experience has made me more introverted, more withdrawn, because back then in elementary school I was in some ways a leader, was also a storyteller, liked being the centre of attention, had no fear of public speaking... 
(About the last point, there was a time when I became terrified of public speaking, but I've more or less overcome that). 
Between sensing and intuition, it's hard to say. Depends, perhaps. Probably intuition, because I love literature, cinema, photography and music more than the sciences. 
Between thinking and feeling, generally speaking I'm rational, though I try not to be rigid, inflexible, extreme. I do have my principles and can till recognise good traits or talent of people I personally dislike and foibles and weaknesses of people I like. But the word "level-headed" can't be used for me because I can be short-tempered or irrational, sometimes even ridiculous, impulsive, melodramatic. If you think of Jane Austen's heroines for instance, I share Fanny's attitude about men and relationships (and many other things) but often tell people that I see myself in Marianne rather than Elinor. 
Between judging and perceiving, again it's not possible to say. Generally I respect deadlines and, if having to write an essay for instance, prepare carefully outlines and such things. But I like spontaneity too, changes, surprises (dislike repetitiveness, homogeneity and monotonousness) and am not exactly a planner. 

What Hogwarts House do you identify with? 
Don't know. So I cheated. I've taken 3 random quizzes on the internet and 2 of them sort me into Gryffindor, the other into the boring Hufflepuff (maybe it isn't boring, what I mean is that I remember nothing, absolutely nothing about it). 
Update on 20/5: According to this quiz http://www.gotoquiz.com/results/pottermore_sorting_quiz_all_possible_question, my result is 79% Ravenclaw: 
"You have been sorted into Ravenclaw, the house of intelligence, curiosity, individualism, and wit. You are amongst other Ravenclaws, such as: Cho Chang, and Luna Lovegood." 

How is it you live in Norway but don't like Ibsen? 
I've read only 1 play by Ibsen, A Doll's House (Et dukkehjem). That was in my 1st year in Norway, and at the time it didn't make an impression on me, except that I remember not liking the way Nora leaves her children. But I'll come back to Ibsen sometime. 

Favorite line from Wuthering Heights?
How can I choose? 1 example: "It was not the thorn bending to the honeysuckles, but the honeysuckles embracing the thorn." 
Or this wondrous line: "I lingered round them, under that benign sky; watched the moths fluttering among the heath and harebells; listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass; and wondered how any one could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth." 
Or this line: "My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it, I'm well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary. Nelly, I am Heathcliff - he's always, always in my mind - not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself - but as my own being; so, don't talk of our separation again - it is impracticable." 
Wuthering Heights of course is not a love story, not a beautiful one anyway. It's about obsession, dominance, hatred, revenge, it's also about class, gender, childhood trauma, abuse, animal cruelty, etc. But the image of foliage and "the eternal rocks" is just so beautiful. 

Is your name pronounced with a long E, like indeed, or a long I, like Diana? 
My name Di is pronounced more or less as /jɪ/. Like the English "yi" or the Norwegian "gi". 
The consonant D is /j/ as in "yes" /jɛs/ or "Yiddish" /ˈjɪdɪʃ/. 
The vowel is slightly longer than the short /ɪ/ and shorter than the long /iː/. 
People often pronounce it as the English "die" /dʌɪ/ or the German "die" /dɪ/ and both are inaccurate, though I do allow people to call me /dɪ/ (I can't go on correcting people every time, you see). 

Do you read biographies? If so what are your favourites? 
I rarely read biographies. But I do read autobiographies, memoirs and diaries, though not as much as novels. What comes to my mind right now is that back then as a kid I loved a book about the lives of Hollywood film stars like Vivien Leigh, Katharine Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, etc. 

Are you good at reading people's characters from photographs? 
Can't say because I haven't tried that. Probably not, photographs are stills and I prefer to guess nothing until seeing facial expressions, gestures, manners... Besides, several incidents that have occurred over the past few weeks have made me realise that I have to get rid of the habit of overthinking, interpreting things in too many ways and getting carried away in my analysing and assuming to the point of almost ruining relationships. 

What fictional characters do you identify with (other than the ones you've already mentioned)? 
Objectively speaking, I don't see identification with characters as a criterion of literary merit. But I can see some of myself in Zooey and Franny Glass, Holden Caulfield, Erika Kohut, Sula Peace, Okonkwo, Esther Greenwood, Emma Woodhouse, Caroline Helstone, Anna Karenina, Emma Bovary, Gwendolen Harleth, Frédéric Moreau, Joe Trace, Ursa Corregidora, Pechorin, the underground man, Natasha Rostova... (Yes I do notice that some of these characters are horrendous- I don't like them either. I also know that they're very different from each other, but, as written there, there's a bit of myself in each of them and I'm a bundle of contradictions). 
There's 1 person that I used to strongly identify with, not a literary character, and that was Anne Frank. 

What are your favorite movies? 
Here is 1 list: http://thelittlewhiteattic.blogspot.com/2014/04/10-films-that-im-crazy-crazy-about.html
Here is another list: http://thelittlewhiteattic.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-best-films-of-40s-50s-60s-70s-80s.html
However, the 2nd list needs to be amended- I need to find room for Witness for the Prosecution. 
Because both lists lack films from the 2010s, my favourite films from the period are The Artist, Silver Linings Playbook, Birdman, The Imitation Game, The Sessions, De rouille et d'os, The King's Speech, Black Swan, Les Misérables, Intouchables, etc. I think very highly of Nymphomaniac, though I personally don't like it. 

What do you think would have happened if Catherine had managed to bring Heathcliff back after the "I am Heathcliff" scene? 
I have to think more about it. 
What can be said now is that Catherine and Heathcliff can't be completely happy together. Their kind of love is the can't-be-without-you-can't-be-with-you kind of love. There is love and passion and understanding, but also obsession, control, torment... 

Have you ever felt like you were 'drift compatible' with someone? (as in the movie Pacific Rim) 
I don't know what that means. 

What are your feelings on feminism? 
I am a feminist. We still need feminism because gender inequality still exists; because prejudices against women still exist; because around the world lots of women are being raped, beaten, abused, discriminated against, deprived of education and employment, punished in the name of honour...; because I come from a country where 1 of the 2 words for "woman" is considered 1 of the worst insults; because even in Western democracies women still suffer from double standards, slut-shaming, victim-blaming, discrimination, condescension, doubt, lower wages... 
At the same time, feminism should be about equality, not sameness, and definitely not misandry. Men and women are different, that the differences come from upbringing, culture, society... doesn't necessarily mean they should be dismissed altogether and I don't see the point in making men and women completely the same. Then there are women who see men as "the other", as enemies, misogynists, animals, potential rapists... and I don't agree with that. That kind of thinking is extreme, narrow, restrictive. 
I don't like the way some people do, or advocate, stupid things in the name of feminism either. 

Do you have a favorite era? 
In literature, I love the 19th century: Jane Austen, the 3 Bronte sisters, Dickens, Arthur Conan Doyle, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Gogol, Lermontov, Chekhov, Flaubert... 
In films, I like the 40s- 60s, though I like films produced in that period more than films about that period. 
In music, my interests are all over the place and unsystematic, but generally speaking I'm not very fond of contemporary pop music. 

Do you ever read fanfiction?
I used to read fanfic, because a friend of mine wrote Harry Potter fanfic. But not much. I do enjoy parodies, however. 


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I do realise that some of my answers are vague and probably unsatisfactory, but hopefully they can lead to some interesting discussions.