Proust/Zultanski

This week’s installment of our ongoing, slightly modified, Proust Questionnaire project features poet Steven Zultanski. He is wonderful.

Introduction to Steven Zultanski

Steven Zultanski is the author of Pad (Make Now, 2010) and Cop Kisser (BookThug, forthcoming 2010). He edits President's Choice magazine, a Lil' Norton publication. You can watch his YouTube videos here.

Steven Zultanski Answers the Proust Questionnaire

Your favorite virtue.
Friendship.

Your favorite qualities in a man.
Genius.

Your favorite qualities in a woman.
Genius.

Your chief characteristic.
You tell me!
What you appreciate the most in your friends.
Wit, thought, solidarity with a common cause, the fact that they are brilliant and make brilliant things and/or otherwise engage the world in a brilliant way which changes it, the world, slightly but decidedly for the better, IMO.

Your main fault.
The tendency to hold an occasional petty grudge.

Your favorite occupation.
Teacher.

Your idea of happiness.
Working on a poem, and then eating a delicious meal with a friend, preferably with beer involved. Oh, and being in love is pretty great when it happens and isn’t terrible.

Your idea of misery.
The idea of ever returning to Buffalo.

If not yourself, who would you be?
Myself.

Where would you like to live?
NYC.

Your favorite prose authors.
Beckett, Marx, Lacan. (I’m in grad school).

Your favorite poets.
I unapologetically love my friends’ poetry more than I love anyone else’s poetry, and their work inspires me: Lawrence Giffin, Marie Buck, Brad Flis, Rob Fitterman, Kim Rosenfield, Patrick Lovelace, Eric Baus, Divya Victor, Kenneth Goldsmith, Vanessa Place, Chris Sylvester, many many more.

Your favorite heroes in fiction.
N/A

Your favorite heroines in fiction.
N/A

Your favorite painters and composers.
Painters: I don’t think about painting that much, but I like a lot of paintings very much.
Composers: I think about music more than I think about painting: Morton Feldman, Ilhan Mimaroglu, Scott Walker, Mrs. Miller, Chris Cooper / Angst Hase Pfeffer Nase, Autechre, Eliane Radigue, Kate Bush, François Bayle, Tony Conrad, Merzbow, many more.

Your heroes in “real life.”
N/A

Your favorite names.
Dr. X, Mr. X, Mrs. X, Ms. X, Señor X.

What do you hate the most?
Politically: Exploitation and imperialism. Culturally: Middlebrow and indie cultural products. Personally: The self-help-styled myth of individuality or autonomy. All these things are related, I suppose.

What military event do you admire the most?
N/A

What reform do you admire the most?
Killing this shitty health care bill and then passing a universal health care bill.

The natural talent you’d like to be gifted with.
Musical ability. Though maybe that’s not so much a natural talent.

How do you wish to die?
Old and before my companion has died and after I’ve created many things and worked hard.

What is your present state of mind?
Tired. Hopeful. Self-reflexive.

For what fault do you have the most toleration?
Rudeness when accompanied by an opinionated arrogance when accompanied by thought.

Your favorite motto.
Just do it.