Fantasy Favourites Read-a-thon Day 6: It's All About The Tricky Ones

Our hosts at Bookshelf Reflections and Olivia's Catastrophe have come up with a fabulous throng of questions based on some of the books we're reading this week! Some of them are really deep. I love deep questions, because they give insight to a person's innermost thoughts, what they value most and present perspectives that could be vastly different from yours.

READING UPDATE

I'm just one book away from completing my goals for the read-a-thon! Having read Cinder, Scarlet, Wake, Lullaby and Tidal, all that's left is Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone :D

Now time to get thinkin'.

Harry Potter

1. What house do you think you’d be in? What house would you be in if you could choose?
The Pottermore Sorting Hat placed me in Gryffindor, but I still would've chosen this house regardless. I'm not like super heroic or chivalrous, but I value courage immensely and it's been said that the Hat "tended to place students based on qualities they valued rather than qualities they exhibited". I have an awful temper, care a lot for others and am passionate about things I feel deeply for (read: emotional), but I do have a bit of a Slytherin streak. I'm rather ambitious, determined to achieve my dreams for the future. My self-preservation skills conflict with my caring-too-much thing which makes me come off as indecisive at times, or perhaps too detached (I especially don't open up to people whom I feel uncomfortable around and can appear as stand-offish). The weirdest thing is that I have as much capacity to be selfless as I can be selfish, depending on the circumstances.

(For those of you who're into astrology, it doesn't exactly help that I'm Piscean but my rising sign is Taurus. People who don't know me well see the Taurus most of the time.)

On a side note, I have thought about how nice it'd be to be in Hufflepuff. Queen Rowling makes a fantastic point in this interview snippet.


2. You stand in front of the mirror of Erised, which shows your greatest desire. What do you see?
I see myself doing what I love and loving what I do for my career. Hopefully that'll be photography or writing or being a professional mermaid. I'm surrounded by my parents who are safe and contented. My sister is a prima ballerina. I also have a circle of close friends whom I can finally trust.

3. What’s the first thing you would do with an Invisibility Cloak?
Hop on a plane ride to Paris and smuggle my sister under the Cloak. Alternatively, I'd be reeeaally curious and check out what the people I know do when they're alone (but of course nothing pervy like invading their washroom privacy!).

4. “The Stone will transform any metal into pure gold. It also produces the Elixir of Life, which will make the drinker immortal.” What would you do with the Philosopher’s Stone?
Make gold, sell the gold, and use the moolah for improving women and child rights, as well as alleviating poverty and disease-stricken areas. I'll also invest the money to ensure it keeps running, but not before making sure my family is well-taken care of and buying a mermaid tail for myself.

5. You’ve made enough Polyjuice Potion to turn into another person for an entire day. Who would you be and why? (For funsies, the person may be dead, alive, fictional, or real.)
I'd love to be Emma Watson while she was filming Prisoner of Azkaban or Order of the Phoenix. It must have been really cool (and challenging) to be a teen actress, especially in a Harry Potter film!

6. A Boggart turns into what they think is your biggest fear. What would your Boggart turn into?
Probably what Molly Weasley's Boggart had turned into: dead bodies of my family. If not, I think it'd be a whole bunch of creepy crawlies!

7. What would your Animagus be?
Something with wings. Maybe a crow, because they're rather intelligent and can be inconspicuous.

8. You just got access to a Pensieve and have all your memories and thoughts to access. What memory would you like to revisit?
I would like to revisit the first time my parents brought me to Tokyo Disneyland at the age of 5, specifically the moment we entered and saw Dopey. He's my favourite dwarf. The sad thing is that I can't remember the moment when I saw him and ran towards him for a hug... all I have left of our meeting is a photograph. I didn't get to see him again during my second trip to Tokyo Disneyland last year );

9. The Harry Potter universe deals with a lot of prejudice – prejudice against werewolves, inferiority of house elves, arresting and murdering Muggleborns. Hermione started S.P.E.W. (Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare) when she was 14 years old. What would your action plan against prejudice be (or are you fine with the way things are)?
I'm a feminist. I will never stop standing up for gender equality or stop trying to make people understand that women can be strong and independent, and that men can cry and be human. There's been a recent surge in media attention towards feminism, especially with Emma Watson's 'He For She' project, and I'm determined to ride that wave and do what I can to support feminism. Even if it's taking small steps like keeping my ears peeled for sexist remarks and standing up for either gender. Hopefully I'll be able to do even more in future.

10. Here’s an age-old question for you: good or evil? E.g. Would you join Voldemort because you revel in his power, or because you’re afraid of it? Would you stand down and fight Death Eaters, or hide and wait until it’s over? Please note that both sides have cookies, so that’s no valid reason to join the Dark Side.
I would fight and and do everything in my power to defend Hogwarts and my loved ones from Voldemort. There is no way in hell I would ever join the Death Eaters because harming others for the sake of a twisted, baseless prejudice is against my conscience. My self-preservation skills would most likely kick in during a battle, though, to avoid placing myself in a situation where I would be helpless — in other words, I would be far more willing to die for a loved one than for an acquaintance.

The Lunar Chronicles

1. Should you compensate your own happiness for the good of the people?
If I were not in a leadership position, it would depend on who these people are and if they're worth sacrificing anything for. And by worth sacrificing anything for, I mean if they've treated me and others around them decently and with kindness. But in the context of a leader, the answer would be hell yes because I have a duty to protect them. You can't leave people to drown when you could be their only chance at hope, and I would rather be unhappy and know I improved their lives than have everyone suffer because I chose to be selfish.

2. Should you really try to run away from your problems or face them?
Always face your problems, because only then will you be able to be true to yourself. Even if the problem doesn't get resolved the way you want it to, you still would have learnt something about yourself and others, as well as possibly reflect on how to avoid such a situation in future. Only when you face your problems can you find the courage to make a choice and change your fate. Running away just takes away your right to choose, and it will eat away at you day by day until you lose yourself to your tsunami of problems. Of course, make sure you've had enough time to think your course of action over before meeting your problem head-on. Rushing into it could have equally devastating effects as running away.

3. If someone close to you falls ill, and there is only one cure should you give it to them, or wait (endangering their life) till the cure can be replicated for others too?
A lot of my answer would depend on who 'others' are and if they're worth waiting to replicate the cure for. By worth waiting to replicate the cure for, I also mean what I said in #1: If they've treated me and others around them decently and with kindness. But I would most likely end up giving the cure to my loved one (though the only way to make me wait to replicate the cure would be to have multiple loved ones falling ill... I did NOT just tell you that).

4. In a relationship, does status matter?

"It's true that money is not the most important thing in life, but money does affect everything that is important in life." — Robert Kiyosaki, American investor and businessman

My dad summarised it to money isn't everything, but everything needs money. Essentially, while it means that there is more to life than just money, almost everything needs money nowadays — phone bills, water and electricity, food, just everything. Without money, you can't really go far. Some people even equate money to happiness, but let's not go there.

I want to modify that phrase a little to this: Status isn't everything, but (almost) everything needs status. 

What does status mean here? Let's take it to mean social standing i.e. how people view you, the amount of power you have in society and not just literally money. My country is big on meritocracy, so I'll base my opinions on that.

Let's say there were two people: A and B. A was born with a Level 0 social standing, but worked his ass off and achieved a Level 1 social standing. B was born with a Level 1 social standing, and worked his ass off to achieve a Level 2 social standing.

Now let's bring C and D into the picture. C was born with a Level 0 social standing, and lazed away and stayed at Level 0 (or perhaps even achieved -1) social standing. D was born with a Level 1 social standing, but lazed away and achieved a Level 0 social standing.

What I'm trying to say here is that strength of character > status. It is undeniable that status does open doors for you like it did for B, who worked hard and got to Level 2. But it is strength of character that really depends on whether you seize your opportunity or throw it away.

As for being in a relationship, strength of character definitely wins out. Ideally, I'd definitely pick B over A. But if B didn't exist, I'd pick A over C or D any day, because why the heck would I want a relationship with someone who is lazy doesn't work hard for himself?

I may have gone full circle and you might be thinking so really, what you're saying is that status doesn't actually matter in a relationship, right?

Nope, not really. Prejudice is prevalent in this world, and people usually don't bat an eyelid at you if you don't have money or qualifications. Let's say you wanted to do something about prejudice against the disabled. If you have social standing, GREAT. That will help you secure opportunities to do something about the issue. But unless you have strength of character, your status will probably go down the drain because you'd either piss people off or make a fool out of yourself. Without status, nobody will probably hear you out on your passion for helping the disabled. With strength of character, you have a better chance of changing the way others look at you, and then your social standing, and then do something for the disabled. Even better if you have social standing to go with your wonderful character; you'd have a lot more opportunities coming your way, including finding someone special who loves you for your character and what you do. So what I'm saying here is that while I definitely wouldn't say no to status, strength of character matters to me a whole lot more.

5. Is world peace worth compensating independence?
I don't know about you, but I'd be at war with myself every single second of my life if I gave up my independence. Does that count as peace? I think not. I'd rather fight for my independence and lose, knowing that I did my best rather than not fighting for it at all.

6. Does your race/family history affect your personality and who you are?
Yes, it definitely does. I am Chinese Singaporean, and that means I like char kway teow, satay, fried bee hoon and chilli crab. Chinese New Year is biiiiig, but not as big as in China where they get like, 15 days of holiday or something (we get only 3 days here). Knowing that my great-grandfather didn't have a lot of status back then in China makes me all the more prouder that my grandfather and father have each achieved more success than the other consecutively. If my grandfather had not migrated to Singapore in the 1930s, I would have been born in China instead of Singapore, and that makes a hella difference who I am because of the environment I grew up in.

7. If you had a super power, should you use it?
That very much depends on what the super power is and how you use it to benefit others around you. If I could breathe underwater, I'd do it every day and maybe save the occasional person from drowning. If my super power were invisibility I'd counter-rob the robbers and give the stuff back to the owners (if I were capable of tracking down the robber in the first place). But if my super power would be to zap people with lightning every time I touch them, the best way I know to benefit others would be to hole myself up like a hermit and not use my super power until I learn to control it.

8. Is love worth risking everything for?
Yes, as long as you don't hurt anyone else – especially yourself – in the process. And if there's like a war or something preventing you two from getting together, please devise a plan to stop the war first if you have the ability to. No point diving into love and getting killed anyway.

9. Is lying to someone for their own safety acceptable?
If you know the person would not listen to you at all and end up getting themselves killed, then yes, it is acceptable to lie. Just make sure not to let that person find out that you lied to them. But if the person were open to discussing and working out a compromise, then there would be no use or need for lying, because it would hurt the other party and create misunderstandings between the two of you. Personally, if I were lied to, I'd be hopping mad but try to understand where the person was coming from and how lying to me had managed to protect me.

10. Should marriage depend solely on love but also other factors?

A marriage devoid of love should never happen, in my opinion. But compatibility and passion matter too. It's useless having a whirlwind romance and marrying, only to divorce each other because they can't stand animal fur and you can't live without dogs.


... that actually sapped quite a bit out of me. If you read all that, you get a kelpcake and this awesome parody of Uptown Funk — Voldemort style! <3