The Questionnaire: Sarah Mesle

By The QuestionnaireMarch 15, 2013

How do you get up in the morning?


 I have two small kids. So… yeah.


 


Do you succumb to nostalgia?


This makes it sound like there was a time before nostalgia?


 


Best piece of advice you ever received?


No lie: when I was little and my dad was teaching me to play chess, he made this comment to me one time when I couldn’t decide where to move (there seemed to be nowhere to move). He said, “I think you need to start thinking of some of these obstacles as possibilities.”  This is true generally, but it’s also the most important writing advice I have, and I always pass it on to my students when they’re trying to figure out how to make an argument. The thing that seems like the obstacle to your argument is in fact the possibility of your argument, the ground where you should start.


 


Disciplined or hot dog?


Hot dog! Hot dog hot dog! LOTS OF HOT DOGS!!!


 


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


I was just talking with some friends about how teaching Hawthorne in high school kills Hawthorne for everyone, so people should just STOP DOING THAT. For the sake of Hawthorne! This seems as good a place as any to make that case.


 


Are you okay with blood?


Totally okay.


 


Who is your imagined audience? Does it at all coincide with the real one?


I can get really sermonic, and I sometimes make the mistake of imagining that my audience is somehow, like, my congregation.


 


What’s your favorite negative emotion?


Wrath. Not proud, just saying.


 


What is your go-to shoe?


Where am I going? I always pack several pairs and decide at the last minute.


 


What are you so afraid of?


Not doing it, and also of having done it and then having to deal with it. 


 


Do you require a high thread count?


YES!  Totally.  I’m glad you asked.


 


Sexy and dangerous, or brilliant and kind?


These seem like extremely odd choices.


 


Does age matter? 


Yes.


 


Does plot matter?


Well, it matters a lot to me.

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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