interviewed by alice_curiouser

[cellio]

1) What one book (religious, fictional, or other) would you say has most shaped, altered, or influenced your life, and how?

Oh, that's a good question. (That's code for "I wonder if I can figure out an answer". :-) )

It might be tempting (and predictable and easy) to say the bible, but I don't think that's it. Yes, it influenced me against the religion of my childhood and toward my religion, but that answer doesn't feel quite right somehow.

Several books were influential in my childhood, but I don't really feel their influence in adulthood. It feels wrong to choose anything read for the first time in, oh, the last ten years, because how would I know if it's had a lasting effect?

So I have a wacky thought. I haven't read this book in probably 25 years, but there is a book that helped introduce me to speculative fiction and thinking about social and not just technological and scientific factors, which I think might have helped develop the sometimes-whimsical, sometimes-practical "what if?" approach I often apply in life. That book is The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury. And having been reminded of it after all these years, I should sit down and reread it (and then maybe find out if it was a good choice for this answer :-) ).

2) How did you know that Judaism was right for you - was it an intellectual process, a "feeling" that it was the right path, a cultural appreciation that grew into more, or what?

So there I was, minding my own business, when the subject forced its way into my life. It was largely an intellectual curiosity, I thought, though the more I learned the more I found myself saying "that's me". When it clicked, though -- when I knew that it wasn't a question of whether I would convert but when -- was at a tikkun leil shavuot (all-night torah study on Shavuot) where I found myself saying "we" when talking about the revelation at Sinai. That was actually fairly early, and it was followed by a lot of navel-gazing and exploration about details and implications, but that's when the core decision was made.

3) What is your favourite movie? How many times have you seen it?

I don't have a single favorite movie; it's much more mood-dependent and fickle than that. I also don't watch a lot of movies. But that said, The Hobbit and B5: In the Beginning are ones I've come back to several times, and I'm looking forward to the publication (finally!) of The Quiet Earth this summer.

4) What one political issue *most* influences your vote? Why is that issue so important to you?

The theme of "none of the government's business" drives my voting, whether it manifests as abortion rights, use of public money (i.e. taxes) for private interests (corporate welfare), warrantless domestic spying, or interfering with the acts of consenting adults. For a long time I guess abortion was the key indicator there, but in the last few years the domestic effects of the "war on terror" have gained in prominence.

Why is it so important? While there are many other issues I care about, fundamentally, if the citizens can't be free, nothing else matters. We need to be free to speak, to assemble, to be secure in our homes, and to be given prompt and fair and public trials when accused. (This list should sound familiar.) And we need the law to apply to everyone equally. Once a government can abuse its citizens and rescind basic freedoms, it can do any damage it likes and no one can stop it.

5) Darn the luck; you've crash-landed on the proverbial desert island. Luck is with you, however, because you happened to pack a DVD player and every season of the _______________ television series. What series was that, again?

I think it has to be Babylon 5. There are good series I have watched less recently (St. Elsewhere, ST: TNG, Twilight Zone, M*A*S*H), but this desert island could be forever, and B5 has some of the most consistently-fine storytelling and presentation that I've seen, so it's hard to imagine getting sick of it. (Ok, there are a few individual episodes... but overall.)