Cosmo's New Quiz?

I was talking to someone the other day about Victorian novels and he asked: "So, are you a Charlotte or an Emily?"

It turns out that I am a Charlotte and he is an Emily. Can we still be friends?

It's funny how often one hears some version of this question. The categories are presented as mutually exclusive and the implications are, of course, much broader than which Bronte sister one prefers--the question seems to be interrogating, albeit jokingly, some deep personal truth: what kind of person are you?

Mac or PC? The answer to this seemingly neutral question about an appliance gets mapped on to a whole host of intellectual and personal qualities.

I hear this question a lot with Homer: are you an Iliad or an Odyssey? People can get pretty vocal in their advocacy, and the scope goes beyond aesthetics to politics and ethics.

At any rate, I've been trying to come up with a list of such questions--mine lean toward the literary, because that's my context--I'm curious to hear others. Got any?

Here's my list thus far of seemingly simple matters of taste which seem to be implicated in larger issues of personality or worldview:

Iliad or Odyssey

Spenser or Milton

Beatles or Rolling Stones

Charlotte or Emily

Plato or Aristotle

Pound or Eliot

Marvel or D.C.

Mac or PC

Yankees or Mets

Faulkner or Hemingway


Others?

No, *This* Is What Going Mad Feels Like

I read in the paper today that perrenial presidential candidate and professional racist Jean-Marie le Pen gave a long speech in Lille about...the environment.

I had to read the article four or five times. It was for real--le Pen said that the environment should be a top priority. And he didn't even blame global warming on the Algerians (quelle surprise, non?). Well, he almost didn't blame it on the Algerians. There was still some ugly rhetoric regarding immigration and how it was the ruination of the country.

But the environment?

Seriously, I don't have any commentary to offer or even any point I'm trying to make. It's just weird.