Monday, March 30, 2009

What Would You Be for a Day?

Shrinking Violets Promotion posed the question today for introverts: what would you do if you were an extrovert for a day? I said I'd want to be at a convention so I could network with other people. I also posed the question (with no response so far): would an extrovert want to be an introvert for a day? Extroverts by definition are not as interested in their interior mental life as introverts are, so perhaps the question would never occur to them. Also, introversion isn't considered as desirable as extroversion, at least in our culture. This makes sense to some extent, as humans are social animals, so someone who didn't find social interaction especially rewarding would be at a disadvantage. However, introverts are less impulsive, and introversion is associated with intelligence. I'd like to keep those qualities, so I'll stick to being me. ;)

Switching places with someone of a different social class (or pretending to be someone of a different social class) is a common motif in fiction. From fairy tales to Shakespeare, characters have pretended to be different genders or of a higher rank than they really are. Sometimes this change is permanent, such as when Cinderella marries the prince and becomes royalty. More often, though, the person returns to her normal situation at the end of the story, hopefully having learned something from her experience.

So, let me pose this question to my readers: if you could become someone else for a day, who would you like to be? Would you want to experience being the opposite sex, someone stronger or more beautiful, or someone else altogether? Leave a comment and let me know!

2 comments:

Maria Zannini said...

I would be ME ten years ago. :o)

--and then I'd fight like hell to keep it for more than a day.

Kathryn Hupp-Harris said...

I'm with Maria, except it would be me 20 years ago.

OR I'd be someone rich and I'd write myself a big, fat check.

Seriously, I'd switch places with my 13-year-old daughter for a day just to find out what she's really up to.

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