Friday query. If you could be anyone in history

[mahnmut]

Neil Armstrong?
George Washington?
Napoleon?
Genghis Khan?

You get the idea...

Me, I'm torn between that Magellan guy and one of the guys who stepped on the Moon. Also faves are Leonardo Da Vinci, Isaac Newton and Robert Plant.

Or I could just be Adolf Hitler and instead of going into politics I would stick to painting. You?

Comments

[johnny9fingers]

Percy is a very good call excepting he had to bury his son Karac; which can't have been easy.

J S Bach died quite horribly, but not as horribly as Boethius. Beethoven was so great but you wouldn't want his life. Shaxpere... mired in the social rigidity of the Tudors and Stuarts... nah.

I think I'd want to wait to be some future person; when we have solved the problem of pain and aging and a lack of resources.

Almost everyone in history died pretty damn hard. Maximum pain with little or no alleviation. I'll pass thanks. I'd prefer modern comforts.

Ergo, Percy really is a good call; even with all the awful lyrics. (I am reminded of Hugo Dyson commenting on Tolkien reading drafts of LoTR: "Not another fucking elf.")

[dancesofthelight]

Genghis Khan.

[asthfghl]

Just some moderately famous guy who had a long, happy and fulfilled life. I'm not picky.

[johnny9fingers]

The path of sense.

[asthfghl]

I'm the eternal centrist.

[garote]

Bowie.

[johnny9fingers]

Nah. Lori Maddox is a huge blot on his escutcheon. I mean, if not for that sort of stuff, Page would have been my default call. But because of that sort of stuff, I can't regard him as praiseworthy at all, even given the body of work.

But what is interesting is that we'd all opt for a hedonist's rock 'n' roll lifestyle given the option. The problem is in finding a rockstar who was great, and had flaws you could live with.

Macca is just too boring.

Jagger might be a good call. But really, we all want to be Keef.

[garote]

Whatever, Mr. Mansplainey. I don't care about what he and Lori Mattix did or didn't get up to. I've had way more than enough sex and romance. What I'm after is what Bowie got to do on stage and screen. The songs! The costumes! The artistic reinvention! The collaborations!

[johnny9fingers]

Well if we are allowed to selectively edit the lives of those we wish to be I'll opt for J S Bach and an easy death without C18th eye operations.

[garote]

Pistol to the face at the age of 63?

[johnny9fingers]

Introduction to opium will do just fine, thanks.

[johnny9fingers]

Also, if you really want to trade insults sometime, I'm more than happy.

But otherwise you could keep it mannerly. Yes, I was born male. Your shout.

[garote]

You opened with an unsolicited explanation of how my subjective choice was "wrong". I stand by my usage of "mansplain". If you would prefer "person-splain" I will happily change to that.

[fridi]

Not to derail, but some of Hitler’s art wasn’t bad... not like some of the better known artists whose work hang in museums, but not awful.