Summary

The website content reflects the author's contemplation on an ideal imaginary dinner party, featuring a diverse cast of fictional and real-life characters, each embodying qualities that resonate with the author's personal values and intellectual curiosities.

Abstract

The author of the web content engages in a creative exercise, envisioning an ideal dinner party with guests from both literature and reality. These guests include Esmeralda Weatherwax from Terry Pratchett's Discworld, Lucifer from the television series, Dr. House from his eponymous series, Hans Rosling, and Steven Pinker. Each character is chosen for their representation of independence, strength, and intellectual rigor. Esmeralda Weatherwax is admired for her embodiment of female empowerment and self-reliance, while Lucifer's portrayal as a complex character with a rebellious nature strikes a chord with the author's own spiritual questions. Dr. House is appreciated for his complex personality and unwavering dedication to his patients beneath a gruff exterior. Hans Rosling is recognized for his factual approach to global development and optimism about human progress, supported by extensive data analysis. Steven Pinker's work on the decline of violence resonates with the author's quest for understanding societal improvements. The author reflects on the importance of these characters in providing guidance, inspiration, and perspective on human nature and relationships.

Opinions

Esmeralda Weatherwax is revered as a symbol of female independence and strength, and her practice of "headology" is seen as a powerful form of persuasion.
The author identifies with the character of Granny Weatherwax, wishing for her guidance and strength in personal growth and resilience.
Lucifer is appreciated for his irreverent character and the depth of his relationship with his father, which mirrors the author's own complex relationship with the concept of God.
Dr. House's character is valued for his challenging of societal norms and his reminder that individuals are more than their last actions or mistakes.
Hans Rosling's data-driven optimism about global progress and his ability to counteract doomsaying narratives with facts is highly regarded.
Steven Pinker's research on the historical decline of violence is seen as foundational to the author's worldview, offering a counter-narrative to the perception of an increasingly violent world.

My ideal imaginary dinner

Timothy Key proposed a writing exercise on the theme: “Who would you invite to dinner?” for Illumination .

Here is my list:

- Esmeralda Weatherwax (a character from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld)

- Lucifer (from the eponymous series)

- Dr. House (from the eponymous series)

- Hans Rosling

- Steven Pinker

Esmeralda Weatherwax is one of the leading characters on Terry Pratchett’s Discworld.

For me, she represents the very essence of female independence, strength, and self-giving.

“Witches are not by nature gregarious, at least with other witches, and they certainly don’t have leaders. Granny Weatherwax was the most highly-regarded of the leaders they didn’t have”

Granny Weatherwax practices “headology,” a form of psychology that consists of imposing one’s will by the sole force of one’s conviction.

Why did this character resonate in me?

A few years ago, I wrote a letter to Granny asking her to give me some of her strength. I was an “Agnes Nitt” (a young witch in the Discworld ) in a man’s world without Granny to guide me. I moved to the big city without Granny to guide and protect me. It has been a long journey.

Today, I look more like a Nanny Ogg (another witch in the series), and I sometimes wish I had a Granny Weatherwax to lean on days of doubt. She would, of course, scold me when I sing the song of the hedgehog but, at the same time, would cast toad eyes at those who would disrespect me.

I wish all women and women in the making to have a Granny deep inside them or beside them. That way, they will walk through the dense and frightening black forests with a positive and determined step.

Lucifer Morning Star (from the TV show) — Character from the imagination of Neil Gaiman.

The character of Lucifer is developed here as the rebellious son, invulnerable but so vulnerable. Behind the pretext of police enigmas, celestial family relationships are dissected and analyzed. A little as if the Judeo-Christian pantheon were reanalyzed according to the Greco-Roman tradition.

I like the irreverence of Lucifer. He wonders about his relationship with his father as I wonder every day about my relationship with God. And so he only repeats to him how much he loves him, shouting at him how much he hates him.

I’m not sure that Lucifer Morning Star and Granny Weatherwax should be placed side by side. He would make indecent proposals to her, and she would stick her heel in his foot.

Dr. House

As long as we’re on such self-assured and clothed but so touching characters, I have to invite Dr. House. It would be interesting to hear his talk with Granny Weatherwax about medicine.

I love complex characters.

We tend to interact in a black and white way in our relationships. We don’t accept other people’s mistakes and find it difficult to put them into perspective. But these characters allow us to go beyond the role they play or impose themselves to play.

At first glance, Dr. House is insensitive, selfish, egocentric, and has no respect for anything. But our opinion on him changes as he battles for his patients, and we understand that the only thing that has ever mattered to him is “his patients.”

It’s easy to judge our friends on the last thing they did, or didn’t do, or hurt, or didn’t do to the end. This is often what I see around me. Dr. House reminds us we’re all more than that.

Hans Rosling:

I discovered Hans Rosling with the Tedx presentation on his grandmother’s washing machine. It’s one of my favorite videos.

He gave the presentation at a time when the fight against global warming focused on developing countries’ evolution and crystallizing fears of thousands of people getting access to technology. Hans Rosling explained the mechanism of growth and its impact on ecology.

Less well known but just as important, [https://www.gapminder.org], his website maintained today by his son Ola Rosling and his daughter-in-law Anna Rosling deals with billions of data on access to education, democracy, a multitude of indicators and their evolution over time. Hans Rosling was a champion of factuality.

When the permanent discourse is to explain to us how the world is worse off than it was 10, 20, or 30 years ago, Hans Rosling shows us why the world is collectively better off. And it feels good.

Steven Pinker wrote: “The Angel in Us — A History of Violence and its Decline.”

In this book, Steven Pinker demonstrates that violence has declined in several areas (domestic violence, state conflict, child abuse, violence against animals…) and explains the sociological, cultural, and economic causes of this evolution.

Why I would like him at my table.

It took me months to read his book. I would read a chapter and go and look in the history, or psychology, or sociology books for references, and then I would come back and think, “Yes, that’s absolutely true. That book was a discovery and a foundation for my world view.