Although I am a Mathematics major at Princeton, I take precautions to ensure that my life isn’t completely dominated by numbers. Still, if there did exist one that could describe me—it would be a 2, for those familiar with the Enneagram Personality Test, “the Helper.” I fancy myself to be a self-taught artistic dabbler, and I love producing artwork, especially for those few whom I consider to be close friends and family, on special occasions. It is my career aspiration to one day become a political economist and study political phenomena under the lens of game theory (A Beautiful Mind, anyone?) in a mathematically rigorous way.
Until then, I’m perfectly content to watch some great films and television shows. My favorite films of all-time are The Godfather and Casablanca, while my favorite film of 2012 was Michael Haneke’s Amour. I find that my tastes in visual artwork generally gravitate toward the super-realistic, explaining not only why drama is my favorite film genre but also why Chuck Close is one of my favorite painters. I also have a soft spot for period-pieces, particularly ones that are able to critique and reflect upon their own time periods (i.e., Django Unchained in film and Downton Abbey—which I recently finished!— in television). I’m a sucker for anything turn-of-the-century.
Despite this primary trend, Salvador Dali remains my favorite artist for his ability to create whimsical, at times dark and brooding, pieces of artwork without sacrificing technical realism. Again, translating this affinity into film, Blue Jasmine is thus far my favorite film of the year, and when a fellow Princeton Film Review editor showed me Synecdoche New York during my freshman year, I was spellbound. But all this mumbo-jumbo seems rather abstract—I hope you will get to know me even better through what I write!