On Demand
Survival Kit
Sunday, December 08, 2002
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P.J. O'Rourke
P.J. O’Rourke’s idea of a “solo survival course” is “looking for food, clothes and the TV remote while his wife visits her sister in Atlanta.” He’s toured the world’s trouble spots to report on the lighter side of war, famine, pestilence, natural disasters and the like, for such journals as Atlantic Monthly and Rolling Stone, and written 10 books, including Eat the Rich, Parliament of Whores, Give War a Chance, and The CEO of the Sofa. But lately, since becoming a father, he’s expressed a preference for working from home. I’ve asked him to take it a step further, and head off to a truly isolated place, and tell me what he’d put in his survival kit.
His list:
1. A la Recherche du Temps Perdu by Marcel Proust
2. The Poetry of Milton
3. The Plays of Aristophanes- in the original Greek
4. The complete works of Antonin Dvorak, performed by the pre-war BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Toscanini
5. A Mark Rothko painting
6. A case of Chateau Margaux ‘45
7. A Mont Blanc pen
8. and a ream of cream laid paper to begin my next oeuvre, “How To Be a Pompous Ass."
2. The Poetry of Milton
3. The Plays of Aristophanes- in the original Greek
4. The complete works of Antonin Dvorak, performed by the pre-war BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Toscanini
5. A Mark Rothko painting
6. A case of Chateau Margaux ‘45
7. A Mont Blanc pen
8. and a ream of cream laid paper to begin my next oeuvre, “How To Be a Pompous Ass."
