“Who would you want at your after-life dinner party?" is quite a common question, but not one that anyone’s ever asked me. I had to think long and hard on this one because it was really hard to narrow it down, but here are the 7 guests I want at my after-life dinner party.
1 J. R. R. Tolkien
I first read The Lord of the Rings when I was just 9 years old, and it really captured my imagination. Not only have I read many of his books multiple times, but I’ve seen the movies more times than I can count. I would love to meet the creator of the stories that have had such an impact on my life, and I’m particularly fascinated by the fact that he created multiple imaginary languages from scratch. I’d love to have him at my after-life dinner party.
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2 T. S. Eliot
I absolutely loved his Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats as a child (and the resulting musical, Cats), but I've also loved many other of his literary masterpieces as I’ve grown up. I’d love to sit and grill him on what he was thinking when he wrote different parts of The Wasteland, a poem that offers endless entertainment in the form of attempted deciphering. His poetry is, in my opinion, some of the most fascinating ever written, and I’d love to meet the great man himself.
3 Henry VIII
I may have to have an unlimited supply of food at my after-life dinner party if Henry VIII is on the guest list. We may need some security too, but I would love to meet one of the most famous historical figures in all of history and get an insight into the mind of a man who so readily chopped off the heads of the women he was supposed to love and of some of his most faithful servants.
4 Nikola Tesla
Tesla was an amazing scientist but doesn’t seem to get the recognition that he deserves. Not only was he absolutely vital to the development of the modern electricity supply system with the invention of the alternating current system, but best of all, he wanted to give it to the world for free. Tesla was not just a genius, but a genuinely nice one at that. Plus, his “mad scientist” reputation suggests that he would be a very interesting guest to have at my after-life dinner party.
5 Martin Luther
Instigator of Protestantism (and namesake of Martin Luther King), the man who stood up to Rome would have a spot at my after-life dinner party. Disgusted by the Church taking payments to absolve people of sin, Martin Luther improved Christianity for the good of the people.
6 Sigmund Freud
Who wouldn’t want to meet the man behind modern psychoanalysis? Some of his stuff was really clever, while other things were just plain strange, and with Freud, literally everything amounts to sex (and often it’s very depraved). It would be really fascinating to meet him though, to ask him how he developed such ideas.
7 William Shakespeare
My after-life dinner party would not be complete without The Bard, the man who has had the biggest influence on the English language in history. It’s not just because he was a great writer that I want to meet him, though; there are so many rumours that ‘he’ was a woman or even a team of writers, that I would love to find out the truth.
So there you go: 7 people I would love to meet at an after-life dinner party. How many do you agree with, and who would you choose?
