This week, I thought I’d do something a little different. A few years ago, I read How Proust Can Change Your Life by ALAIN DE BOTON. One of my favourite authors, DE BOTON takes PROUST’s relatively short but impressive life and applies its key teachings to contemporary living.
One element of the PROUST’s life which continues to interest people is his questionnaire. He claimed the questions could tell you all you needed to know to understand a person.
Vanity Fair even published a collection of famous responses to the survey. The most well known is probably DAVID BOWIE’s response.
I thought that rather than share my snippets from the book, I’d share my own answers to the PROUST QUESTIONNAIRE.
Perhaps you’ll even reply with your own response?
Until next time and here we go,
Marc
My Responses
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Lying in a sunny window, listening to piano jazz, feeling sleepy.
What is your greatest fear?
How I will feel once my parents are gone
What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
I am insufferably grumpy at times.
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Approval seeking which leads to self moderation
Which living person do you most admire?
David Bowie
What is your greatest extravagance?
I buy a huge number of books.
What is your current state of mind?
Calm.
What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
Self sacrifice
On what occasion do you lie?
Never
What do you most dislike about your appearance?
I would have liked to have lived in a time when wearing a suit was normal
Which living person do you most despise?
The student who frequently parks across the street from my driveway.
What is the quality you most like in a man?
Sincerity
What is the quality you most like in a woman?
Confidence
Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
That’s interesting.
What or who is the greatest love of your life?
I am, of course, obsessed with my wife.
When and where were you happiest?
The greatest sense of wellbeing I ever had was on a train through the Czech Republic, broke as I ever have been, on my honeymoon with Hannah’s sleeping head on my shoulder.
Which talent would you most like to have?
I should have continued with piano lessons.
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
I’m currently working on having a toned torso
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
I have fostered my sense of self-confidence to a fine level.
If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?
A kite, flying from a rooftop in a rural city.
Where would you most like to live?
These days, I would consider Stockholm before Berlin, Berlin before the idea of Tokyo, Tokyo before Paris. But I have committed to staying in Cardiff for the foreseeable future.
What is your most treasured possession?
My intellect
What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Being boring
What is your favourite occupation?
Sitting in a sauna.
What is your most marked characteristic?
Being interested by odd turns of phrase.
What do you most value in your friends?
The trait of answering but not returning my questions.
Who are your favourite writers?
Have you heard about my mailing list?
Who is your hero of fiction?
Meursault or Sal Paradise, depending on how I am feeling.
Which historical figure do you most identify with?
Guy Fawkes
Who are your heroes in real life?
Bill Murray
What are your favourite names?
Frank Sobatka
What is it that you most dislike?
Feigned idiocy
What is your greatest regret?
Having regrets
How would you like to die?
Assassination after travelling back in time to bump off the man who invented the can but not the opener.
What is your motto?
I forgot my mantra.