Answering Proust’s Questionnaire
The Proust Questionnaire was a parlour game popularised (though not invented) by the famous writer Marcel Proust. He believed that by answering those questions, an individual reveals his or her true nature.
I would like to introduce a small element to this questionnaire. Since I am convinced that we’re in a state of a permanent change in this journey that we call ‘life’, those questions cannot and shouldn’t be answered just once. Instead, they should be answered every year, to help us witness how we grow (or how we decline) through life.
At the time of writing this I’m 32 years old and this person is inexplicably different from Vashik who was once 23. I don’t know how the ‘previous me’ would have answered those questions. This is my very first attempt at conquering this questionnaire. I plan to do this every year from now, because, as I said, this self-examination is useful and should be done frequently in one’s life.
Also, this could be a good way to introduce myself to you - my dear reader. I think I can tell you more about myself by following Proust’s interesting mind game, instead of doing a Q&A.
Let’s begin.
The Proust Questionnaire (1st Edition )
What is your greatest fear?
I am not afraid of being bored, because I’ve never experienced it. I’m truly scared to experience this one day. Curious people never get bored. There is so much to know, to feel, to experience. There are way too many books I want to read. A single lifetime won’t be enough. I fear experiencing boredom, because that unfortunate day (which I hope never comes) will mean I am no longer curious.
What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Half-attempt.
(To get sense of what I mean you have to read Kahlil Gibran’s poem Half-Life)
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Despair.
Who are your favourite heroes of fiction?
Byshop Myriel (Les Misérables), Virgil (in Dante’s Divine Comedy), Peter Camenzind (Herman Hesse)
Who are your favorite characters in history?
Cicero, Scipio Africanus, Poggio Bracciolini, Michel de Montaigne, Balthasar Gracián, Christopher Hitchens, Joan Didion, Khaled Al-Assad (not to be confused with the Syrian dictator)
Who are your favorite heroines in real life?
I’ve to plagiarise the reply given by Christopher Hitchens:
“The women of Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran who risk their lives and their beauty to defy the foulness of theocracy.”
What would you like to be?
A scientist. I would have dedicated my life to science if I wasn’t unlucky enough to have bad maths, biology, chemistry and physics teachers at school. My passion for philosophy, history and literature comes from my father and my brilliant teachers… Only if my science teachers were as good.
Who are your favorite poets?
Virgil, Rumi, Dante, John Milton, Goethe, Lord Byron, C.P. Cavafy, Kahlil Gibran, W.B.Yeats, Mary Oliver,
What do you most dislike?
Stupidity, especially in its most frequent form such as of following the false security of the consensus and being lazy to question more.
Which events in military history do you most admire?
I don’t admire, but certainly am fascinated by the bullet that was shot by the Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip at the Duke Franz Ferdinand. That one single fateful bullet triggered an irreversible chain of events and led to the bloodiest war in history.
What is your principal defect?
Pacifism. Avoidance of conflict or confrontation even when necessary.
What is your most marked characteristic?
Being ambiverted. I’m neither introverted or extroverted. I am both. Half of my friends could describe me as an extrovert, whereas the other half would confidently claim I am introverted. Susan Cain’s brilliant book ‘Quiet’ explained to me what’s “wrong” with me. Being ambiverted means that I like being social, but I’m also comfortable being alone. Too much of either is bad for me.
What is your current state of mind?
I keep pondering upon this quote by Stephen Fry, where he says:
‘We are not nouns, we are verbs. I am not a thing - an actor, a writer - I am a person who does things - I write, I act - and I never know what I'm going to do next. I think you can be imprisoned if you think of yourself as a noun.’
You can find the full list of questions here.
