Proust Questionnaire (Vanity Fair) - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

troutman · 08-16-2011, 09:07 AM

I was gifted the book, Vanity Fair's Proust Questionnaire: 101 Luminaries Ponder Love, Death, Happiness, and the Meaning of Life

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/fe...-questionnaire

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proust_Questionnaire

The Proust Questionnaire is a questionnaire about one's personality. Its name and modern popularity as a form of interview is owed to the responses given by the French writer Marcel Proust.

At the end of the nineteenth century, when Proust was still in his teens, he answered a questionnaire in an English-language confession album belonging to his friend Antoinette, daughter of future French President Félix Faure, entitled "An Album to Record Thoughts, Feelings, etc." At that time, it was popular among English families to answer such a list of questions that revealed the tastes and aspirations of the taker.

Proust answered the questionnaire several times in his life, always with enthusiasm.

A similar questionnaire is regularly seen on the back page of Vanity Fair magazine, answered by various celebrities. In October 2009, Vanity Fair launched an interactive version of the questionnaire, that compares your answers to various luminaries.

Ex. Tina Fey:
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/fe...ina-fey-201105

C. Hitchens:
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/fe...onnaire-201006

John Cusack:
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/fe...t_cusack200806

http://hoelder1in.org/Proust/fill_questionnaire.html

troutman · 08-16-2011, 09:17 AM

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

What is your greatest fear?

What historical figure do you most identify with?

Which living person do you most admire?

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

What trait do you most deplore in others?

What is your greatest extravagance?

On what occasion do you lie?

What do you most dislike about your appearance?

What is your favorite journey?

What do you consider the most overrated virtue?

Which living person do you most despise?

Which words or phrases do you most overuse?

What is your greatest regret?

What or who is the greatest love of your life?

When and where were you happiest?

Which talent would you most like to have?

What is your current state of mind?

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

If you could change one thing about your family, what would it be?

If you were to die and come back as a person or thing, what would it be?

If you could choose what or who to come back as, what would it be?

What do your consider your greatest achievement?

What is your most treasured possession?

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

What is your most marked characteristic?

What is the quality you most like in a man?

What is the quality you most admire in a woman?

What do you most value in your friends?

Who are your favourite writers?

Who is your favourite hero of fiction?

Who are your heroes in real life?

What are your favourite names?

What is it that you most dislike?

How would you like to die?

What is your motto?

VladtheImpaler · 08-16-2011, 09:37 AM

Are you going to post your answers to get things rolling?

troutman · 08-16-2011, 09:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by VladtheImpaler

Are you going to post your answers to get things rolling?

Working on it - the list of questions is long, so we might have to break-it up, or highlight your favorite questions.

I think it can be broken into three blocks:

What is your idea of perfect happiness?
A world at peace, with prosperity and security for all

What is your greatest fear?
Safety of my children, snakes

What historical figure do you most identify with?
Darwin

Which living person do you most admire?
My mother, for overcoming a handicap

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Shyness is nice, and
Shyness can stop you
From doing all the things in life
You'd like to

What trait do you most deplore in others?
Greed

What is your greatest extravagance?
Music, food and wine, travel

On what occasion do you lie?
To protect someone from being hurt

What do you most dislike about your appearance?
It’s hard to have a "six-pack" at my age

What is your favorite journey?
Spontaneous

What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
Amassing private fortunes

Which living person do you most despise?
Most people on Fox News

peter12 · 08-16-2011, 10:04 AM

I answered 98.39% like David Mamet; a cultural conservative. Interesting.

troutman · 08-16-2011, 10:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by peter12

I answered 98.39% like David Mamet; a cultural conservative. Interesting.

If you do the on-line form, can you save your answers?

troutman · 08-16-2011, 10:21 AM

Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
Sorry

What is your greatest regret?
Not having enough time

What or who is the greatest love of your life?
My children

When and where were you happiest?
Birth of children, gaining maturity at University

Which talent would you most like to have?
Perfect Pitch

What is your current state of mind?
Hopeful

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
To be financially comfortable, not necessarily wealthy

If you could change one thing about your family, what would it be?
That we could enjoy our limited time together without conflicts

If you were to die and come back as a person or thing, what would it be?
A cutthroat trout

If you could choose what or who to come back as, what would it be?
Astronaut, NHL player

What do your consider your greatest achievement?
Being a parent, graduating law school, back-packing South America

What is your most treasured possession?
My guitars

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Loss of a loved one

What is your most marked characteristic?
Calm

VladtheImpaler · 08-16-2011, 10:26 AM

I don't have answers for some of these (perhaps that's indicative of personal flaws

)

What historical figure do you most identify with? Winston Churchill

Which living person do you most admire? Margaret Thatcher

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? Laziness/procrastination

What trait do you most deplore in others? Idiocy

What is your greatest extravagance? Gifts for Mrs. Impaler

On what occasion do you lie? To protect others (that could be a lie, as maybe I am protecting myself)

What do you most dislike about your appearance? Spare tire

What is your favorite journey? Great Wall

What do you consider the most overrated virtue? Abstinence

Which living person do you most despise? Robert Mugabe

Which words or phrases do you most overuse? Where are you going you stupid c*nt? (while driving obviously)

What is your greatest regret? That I left my job in Moscow to go to law school

What or who is the greatest love of your life? Mrs. Impaler

When and where were you happiest? When Maks the Impaler was born (surprisingly)

Which talent would you most like to have? Omnipotence

What is your current state of mind? Content

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? I would like to know what I want to do, and I would like to know that 25 years ago

If you could change one thing about your family, what would it be? Nothing

If you were to die and come back as a person or thing, what would it be? Person

If you could choose what or who to come back as, what would it be? As myself for a replay

What do your consider your greatest achievement? Running a marathon

What is your most treasured possession? None

What is your most marked characteristic? Sarcastic

What is the quality you most like in a man? Intellect

What is the quality you most admire in a woman? Censored

What do you most value in your friends? Intellect

Who are your favourite writers? AJP Taylor, Churchill, Dostoyevsky

Who is your favourite hero of fiction? Sam Gamgee

Who are your heroes in real life? None

What is it that you most dislike? People

How would you like to die? I wouldn't

troutman · 08-16-2011, 10:32 AM

What is the quality you most like in a man?
Loyalty, humor, selflessness

What is the quality you most admire in a woman?
Intelligence, humor, kindess, beauty

What do you most value in your friends?
Laughter, tolerance

Who are your favourite writers?
Twain, Vonnegut, Sagan, Steven Erikson, Mieville, Hitchens, Tolkien, Arthur C. Clarke, Joseph Campbell

Who is your favourite hero of fiction?
Huckleberry Finn

Who are your heroes in real life?
Terry Fox, Apollo Astronauts, soldiers, police, firemen

What are your favourite names?
Psuedonyms

What is it that you most dislike?
Snakes, traffic, extreme heat/cold

How would you like to die?
In my sleep

What is your motto?
Each of us are part of an unbroken chain of ancestors, going back millions of years. Every one of our ancestors survived long enough to have children. We honor their struggle to survive by passing on the torch of life. It is a great gift to be alive.

VladtheImpaler · 08-16-2011, 10:36 AM

My closest matches were Donna karan and Larry King.

Mind you, only about 80% matches...

troutman · 08-16-2011, 10:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by peter12

I answered 98.39% like David Mamet; a cultural conservative. Interesting.

I was most like Joan Collins! 89.69%. WTF?

Least like James Brown, 15.38%.

Frank MetaMusil · 08-16-2011, 10:44 AM

95% like Ray Charles.....wierd.

Bertuzzied · 08-16-2011, 10:44 AM

I would have to ask him if he wants to be a Flame for a third time. Never thought of him as vain before though, a great hardworking grinding forward.

Flash Walken · 08-16-2011, 11:02 AM

trout, I've really been thinking of picking this collection up.

Now that you have it, do you think it's worth a purchase?

troutman · 08-16-2011, 11:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

trout, I've really been thinking of picking this collection up.

Now that you have it, do you think it's worth a purchase?

I have only skimmed it, but it looks like a fun "coffee-table" book. It could be most of the celebrity surveys are already in the Vanity Fair web-site archives somewhere. The book has the questionnaire at the back that you can copy and print, so that you can do this as a kind of party game.