'All our final decisions are made in a state of mind that is not going to last.'
Marcel Proust
One of the reasons i like Vanity Fair is because i feel so damn knowledgeable after reading it. I may know nothing, and i mean nothing, about the bernie madoff scandal or the stock market or the ins and outs of ivy league universities, but when I read vanity fair I feel like maybe I do know, after all. My mum subscribes to Vanity Fair, she always has. I used to love reading them because keira knightley or the harry potter kids would be on the cover. But I used to think that Vanity Fair was a boring magazine though, and I would flick through it, looking at the 'Vanities' section and any article/interview with the actress/actor on the cover or anything about wealthy socialites. Boring bankers, lawyers, crime and JFK's secret love child were never read about. It's funny though, because now I love Vanity Fair. The problem was that I didn't understand it before.
In the November issue with the delectable Penelope Cruz on the cover there is an article about the Proust questionnaire. It has been on the last page of the magazine for the last 20 or so years, answered by various notables from bette midler to martha stewart via marc jacobs. The theory behind the questionnaire is that it reveals, through a few short questions, your mindset and world view at the very moment you answer it. Proust did it three times in his life, with the answers varying widely between them. The questionnaire is actually not his own invention, but it's the fact that he wrote so widely about it and praised it in the salon society of Paris that means that it is now attributed to him. That, and no other writer in the world has spent so much time reflecting on the mind. His mammoth series A remembrance of things past, was written entirely in his bed and contains the most lengthy exploration of memory I've ever read (although in truth I've only read Swann's way). Vanity Fair has just released a book compiling its favourite proust questionnaires over the years, including Woody Allen, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Warren Buffet. It looks like an impressive, fascinating read.
I like the Proust questionnaire because it takes no prisoners. It's the kind of thing that, very simply, sorts the wheat from the chaff. If you're witty then the Proust questionnaire shows it. If you're pretentious then it also shows it. If you're quiet and reserved, yet still remarkably clever and engaging then it shows it. Bizarrely it is incredibly revealing about the human mind, and it's just a simple questionnaire. The range of the questions change, Vanity Fair actually uses a version different from the one below, which is the one Proust originally answered, but they reach the same conclusion - ascertain the mindset of that person through their opinions on all manner of things within cultured society.
I have the proust questionnaire in my side bar, but I'm curious to fill out the original Proust one and not the Vanity Fair one (which is the one in my side bar). I also filled that out a while ago, and i think that some answers might have changed. I feel like every day I'm changing just a little bit, almost imperceptibly, as I learn new things, see new things, look at the world in a different way. It's silly, i suppose, but then everyone always says that you change the mos when you're young. It's almost as if you're a phoenix, rebirth can occur at any time, you can dye your hair bright pink, or start wearing ballgowns, or pick up ancient greek at university.
Proust certainly understood. He answered the questionnaire all three times when he was young, very young. The first time he answered was when he was just a precocious 13 years old. It's that invincibility that is to irrevocably wrapped up with youth. You can do anything. That's the thing I love most about being young. It's that feeling that nothing can stop you. Deep down in that mature part of your body, the one that chimes in to make you eat your vegetables and go for a run, you know that it's not going to be like that forever. But sometimes, when everything is going right in the world and the sun is shining it's almost as if you could fly.
Tout, c'est possible.
Marcel Proust
One of the reasons i like Vanity Fair is because i feel so damn knowledgeable after reading it. I may know nothing, and i mean nothing, about the bernie madoff scandal or the stock market or the ins and outs of ivy league universities, but when I read vanity fair I feel like maybe I do know, after all. My mum subscribes to Vanity Fair, she always has. I used to love reading them because keira knightley or the harry potter kids would be on the cover. But I used to think that Vanity Fair was a boring magazine though, and I would flick through it, looking at the 'Vanities' section and any article/interview with the actress/actor on the cover or anything about wealthy socialites. Boring bankers, lawyers, crime and JFK's secret love child were never read about. It's funny though, because now I love Vanity Fair. The problem was that I didn't understand it before.
In the November issue with the delectable Penelope Cruz on the cover there is an article about the Proust questionnaire. It has been on the last page of the magazine for the last 20 or so years, answered by various notables from bette midler to martha stewart via marc jacobs. The theory behind the questionnaire is that it reveals, through a few short questions, your mindset and world view at the very moment you answer it. Proust did it three times in his life, with the answers varying widely between them. The questionnaire is actually not his own invention, but it's the fact that he wrote so widely about it and praised it in the salon society of Paris that means that it is now attributed to him. That, and no other writer in the world has spent so much time reflecting on the mind. His mammoth series A remembrance of things past, was written entirely in his bed and contains the most lengthy exploration of memory I've ever read (although in truth I've only read Swann's way). Vanity Fair has just released a book compiling its favourite proust questionnaires over the years, including Woody Allen, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Warren Buffet. It looks like an impressive, fascinating read.
I like the Proust questionnaire because it takes no prisoners. It's the kind of thing that, very simply, sorts the wheat from the chaff. If you're witty then the Proust questionnaire shows it. If you're pretentious then it also shows it. If you're quiet and reserved, yet still remarkably clever and engaging then it shows it. Bizarrely it is incredibly revealing about the human mind, and it's just a simple questionnaire. The range of the questions change, Vanity Fair actually uses a version different from the one below, which is the one Proust originally answered, but they reach the same conclusion - ascertain the mindset of that person through their opinions on all manner of things within cultured society.
I have the proust questionnaire in my side bar, but I'm curious to fill out the original Proust one and not the Vanity Fair one (which is the one in my side bar). I also filled that out a while ago, and i think that some answers might have changed. I feel like every day I'm changing just a little bit, almost imperceptibly, as I learn new things, see new things, look at the world in a different way. It's silly, i suppose, but then everyone always says that you change the mos when you're young. It's almost as if you're a phoenix, rebirth can occur at any time, you can dye your hair bright pink, or start wearing ballgowns, or pick up ancient greek at university.
Proust certainly understood. He answered the questionnaire all three times when he was young, very young. The first time he answered was when he was just a precocious 13 years old. It's that invincibility that is to irrevocably wrapped up with youth. You can do anything. That's the thing I love most about being young. It's that feeling that nothing can stop you. Deep down in that mature part of your body, the one that chimes in to make you eat your vegetables and go for a run, you know that it's not going to be like that forever. But sometimes, when everything is going right in the world and the sun is shining it's almost as if you could fly.
Tout, c'est possible.
- Your most marked characteristic? stubbornness.
- The quality you most like in a man? chivalry.
- The quality you most like in a woman? camaraderie.
- What do you most value in your friends? difference in personality but similarity of mind.
- What is your principle defect? anxiousness that can border on nervous hysteria.
- What is your favorite occupation? writing.
- What is your dream of happiness? 'happiness is simple as glass of chocolate or tortuous as the heart. bitter. sweet. alive.' Joanne Harris.
- What to your mind would be the greatest of misfortunes? not being able to achieve my dreams.
- What would you like to be? journalist.
- In what country would you like to live? the swollen green of england.
- What is your favorite color? red and green.
- What is your favorite flower? cabbage roses and daisies.
- What is your favorite bird? swan.
- Who are your favorite prose writers? jane austen, evelyn waugh, alexander mccall-smith, nancy mitford, e.m forster, a.s byatt.
- Who are your favorite poets? auden, housman, yeats, keats, thomas, lord byron.
- Who is your favorite hero of fiction? charles ryder.
- Who are your favorite heroines of fiction? marianne dashwood.
- Who are your favorite composers? saint-saens, shostakovich, ravel.
- Who are your favorite painters? monet, degas, pissaro,
- Who are your heroes in real life? julia child, nancy mitford.
- Who are your favorite heroines of history? cleopatra, eleanor of aquitaine, isabella of france, emmeline pankhurst.
- What are your favorite names? poppy, tatiana, rowan, rory.
- What is it you most dislike? fakeness.
- What historical figures do you most despise? Octavian, Robespierre, Rasputin.
- What event in military history do you most admire? Battle of Stirling Bridge.
- What reform do you most admire? emancipation.
- What natural gift would you most like to possess? the ability to sing.
- How would you like to die? dramatically.
- What is your present state of mind? worried, unsure, stressed - yet i can see the end of the road.
- To what faults do you feel most indulgent? grandstanding, gluttony.
- What is your motto? 'champagne for my real friends, and real pain for my sham friends' - tom waits.
I tag you all! i would love to see you answers. See how it differs slightly from the Vanity Fair version? I think i prefer this version myself...
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