Wandering aimlessly in the blogosphere is not an altogether timewasting experience. Though I believe that 99% of information that can be found on net is junk (to coin Ms. Zafra which she coined from Roddenberry), serendipity is still the web’s best asset. I found this questionnaire from marionsilver’s blog, supposedly answered by Marcel Proust himself (or did he?). I was compelled to answer one myself. Those texts colored in orange (or red. I don’t know) are marionsilver’s exact answers.
What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Proust: To be separated from Mama.
My answer: To find myself crying alone in my birthday
Where would you like to live?
Proust: To live in contact with those I love, with the beauties of nature, with a quantity of books and music, and to have, within easy distance, a French theater.
My answer: Batanes Island. Never mind the frequent storms that batter the island, it’s just so beautiful to behold.
To what faults do you feel most indulgent?
Proust: To a life deprived of the works of genius.
My answer: Living an unhealthy life.
Who are your favorite heroes of fiction?
Proust: Those of romance and poetry, those who are the expression of an ideal rather than an imitation of the real.
My answer: Jason Bourne, Kenshee Himura and Hannibal Lecter.
Who are your favorite characters in history?
Proust: A mixture of Socrates, Pericles, Mahomet, Pliny the Younger and Augustin Thierry.
My answer: King Leonidas, Alexander the Great, Hannibal of Carthage, Kublai Khan, I-shall-retarn Mcarthur and all the great generals of both world wars.
Who are your favorite heroines in real life?
Proust: A woman of genius leading an ordinary life.
My answer: My mother and grandmother. (same as marionsilver’s answer)
Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?
Proust: Those who are more than women without ceasing to be womanly; everything that is tender, poetic, pure and in every way beautiful
My answer: Sarah Connor, Nina Myers and Kate Austen
Your favorite painter?
Proust: Meissonier.
My answer: I’m not a follower of this medium, though comic books might be the closest to this one. I like Arnold Arre.
Your favorite musician?
Proust: Mozart.
My answer: It’s Metallica brother!
The quality you most admire in a man?
Proust: Intelligence, moral sense.
My answer: Sense of camaraderie and humility
The quality you most admire in a woman?
Proust: Gentleness, naturalness, intelligence
My answer: The usual men’s stuff, plus simplicity, humility, and strength
Your favorite virtue?
Proust: All virtues that are not limited to a sect: the universal virtues
My answer: sense of responsibility
Your favorite occupation?
Proust: Reading, dreaming, and writing verse
My answer: being paid to watch and write about movies
Who would you have liked to be?
Proust: Since the question does not arise, I prefer not to answer it. All the same, I should very much have liked to be Pliny the Younger.
My answer: Jack Bauer and the elementary version of myself.
Your most marked characteristic?
Proust: A craving to be loved, or, to be more precise, to be caressed and spoiled rather than to be admired
My answer: my advice about lovelife and my huge shoulders.
What do you most value in your friends?
Proust: Tenderness – provided they possess a physical charm which makes their tenderness worth having
My answer: sense of camaraderie and endurance against bottles of beers. (I know I know very shallow, but do you really seek the depth of your friend if your friendship is true?)
What is your principal defect?
Proust: Lack of understanding; weakness of will
My answer: sloth, procrastination and arrogance
What to your mind would be the greatest of misfortunes?
Proust: Never to have known my mother or my grandmother
My answer: Memory loss (marionsilver’s answer) and dying alone in bed or in a dark, blind alley.
What is your favorite color?
Proust: Beauty lies not in colors but in their harmony
My answer: Black and red
What is your favorite flower?
Proust: Hers – but apart from that, all
My answer: (Side comment: “Hers?” Oh, Proust, you naughty, naughty boy, you… wait a minute, weren’t you gay?) I like roses. (marionsilver: Proust’s gay??? I didn’t know that). My answer is hers too.
What is your favorite bird?
Proust: The swallow
My answer: Philippine eagle
Who are your favorite prose writers?
Proust: At the moment, Anatole France and Pierre Loti
Your answer: Jessica Zafra, Luis Katigbak, Igan d’Bayan, Butch Dalisay. (Yes, some of them are Philippine Star columnists)
Who are your favorite poets?
Proust: Baudelaire and Alfred de Vigny
My answer: Rio Alma, Billy Shakespeare and Elizabeth Barret Browning
Who are your heroes in real life?
Proust: Monsieur Darlu, Monsieur Boutroux (professors)
My answer: Pope John Paul II
Who are your favorite heroines of history?
Proust: Cleopatra
My answer: Cory Aquino
What are your favorite names?
Proust: I only have one at a time.
Your answer: Miguel, Lucas and Brando for males. Anne, Amy (pronounce it the stateside way, Eeeymee) and Dalisay for females
What historical figures do you most despise?
Proust: I am not sufficiently educated to say.
My answer: Anyone who didn’t matter. They didn’t matter because they weren’t included in history books.
What event in military history do you most admire?
Proust: My own enlistment as a volunteer!
My answer: World War II
What natural gift would you most like to possess?
Proust: Will power and irresistible charm
My answer: punctuality, intelligence and sense of calm
How would you like to die?
Proust: A better man than I am, and much beloved
My answer: catching a bullet for the Pope, being struck by lightning (the only way you could feel Eugene’s raygun) and saving a child from a raging bull or speeding truck
What is your present state of mind?
Proust: Annoyance at having to think about myself in order to answer these questions
My answer: Impatience. When are we getting to that much awaited final question? (marionsilver: hahahahaha! Same!)
Final question: (yes!) What is your motto?
Proust: I prefer not to say, for fear it might bring me bad luck.
My answer: (Looks up at Proust’s answer) Hmm. Ok, I shall resign myself to superstition for now. (Looks into Marionsilver’s answer). Okay Me too.