The following questionnaire plays a very special part in the history of the Salon Des Grands Geeks, and our site would hardly be complete without it. During a visit to Washington at which Kiri, Trey, Iain and myself were in attendance, we found this quiz on a greeting card in Politics and Prose. Although the card was entirely in French and spelled poor Marcel’s surname “Poust” in places, we overlooked these small flaws and spent the entire afternoon and much of the next day answering it, and it has figured in one form or another in several salons since then. I have some of our answers written down from salons past, but rather than post these quite personal responses, I leave it to you to decide how much you would like to discuss online, and perhaps we can get a livelier discussion going about it once the site is read-protected. More information about the origins of the questionnaire and its famous madeleine-nibbling responder can be found here.

Questionnaire de Marcel Proust

The principal trait of my character
The quality that I appreciate in a man
The quality that I appreciate in a woman
What I appreciate the most in my friends
My principal flaw
My favorite pastime
My dream of happiness
What would be my greatest sorrow
What I would like to be
The country where I would like to live
My favorite color
My favorite flower
My favorite bird
My favorite prose authors
My favorite poets
My favorite heroes from fiction
My favorite heroines from fiction
My favorite composers
My favorite painters
My heroes from real life
My heroines from history
My favorite names
What I hate the most
Character traits that I most disdain
The military feat that I esteem the most
The reform that I admire the most
The natural gift that I would like to have
How I would like to die
Present state of my spirits
Faults that inspire in me the most indulgence
My motto