Monday, May 11, 2009

portraits and proust

So after a brief sabbatical, I present you with the first of a new post series I am beginning called "Introductions." Each Monday, I will post a portrait of one of my friends along with their responses to the Proust Questionnaire--a survey intended to reveal elemental aspects of an individual's personality. Here it goes!

Allow me to introduce myself...

Sally Symons: Winston-Salem, NC

1. What is your idea of perfect happiness? Living in a place that I love, surrounded by friends and family, doing the work that I love and allows me to be creative every day

2. What is your greatest fear? Living through the deaths of people I love

3. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? Selfishness

4. What is the trait you most deplore in others? Obsession with status, people who are starved for attention and not genuine

5. Which living person do you most admire? My little sister, Anne

6. What is your greatest extravagance? Polaroid film, good wine, books, clothes... my entire life is my greatest extravagance

7. What is your current state of mind? Ambitious, ready for whatever’s next

8. What do you consider the most overrated virtue? Chastity?

9. On what occasion do you lie? In a bar, preferably one in a foreign country, when someone is trying to start conversation with me, the lies just tend to come rolling out. And sometimes in French.

10. What do you most dislike about your appearance? Bad skin

11. Which living person do you most despise? Hatred is a waste of time

12. What is the quality you most like in a man? Honesty, sense of humor, kindness

13. What is the quality you most like in a woman? Intelligence, wit

14. Which words or phrases do you most overuse? “Get a grip on your life, woman.”

15. What or who is the greatest love of your life? Language, books... those are the whats

16. When and where are you happiest? Sitting outside drinking wine or coffee with friends and laughing until my stomach hurts

17. Which talent would you most like to have? The ability to play an instrument

18. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? My impatience

19. What do you consider your greatest achievement? Academic success, working my way through the creative writing program

20. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be? A cute fluffy dog

21. Where would you most like to live? Paris, in a great old, beautifully decorated house

22. What is your most treasured possession? My dog, my blankie, the ring my grandmother gave me for high school graduation

23. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? Living in regret

24. What is your favorite occupation? creative maniac

25. What is your most marked characteristic? Delighting in organization

26. What do you most value in your friends? Humor, kindness

27. Who are your favorite writers? Jack Kerouac, William Faulkner, JD Salinger, Joyce Carol Oates, Ernest Hemingway, David Sedaris, etc.

28. Who is your hero of fiction? Caddy Compson, Sal Paradise

29. Which historical figure do you most identify with? Sylvia Plath, maybe not the suicide part, though

30. Who are your heroes in real life? My grandmother and grandfather

31. What are your favorite names?  Unique ones, just as long as they aren’t double names or family names that should never be used as first names… i.e. I will never have a daughter named ‘Winbourne’

32. What is it that you most dislike? Bad manners

33. What is your greatest regret? Having wasted time worrying or wishing for things

34. How would you like to die? Content

35. What is your motto? Check the facts but trust your instincts

1 comment:

  1. I think there will be some serious trends in our answers..."wit" and "intelligence" to be specific. With that said, this is a well-rounded insight into your brain. Marcel would be proud.

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