"WHO ARE YOU? Who-who? Who-who?"

I really want to know!

With New Year's Eve safely in the rearview mirror, we find ourselves once again shoulder to the boulder, pushing onwards and upwards like Sisyphus, pesky New Year's resolutions stowed in a back pocket somewhere, already forgotten a few weeks in. I don't know about you, dear Reader, but I went into the new year a bit haphazardly, without a specific resolution in mind. On the morning of January 1st, however, I woke up to an early-morning text from my friend and fellow creative pundit, Gorman. It held no generic "Happy New Year!" wish, but rather a single, electrifying sentence: "This is the year your novel gets published."

Bam! There it was: someone else verbalizing my private wish for 2023. It made me reflect on how well people really know each other, the dreams, the fears, and the motivations we harbor. The promises we make when the ball drops in Times Square, blinded by sparkling sequins and champagne. Who we are, intrinsically, underneath the multiple layers that shield our innermost, sensitive core from public scrutiny.

A few days later, still pondering this existential question, I was paging through an old Vanity Fair magazine, when I landed on the last page where the magazine posts its monthly Proust Questionnaire, a voyeuristic, Rorschach-type glimpse into the personality of a celebrity or dignitary. What makes them tick? What ticks them off? Titillating tidbits you'd never know otherwise. Take for example David Bowie's response in the VF August 1998 issue to the question, What is your greatest fear? “Converting kilometers to miles,” he answered. I assume he was joking, though having grown up measuring in kilometers, centimeters, and liters in South Africa before moving to the USA, I can vouch that the fear is very real, dear Reader. The quality (Bowie) most admires in a woman? “The ability to burp on demand.” It says something about his personality, doesn’t it? That he's quirky and witty: classic Ziggy Stardust. In another edition, Dolly Parton infamously answered the question, Which historic figure do you most identify with? with her typical spicy sass: “Snow White, because she slept with the seven dwarfs and got away with it.”

The Proust Questionnaire is revealing, and not just in what the respondent answers to each probing question, but in how the respondent answers. Tongue-in-cheek says something about the person. Straightforwardness says something else. And a combination of the two? A whole different animal indeed. In contrast to the eponymous name, the questionnaire was not invented by the noted French author, Marcel Proust, who is widely considered one of the most influential novelists of the 20th century (right up there with Shakespeare) for his 7-volume masterpiece, In Search of Lost Time (À la Recherche du Temps Perdu). I studied it in a college French class and can vouch that it is a masterpiece in evocative writing that immerses the reader through Proust’s vivid, rambling stream of thought on the human experience. The Proust Questionnaire, however, was made famous by the author's answers to a parlor game "confession album" initiated by his friend, Antoinette Faure, in 1890. His answers were deemed so revealing that the questionnaire is (still) widely recognized as a veritable personality test.

At the height of Proust's fame, another Frenchman, the literary critic Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve, famously wrote: “So long as one has not asked an author a certain number of questions and received answers to them, one cannot be certain of having a complete grasp of him, even though these questions might seem at the furthest remove from the nature of his writings.” (How the Proust Questionnaire Went from Literary Curio to Prestige Personality Quiz, The New Yorker, by Evan Kindley, July 7, 2016). Marcel Proust refuted this statement in an essay directly aimed at Sainte-Beuve but, ironically, his own answers to the very questionnaire that went on to bear his moniker disproved his argument. To the question, What would be your greatest misfortune? he answered, “Not to have known my mother,” which aligns him directly with the milquetoast, mama's boy narrator of À la Recherche du Temps Perdu introduced its opening chapter. (Marcel Proust was known to be a hypochondriac and a "mama's boy," who lived with her through adulthood (his own).)

Suffice it to say, I believe there lies some truth in Sainte-Beuve's theory, that “No answer to these questions is irrelevant in judging the author of a book, nor the book itself.“ Are writers of fiction not taught to "write what you know"? At the onset of my novel, I employed the Proust Questionnaire as a tool to help me individualize each of my characters and set them apart from me, their creator. But still, I know that my own DNA bleeds across all the pages, revealing not just the plot, but me, its creator.

So, in the spirit of the Sainte-Beuvian paradigm, and to kick off a new year of writing and blogging, I decided to fill out the Proust Questionnaire and share it with you, dear Reader. To crack open the lid of my Pandora's box just enough for a peek inside ...

PROUST QUESTIONNAIRE/Anél Young-Irving

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

Raising my children into empathetic human beings who are motivated to contribute to society in a healing way.

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

There is a saying, "A mother is only as happy as her unhappiest child." So true! Right now, I'm perfectly happy. Also, any time they're visiting and we're all in the kitchen, dancing to '80s music on full blast, my husband mixing Espresso Martinis, my daughter setting the table, my son stirring a pot of something. Happy chatter, great food, pure bliss!

What is your current state of mind?

Restless. Can someone please be my agent and help me sell my novel to a publisher? I’ve got others brewing on the back burner.

What is your favorite occupation?

For myself, writer/author. For others, anything in the healing line of work: doctor, nurse, psychologist, veterinarian.

What is your most treasured possession?

Dog-eared, black-and-white photos of my parents when they were young and in love. Also, drawings and lopsided ceramic sculptures made for me by my children. I'm a sucker for old, sentimental things.

What or who is the greatest love of your life?

My loved ones: human and furry.

What is your favorite journey?

Any journey that takes me to places where the pace of living is slower, where there are cobbled streets and fountains, antique markets, châteaux studded with artworks, and old cathedrals lit up like kaleidoscopes within.

What is your most marked characteristic?

Creativity (positive) or anxiety (negative). I worry about everything! And then I worry that I worry ...

When and where were you the happiest?

There have been countless moments, usually on trips abroad: kayaking down the Dordogne River, studded with 1001 castles, swimming with wild dolphins in Hawaii, happening upon a surprise, open-air Verdi opera in Salzburg, gin-tasting at the Twelve Apostles in Cape Town, walking hand-in-trunk with orphaned elephants in South Africa, champagne-tasting in Paris, a tango extravaganza in Argentina ... the list goes on and on.

What is it that you most dislike?

Far-right politics make me viscerally angry; people who are racist, homophobic, or xenophobic.

What is your greatest fear?

Other than the obvious, outliving my children, I fear that health issues may prevent me from living the kind of active (golden) years I dream about.

Which historical figure do you most identify with?

I look up to strong female warriors like Joan of Arc and mythical characters like the Greek goddesses Athena and Artemis. Protectors, defenders, and activists who symbolize bravery and wisdom.

What is your greatest extravagance?

International Business Class travel (thanks to my husband's Concierge Frequent-flyer status.)

Which living person do you most despise?

He-who-shall-not-be-named. And I'm not talking about Voldemort. (Hint: Rhymes with "Dump".)

What is your greatest regret?

Not discovering my passion for classical art sooner (when I lived in Amsterdam with some of the world's greatest museums on my doorstep), and not writing novels sooner. "I could'a been a contendah!"

Which talent would you most like to have?

The quadruple-threat talent of Jennifer Lopez: to dance, sing, act, and run multiple businesses, all while looking like a million bucks! (I know my family wishes I could cook better, lol!)

Where would you like to live?

In my Sherman Oaks house/haven, but (in retirement) I'd like to spend half the year somewhere in Europe for sustenance ... and the other half near the ocean for respite (the Caribbean or Mediterranean). Hey, the question didn’t stipulate that I be reasonable, okay?

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

To lose a child. Or be a parent in impoverished or war-torn regions, helplessly watching one's children decline from hunger, disease, or war.

What is the quality you most like in a man?

Intelligence, wit, and (com)passion.

What is the quality you most like in a woman?

Intelligence, empathy, and a salty sense of humor.

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

Self-doubt/insecurity.

What is the trait you most deplore in others?

Delusion (I’m looking at you, conspiracy theorists, climate-change deniers, and flat-earthers!)

What do you most value in your friends?

Emotional support without judgment and plenty of healing laughter. (See previously mentioned "salty sense of humor".)

Who is your favorite hero of fiction?

Jean Valjean from Victor Hugo's Les Misérables. He remains optimistic and altruistic despite the injustice of his circumstances. He is willing to sacrifice all for his daughter's sake. I get chills every time he sings “Bring him home,” when he rescues Marius in the tunnels under Paris, offering up his own life in exchange: “If I die, let me die. Let him live. Bring him home. He is only a boy.” Sniff!

Who are your heroes in real life?

Female activists and heroes who fight for justice, human rights, and the environment. Inspirational and selfless icons like Jane Goodall, Greta Thunberg, and Malala Yousafzai.

Which living person do you most admire?

(See above.) Any person who takes risks or who works tirelessly to change the fate of others, to be the voice for the oppressed, the abused, and the mute (animals). Those gutsy women removing their veils in Iran, or defying the Taliban to ensure education for women in Afghanistan.

What do you consider the most overrated virtue?

Piousness. Politicians who send "thoughts and prayers" in the wake of school shootings, then vote against common-sense gun laws, or those politicians and evangelists who thump the Bible in public while committing adultery, domestic abuse, or fraud behind closed doors.

On what occasions do you lie?

When my husband asks, "What's wrong?" and I say, "Nothing." ;-)

Which words or phrases do you most overuse?

“I’m just saying …” (as in, “you might want to heed my advice now ... or risk hearing 'I told you so!' later.")

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

I would be more of a "glass-half-full" person, rather than the reverse. I also wish I were more of a Producer-type and not just a Performer.

What are your favorite names?

Names that are blended versions of traditional ones with regal heft (like Richard, Anna, or Robert). Also, Greek names that convey strength and courage: Athena, Artemis, Persephone ... (names that play a major part in my novel, Heist of the Olympians!)

How would you like to die?

I will never forget a quote I saw at the memorial of a 91-year-old friend who took my dance classes right till the end of her fabulous life. Her motto was, "The point is to die young ... as late as possible!" That pretty much sums it up for me.

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

I think I would come back as a dog, hopefully one as loved and spoiled as my own are. If I had to come back as an inanimate object, I would like it to be a marble sculpture of a Greek goddess, crafted by the hands of Bernini or Canova, on display in a beautiful museum, surrounded by other precious art objects.

What is your motto?

“La vie est une fleur don’t l’amour est le miel.” (Victor Hugo) (Life is the flower of which love is the honey.)

...

So ... that's me, in a Proustian nutshell. Did anything surprise you? Do tell! If you'd like to fill out your own Proust Questionnaire, I'm attaching a link to a pdf here (Proust) Feel free to post your response to the final question (What is your motto?) in the comments below. Because I really want to know, dear Reader: Who are you?

"Who-who? Who-who?”

THE END