{"id":103274,"date":"2016-10-03T15:20:37","date_gmt":"2016-10-03T19:20:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=103274"},"modified":"2016-10-04T11:58:00","modified_gmt":"2016-10-04T15:58:00","slug":"questions-about-questionnaires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/03\/questions-about-questionnaires\/","title":{"rendered":"Questions About Questionnaires"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>

All images from A Proust Questionnaire<\/em> by Joanna Neborsky, TarcherPerigee, 2016.<\/p><\/div>\n

Evan Kindley and Joanna Neborsky both happen to have new books dealing with questionnaires. Kindley\u2019s <\/em>Questionnaire<\/a>, part of the Object Lessons series, charts the history of \u201cthe form as form\u201d from its inception in the late nineteenth century to its current apotheosis in our data-crazy present. Neborsky\u2019s <\/em>A Proust Questionnaire<\/a>, meanwhile, revives one of the earliest examples of quiz mania\u2014the questionnaire filled out by a teenaged Marcel Proust in the 1880s\u2014for a new generation of confessors.<\/em><\/p>\n

Neborsky is an illustrator and animator who has contributed to the<\/em>\u00a0New York Times,\u00a0the<\/em>\u00a0Wall Street Journal, <\/em>The New Yorker, and <\/em>The Paris Review Daily<\/a>, and has illustrated books by F\u00e9lix F\u00e9n\u00e9on and Daniil Kharms; Kindley is a writer and editor at the <\/em>Los Angeles Review of Books. Both live in Los Angeles. Earlier this month the two corresponded about questionnaires, using the Proust Questionnaire\u2019s famous prompts<\/a> as a basic framework.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

NEBORSKY<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve long wondered\u2014since we met that one time, at that party, next to the pretzel mix in a dark office courtyard\u2014what do you consider the lowest form of misery? And why did you write this book?\u00a0<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

KINDLEY<\/p>\n

I guess the facile answer to your first question would be \u201cwriting a book is the lowest form of misery,\u201d but I can\u2019t say I actually feel that way. The lowest form of misery might be wanting to write a book but not having an idea or an opportunity or time. Though, actually, the death of a loved one is probably worse than even this.<\/p>\n

Anyway, in response to your second question, I wrote Questionnaire<\/em> because I wanted to contribute to the Object Lessons series\u2014short books on everyday objects, loosely defined. I realized this format would be a good receptacle for some inchoate thoughts I\u2019d been having about the history of social science, on the one hand, and current trends in Internet data collection, on the other. Basically I wanted to draw a line from Francis Galton, the father of the self-report questionnaire, to BuzzFeed. And I did, but that line turned out to be a lot wigglier than I\u2019d anticipated.<\/p>\n

What attracted you, as an artist, to the Proust questionnaire? And what is your favorite occupation?<\/p>\n

<\/a>

\u201cWith which historical figure do you most identify?\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n

NEBORSKY<\/p>\n

In 2015, my publisher wrote me with a proposal for an illustrated version of the Proust questionnaire. Like many American readers, I mostly knew the PQ from Vanity Fair<\/em>\u2019s back page, a bonbon of petite wisdoms and revelations from the likes of Desmond Tutu, Sophia Loren, Joan Rivers. I said yes, followed soon by YES. I needed the job. Even better, the job fit. I\u2019ve made a habit of illustrating Frenchmen. F\u00e9lix F\u00e9n\u00e9on\u2019s novels in three lines<\/a>, Flaubert\u2019s animal rugs<\/a>. While Proust\u2019s association with the questionnaire was glancing and youthful, and its ascension in the culture one that he might\u2019ve derided\u2014a point your book argues persuasively\u2014his name can\u2019t help but Frenchify the project, make it civilizing and elegant \u2026 even though the quiz\u2019s civilizing and elegant pedigree is more truly Victorian. (Notice Victorian women also rarely get the credit they deserve for originating the art of collage, the other animating spark of A Proust Questionnaire<\/em>. Look at these scrapbooks<\/a>!)<\/p>\n

Have I thoroughly avoided your question? Favorite occupation\u2014surfing the baby waves of San Elijo beach, north of San Diego, alone.<\/p>\n

The history of the questionnaire touches the history of science, art, mass culture, politics. How did you traverse this open terrain? And how did you unearth everything I couldn\u2019t find about the Proust Questionnaire?<\/p>\n

PS: What\u2019s your personal motto?<\/p>\n

<\/a>

“What is your greatest achievement?”<\/p><\/div>\n

KINDLEY<\/p>\n

Research is difficult, and frustrating, but in my experience you almost always end up with something surprising and amazing that ends up transforming your work. Your question reminds me of a passage by yet another Frenchman, the sociologist Bruno Latour, who in his fantastic book Aramis, or the Love of Technology<\/em> writes:<\/p>\n

\n

Research projects \u2026 do not have \u2026 an elegant order: the crowds that were thought to be behind the project disappear without a word; or, conversely, unexpected allies turn up and demand to be taken into account. It\u2019s like a reception where the invited guests have failed to show; in their place, a bunch of unruly louts turn up and ruin everything.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In the case of Questionnaire<\/em>, lots of louts turned up. One was Proust himself, who seemed to be loudly demanding that I set the record straight about the Proust Questionnaire, which has borne his name for about a century but which he neither created nor promoted. The term Proust questionnaire<\/em>, as I discuss in my book, and in this excerpt from it<\/a>\u00a0on The<\/em>\u00a0New Yorker<\/em> website, actually refers to two separate documents filled out by Proust at the tender ages of fourteen and twenty (or thereabouts\u2014there\u2019s some inconsistency of dating in the sources I found). These were pages from confession albums, a genre that originated in Victorian England and subsequently spread across Europe and America. Proust was only one of hundreds, maybe thousands, of nineteenth-century people who participated in this activity. Moreover, the adult Proust had decidedly mixed feelings about revealing personal information (despite writing an enormous semiautobiographical novel full of veiled confession) and about public interest in the private lives of writers.<\/p>\n

So that was one surprise\u2014that the Proust Questionnaire had little to do with Proust at its inception, and that Proust himself probably would be dismayed by the persistent association of it with his name. There were lots of others, though. I hadn\u2019t expected to write so much about eugenics, for instance, or about computers, but it quickly became clear that both had a lot to do with the history of the questionnaire.<\/p>\n

My personal motto? Never answer a question in fewer than three paragraphs.<\/p>\n

Now, back to A Proust Questionnaire<\/em>. Where did you take your aesthetic inspiration for your book, aside from Victorian scrapbooks? And for what fault have you most toleration?<\/p>\n

<\/a>

“What physical possession do you treasure the most?”<\/p><\/div>\n

NEBORSKY<\/p>\n

At one point I fantasized about rewriting the questions in a surreal, self-referential style. There\u2019s something funny to me about a questionnaire that doesn\u2019t know it\u2019s a questionnaire. Maybe the unnamed inquirer would grow impatient, pleading, unhappy, give up, reveal too much\u2014I think I was thinking of Steve Martin\u2019s tweets<\/a>, or John Chamberlain\u2019s inanely open-ended memo<\/a> that I spied at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. But I realized that versions of the questions that referenced Dr. Zizmor, dermatologist, or kept implying that respondents were morally compromised would squelch any sincerity that a reader might bring to the project. Better to deliver the questions (mostly) straight, and let the images carry the joke.<\/p>\n

My illustrations crib from Bruno Munari, Corita Kent, Edward Lear, Franciszka Themerson, Maira Kalman, Saul Steinberg, Williams Steig and Wondriska, Terry Gilliam\u2019s collages, Andy Warhol\u2019s children\u2019s books, the miscellanies of the Pushpin Group. These folks<\/a>. I mention the scrapbooks of Victorian women because, enabled by rise of the cheap, reproducible carte de visite, they were the first to isolate the photographic figure\u2014we know they had a lot to work from, all those reliably stern pictures of Dorcas and Abner\u2014and extend them into unlike things. The results are narrative scenes mixing watercolor, drawing, and photo that don\u2019t worry about sense or scale, which is what I do, or try to do.<\/p>\n

We are getting near the end, which is how, in A Proust Questionnaire<\/em>, I announce the arrival of this question\u2014how would you like to die? I pose this same question to you, not at all uncomfortably alongside another one about your book. We share a city. Los Angeles is famously home to a million experimental cultures of the self. It\u2019s a city that likes its questionnaires. You spend some time on Scientology and BuzzFeed, both organizations with visible local presences that have attracted adherents by way of personality quizzes. Did anything about living in LA inform your thinking about the uses of questionnaires?<\/p>\n

(For which fault do I have the most toleration? I don\u2019t mind\u2013and might even relish\u2013the French exit, or Irish goodbye. I\u2019m giving you an out!)<\/p>\n

<\/a>

“What do you dislike the most about your appearance?”<\/p><\/div>\n

KINDLEY<\/p>\n

I would like to die \u2026 in Los Angeles. Well, no, not necessarily, although there are probably worse places to be laid to rest. Certainly it\u2019s a great place to live. I haven\u2019t thought consciously until now about how it\u2019s affected the writing of this particular book, but moving here from New York in 2010 had huge repercussions for the kind of work I do and the way I think. I delivered the earliest version of this research as a lecture at the Errata Salon<\/a>, a local nonfiction reading series organized by the writers Amina Cain and Ariana Kelly, and I\u2019m not sure I could have found a venue that was simultaneously as intellectually stimulating and as low profile in New York City. One of the nice things about being a writer in LA is that, while there are plenty of other writers around and a growing wealth of literary institutions, it isn\u2019t where you go to be a writer<\/em> in the same way New York is. (Unless you mean a screenwriter, in which case God have mercy on your soul.) So the competition is less fierce, and the egos a little more to scale. There also may be more of a willingness among intellectuals to consider \u201ctrivial\u201d things like BuzzFeed quizzes as worthy of critical notice.<\/p>\n

As for Scientology, how could I not write about it? Those people are everywhere in LA. The pleated pants are a dead giveaway. The one act of journalistic derring-do I performed while researching Questionnaire<\/em> was going to the big blue Scientology building on Sunset and taking an Oxford Capacity Analysis test<\/a>. The creepy side of the questionnaire\u2019s history does seem to run, over and over, through Los Angeles. Aside from Hubbard and his minions, there\u2019s Paul Popenoe<\/a>\u2019s American Institute of\u00a0Family Relations, which had headquarters in Hollywood and then later in Pasadena. Popenoe\u2014who, in his youth, authored books with charming titles like Sterilization for Human Betterment\u2014<\/em>brought eugenics to the masses in the form of marriage counseling, and questionnaire-based personality tests were a major weapon in his arsenal. His tests provided the models for the kind of personality quizzes you find in women\u2019s magazines, like Cosmopolitan<\/em>, which in turn have influenced the form and content of the BuzzFeed quiz. You see, it\u2019s all connected!<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll close with a final query, taken not from the original Proust questionnaire but from James Lipton\u2019s rather loose adaptation of it for Inside the Actors\u2019 Studio <\/em>(actually an adaptation of an adaptation, since Lipton got it from the French TV presenter Bernard Pivot): What would you like to hear Saint Peter say, when you arrive at the pearly gates?<\/p>\n

<\/a>

“What is your favorite way of spending time?”<\/p><\/div>\n

NEBORSKY<\/p>\n

\u201cGood timing, renouncing Judaism right before that asteroid! You\u2019re in section N4. Don\u2019t try to swap or upgrade. We know how you Neborskys do. Take a water, move toward the perfect beauty. Or follow the signs.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/a>

“That’s weird\u2013I knew you were about to tell me about your greatest extravagance.”<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Evan Kindley and Joanna Neborsky both happen to have new books dealing with questionnaires. Kindley\u2019s Questionnaire, part of the Object Lessons series, charts the history of \u201cthe form as form\u201d from its inception in the late nineteenth century to its current apotheosis in our data-crazy present. Neborsky\u2019s A Proust Questionnaire, meanwhile, revives one of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1071,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[419],"tags":[18746,10531,24883,24886,23277,21288,870,228,1132,24884,8517,217,575,8670,24887,24888,905,24882,22520,2760,13793,24885,13671,50,19765],"class_list":["post-103274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-culture","tag-bruno-latour","tag-buzzfeed","tag-desmond-tutu","tag-errata-salon","tag-evan-kindley","tag-francis-galton","tag-gustave-flaubert","tag-illustration","tag-interviews","tag-joan-rivers","tag-joanna-neborsky","tag-los-angeles","tag-marcel-proust","tag-object-lessons","tag-oxford-capacity-analysis-test","tag-paul-popenoe","tag-proust","tag-proust-questionnaire","tag-questionnaires","tag-questions","tag-quizzes","tag-scrapbooks","tag-sophia-loren","tag-vanity-fair","tag-victorian-england"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nQuestions About Questionnaires<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Evan Kindley and Joanna Neborsky both happen to have new books dealing with questionnaires\u2014so they\u2019ve asked each other a series of questions about them.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/03\/questions-about-questionnaires\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Questions About Questionnaires by Evan Kindley & Joanna Neborsky\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"October 3, 2016 \u2013 Evan Kindley and Joanna Neborsky both happen to have new books dealing with questionnaires. Kindley\u2019s Questionnaire, part of the Object Lessons series,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/03\/questions-about-questionnaires\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-10-03T19:20:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-10-04T15:58:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Evan Kindley & Joanna Neborsky\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Evan Kindley & Joanna Neborsky\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"10 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/03\/questions-about-questionnaires\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/03\/questions-about-questionnaires\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Evan Kindley & Joanna Neborsky\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/bb3295d791ddf42646c4824fa40d6359\"},\"headline\":\"Questions About Questionnaires\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-10-03T19:20:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-10-04T15:58:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/03\/questions-about-questionnaires\/\"},\"wordCount\":1984,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/03\/questions-about-questionnaires\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/006.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"bruno latour\",\"BuzzFeed\",\"Desmond Tutu\",\"Errata Salon\",\"Evan Kindley\",\"Francis Galton\",\"Gustave Flaubert\",\"illustration\",\"interviews\",\"Joan Rivers\",\"Joanna Neborsky\",\"Los Angeles\",\"Marcel Proust\",\"object lessons\",\"Oxford Capacity Analysis test\",\"Paul Popenoe\",\"Proust\",\"Proust Questionnaire\",\"questionnaires\",\"questions\",\"quizzes\",\"scrapbooks\",\"Sophia Loren\",\"Vanity Fair\",\"Victorian England\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Arts & Culture\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/03\/questions-about-questionnaires\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/03\/questions-about-questionnaires\/\",\"name\":\"Questions About Questionnaires\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/03\/questions-about-questionnaires\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/03\/questions-about-questionnaires\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/006.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-10-03T19:20:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-10-04T15:58:00+00:00\",\"description\":\"Evan Kindley and Joanna Neborsky both happen to have new books dealing with questionnaires\u2014so they\u2019ve asked each other a series of questions about them.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/03\/questions-about-questionnaires\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/03\/questions-about-questionnaires\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/03\/questions-about-questionnaires\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/006.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/006.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/03\/questions-about-questionnaires\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Questions About Questionnaires\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/bb3295d791ddf42646c4824fa40d6359\",\"name\":\"Evan Kindley & Joanna Neborsky\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/38a1051062a800bfacade54de83876507da1b3c174c6a1f366ad97ea1bbfd0d8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/38a1051062a800bfacade54de83876507da1b3c174c6a1f366ad97ea1bbfd0d8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Evan Kindley & Joanna Neborsky\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/ekindleyjneborsky\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Questions About Questionnaires","description":"Evan Kindley and Joanna Neborsky both happen to have new books dealing with questionnaires\u2014so they\u2019ve asked each other a series of questions about them.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/03\/questions-about-questionnaires\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Questions About Questionnaires by Evan Kindley & Joanna Neborsky","og_description":"October 3, 2016 \u2013 Evan Kindley and Joanna Neborsky both happen to have new books dealing with questionnaires. Kindley\u2019s Questionnaire, part of the Object Lessons series,","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/03\/questions-about-questionnaires\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2016-10-03T19:20:37+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-10-04T15:58:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":675,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-1.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Evan Kindley & Joanna Neborsky","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Evan Kindley & Joanna Neborsky","Est. reading time":"10 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/03\/questions-about-questionnaires\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/03\/questions-about-questionnaires\/"},"author":{"name":"Evan Kindley & Joanna Neborsky","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/bb3295d791ddf42646c4824fa40d6359"},"headline":"Questions About Questionnaires","datePublished":"2016-10-03T19:20:37+00:00","dateModified":"2016-10-04T15:58:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/03\/questions-about-questionnaires\/"},"wordCount":1984,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/03\/questions-about-questionnaires\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/006.jpg","keywords":["bruno latour","BuzzFeed","Desmond Tutu","Errata Salon","Evan Kindley","Francis Galton","Gustave Flaubert","illustration","interviews","Joan Rivers","Joanna Neborsky","Los Angeles","Marcel Proust","object lessons","Oxford Capacity Analysis test","Paul Popenoe","Proust","Proust Questionnaire","questionnaires","questions","quizzes","scrapbooks","Sophia Loren","Vanity Fair","Victorian England"],"articleSection":["Arts & Culture"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/03\/questions-about-questionnaires\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/03\/questions-about-questionnaires\/","name":"Questions About Questionnaires","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/03\/questions-about-questionnaires\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/03\/questions-about-questionnaires\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/006.jpg","datePublished":"2016-10-03T19:20:37+00:00","dateModified":"2016-10-04T15:58:00+00:00","description":"Evan Kindley and Joanna Neborsky both happen to have new books dealing with questionnaires\u2014so they\u2019ve asked each other a series of questions about them.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/03\/questions-about-questionnaires\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/03\/questions-about-questionnaires\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/03\/questions-about-questionnaires\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/006.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/006.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/03\/questions-about-questionnaires\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Questions About Questionnaires"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/bb3295d791ddf42646c4824fa40d6359","name":"Evan Kindley & Joanna Neborsky","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/38a1051062a800bfacade54de83876507da1b3c174c6a1f366ad97ea1bbfd0d8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/38a1051062a800bfacade54de83876507da1b3c174c6a1f366ad97ea1bbfd0d8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Evan Kindley & Joanna Neborsky"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/ekindleyjneborsky\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1071"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103274"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103274\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103314,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103274\/revisions\/103314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}