Rasputin, a minefield and fear: Iqaluit literacy teacher takes Proust Questionnaire
Patrick Woodcock received the 2024 Council of the Federation Literacy Award for his work in Iqaluit jails
Patrick Woodcock takes a moment before receiving the 2024 Council of the Federation Literacy Award on Oct. 29 at the Nunavut legislative assembly in Iqaluit. (File photo by Arty Sarkisian)
Patrick Woodcock has a story for even the most pedestrian questions.
He once walked on a minefield in Bosnia, drove in a car with a suspicious-looking man in the north of Iraq, made his way through the jungles of Colombia and spent years in more than a dozen countries affected by poverty, wars and genocide.
A simple “how do you do?” can lead to a conversation about a night in the Russian city of Saint Petersburg in the early 1990s, when he tried to find the place where Grigori Rasputin was killed.
After some wandering around, he did find the palace where the person music group Boney M. dubbed “Russia’s greatest love machine” was poisoned, shot and drowned.
Woodcock is a Canadian writer and teacher. He is a recipient of the 2024 Council of the Federation Literacy Award for his work in Iqaluit jails, and an avid walker.
He recently met up with Nunatsiaq News to answer an old questionnaire named after 19th century French writer Marcel Proust, for whom Woodcock had some strong words.
At the age of 14, to a simple question, “Where would you like to live?” Proust answered, “In the realm of the ideal, or rather my ideal.”
“Oh, screw you,” Woodcock jokingly said of the teenage Proust and his posh answer.
What do you most dislike about your appearance?
There’s one thing that has always annoyed me. When I walk and when I sit alone, I look sad. I’ve been told this my whole life.
And my reaction is like, “What would you expect? I’m sitting there alone smiling? That’s what lunatics do.”
I guess I just don’t look content, and maybe I never am.
On what occasions do you lie?
Well, when the reality of my answer would hurt someone that I don’t believe deserves to be hurt.
And also, sometimes you are lying by saying something, and sometimes you’re lying with your presence.
So, there are many times when I’ve sat with people, listened to them talking in different countries around the world and I completely abhorred what they were saying.
But I knew leaving would be a great insult to them.
Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
That’s a hard one to do without swearing.
Maybe “not again” — I can’t believe this is happening again, or I’m seeing this again.
[Woodcock was attempting to describe the f-word and what it means when he says that addressing himself.]
My friends and I couldn’t swear in front of our parents as kids. We would come up with phrases to replace the words. One was, “It’s cold outside.”
So, you know, it’s cold outside.
What’s your greatest fear?
That some of my beliefs are true.
I want to be proved wrong. I want some of the things that I believe in right now to be wrong. I’d be happy.
I used to believe that most people are good. But from seeing humanity all over the world, I don’t believe that anymore.
And some of my views about faith. For example, I would love to find out that I was wrong, and that my mom is alive. But I don’t believe that… Thanks for the happy questions.
Once in front of God what would you tell him?
I think I would just say: why?
Nunatsiaq News is borrowing the old Proust Questionnaire parlour game to get to know people who are in the news. If you know someone in your community who our readers should get to know by taking this questionnaire, let us know by email: editors@nunatsiaq.com.
Rasputin? Russia’s greatest “love machine” was in Nunavut?
Dang!!!
Missed his visit.🤘👌
Wish I could go home….but…I can’t.🤘😳🤕