Dave’s Comments (group member since May 24, 2014)

Dave’s comments from the Reading Proust's In Search of Lost Time in 2014 group.

Jonathan wrote: "I find it a little odd that Odette seems to have no money whatsoever and that she relies on money from Gilberte. I would have expected her to have got her hands on some of Swann's and Forcheville's..."

Your comments have me back snooping around the end of The Fugitive Jonathan. Can you quote a couple of sentences about Odettte depending on Gilberte please so I can find it.

Thanks Marcelita, I'm using my iTunes library to listen to the program listings I own. Although I have to admit there is a haunting quality to singing voices from old recordings that cannot be duplicated today.

MMR wrote: "Curious why it was that a part of the Verdurin's wasn't also frozen. " Good eye for detail MMR. Having already finished the book I know that your question will be answered in the text at some point but I don't remember when. I find this so typical, Just a hint at something which might easily be overlooked, but if you notice, it is followed up very casually later. Its like panning for gold.

I agree with you about the descriptions of wartime Paris.

Saint Loup becomes such a complex character. I have a couple of observations I caught on rereading but I'll wait until the end of the week.

I got a real laugh out of how M. Guermantes characterized the telegrams that Saint Loup sent to Gilberte "Cannot come. Lies follow."

Renato wrote : "It's interesting to note how Goncourt's descriptions are different from those ones we've read before... I guess he's really mocking the power of observation here" From what I've read in the after read stuff, the spoof of the Goncourt's Journal is seen as brilliant. He spends pages afterward discussing it. Basically what he sees versus what to Gongourts see is a replays of his argument in Contra Saint Beuve. They see the superficial while he sees the essential.

Renato said "was he being ironic and I missed the mark? " I think you got it right on both counts Renato -it was ironic but he's calling attention to his powers of (Xray) observation by denying them so strongly ( I always thinks of Hamlet's comment about his mother - me thinks the lady doth protest too much).

I am continually amazed at how aware of technological progress he was. Xrays were only discovered in 1895.

Yes Sunny, we have started Time Regained.

I was browsing on Professor Carter's website and found a link to Joseph Epstein's Review of Anna Muhlstein's book M. Proust's Library. Published in the Wall Street Journal in 2012 and entitled "You Are What You Read", the review is very good. But it was the first paragraph that caught my eye:

"No one should read Marcel Proust's "In Search of Lost Time" for the first time. A first reading, however carefully conducted, cannot hope to unlock the book's complexity, its depth, its inexhaustible richness. Roughly a million words and more than 3,000 pages long, it is a novel I have read twice, and one of the reasons I continue to exercise and eat and drink moderately and have a physical every year into my 70s is that I hope to live long enough to read it one more time."

Another good article from The New Criterion Volume 19 in 2000 by Daniel Mark Epstein entitled Proust regained.

http://promethee.philo.ulg.ac.be/engd...

And this is a fun website with lots of info (Marcelita may have already recommended these).
http://www.readingproust.com/index.htm

Sadly, the present is no longer an option for me, liquor does not mix with my pills.

The Shattuck book is excellent. After pouring over a bunch Proust books I believe it is the best "one stop shopping" to start with on the commentary.

He, he, yes, I remember 78 RPM records Marcelita. Never owned any, but heard some.

I've purchased the ebook version of William Carter's Biography in prep for reading it with the group. But I've been peeking at it. I was pleased to see that Proust used his own medical regimen in creating Aunt Leonie - makes me feel closer to the Luminous Source. I'm not quite there yet in the rigor of my own routine, but I will start sending my doctors five page emails on the state of my bowls and other health essentials.

As for my Chi, my chosen path is to conform my external behavior to focus my inner self. So I've taken to wearing my full-length fur coat over my nightshirt and motoring out with my chauffeur at the wheel at 2:30AM. Social life is limited in San Antonio in the wee hours of the mornings, but I make do by hobnobbing with the best clientele at all night Supermarkets and Fast food drive thru's.

Which brings me to "what the hell is radiographing"? Turns out its XRays! Marcel, the dinner guest with the Xray eyes! Make a great scifi flick.

There is just too much in this book! lol I didn't recognize the passage you cited Renato so I copied a phrase from your quote to search the text. Turns out I highlighted the same passage! But then I guess I highlight 30-40% of the text in one color or another.

It is an interesting passage.

I can't say I noticed that Renato, but its been several months since I read this volume. You may be more sensitive than I to such changes.

Did they give any explanation of the difference Jonathan? Wish I had the Penguin edition for TR, the notes are sure to be interesting.

Sunny in Wonderland wrote: "Dave wrote: "The context is that after starting to regularly meet Gilberte in the Park each day and eventually meeting Odette, Marcel gets seriously ill for a period of time and is housebound. Afte..."

I doubt if anyone notices Sunny. Its not just the content that interests me, but the placement of the material - just at the beginning of his first love it gives the summary of the end of his relationshipwith his last love.

I certainly agree with you on that MMR. He certainly doesn't seem 30 in his interaction with his parents here or elsewhere (like Venice). But to me he is not a "normal" man. Sickly, emotionally crippled, etc.

As I've read I've taken to highlighting indicators of time passage, season etc to "keep tracking of passing years." In addition to sometimes referring to specific days of week, months and seasons, Proust sometimes mention specific historic events and persons (often government Ministers) involved in historically accurate crises. So my little informal time line really just tracks passage of time. Sometimes time periods jump around and in the end become very vague. After tracking the passage of time through the whole book, I came to the conclusion this was of very little help in understanding the book. But it is an interesting question that I'd enjoy discussing when everyone finishes the book.

On reflection, the longest scene between mother and son since the first section of the first volume. There he tried to manipulate her with the note sent with Francoise. Here she manipulates him to get on the train. Interesting.

Although they traveled together to Balbec (second trip), I don't remember much interaction between them on that trip.

Mt comments that I posted last summer for the volume are somewhat off the mark.
- I notice train trip from Venice reminds me of the trin trips in S&G, full of disclosures.
- The Venice section and the train trip home are the longest "scene" between mother and son.

Yes that part is good.

We'll Proust books are doing their part to sop up the spare change. My Rolls Royce and Yacht "just like Marcel bought Albertine" have not arrived yet.