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.

I'm going to beg off reading Carter's bio next year. I bought both it and Tatie's bio in paperback (not available elcronically). They are both massive (2lbs?) and encyclopedic in scope. The only place I could read them would be at the kitchen table (which is not comfortable). They contain way too much detail for me. So I will follow with interest your comments that you post on Goodreads. Meanwhile, I'm reading "Proust at the Majestic". It wanders a bit in style but still gives interesting detail. I bought it specifically for its extensive description of Proust's funeral. I visited Proust's grave in Pere Lachaise on two occasions decades before I got past page 20 of his book.

Jonathan wrote: "Favourite quote of the week:The only true voyage, the only bath in the Fountain of Youth, would be not to visit strange lands but to possess other eyes, to see the universe through the eyes of anot..."

This is an important statement of a main theme. An artist can achieve immortality only through his/her artistic creation; others can access the past ultimately only through art.

Jonathan wrote: "The narrator says 'I kept putting off to the morrow my plans for Albertine' - does this sound sinister to others? My feeling was that he just couldn't decide whether to break up with her or to marr..."

There is a lot of excitement coming in what remains in this volume.

Jonathan wrote: "Proust sure likes to tease us:Indeed, in the concluding section of this work, we shall see M. de Charlus himself engaged in doing things which would have stupefied the members of his family and his..."

Proust delivers on this promise in spades.

Jonathan wrote: "Given that the narrator is anxious that Albertine doesn't meet Mlle Vinteuil and her friend (do we know her name?), why does he not seem concerned that Albertine is at home and Mlle Vinteuil & frie..."

I certainly relate to your confusion Jonathan. Mlle Vinteule's friend remains anonymous, but I believe anonymity is important to the important role she plays in the book that is only tangentially related to her friendships and sexuality.

Jonathan wrote: "Proust seems quite happy killing off his characters. So far we've had Swann, Bergotte, Cottard, Sherbatoff, Saniette. Have I missed any?"

Aunt Leonie and grandmother. Death is one of the main themes in the book. Marcelita pointed out that one of the results of the novel being incomplete is that a few characters are resurrected! Killed off then show up later looking none the worse for ware.

Jonathan wrote: "Charlus's favourite phrase seems to be: concatenation of circumstances. I think I'll start using it myself."

A well chosen phrase Jonathan - I've been deliberately trying to imitate Proust's use of alliteration and assonance in my own writing.

That would certainly be an intriguing plot possibility Jonathan; but no, thats not in the cards.

I checked the Cambridge book, the quote there was not the one I'm looking for. Not that important. Meanwhile, I've turned another corner in my post-Proustian preambulation. I got the Great Courses 48 Video Lectures on the history of European Art. Really well done. I jumped first Lecture 33 about 17th Century Dutch Art to see what the professor had to say about Vermeer. When he talked about Vermeer being unique in that we can observe his painting but they are inaccessible to us, I got Proustian goosebumps! Again the Proust theme, we can observe from without but can never truely "know."

This is the Penguin translation, which I don't care for:

"Weary, resigned, with several hours still of its immemorial task to do, the gray day stitched away at its pearly braidwork, and I was filled with the gloomy thought that I was to remain alone in close contact with it, and with no more degree of acquaintance between us than I would have had with a seamstress sitting by the window to work in a better light and taking absolutely no notice of the person there with her in the room."

I'm clueless where I saw a version with to "left alone" in it.

A dangerous request Renato, but I will try to honor it in moderation.

Sorry, yes, Renato is quoting Moncrieff. So I guess i mourn the fact that I don't know which translation I memorized! Its not M/K/E which uses "occupied" in the first phrase and "present" in the last, and reads:

"Weary, resigned, occupied for several hours still with its immemorial task, the grey day stitched its shimmering needlework of light and shade, and it saddened me to think that I was to be left alone with a thing that knew me no more than would a seamstress who, installed by the window so as to see better while she finishes her work, pays no attention to the person present with her in the room."

Well, I humbly retract the "left alone" and repetition part of my comment. Sorry. Here is the french version, which clearly uses "left alone" in the middle and "present" at the end:

"Lasse, résignée, occupée pour plusieurs heures encore à sa tâche immémoriale, la grise journée filait sa passementerie de nacre et je m’attristais de penser que j’allais rester seul en tête à tête avec elle qui ne me connaissait pas plus qu’une ouvrière qui, installée près de la fenêtre pour voir plus clair en faisant sa besogne, ne s’occupe nullement de la personne présente dans la chambre." (II, 646)

As I first mentioned, I came across the sentence in Malcolm Bowie's article "Proust and the Art of Brevity" in the "Cambridge Companion to Proust". Bowie spends a couple of pages talking about that sentence. A couple of interesting quotes from Bowie's article:

"It tells a self- contained story about the production and subsequent decay of metaphor. This fragment is of course richly connected to the rest of the novel. The sequestered uncommunicating couple, the working woman and the idling man, and the meteorological determinism that weighs down upon meetings and failed meetings between lovers are all familiar motifs: the Narrator’s mother and grandmother, and Françoise, who is nearby, have all been involved in scenes like this, and Dutch interiors on this mode of quiet co- presence between human agents have a significant role in the book. What the sentence does, however, is rein these allusions and filiations into a narrative that is complete in itself."

"Loosen your grip for a moment upon a metaphor, the Narrator suggests, and you will be mercilessly reabsorbed into the everyday world. A single sentence stages the whole process of making metaphors and losing them; and in so doing it lays claim to its own singularity, its own coherence and its own temporal rhythm. It is both a link in a greater concatenated plot and a plot in itself. It is both an element in the novel’s overall design and an outlier or erratic block occupying the outer margins of that design."

This copy and paste function in Kindle could turn me into a quoting madman! lol

Renato, I was reviewing the sentence you quoted that I referenced. In a comment on the translation; I'm not sure which translation you used but I note two differences between the version you quoted and the Moncrieff version I memorized:

a) The word "busy" in the first clause is "occupied" in Moncrieff. I find that a subtle but unfortunate change for reasons to tedious to type out.

b) The second change I have a major problem with; the sentence ends with "the other person present with her in the room." In Moncrieff rather than "present" it is translated "left alone." The significance of this is that the phrase "left alone" is also used in the main clause in the middle (putting the main clause in the middle of longer sentences is frequent in Proust). Repetition is a rhetorical device used to highlight or indicate significance. Unfortunately, modern translators often eliminate repetition to "suit modern reading taste for "variety." I saw this a lot when I was teaching Bible Study. The original languages (Hebrew especially) used a lot of repetition which is often eliminated to the detriment of understanding meaning. Anyway, back to Proust, the "aloneness" of the narrator (and every individual) is a major theme in "In Search...". In 75 words, the only phrase repeated in Moncrieff is "left alone." When I noticed that, it was a key to unraveling a lot more in the sentence and, for me, seeing the sentence as a "portrait in miniture" of the novel. For reasons such as this, I mourn the "modernization" of texts. I'll get off my soap box now.

Wow! I updated my iPad to iOS8 and my Kindle for iOS to Version 4.5 and now can copy and paste to email and other Apps. Also you can select foreign words and phrases in the text and hit a translate version. Also with a new "smart" type it learns your typing style and vocabulary! I just typed "ve" and, in addition to version and several other words, it suggested "Verdurin"! For my inaugural Proust quote I have selected:

"I had to rejoin Elstir. A mirror showed me my reflection: in addition to the disaster of not having been introduced, I noticed that my tie was crooked and that my hair, which was too long, was sticking out from under my hat."

Yes Renato, that's it.

Yes, Bergotte's death is very moving.

One of the things I've learned in the outside reading is that he is perhaps the most masterful at capturing a moment of time, an internal moment if you will and writing it in a way that conveys great meaning as well as beauty. A sentence I saw referenced in the Cambridge Companion to Proust (and which, again, I had passed unnoticed) so impressed me I memorized it (75 words, a shorty for Proust) and carry it around in my head to "play with". Its become my own personal train timetable. I have found so much meaning in that one sentence as it relates to the rest of the book, that I could speak extemporaneously for 40 minutes or so. It is from Guermantes Way, just after Mme Stermaria fails to show for the lunch date. If you want to look it up it begins, "Weary, resigned, occupied for several hours still with its immemerable task, the grey day stiched..."

Ha, ha Renato! Its hiding in plain sight. Think about it.

Yes, I like the shark simile! Almost all of these details you and Renato point out I have overlooked or forgotten. I find it amusing in his longer sentences Proust sometimes includes four or five similes about the same thing! Like he had all these good ideas and decided on "all of the above". The world is better off that he didn't have someone like Max Perkins for an editor. OK M. Proust, you can have a simile in this sentence, but only one! You choose.

A key point of the novel is what the Narrator is NOT doing!