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.

Marcelita wrote: "“'But, my dear Charles, I’m longing to see your photograph.'
'Ah! Extinctor draconis latrator Anubis,' said Swann.
'Yes, it was so charming what you said about that apropos of San Giorgio at Venice..."

The link says the book is unavailable. My latin is shaky, but since Swann is dying, the photograh has to do with family ancestors and Annubis is the Egyptian God of the dead, my guess is Swann is wryly noting that the Lord of the dead show her the "underworld" i.e. her own dead ancestors.

You are in for a real treat Jonathan, it just gets better and better! ENJOY!

25% into Sodom and Gomorrah I had a major "ah, ha" moment. The Guermantes have brought the narrator home from the Princesses party and notes the time is a quarter to twelve. The end of a long day that began in Guermantes Way. The narrator goes inside and wants Francoise to call Albertine and have her come over. After some interaction with Francoise and some pleading with Albertine, she agrees to come. So now it is after midnight, the beginning of a new day, and the narrator is in bed waiting for a woman to come and kiss him goodnight (all that happens when Albertine shows up). We are back at the very beginning! A new day and a new beginning, now I must look for patterns that bring up memories of places and persons that came before but are somehow transformed! And page after pages they begin to arrive.

The discussion of the Drefus Affair provided a historical marker to place this party within a pretty narrow window in history. Specific events have recently occurred that characters are reacting to. I've come to think of the Drefus Affair as the political "little phrase" in the book. When it surfaces in conversation it elicits strong emotions and allows the reader to track who holds what opinion, how opinions shift over time, and how opinions or the perception of opinions shape relationships among characters.

The Princess de Guermantes' party is the first one of these type scenes that I actually enjoyed and felt more or less comfortable in. I have a feeling that Proust (not the narrator) has mentored me on how to "get by" in such situations. I'm sure there is more to learn, but I'm no longer suffering Proustian social anxiety at having to go to a "Proust party."

The comedic highlight of this section for me comes when the Narrator blames God for "inversion!" Something along the lines he sent the wrong angel to destroy Sodom and Gommorah and the angel bungled the job and let some of them "get away" - and now they are everywhere! lol

I was amused by the climbing around the Narrator had to do to satisfy his curiosity about what was going on. I find a lot to laugh at in Proust, comedy he has deliberately written. I see/hear a lot of comedy in this section. Even when the narrator "seems serious" in his observations or asides, it comes across as "tongue in cheek". Listening to the audiobook helps to bring out this aspect for me.

Regarding the "Prologue" of this volume:
- Did Proust give this section its specific, lengthy title or did Editors? If it was Proust, he seems to have wanted to make sure the reader knew what was going to be discussed. At least in an age when people knew the Bible. Today, I guess folks might be "surprised".
- I was struck by the continuity of time between Guermantes Way and this volume. The Narrator had said he would get back to what he had learned "on the stairs", in the previous volume, but he has made references to future "disclosures" in other places that (as far as I know) I'm still waiting to learn. A reading habit of mine is to keep track of time and place. So I note the continuity of the same day that has been "occurring" since I was at (91%) of the Guermantes Way (my 99 cent ebook doesn't have pages) when the narrator went to see the Duchess to find out if his invitation to the Princess de Guermantes was for real.

Renato wrote: "Dave, as I'm reading the books in Portuguese, I downloaded free English ebooks versions for when I want to quote something. I just open it on my computer and copy the quote I want.

It's easy to ge..."

Thank you Renato!

Thanks again Marcelita. I reviewed the web page of The Center for Fiction. I am encouraged to hear that there are these organizations and lifelong Proustians.

I am well into the fourth volume and am finding myself increasingly amazed. For the last two days, when I "put down" the book I just sit staring at the page for several minutes in awe. I have thought to myself; this is like walking into what I know to be a very large room in the dark, before dawn, and after waiting for the light for three volumes worth of time, I now realize I am in a great cathedral - and I am in wonder!

I have lots of remarks, but I need to "put" them in the proper week so I don't spoil the experience for others.

A big thank you Marcelita! In checking out The Proust Society of America (interesting) I found the "Proust Online" site that has the complete text in English and French and other languages. (http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/p/prous...)

I've been frustrated in making remarks because I couldn't copy quotes from my ebook on my iPad. This online text can be copied and pasted and is the Scott Moncrieff public domain translation I am reading and listening to.

Marcelita said "....as the Bostan reading groups gather for Marcel's birthday". Sigh, no reading groups in my town (nor probably in my State or region) that gather for Marcel's birthday. I'm envious! I'll just curl up in my bed with my Kindle, reading ISOLT while sobbing and waiting for my mother to come and kiss me goodnight (since she's been dead 40 years, I may finish the book before she gets here.

I did'nt know about Night at the Majestic, thanks for the lead Jonathan.

On the naivety, I'm thinking specifically of his relations with women. Gilbert, Odette, Albertine, the Duchess, Mme. Stermaria - each in turn idolized, obsessed over, and then grows bored with (sometimes in psychological defense of being discarded by them). How many times does he need to repeat this emotionally infantile pattern to learn better and change? Well maybe, at 63, Iv'e simply forgotton the power of male hormones to decieve the brain.

Regarding the other comment about my own loss of innocence. I've done some reading up on "new literary criticism" where there is encouragement to consider the "reader" and their relationship to the book as fair game for analysis (among other things). So in this approach, you step out of the reading experience and consider yourself reading as sort of an "out of body" experience. Every reader does this naturally I think, but not so formally. So my remark about innocence is along those lines - "is Proust writing a series of events to point to the narrator's loss of innocence as a child in the process of growing up or am I, as reader, experiencing a sense of loss of innocence (nostalgia) of who the narrator was when he was first introduced in bed at Combray?" Then you can get into interesting questions like "what was the author's intent?" Writing a story is an act of communication across time and space. What "ideas" did the author deliberately include? What ideas did the author "unconsciously" include? What ideas do I, as reader, 100 years later on a different continent and in a different language receive, both consciously and unconsciously receive and understand? Ultimately, these answers are unique to each reader. The greatest writers communicate great ideas that are shared parts of the hunan experience across time and space and connect with readers universally. But there is always small, unique ideas and emotions that belong to specifically to each reader. These are to be cherished. (Sorry, long answer, sometime I get carried away with my own BS, lol)

Renato wrote: "Jonathan and Dave, your points about separating the narrator from Proust himself are very important, but I confess I'm having a hard time doing it.

I jumped into Proust innocently (as Marcelita li..."

I go for the "quick fix" Renato. I read bio info on Proust, Drefus Affair and such on Wikipaedia. Sometimes I Google info. I did read Alan de Botton's book while reading Swann's Way. One of the most intriguing stories I came across was that, near the end of his life, Proust and James Joyce attended the same party and shared a cabride to their respective destinations. Apparently they had nothing to say to each other and were unfamiliar with each others work. Arriving at Proust's home first, Proust payed for the cab and gave a substantial additional sum to the driver saying, "please take Monsieur Joyce wherever he needs to go." Proust turned away and they parted without another word. As a lover of literature and books, I contemplate this moment of chance as a literary super nova.

I am finding that the further I get in these volumes the more I sense the presence of the "mature, reflective" narrator. At this point I'm estimating he is in his early twenties. He wears his emotions on his sleeve, and seems repeatedly naive in his relationships with women - but he is highly educated (something transparent in the novel, his education), socially sophisticated, and his commentary on human and world affairs reflects the experienced genius that wrote these books!

Jonathan wrote: "I found the argument about Dreyfus, that the butlers were having, confusing at first as the narrator's butler (pro Dreyfus) is arguing with the Guermantes' butler (anti-Dreyfus) but the narrator's ..."

I think you are very right in this Jonathan. I was vaguely familiar with the Dreyfus case before starting this reading, but have found it useful to read-up about the case. Dreyfus was wrongly convicted and sent to Devil's Island and then retried, exonerated and eventually served in the First World War. I am finding this event and the strong feelings it evokes to be Proust's insightful take on the divisiveness of current events - still applicable today.

Jonathan wrote: "With the narrator pondering his grandmother's illness and illness in general we get this great quote:It is illness that makes us recognize that we do not live in isolation but are chained to a bein..."

After reading the section on grandmother's illness and treatment I felt the need to update my "instructions to physicians" that in case of debilitating illness NO LEECHES!"

Renato wrote: "When Françoise walked into his bedroom with a lighted lamp while he was in bed with Albertine, the narrator mentioned this beautiful Prud'hon painting:


Justice and Divine Vengeance Pursuing Crime..."

Thank you for the wonderful support on posting paintings and mentioning specific music Renato!

Renato wrote: "A question for you all: would you consider our narrator... spoiled?

We've already discussed previously about how he really desires something and then immediately gets disappointed as soon as he ge..."

He seemed spoiled to me at the beginning of Swann's Way - an 11 year old boy who can't go to sleep until his mother comes upstairs to kiss him goodnight. But as I've read through the first three volumes I've come to think of him as naive. All these episodes of worshipful adulation for women young and old. Right up to Mme. Stermaria he is blindsided by disappointed and bursts into tears. I keep thinking this is about a loss of innocence, but is it the loss of the narrator's innocence or the loss of my own innocence as a reader I am observing?