Jacob’s Comments (group member since Nov 14, 2014)

Jacob’s comments from the One Year In Search of Lost Time ~ 2015 group.

End of The Fugitive, Chapter 1 (~51.1%).

I made it an even split because I figured that most of us have only taken the schedule as a guideline anyway - sometimes getting behind, sometimes getting ahead - and discussed each week's section whenever we get to it. So if some of us just want to keep to our regular pace and then read 20-30 pages extra at the end of each volume it'll be pretty close to what happens anyway.

Each quote is found at the end of a paragraph. These quotes are from the Penguin edition (this volume is translated by Ian Patterson). I don’t have the MKE translation of this volume so when I had the option I tried to choose quotes that included a proper noun or chapter break. After each quote I cite the approximate page percentage of the line. The percentage is of the text ISoLT only, excluding introductions and prefaces, end notes and summaries. This is only the text of Finding Time Again. NB: Those reading the MKE or other translations should take special care near the beginning of this volume. The final volumes are divided differently by different translators. Each week's reading is also a few pages longer (about 10%) then our normal count.

November 21
"And he who, out of opposition to the Courvoisiers, had made such bold overtures towards art, had not the least idea that what would have made somebody like Bergotte most interested in him was his kinship with the whole of the old Faubourg, and his capacity to describe to him the almost provincial life led by his femal cousins, from the rue de la Chaise to the place du Palais-Bourbon and the rue Garancière" (~19.94%).

November 28
"Soon the anti-aircraft barrage started up with such intensity that we realized that the German aeroplane's position was very close, just above our heads" (~39.88%).

December 5
"That girl with the very deep-set eyes and the drawling voice, is she here? And if she really does repose here, then do we any longer know in what part, or how to find her underneath the flowers" (~59.82%)?

December 12
"...and I consoled myself, like a shop-keeper whose book-keeping has become muddled, by confusing the value of having them there with the price my desire had once put on them" (~80.06%).

December 19
The end of In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust

"I at last remembered certain summer days which we found too hot at the time, and where it is only after the event that we extract from their alloys the pure, hallmarked gold and the indelible lapis lazuli" (~25%).

Each quote is found at the end of a paragraph. These quotes are from the Penguin edition (this volume is translated by Peter Collier). I don’t have the MKE translation of this volume so when I had the option I tried to choose quotes that included a proper noun or chapter break. After each quote I cite the approximate page percentage of the line. The percentage is of the text ISoLT only, excluding introductions and prefaces, end notes and summaries. This is only the text of The Fugitive.NB: Those reading the MKE or other translations should take special care near the end of this volume. The final volumes are divided differently by different translators. Each week's reading is also a few pages longer (about 10%) then our normal count.

October 24
"I at last remembered certain summer days which we found too hot at the time, and where it is only after the event that we extract from their alloys the pure, hallmarked gold and the indelible lapis lazuli" (~25%).

October 31
End of The Fugitive, Chapter 1 (~51.1%).

November 7
End of The Fugitive, Chapter 2 (~74.63%).

November 14
"'All that is so long ago,' she said, 'I've never thought of anyone but Robert since the day we were engaged. And, you know, those childish pranks are still not what I regret the most'" (End of The Fugitive.

I suppose I'll just evenly divide the last two books into 9 weeks so we can finish reading on the 19th of December. I think that's best since it's a busy time of year, many people travel, and I for one would like a week off before I start over at the beginning!

I'm working on the schedule right now. I don't remember ever putting together an overall schedule. Maybe you saw it on another Proust group read? In the group rules there's a break down of the %s of each book, each week. I haven't yet decided on how to break down the last two books because, whether I made a mistake in the math or the schedules, I have us ending December 26th instead of the 19th like I wanted.

I haven't decided if we should up our weekly reading by 10% each week (6 pages in my edition), add 20-30 pages to the last week of each book, or just read until December 26th. If someone has a preference then let me know.

Simon wrote: "Thank you, Marcelita!
Yes, I'm already thinking of joining (or starting) the 2016 GR reread, also to see what the next slew of (re-)readers brings to the table."

Haha, I've already checked a couple of times to see if there was a group forming. Ridiculously premature, I know. I'm certain I'll be rereading in 2016. I'd also like to be more proactive about attracting more readers to a 2016 group. I'll probably try to pitch it in the other groups I'm apart of.

I'll also try to start a local group connected to a GR group. I live in a university town so I'm hoping I'll find a few people. At the very least I know my schedule in 2016 will be more conducive to being active in a group read of Proust. So count me in, Simon. Now to catch up on my 2015 read!

End of The Prisoner

I removed the other one since the week number was inaccurate, and this one has the MKE quote which is always nice. I've gotten behind a little with my reading but hopefully I'll be able to catch up since the next week is a shorter section.

I have to say that I'm really happy seeing our small group that's stuck it out so far. I guess I see the light at the end of the tunnel and I'm already proud of our accomplishment. It's such a mammoth achievement. After next week we only have two short volumes left! Great work everyone!

That makes sense to me.

I can see that letting Albertine be free would permit her to live the life the he abhors. My question though, one that I've continued to wonder for hundreds of pages now, is why is so obsessed with Albertine's possible attraction to women? Why not men? He was jealous of Saint-Loup once but ever since then it was always women. In my experience this is not the kind of jealousy that is typical among heterosexual men. In our day many men react in a completely opposite way at the thought of their lover being with another woman. I keep wondering if this bizarre (or at least unusual) reaction says something about either the narrator's or Proust's own sexuality. We often talk about the way ISOLT mirror's Proust's life but there's one glaring change, the sexuality of the narrator (although there are hints here and there that there's something under the surface). Is the narrator's obsession with his lover's attraction to women, that is, the same sex, somehow related to this reversal? I have no idea.

Hmm, I remember you writing something along those lines but I forgot that it was that exact line. Glad to see we're on the same page even if I'm apparently on the wrong thread.

When he talks about the arts and the life of the artist I get especially drawn into his reflections.

Did anyone else notice the paragraph when the narrator talks about the work of Michelet, Wagner, and Balazac (P&F Penguin epub 167-168/719? He muses on the organic unity of great epic cycles like Balzac's Human Comedy or Wagner's Ring Cycle. He talks about how the unity comes about almost by accident, that it's something the authors recognized in process and didn't intend at the outset. He calls it "a unity that was unaware of itself." I wonder if Proust saw his own work in the same way.

And here's a quote that I found inspiring: "Could it be this power which creates in the work of great artists the illusion of an essential, irreducible originality, apparently the reflection of a superhuman reality, which it is in fact the product of unremitting industry?" Now this is something we know applies to Proust. It's clearly the reflection of an older narrator who's done something with his life instead of the young man he's describing who still hasn't managed to write more than one or two unpublished articles.

And here's a final quote from this week's reading related to the theme of the reliability of the narrator: "Yes, I have been forced to cut down the facts and to belie the truth, for it is not one universe but millions, almost as many as the number of human eyes and human intelligences, that wake up every morning" (198/719).

I was more of a master than I had thought. More of a master, that is to say, more of a slave (Penguin epub 165/719).

This reminded me of Hegel's master-slave dialectic, the idea that a master and a slave are mutually defining and interdependent. To be what they are a master needs a slave as much as a slave needs a master. Proust says something similar: being a master is a kind of enslavement. Freedom is contrary to any kind of relationship like this. I guess that means that in order for the narrator to be free he has to let Albertine be free which as it turns out would probably make Albertine want to spend more time with him and not less.

I share that belief, Teresa! Up to this point we've had no textual reason for calling the narrator "Marcel" and so I've refrained. Now that he mentions the name it's used in a way that undermines itself, as Simon pointed out. How stark the contrast from Moby Dick's famous "Call me Ishmael" when his name's definitively stated from the outset (although there's fascinating ambiguity in "call me" vs. "my name is"). It takes Proust 2000+ pages to give us a conditional use his own name: "if..., would... ". I don't have the French of this volume but I trust the translators enough to assume that the French uses the subjunctive or some other mood of uncertainty.

I don't doubt that Proust would have removed the rest of his uses of "Marcel" if he'd had a chance but I'm glad this one made it into the published version. It sets us up for more interesting conversations about the narrator's identity and the truth of the story he relates.

There are a couple of sentences in this section that are significant to Proust's unique blend of pseudo-biography and autobiography.

...my nature has always made me more open to the world of the possible than to that of real-life contingencies.

And on the next page:

Reality is always a mere starting-point towards the unknown, on a path down which we can never travel very far.

I've been fascinated throughout our read with the narrator's past and his retelling of the past. These quotes only emphasize the distinction, that retelling the past is never a return to the past. I'm very interested in the philosophy of time so these sentences are loaded with potential meaning. The "world of the possible" and "the unknown" could be understood in two ways: the future or our return to the past via memory, history, or autobiography. In my view both are functions of imagination rather than sensory experience. The "reality" and "real-life contingencies" that he's talking about are just that, his sensory experience of the present, but he's drawn to the experience of what is absent from his senses in the past and the future.

In Search of Lost Time deals with these themes on a second level that I rarely mention, that of the author. It's well known that Proust's novel is thoroughly autobiographical. I've never read something that balances itself between fiction and nonfiction with such subtle mastery. Admittedly I've mostly been interested in the relationship between the narrator with his narrative. I should point out that whenever I ramble on about narrative my analysis (actually I only point out Prout's more subtle, nuanced analysis) could equally apply to the relationship between Proust's own past and his novel and the relationships between our own past and our memory and sense of history. That's why I'm so interested in these themes: I think Proust gives us one of the best accounts of the nexus of the human of time.

"My hand, too, was raised and lowered, like the pearls, by Albertine's breathing: my whole body was gently rocked by its regular movement. I had set sail on Albertine's sleep" (15.58%).

That's really interesting. I didn't read the introduction to this volume this time around so if it was mentioned in there I've forgotten. Now that I think about it I vaguely remember reading something about a disagreement that Prendergast (or Kilmartin or Enright) had with an earlier translation regarding the appropriate division point between some of the volumes. Fortunately since we haven't been getting into the scholarly issues it doesn't make too much of a difference for us.

Well, I suppose this will make the next volume's % estimates even less accurate in the Moncrieff. Hopefully if they're off by some percentage it will be consistent. It's been easy for me since I read exactly 60 pages a week in my edition (with some exceptions when there's a section or volume end coming up). It makes me wonder how easy it's been to keep track of the weekly readings.

Each quote is found at the end of a paragraph. These quotes are from the Penguin edition (this volume is translated by Carol Clark). I don’t have the MKE translation of this volume so when I had the option I tried to choose quotes that included a proper noun. After each quote I cite the approximate page percentage of the line. The percentage is of the text ISoLT only, excluding introductions and prefaces, end notes and summaries. NB: This is only the text of The Prisoner.

September 5
"My hand, too, was raised and lowered, like the pearls, by Albertine's breathing: my whole body was gently rocked by its regular movement. I had set sail on Albertine's sleep" (15.58%).

September 12
"I was delighted that Albertine should be going to the 'special' matinée at the Trocadéro, but above all reassured that she was going there in company, the company of Andrée" (31.17%).

September 19
"I replied that I was looking forward to seeing the salon where Swann used once to meet Odette every evening. 'What, do you know those old stories?' he said" (46.75%).

September 26
"And he added, in Mme de Villeparisis's Guermantes voice, 'He's a fine land, a good type, I often use him at home.' But his cleverness often misfired, for people were astonished by his intimately friendly manner and the pneumatiques he sent to footmen. The footmen themselves were not so much flattered as embarrassed by what their friends would say" (61.82%)

October 3
"M. de Charlus soon began to slide down the slippery slope again, and with ever-increasing speed, as we shall see. But the Verdurins' attitude to him was to remain a distant memory, which later, more immediate resentments pushed into the background" (77.92%).

October 10
"You would have said that her lovely head, as she slept, was full of nothing but gaiety, tenderness and laughter. And waking her had been simply like opening a ripe fruit, sending the thirst-quenching juice spurting into one's mouth" (93.5%).

Next week is a very short section - around half our normal length.

October 17
End of The Prisoner