ReemK10 (Paper Pills)’s Comments (group member since Dec 26, 2012)

ReemK10 (Paper Pills)’s comments from the The Year of Reading Proust group.

Elizabeth wrote: "Proust's relationship with his mother was...well, here's an example. In one of her letters, discussing a tremendous fight they had had, ending in his angrily breaking panes out of a glass door, sh..."

"I had in mind especially her extraordinary metaphor for the mending of that relationship after a quarrel she and her husband had with Marcel, where their repaired future is represented as a Jewish wedding. The Prousts were not a noisy family and this was one of the few real rows – as distinct from lots of niggling and moaning – they ever had. They were nice people, and very polite to each other; and are very polite again as soon as the quarrel is over. We may want to remember though what Proust says about nice people in a notebook: ‘In my novel, there is an ultra-bourgeois family, how many sick people in it?’ – ‘combien de malades dedans?’

What seems to have happened is that at the end of the episode of shouting, Proust slammed the door behind him so hard that the glass in its panels broke. He has written to apologise – that note is lost – and this is his mother’s reply in full. The date is not certain, but is thought to be some time in 1897:


My dear little one

Your letter did me good – your father and I were left with a very painful sense of things [une impression fort pénible]. I must tell you that I had not thought for a moment of saying anything at all in the presence of Jean [the servant] and that if that happened it was absolutely without my knowledge [à mon insu]. Let’s think no more and talk no more about it. The broken glass will merely be what it is in the temple – the symbol of an indissoluble union.

Your father wishes you a good night and I kiss you tenderly.

J.P.

I do however have to return to the subject in order to recommend that you don’t walk without shoes in the dining room because of the glass.

There’s a fictional version of this event in Proust’s early novel Jean Santeuil, and late in life he told his housekeeper Céleste about it. Biographers have made various guesses at what the quarrel was about – Proust’s homosexuality, or his expensive lifestyle – and in the novel part of it at least is about the hero’s not wanting to get a job. The postscript about the glass in the dining room doesn’t require any kind of crazy reading, although obviously it is open to several interpretations, some kinder than others. Evelyne Bloch-Dano, the biographer of Jeanne Proust, thinks her subject’s forgiveness is ‘contradicted by the mock warning’. I don’t think it’s contradicted, but clearly there is something about the postscript that makes it a sort of mockery, probably just a bit of what we would now call passive aggression: patent further talk about what we are not going talk about. But what about the allusion to the wedding, and the glass thrown to the ground by the groom and then crushed underfoot? This gesture has been taken to mean many things apart from indissoluble union, but even (or especially) on this reading Edmund White finds the image ‘chilling’, and George Painter has this to say:


If [Mme Proust’s] words were given their full, terrible meaning they would imply a mystic union with her son more valid than her marriage, in an alien faith, to his father. But their consequences need not be taken so seriously. Psychoanalysis had not yet been invented; and moreover, the malady in Proust’s heart fed not on his present relationship with his mother but on the buried, unalterable fixation of his childhood.

This is a quite remarkable example of having your cake and eating it, or better perhaps, of getting rid of the cake and still having lots of cake left. We don’t have to take the words seriously, but we do have to know what they would mean if we did take them seriously; no need for psychoanalysis, not because it hadn’t been invented – it had – but because we have our own brand, childhood fixation. In the terms of my question about reading, Painter has elegantly invoked a bit of craziness only, in rapid succession, to deny it and to return to another version of it. My suggestion would be that Jeanne Proust is not thinking, even unconsciously, of a mystic union with her son, but the extravagance of her analogy does mark a degree of continuing distress, does seek to contain and compensate for that distress, in a way that all the reasonable talk of forgiving and forgetting cannot. We need to go along with her extravagance in order to see how upset she is. The imaginary wedding turns a shattering into a unity, and the fantasised result is not a marriage between mother and son but something better and different: an endless maternal and filial intimacy for which marriage can only serve as an oblique hint. The result is not less crazy in this transposed form; but the craziness is what the case requires.

and here is the entire article: There is more to read about Proust and his mother

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v34/n06/michael-...

At the famous moment of the goodnight kiss in A la recherche, that scene so well known to everyone who has read even a little bit of Proust (and to many people who have never read Proust at all), once the mother has decided not only to confer the longed for kiss on the child but to stay the whole night with him, he thinks of himself as having begun his career as a matricide:


I ought to have been happy: I was not. It seemed to me that my mother had just made me a first concession which must be painful for her, that this was a first abdication on her part before the ideal she had conceived for me, and that for the first time she, who was so courageous, was confessing herself defeated. It seemed to me that, if I had just gained a victory, it was over her … it seemed to me I had just traced in her soul the first wrinkle and caused the first white hair to appear.

French Books USA wrote: "The 'Proust, Love, and Jealousy' video is now available online: http://www.thegreenespace.org/video/

Enjoy!"

Enjoyed! Thank you!

Joshua wrote: "Looking forward to this. I've been absent but will be back for this one!"

I see the return of a "moderator" who isn't even posting on schedule. I think all you absent moderators need to thank Kalliope for doing all the work around here. Without Kalliope, there would not have been a year of reading Proust. Nice of you to drop by Joshua. I'm sure we all look forward to what you have to share with us.

Martin wrote: Good point, Eugene. Proust himself was a very generous tipper and went out of his way to appreciate the working class.

Alain de Botton said he liked to give a 200% service charge!

Kalliope wrote: "ReemK10 (Paper Pills) wrote: "For you artists and art historians: PICASSO AND TRUTH

..."

Thank you, Reem for this article. I had seen about the book but also that there were misgivings. TJ Cla..."

Glad you liked the article Kalliope. I am not suscribed to the TLS but I come across their articles on the web all the time! If you would like me to share them with you, I'd be most happy to do so!

Reading Marcelita's question, I would have responded like Ce Ce. I of course googled and found an article you would certainly want to read!!!! and then maybe reread!!

http://www.academia.edu/226655/Readin...

P.S. Karen, I know you don't have time to read when traveling, but you may like to bookmark this link.

For you artists and art historians: PICASSO AND TRUTH

Ugliness and monstrosity cannot always be co-opted into another form of beauty; they are sometimes meant to shake the very foundations of the viewer’s beliefs

He observes that most of Picasso’s paintings employ what he calls a “room space”, self-contained, intimate and able to provide a setting for the expression of powerful feelings. He considers this room space to be a basic premiss of how Picasso treats beauty and subjectivity – what Clark calls the artist’s “truth-condition”. Such a space, he feels, is integral to the artist’s world view. It is not merely a medium or a vehicle, such as a grammatical or structural device, but a “semantics”, the creation of a new kind of reality.




http://www.the-tls.co.uk/tls/public/a...

Phillida wrote: "ReemK10 (Paper Pills) wrote: "‘For it seemed to me that they would not be ‘my’ readers but the readers of their own selves… with its [the book’s] help I would furnish them with the means of reading..."

:)

Just wonderful! So glad that you found what you did. In fact, in so many ways, we are so lucky that this is only a first reading of ISOLT. For our reading to have been so rich with all the details picked out and discussed and all the music and visuals is an incredible first start. I am not an analytical reader, so I delight in what you put under the magnifying glass and explain which is so vital to our understanding of the text. For me, I'm just trying to get into his head to see things differently. I really don't judge him at all. The blogs I read yesterday gave me such a reader's high because it was so special to be able to see how everyone took a bite of the same cake if you will, and each tasted it differently. It is the most amazing novel, and to think that each time we read it, we will experience it totally differently because we will have changed is mind-boggling. Many thanks to those of you who work so hard at giving us these links to explore!!!! And to those of you who analyze the text and the emotions!

I just love Proust's sentences that start with how.

How little do we know of what we have in our hearts! (MKE641)
How slow the day is in dying on these interminable summer evenings!(MK# 649)
How much more so with me if this change of weather recalled to me the weather in which Albertine, at Balbec, in the lashing rain, had set out, heaven knows why, on long rides, in the clinging tunic of her waterproof! (MKE 662)

Always a How and the exclamation mark at the end! These are only a few in this section that I've gotten to so far, but the whole novel has had so many!

and my absolute favorite:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTIXKU...

‘For it seemed to me that they would not be ‘my’ readers but the readers of their own selves… with its [the book’s] help I would furnish them with the means of reading what lay inside themselves. So that I should not ask them to praise me or to censure me, but simply to tell me whether ‘it really is like that,’ I should ask them whether the words that they read within themselves are the same which I have written…’ Marcel Proust

Marcelita wrote: Do you have a favorite?
I have two~
Bill Carter and his tale of Proust in...Sports Illustrated!

Oh my gosh Marcelita, I enjoyed them all. I had a reader's high reading them. I had to force myself to sign off, so I could go vacuum. I was hooked, and didn't want to get up and do anything. lol Each one gave a new glimpse into a Proustian world. It was delightful! As I was reading and relishing the blogs, I thought if I'm enjoying the blogs this much, poor Marcelita may pass out. Glad your husband knows how to take care of you when you enter the zone!

Elizabeth wrote: "Reem: thank you for the lovely flowers. And now...I have had this a long time (some of it still needs work), but I submit it now as an early Xmas present to you all: Ready?

A Proustiary

..."

Very clever!!!

French Books USA wrote: "ReemK10 (Paper Pills) wrote: "Elaine wrote:This story belongs in your book : ) Okay, 0kay, maybe you aren’t writing a book (yet) but I encourage you to do so. One of the charming components of that..."

These really are fantastic. I just want to share bits of this one with the group.

Thérèse in the Garden: By Marie d’Origny-I read A la recherche du temps perdu for the first time when my grandmother read it for the last – I was in my early twenties, she was in her mid-nineties. It was her sixth time...

I was amused by her Proustian anthropomorphism: she talked about the characters as if they really existed, sometimes confusing me for several minutes – is she talking about Françoise my aunt (her daughter), or the “real” Françoise? My grandmother’s generation was made of the children of the characters in the Recherche, many of whom she had known.Augusta was my grandmother’s mother-in-law; she and Thérèse were models for some of the young girls on the beach in Balbec.


The most frustrating family tale goes like this: one winter morning, Thérèse was in her room, a fire burning in the chimney, answering a letter. Her austere mother walked in, leaned over her daughter’s shoulder and asked to whom she was writing. “Who is this Marcel?” She cut off her daughter’s explanations and cried, “I don’t care who this Monsieur Proust is. An jeune fille does not write to a man to whom she is not related!” The mother snatched the box filled with Proust’s letters, took the sheet of paper from under her daughter’s pen, and fed the treasure – and evidence of this story – to the fire.

lol Very enjoyable seeing the different points of view of their read of ISOLT. I'm making my way through them.

This is really a link one must open and read. These blog posts truly are delightful! A MUST READ!!!
Will post it again: http://frenchculture.org/books/blog/p...

I am a bit worried about Marcelita reading these. I'm having such a good time reading them, that I fear Marcelita may faint if she reads them!!!!

Ce Ce wrote: "Elaine wrote: "CeCe, Congratulations for having nearly accomplished the construction phase of your business ventures. I’m behind on reading news from The Lounge and missed hearing what type of busi..."

LOL!!!!You should see the video, amazing book with folded pages. I'm just watching it now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiDOCM...

Kalliope wrote: "ReemK10 (Paper Pills) wrote: "@
Just saw this Elizabeth!!!I'm going to need a date for the flower delivery and Kalliope has to get started baking..."

Elizabeth, I do not know the date, but here y..."

Elizabeth, my fellow Libran, you never did tell us when your bday is/was. I know you spend a lot of time working in your garden, so I got you this flower arrangement. Happy Birthday to you!!!

French Books USA wrote: "ReemK10 (Paper Pills) wrote: "Elaine wrote:This story belongs in your book : ) Okay, 0kay, maybe you aren’t writing a book (yet) but I encourage you to do so. One of the charming components of that..."

Absolutely!

Elaine wrote:This story belongs in your book : ) Okay, 0kay, maybe you aren’t writing a book (yet) but I encourage you to do so. One of the charming components of that story is that it paints a vivid image of your caring heart.

I agree with Elaine! I just saw this on twitter. I haven't even viewed it yet, but I wanted to beat Marcelita to it. ;)Truth be told, Marcelita has probably posted it elsewhere already!

http://frenchculture.org/books/interv...
In conjunction with the French Embassy's centennial celebration of the publication of Proust's Swann's Way, Cultural Counselor of the French Embassy, Antonin Baudry spoke to CUNY TV about the enduring relevance of Proust. He argues that the author is not only important to the history of literature, but also psychoanalysis and philosophy. Proust's work is still relevant today, Baudry argues, because it is universal, "it describes all the internal mechanisms we discover in ourselves." And, of course, it is also fun.

There is this as well:

http://frenchculture.org/books/blog/p...

Jocelyne wrote: "Ce Ce wrote: "Jocelyne wrote: "I finally got to reading your story about the Chinese workers. What a delight. It is Amy Tan material. I loved it. Cross-cultural exchanges are so precious, leaving b..."

LOL Jocelyne, a great bit of trivia!!! Imagine someone taking away our first cup of coffee in the morning, and it wouldn't be reckless, it would be murder! lol

Sorry, I'm on a roll posting tonight. I had the worst headache all day, and I am now trying to catch up on my reading. This is an interesting read: new dystopian novel in the classic mode takes the form of a dictionary of madness.


http://thenewinquiry.com/essays/book-...

The vast absurd excesses of passion that form the raw matter of art, literature, love, and humanity are too distressing; it’s easier to stop being human altogether, to simply plod on as a heaped collection of diagnoses with a body vaguely attached.

For much of the novel, what the narrator of this story is describing is its own solitude, its own inability to appreciate other people, and its own overpowering desire for death – but the real horror lies in the world that could produce such a voice.

Marcelita wrote: "This may have been posted already, but it's too wonderful not read again...

ESSAY
"Why All the Fuss About Proust?"
The 100th anniversary of Swann's Way reminds us of his introspective genius.
By A..."

"All great writers hold mirrors to their readers. In Proust's case, he holds a magnifying glass, not to showcase the blighted peculiarities of his characters but to introduce us to one character we might recognize but are not always eager to know better: ourselves."

That's it!