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

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

I'm a bit confused because for some reason I found myself reading ahead in The Fugitive, only to realize that the rest of you were finishing up The Captive. I then found a gap of 100 unmarked pages in my book. I hadn't even noticed!!!

I thought I read a comment Fionnuala had made somewhere about Saint-Beuve and a mention of Baudelaire by I forget whom. As I was googling, I came across this:

"Among the notebooks found at the time of Marcel Proust’s death were those containing Contre Sainte-Beuve, written 1895–1900. Contre Sainte-Beuve is an unusual document—part narrative, part essay—that can be read as an early draft of the first volumes of A la recherche du temps perdu and as a statement of Proust’s aesthetic principles.

http://modernism.research.yale.edu/wi...

Do have a look.

With every incident, we only grow stronger! Reading all your generous comments just makes me feel so proud of you all and so grateful to have you in my life. Here's to a room of very smart women!

Susan wrote: "I have not been able to participate as much as I would like due to health reasons but have truly enjoyed the extra links and postings. They have made this a richer experience. Snarkiness I can do w..."

I think Susan coming in here today to leave this comment shows what the group lounge is all about. We are all here for one other. We have become friends. I'm sure as readers we have enjoyed being around other people who are also reading Proust. I think the snarkiness is a result of of envy of not feeling a part of what we jokingly refer to as the ya ya sisterhood, although all it takes is participation in the lounge. If only people knew that. I appreciate all the comments voiced here today. We are extremely lucky to have had the opportunity to read together!

Susan, this fruit basket is for you. We wish you a speedy recovery!
Drop by more often.

Kalliope wrote: "Marcelita,

Thank you for the Saturday fashion pages and for keeping us close to the text.

I have several comments on these.

I agree with you that the cérise or cherry pink that Proust writes is..."

These posts are simply priceless! They have added so much to our reading giving them the rich texture of a tapestry. As a Tiepolo pinker, I was delighted to learn about the painter and his choice of colors and how they relate to Proust, as I am about the Fortuny gown, the name and how it relates to Proust as this has made for thrilling reading. To read Proust and not learn every cultural reference is to lose out on a reading. For this first reading of ISOLT, my interest is primarily focused on understanding the cultural references of which these posts have been most fascinating for me.

Like Fionnuala, I too feel the pain of disillusionment that some have for this type of reading.

I'd like to make a comment, here in the lounge, as a continuation of the Oct. 13th conversation about how we are reading Proust. There seems to be some reluctance to read or engage in any personal commentary that takes place here. There also seems to be quite a lot of irritation to non-Proustian conversation, possibly our celebration of birthdays, our comings and goings, and our interaction with one another. I am a big culpit, sharing my articles and keeping the pages all pretty with flowers. This it would seem is rather repulsive to those readers who don't care for this kind of behavior, and it has been said to have contributed to driving many people away. I find this accusation rather unfair, because the conversation generally takes place in the lounge and not in the threads which focus on our reading of ISOLT. One could simply not read the lounge thread. Also, there are many of us who genuinely appreciate the efforts of those members who are truly dedicated to this year of reading Proust together and have provided post after post of enlightening references that have enriched our reading of ISOLT. We react with appreciation because of the time we know they have dedicated to researching and collecting these links and sharing them with us. It comes across as gushing.

I think people are still having difficulty with social media and relating to others. For sure, to each his own, and we should all find our way of doing things, but that does not mean we should attack or insult others for the way they choose to do things. As readers we should have fine tuned our empathy skills and learned how to be tolerant of others.

Pick and choose, and if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything. I speak in general terms to all members of this group. Engaging or not engaging with this group is a matter of choice. I can respect the wishes of those that only want to read Proust. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Onward!

Kalliope wrote: "Unregistered* wrote: "Since nothing of any interest whatsoever has been posted here for some considerable time, .."

Unregistered, it just looks like you expelled us.

It also seems you may not und..."

I believe Kalliope that Unregistered is referring to you as Mme Verdurin and to me as the vacuous sycophant.

Unregistered* wrote: I thought I might make the observation how curious it is that our little clan has come to resemble the characters in La Recherche - we have our very own Mme Verdurin and her little band of vacuous sycophants who all agree they are such wonderful creations, even without being told!!!

Unregistered, you disappoint me. I wish you hadn't left this comment. There is no need for you to react like this at all. If you're unhappy reading with us, you can stop and read on your own. Insulting us because we are not to your liking is really uncalled for. I'm reading this comment of yours as your wanting to be ejected from the group. Why the drama?

Kalliope wrote: Yes, there is something special about the open fan (what does it suggest?) while her face and glance is turned to the side...

Great attention to details Kalliope. You must be well versed in the secret language of fans.

http://www.idealspain.com/pages/infor...

The history of the fan: http://www.victoriana.com/Fans/histor...

"The most interesting specimen of this kind is the fan which Madame de Sévigné sent to her daughter Madame de Grignan"

Kalliope wrote: "ReemK10 (Paper Pills) wrote: "Kalliope wrote: "On the dream that a trip to Venice, and the Fortuny designs, mean..., and Tiepolo's pink...

Et les manches étaient doublées d'un rose cerise qui est ..."

Kalliope, I'm afraid that you may never leave Venice. I think that a career for you to embark upon should be teaching.

Kalliope wrote: Another wonderful find, Reem.

Kalliope, I'm just following your leads!!

Notes for Proust:

Notes for Each Book
Swann's Way [Notes] (Du côté de chez Swann)
Within a Budding Grove [Notes] (À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleur)
The Guermantes Way (Le Côté de Guermantes)
Cities of the Plane (Sodome et Gomorrhe)


http://heron.snell.clarkson.edu/~horn...

An overkill of my comments this morning, but here is one more interesting tid bit.

"In the creation of the Sévigné pattern, Fortuny was repaying an artistic debt to novelist Marcel Proust, who described Fortuny as "faithfully antique but powerfully original." In all of Proust's work, Fortuny is the only character who retains a real life identity. Proust greatly admired Mme. de Sévigné, whose letters play an important role in Proust's great novel Remembrance of Things Past."

http://www.vintagetextile.com/new_pag...

I suppose it is sentences like this one that underline the importance of a slow, deep reading of Proust. Every word, every sentence, studied.

"Marcel Proust wrote of Fortuny in 1923 in The Captive:


“The Fortuny gown which Albertine was wearing that evening seemed to me the tempting phantom of that invisible Venice. It swarmed with Arabic ornaments, like the Venetian palaces hidden like sultanas behind a screen of pierced stone, like the bindings in the Ambrosian library, like the columns from which the Oriental birds that symbolized alternatively life and death were repeated in the mirror of the fabric, of an intense blue which, as my gaze extended over it, was changed into a malleable gold, by those same transmutations which, before the advancing gondolas, change into flaming metal the azure of the Grand Canal. And the sleeves were lined with a cherry pink which is so peculiarly Venetian that it is called Tiepolo pink.”

http://www.skinnerinc.com/news/blog/m...

Layers and layers of meaning.

A great link that should be posted somewhere else in the archive:

http://heron.snell.clarkson.edu/~horn...

Kalliope wrote: "So, I found the birds.... In the introduction Jean Milly mentions a letter that Proust sent to Maria de Madrazo. She was Reynaldo Hahn's sister, and related to Fortuny through her marriage. Fort..."

I still haven't caught up to any part on the birds, so I'm a bit lost about where you're coming from with this mention of the birds. However, a little googling and I found this mention of the Guermantes as a race of birds and the role of the bird in Proust's writing.

http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307...

Edit: I found the section. I imagine that reading Proust was great advertisement for the Fortuny gowns, for which woman could resist the opportunity to wear one and be resurrected?! I can see the commercial for the Fortuny gown in my head!

Kalliope wrote: "And the arabic manuscripts with birds...

"

I take it this is from the Conference of the
Birds?

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-o...

Kalliope wrote: "On the dream that a trip to Venice, and the Fortuny designs, mean..., and Tiepolo's pink...

Et les manches étaient doublées d'un rose cerise qui est si particulièrement vénitien qu'on l'appelle ro..."

Thank you for leaving this link Kalliope. I'm glad I decided to google Tiepolo Pink because I found it relating to Proust.

"In the Art of the Tiepolo a Single Gesture Is Often Equivalent to a Long Sentence.This expression of semantic holism became an important notion in the eighteenth century and applies to the art of his contemporaries Giambattista and Domenico Tiepolo. Their powerful rhetoric constructs richly layered images often using a single symbol to import a variety of meanings—albeit frequently left to the viewer to interpret."

"It is present in symbols having double entendres, such as the snake, which could stand for both evil and salvation."

"The rosa of the title also imparts ambiguity. The color is associated with Proust's women, the soft tonality close to cherry in the dresses of Odette, the Countess of Guermantes, and Albertine. At first sight this color reference may appear as a "recherche" to—once more—accuse the eighteenth century of frivolity and decadence. However, the rosa is full of both possibilities and impossibilities. Proust's Madame Swann appears in a "marvelous dressing gown of crêpe de Chine or silk, antique rose, rose Tiepolo, white, mauve, green, red, yellow, plain or with motifs" (39). It is not just a single hue, but a polyphony of colors, ever changing—analogous to the migratory symbols in Tiepolo's art."

source: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/ecs/summ...

Kalliope wrote: "Found this, and I want to listen to it later on. No sound right now.

Watching this video I recognize the covers of my first copy of La recherche.. the Gallimard paperbacks bought several years ag..."

Nice find Kalliope. It's like a walk down memory lane. This novel really is jam packed.

·Karen· wrote: "Ladies, you astound me with your wit and cheer and erudition and good sense and humour and sense of fun - a little corner of joy here. I'm hanging in, I read, so belated happy birthday wishes Patri..."

More power to you Karen! And happy birthday to the twins! It's a good thing that you are married, or you might become like one of those women who go on a a trip like this and come back married to a sherpa!!Enjoy! Enjoy!

Marcelita wrote: "Continued from 6 October Thread:

Stumbled over this, just this minute, in searching for a picture for this week's thread. Going back to the all encompassing feelings I had, when I first fell in l..."

Marcelita, thanks for posting this link. I went on a search and found this: http://www.haroldpinter.org/films/fil...

"As his first shot, Pinter has a detail, a patch of yellow wall from Vermeer's View of Delft.

The patch of yellow wall will appear again as the last shot. Over the image is heard the voice of Marcel: It was time to begin."

I approve! It's a shame that it was never filmed.

Adding this: Looks like a great read post this year of reading Proust. Especially if you like Harold Pinter!
http://thisrecording.com/today/2011/8...

I added it to my books to read and found that our own Nick has reviewed it. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...