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

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

Fionnuala wrote:
Proust's friend, Louis Gautier-Vignal's mentions this episode in Proust's own life in his book Proust Connu et Inconnu but I haven't got it to hand at the moment - away from home - it is clear that he had some sort of epiphany experience.



Yes Fionnuala, do share with us what you learn. I'm still thinking about this little patch of yellow wall and what Anne Carson calls the transposition theory in the video that Marcelita shared with us. Are we trying too hard to find something in Proust's life to explain things? When I first read what Carter wrote (in the link I shared above), I thought this just can't be, there has to be some other explanation.

" William Carter
Marcel Proust: A Life, 2000

Carter believes that from what can be understood of original text, neither areas of the two most often cited are more strongly probable than the other and that Proust is creating an impression rather than sending us to admire a precise detail in the painting.3"

I think, throwing a theory out there, that perhaps the little wall of yellow is cowardice on the part of Vermeer that Proust encountered, and Proust played it up by writing about it indirectly in ISOLT, having a little fun at Vermeer's expense. Perhaps??

"At the exhibition, Vaudoyer steadied the writer's shaky progress towards the View of Delft. Proust was apparently revived by Vermeer for he managed to go on to the Ingres exhibition and then to lunch at the Ritz before returning home, though according to Painter he was still 'shaken and alarmed' by the attack."


There is a missing piece to this puzzle!!!

Kalliope wrote: "Well, I just booked my flights to Venice..."

Happy for you!!



@Fionnuala, you're so right. Now, they're saying no college degrees by 2030 as all info can be learned online. http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2013/09/...%

Message feature isn't working today. Can read but can't reply.

I found more:





Eric Karpeles, from Paintings in Proust

The death of the novelist Bergotte in the room where Vermeer’s View at Delft hung presents the single most palpable collaboration of word and image in the novel — arguably in any novel. Proust fiddled with the crafting of this scene until the last day of his life. His prose is rhapsodic, but keyed down, in awe of the painting’s elusive, haunting quietude. The luminous townscape, with its ineffable ‘little patch of yellow wall’, surprises Bergotte into thinking that maybe he should have done as Vermeer had done and layered more colours into his writing. Overwhelmed by the consummate perfection of the Dutch painter’s art shimmering before him, he diffidently holds his own life’s work in abeyance. At that moment, the picture occasions an epiphany. Merciless but emphatic, Proust extracted from his character a final self-critical judgment. ‘In a celestial pair of scales there appeared to him, weighing down one of the pans, his own life, while the other combined the little patch of wall so beautifully painted in yellow. He felt that he had rashly sacrificed the former for the latter.’ Bergotte staggers back onto a settee and dies. It maybe asserted that the painting is what killed him. In the presence of View From Delft, so profound an expression of humanity, Proust’s unequivocal, brutal credo — life is nothing, art is all — is given full force.”

Wow!!

http://thecorklinedroom.wordpress.com...

Ce Ce wrote: "Hi...I've missed everyone. It's been a hectic week. Away for a few days for an annual job my husband does...he photographs for 2 days and I edit for 6! We had one day of rest before we returned hom..."

More power to you Ce Ce!! Glad the link was relatable. I loved your link of the hotel in Venice. Don't worry about falling behind, you always catch up!

I have to say that even though there have been so many wonderful and interesting paintings shared week after week in the threads, the only one that has continued to hold my fascination has always been Vermeer's View of Delft. I went back to reread this section where Bergotte dies after going to look at the painting. Well apparently, Proust also fell ill after going to see the same painting and never went out again after this experience. Proust turns his experience into the one that Bergotte has. Well, I'll just leave this link which explains everything better than I ever could. I think it requires a reread.

http://www.essentialvermeer.com/prous...

My sense is that Proust's little patch of yellow wall in Vermeer's View of Delft,this "petit pan de mur jaune", this "beauty that was sufficient in itself' was what La Recherche was meant to have/be.

"My last books are too dry, I ought to have gone over them with a few layers of colour, made my language precious in itself, like this little patch of yellow wall." (MKE 244)

"On page 150 of the Edmund White biography (Penguin 1999) it states that: "Indeed, on the night before he died Proust dictated a last sentence, "There is a Chinese patience in Vermeer's craft."

A patience required of time. I'm telling you there is more to this painting than we know.

I'll always be haunted by that little patch of yellow wall!!!

You're getting lazy Kalliope! LOL A DVD to a book?!!!! What would Proust say?


Amazon Slayed a Negative 77 Indie Bookstores in 2012

http://www.the-digital-reader.com/201...

Marcelita wrote: "Kalliope wrote: "And now for the good news..

I may be going to Venice on the first week of November. The plan is to visit the Biennale. But also, the Scrovegni chapel which now is most of the ti..."

So happy for you Kalliope! And thanks for sharing your links and your plans with us. Take photos to share with us. I posted this before, but for those who can't join Kalliope, watching this series on Venice is pretty good. I'll just post the first episode.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ondas...

Following charges of author-bullying, Goodreads has declared that, going forward, it will “delete content focused on author behavior.”

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/...

Adam Kirsch

In Proust’s Footsteps

Norwegian author Karl Ove Knausgaard reclaims the novel’s humanistic ambitions.

http://www.city-journal.org/2013/23_3...

Do you suppose Marcel Proust sees himself as a Scheherazade of One Thousand and One Nights ( which he often refers to as Arabian Nights) who keeps In Search of Lost Time going and going and going in a quest to prolong his own time on Earth? And do you think that perhaps ISOLT was meant to be written as literature for "the invert who has been been able to feed his passion only on a literature written for women-loving men" (MKE 323)?

French Books USA wrote: "Hi everyone,

I am an avid fan of Proust and newly employed at the Book Department of the French Embassy in New York.

I just wanted to let you all know about the Proust-related events we've orga..."

Alicen, thanks for posting this. Sounds like great fun!

Elizabeth wrote: "I did it! I did it! Sorry for the enthusiasm, but I am technologically impaired."

You did it! Some of us know all too well how hard that can be.


It's nice to be able to put a picture to your name now.

Good to see you in here Kyle!

Kalliope wrote: "ReemK10 (Paper Pills) wrote: ..."

Thank you for this Reem."

:)

Why We're Still Struggling to Make Sense of Modernism

We may like to think of ourselves as postmodern, but the modernists upended conventions—in art and in life—in ways that have challenged us ever since.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/a...

Dear Ce Ce,

Try to remember that Choco is no longer suffering and is now resting in peace. Our hearts break at your pain. You loved and cherished your little bundle for 21 years. Brave your grief and remember that he loved you too. You will always have his memory as solace for your grief. Take care of you.

Kalliope wrote: "Elaine wrote: "Kalliope wrote: "I saw today an article about an application that allows you to record your dreams when you wake up... One can still remember one's dreams the first few minutes immed..."

lol@ good to see you floating!!
For you Elaine:

Elaine wrote: "Kalliope wrote: "I saw today an article about an application that allows you to record your dreams when you wake up... One can still remember one's dreams the first few minutes immediately after wa..."

Glad to see that you are okay. The images out of Colorado are quite horrific.

Elizabeth wrote: "Reem: A "brown study" means deep, introspective thought. Lord knows what she's thinking, though. The Narrator certainly doesn't!"

Thanks Elizabeth! I've never come across this term before.

Elizabeth wrote: "Reem: re quoting Mme de Sevigne; she says it better than anyone else possibly could. Have you read her Letters? A total delight. Some critics call her style "cinematic." And I love when the Na..."

Thanks Elizabeth, I started to read her letters when I first discovered that she really did exist( in my ignorance I had thought Proust's reference to her was only fiction), and I posted a link where one could download her letters. I only read a few pages, but will surely go back to read the book in its entirety post Proust. I found her very readable and can see how so many people delight in her letters.