Chris’s Comments (group member since Jan 01, 2013)

Chris’s comments from the The Year of Reading Proust group.

I loved the description of Uncle Adolf's apartment with the gilt roof and the servant dressed in a suit of purple stripes. (Did I hear that right? I'm listening to an audio book and meant to go back and check.) Does the servant's attire act as an immediate signal of the type of lifestyle being led or was this just high fashion at the time? Does anyone have photos of dress from this period they could post?

Nick wrote: "Aloha wrote: "...It's like looking into a glittering diamond."

Yes it is. Have you read Perfume by Patrick Süskind? I could taste that novel. I am experiencing the same breadth of vivid and evocat..."

Yes, I agree but I'm enjoying this more. Perfume took me to olfactory experiences I didn't particularly enjoy!

Andreea wrote: "Gail wrote: "I'm curious because I was under the impression that most people's minds don't work like this. Mine does, as I'm on the autism spectrum, but my understanding was that most people's mind..."

Andreea wrote: "Gail wrote: "I'm curious because I was under the impression that most people's minds don't work like this. Mine does, as I'm on the autism spectrum, but my understanding was that most people's mind..."
For me this passage says more about the time's buttoned up attitude towards children and the adults' judgment of the child's behaviour (whether a sin or a sickness, still in some way wrong) which the narrator has taken on board in his own attitudes about himself.

ReemK10 (Got Proust?) wrote: "There is obviously an issue, possibly a very serious issue with memory, especially that of Proust's short term memory that factors into this novel that has me wondering if Proust ever kept any note..."

Yes, I agree. Minutes would have served the point better than hours without making the reader question his sanity.

Moonbutterfly wrote: "Gail wrote: "Me? Nah - I'm more worried about the little boy's grandmother,..."

Well, you made me think about the story from a different perspective. So thanks for that."

I love the grandmother. The fact that she can't stand the roses to be tethered and likes to run around in the rain and not worry about the mud on her skirts. It must have been hard to be a free spirit in those days but she seems to have been given a certain licence.

Proustitute wrote: "As for the magic lantern, I quite like Gerard Bertrand's series of Proust, Photographies recomposées, from which this image is taken (click for larger):



"
I imagined from the book that more than one image was being projected at one time.

J.A. wrote: "According to Bookdrum, Proust's taste/smell experience came with toast and tea. He changed toast to madeleine's because of the symbolic significance of the cakes: The shell-like shape of a madelein..."

Thank goodness he did! A madeleine is so much more evocative to the senses than a piece of burnt toast!

Leni wrote: "Here is a photo I look at a local museum which displayed an actual Magic Lantern:
Magic Lantern and Slides, c1890's
The magic lantern was a popular form of entertainment in the late 19th century an..."

Thanks for the photo. I gather from the book that it was just projected on the wall without an attempt to set up a screen?

Kalliope wrote: "Proustitute wrote: "Also, as Swann is described as having "fair, almost red hair, dressed in the Bressant style," here's an image showing Jean Baptiste Prosper Bressant's hair:

"

Thank you for th..."
I like your comment! That's exactly what I tend to do. What did we do before Google?

Nick wrote: "The humour was a welcome discovery to me, on my reading, too Jeremy. I very much understand what you mean about expecting older books to have no humour! What a nice surprise to be proven wrong, and..."

Yes I agree on the humour. There have been a couple of gentle, funny moments in the descriptions of the family and family life.

Jeremy wrote: "Exhuasted as I have finally caught up with these threads (or I should say THIS thread)! I am going to make sure I have part "3" done by the end of this week so I don't have to devote so much time ..."

Yes, I agree with the comments about young children and bedtime. The relationship between Proust as a little boy and his mother didn't strike me as psychologically unhealthy.