Week ending 04/12: Within a Budding Grove, to page 582 / location 15260

[Sunny]

"...we seem then to absent ourselves for a few hours from Time..."
"...to have slept for any time is an even stronger narcotic..."
"...in which I could reach my watch and confront with its time that indicated..."

Why is the word 'time' sometimes capitalized and sometimes not?

[Jonathan]

Sunny in Wonderland wrote: ""...we seem then to absent ourselves for a few hours from Time..."
"...to have slept for any time is an even stronger narcotic..."
"...in which I could reach my watch and confront with its time tha..."

Er, I don't really know, Sunny. Are the examples all from this week's reading?

[Jonathan]

This week's section kicks-off excellently. We get the narrator watching on wistfully (and lustily?) at the gang of beautiful and raucous girls on the promenade. Especially good is the bit when one of them jumps over the 'old codger' sitting at the bandstand.

So, the sickly, sensitive narrator looks on at these lively, tough, and possibly 'lower class' of girls and wishes that he could join in with their antics. He wonders 'what must I have seemed like to her?' and admits that they apparently have nothing in common.

[Sunny]

Jonathan wrote: "Are the examples all from this week's reading?"

Yes. Actually, all of these examples are in the same paragraph. :)

Jonathan wrote: "This week's section kicks-off excellently. We get the narrator..."

You are so much better at this than me, Jonathan! I really struggled with this week's reading - it kind of bored me because so little seemed to be actually happening...

[Jonathan]

Sunny in Wonderland wrote: " I really struggled with this week's reading - it kind of bored me because so little seemed to be actually happening... ..."

Oh, I really enjoyed this week's reading. I thought there was quite a bit of variety. It starts off with him ogling the girls on the seafront then we get the comic interlude with the lift-boy (I quite enjoy those) then he goes to the party with St Loup, eyes up the women there, makes contact with Elstir and gets home drunk. Goes to see Elstir and discovers that Elstir knows Albertine. For Proust this is action-packed! :-)

[Andree]

Sunny in Wonderland wrote: ""...we seem then to absent ourselves for a few hours from Time..."
"...to have slept for any time is an even stronger narcotic..."
"...in which I could reach my watch and confront with its time tha..."

There doesn't seem to be much written about that topic, at least I didn't find much.
However, I would humbly submit that Time capitalized is the true hero of La recherche. Time in the absolute, that swallows and destroys and leaves its mark on everyone and everything, Time against which the narrator struggles throughout the novel to recuperate fragments of his life, of his memories and in the end to wrestle away from It the secret and true meaning of his own life.
Time without a capital would represent the other, banal dimension of time: time to get up, to have a cup of tea, to get from point A to point B.

[Jonathan]

What's this? Do my eyes deceive me? A quote from this week's section: 'The girls eclipsed my grandmother'. After the previous week's reading this wouldn't have seemed possible.

[Renato]

I know, I was quite surprised as well that he would say that about his grandmother!

--

If I could see any part of myself represented in the narrator, it would have to be how easily and quickly he falls in love - for girls he only got a glimpse of, for Berma, for a church he really wants to visit - and then, after being able to befriend the girl, watch the actress' performance, visit the church, he is instantly disappointed. Analyzing what we've come to know of him so far - and what seems to happen to myself, as well -, it seems to me that in his mind - as he is so creative and sensitive - he projects the beauty of all those things to such an insane high level, imagining and loving every little detail, that it becomes almost impossible for his expectations to be matched.

I'm beginning to wonder if he'll ever be truly satisfied living outside of his own head. I guess we'll see how it goes with Albertine...

[Renato]

I also loved the analogy he made when at Rivebelle about the tables being planets and that there had to be some irresistibly attractive force at work among them, as the diners had eyes only for the tables at which they were not sitting, haha. I'm always looking around all the time, and as I'm an astronomy freak, this was quite a nice thing to read. :)

[Sunny]

Jonathan wrote: "Oh, I really enjoyed this week's reading. ... For Proust this is action-packed!"

Hahaha! Well, yes, when you put it that way, it WAS action packed. :) I think I was bored with it because so much of the "action" was in his head. I crave the sudden revelations that we're given occasionally - like when we first found out that Swann married Odette or when we found out that Bloch knew Odette, etc. (Shoot, maybe I'm just an Odetteophile? LOL!)

As luck would have it, I didn't have to wait much longer. The next week's reading I've been thoroughly enjoying! :)

[Sunny]

Andree wrote: "There doesn't seem to be much written about that topic, at least I didn't find much.
However, I would humbly submit..."

That's a good supposition. I think I agree with you. I've been trying to apply that logic as I continue through, and it does add up. Thank you!

[Sunny]

Jonathan wrote: "What's this? Do my eyes deceive me? A quote from this week's section: 'The girls eclipsed my grandmother'. After the previous week's reading this wouldn't have seemed possible."

:) Hilarious! You're a riot, Jonathan!

[Jonathan]

Renato wrote: "I'm beginning to wonder if he'll ever be truly satisfied living outside of his own head. I guess we'll see how it goes with Albertine... ..."

I don't really identify with the narrator; but that's partly what I find interesting about ISOLT - it's a strange experience for me being in the narrator's head.

Over the two books I'm amazed at just how quickly the narrator is disappointed in something that he's looked forward to. I think he enjoys the anticipation of a pleasure more than the pleasure itself.

I'm quite sure that he'll quickly be disappointed with Albertine. :-)

[Jonathan]

Sunny in Wonderland wrote: "Jonathan wrote: "What's this? Do my eyes deceive me? A quote from this week's section: 'The girls eclipsed my grandmother'. After the previous week's reading this wouldn't have seemed possible..."

That was truly the most shocking sentence that I've read in ISOLT so far. I think his gran would be relieved though. :-)

[Jonathan]

I enjoyed the 'astral tables' at Rivebelle as well. There was also the powerful image of two bouquets exchanging flowers as an analogy of how the diners were flitting between tables after the end of the meal.

And I wonder who the blonde woman is that the narrator takes a shine to? She's not known by Saint-Loup, which is odd as he seems to 'know' most of the woman at the party?

[Jonathan]

I'm glad that the narrator's hotel room is no longer 'hostile'. :-)

As he had quite a lot to drink at the party I was expecting the narrator to have a terrible hangover that would last for a week. But no, a bit of a lie in and a few dreams and he seems fine.