Week ending 01/14: Swann's Way, to page 139 (page break, next section starts: “While I was reading in the garden...”)

[Rajesh]

Week 2

[Lori]

There is so much going on in this section- descriptions of the church steeple, introduction of Uncle Adophe and the pink lady, Francoise and her kitchen maid, Legrandin, Bloch, Bergotte, Gilberte...

Seems like things are gearing up in terms of conversation about art, writing, reading.

I found the section on reading to be so ironic. When reading, Marcel forgets the landscape in which he is situated and instead feels transported to the landscape in the book. Yet we as readers are reading a description of the landscape that Marcel is disregarding. Also the tautology- reading about the act of reading.

I found it curious that the steeple is compared to a loaf of bread first, and then to a velvet cushion, all in the same paragraph- as if the narrator's description of the steeple pays deference to its material surroundings (Marcel see Theodore coming from the bakery, then imagines being with his mother- soft and gentle- getting tucked into bed). It's all rather suggestive--this talk of the steeple omnipresent in his mind.

I love the comparison of the Giotto sculptures to the kitchen maid-- Proust talking about how the symbolisms in the sculpture come from the material and tangible, making the symbol more concrete and understandable. Reading his work, I do believe that is one of the most remarkable things about the writing- how tangible and real it is, despite the fact that we know there's a symbolic subtext-- not that I entirely understand it, mind you!

Here are the links to the artwork in this section:

Giotto in Vices and Virtues of Padua:
Charity (resembling pregnant kitchen maid) and Envy http://www.endegor.com/?id=15&art...
Justice http://www.endegor.com/?id=15&art...
Mahomet 2 by Bellini resembling Bloch: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehmed_...