2018: Our Year of Reading Proust discussion

I’ve been quietly exercised by the attitudes shown in the text towards class difference. It’s so much more than not acknowledging those ‘to whom one has not been introduced’, even though Proust states that, without an introduction, a person will be treated as inanimate. Members of a different social stratum are depicted more strongly as different kinds of being. In ‘Place Names: The Place’, for example, Balbec’s poor are described as viewing the hotel guests as existing in a completely different sphere, namely that of sea creatures; and this idea is repeated, in ‘Guermantes Way: ch. 1’, to convey the difference between the bourgeoisie and the aristocracy.

I’m also intrigued by the way that this kind of othering has two completely different effects: a different class may be seen as a threat – e.g. the hotel guests are depicted as at risk of being gathered up and devoured by the watching poor; or as liberating – e.g. Madame Cambremer is able to stared unabashedly from the theatre stalls at the Guermantes because ‘not actually being acquainted with either, she could not be suspected of angling for a sign of recognition’ (Guermantes Way: Ch 1).

That whole "we must be introduced" thing is totally 19th century, in England as well as the Continent. In fact, this is something British visitors hated about visiting the States! How people would...just come and say Hello (Gasp!). Yes, Proust is hyper-aware of class injustice, but the Narrator--not so much. He takes it pretty much for granted. And even as early as Balbec he's being accused of being a social climber.

I wonder whether this attitude towards those one hasn't been introduced to would be used to condone Marcel's unpalatable behaviour towards young girls/women.

I confess I'm finding much of Marcel's behaviour utterly unpalatable: his tendency to stalk women and young girls is difficult to countenance, but his remark about the 'force of his desire' leading to him to seize 'a terrified stranger' in his arms, merely because her skirt brushed against him in a dark alley in Doncières, makes him a frightening social menace.

I know what you mean; this passage horrifies me...and he mentions it so...casually! On a related note, I've been reading James Thurber. Just humorous sketches he wrote for "The New Yorker" magazines in the 1930s. One is about a man falling in love with a woman, and showing this love by beating her up. He writes this as humor, I'm sure, because a man casually decking a woman was so unthinkable in his day. Wonder what he'd make of battered women's shelters...

Back to Marcel. Yes, his attitude is neurotic (not to use a harsher word)...he seems to see women as nothing but objects; seeing them as human beings with feelings is evidently beyond him. The question here is: is this repellent attitude the Narrator, or Proust himself?

Marcel's attitude towards people generally is horribly cavalier. He's quite candid about vising Saint-Loup solely to trade on his friendship to give him access to the Duchess, for example. Whether it's the narrator's attitude rather than that of Proust is an intrigung question. If the former, the book becomes quite an indictment of society.

Way later on, the Narrator realizes that the great painter Elstir was once the silly, malicious "Tiche" or "Biche" of the Verdurins' early "little clan." Elstir refuses to be embarrassed by this and says (in effect): any mature person is going to look back on his youth and shudder at some of the things he did. As Shattuck says in his book, Proust is devastating about almost everyone in ISOLT--with one exception: his beloved grandmother.

Re youth; I will be 75 next month. I look back on my youth and wonder that I'm still alive.

Your final comment above made me chuckle.

I've just finished the section in 'The Guermantes Way' describing Mme de Villeparisis's afternoon party - the guests are absolutely brutal! I can see Shuttock's point.

You've got it. You can't be "In" unless someone else is "Out." Proust says something to the effect that: a hostess' reputation depends not on who she invites to her receptions, but who she doesn't invite.

Red in tooth and claw!

Social Darwinism, not a nice concept--but one seen all too much.\