Remembrance Of Things Past 2008 discussion

Volume IV was good for me. It started off with a bang (ha, ha), and his absorption with how gays and lesbians fit into society got a little old, but on the whole I liked his forays into society better than at the end of Vol. III. Maybe I’m developing a tolerance for the dinner parties. Or maybe I’m beginning to see the forest for the trees.

It was fun to see our hero in some new/old contexts -- like when he FINALLY meets the Verdurins and is so excited to be at their villa that Cottard says he should try sedatives and knitting. Gotta love the Verdurins -- you’re either on the bus or off the bus. (Actually, they annoy me to no end. But I guess I have a better time laughing at them and their little clan than the Guermantes gang.) Now I appreciate the whole Odette/Swann back-story even more. His treatment of Swann’s death as a comic device, like he did its approach in Vol. III, is so interesting -- like when the Duchess says his imminent death is no excuse for her deigning to meet his family.

Now he’s earned all of those pages at the beginning of Vol. I bemoaning his mom’s absence at bedtime -- now that they’ve translated into more (young) adult obsessions. (Hmmm -- while making my daughter fall asleep without me in the room, am I fomenting neuroses?)

I LOVED how he directly addressed the reader regarding how we get annoyed by his tangents. The tone was perfect. And then he addresses us a second time in understanding that a sane reader would question his chasing of phantom women. I can’t wait for more, as Pamela has alluded.

I continue to appreciate his treatment of his grandmother’s death -- how he only truly realizes she is permanently gone well after the fact, and how that reality only exists in his thoughts that are stimulated by involuntary (madeline) experiences. And how that nature of reality makes our souls fictitious because our memory is involuntary (wow, is that true for me). But I really like that he has hope that we can recapture the past through a voluntary sensitivity toward sensation not dulled by habit that allows us to experience multiplicity, especially in a familiar environment. (Is he being that optimistic, or is it just me?) He‘s helping me train my memory, which I believe is his aim. Which is a blessing and a curse, being as I have lived in the same city for 20 years. Thank goodness I’ve moved out of my house of 19 years, or the ghosts wouldn’t let me be!

The references to modernization are fun -- the first time he has a car and driver at his disposal, the first time he sees an airplane and starts crying because both he and the pilot seem to realize that they have so many possibilities for direction that only habit prohibits….

He so nails the melancholy of growing up. How being given the “too great” responsibility to decide his own happiness and not obey his parents’ orders (even though he’s a fickle neurotic) make him suddenly realize that he only has one life “at his disposal,” and he’s living it.

And beneath all of that cynicism, is he really a romantic? Loving the “invisible deity” in someone else? Huh.

“Good-bye, I’ve barely said a word to you, but it’s always like that at parties -- we never really see each other, we never say the things we should like to; in fact it’s the same everywhere in this life. Let’s hope that when we are dead things will be better arranged. At any rate we shan’t always be having to put on low-cut dresses. And yet one never knows. We may perhaps have to display our bones and worms on great occasions. Why not?’

As soon as I finished, I ran over to my bookcase and pulled out Vol. V and read the first two pages. But I’m going to be a good girl and read my book club book first. But I can already tell I’m going to give it short shrift. Man, nothing compares to Proust!

Oh, yeah -- hello, is there anybody out there?

Well, Robin,
There's one of us who happened to stop by and see your wonderful commentary just now. I read Remembrance many years ago when I was younger, and enjoyed it very much, but your post makes me realize I ahould read it again because there is obviously much that there still is to be gained that I hadn't noticed, or don't recollect from the first time.
Excellent and insightful post!

Robin,
All right! I love to hate the Verdurins! For all of Proust's insights -- it is such a rich novel -- he doesn't slight us when it comes to delicious back story.
There's a funny allusion to French Canadians. I laughed so much, since my father is one. I can't remember which volume...
I find it so appropriate that you posted after several months. Doesn't that fit Proust's time theme? It's also telling we have a two posters who have read the book awhile back. Thanks!