One Year In Search of Lost Time ~ 2015 discussion

This week we end with, "I began to wonder whether originality really shows that great writers are gods, each of them reigning over a kingdom which is his alone, whether misleading appearances might not be the result of hard work, rather than the expression of a radical difference in essence between distinct personalities” (~23%).

I loved this week's part, and while i didn't have a lot to comment on in the first part of the book, this week i've created tons of notes.

To start off with something nice, Marcel's mother comparing Mme Swann's socializing to war is genuine humour which really made me laugh:

as though Mme Swann’s brisk and impetuous conquest of new acquaintances was a colonial war: ‘Now that the Tromberts are subdued, the neighbouring tribes will not hold out much longer.’ If she happened to pass Mme Swann in the street, she would tell us about it that evening: ‘I saw Mme Swann today in full battle order. She must have been launching an incursion into the lands of the Massechuto, the Singhalese or the Tromberts.’
(p. 90, Penguin, Kindle)

I found myself in this quote among others:

just as my mind, like a fluid whose only dimensions are those of the container into which it is poured, had once expanded so as to fill the vast vessel of my genius, so now it shrank and fitted exactly into the exiguous confines of the mediocrity to which M. de Norpois had suddenly consigned it.

This shows how we overestimate our qualities to ourselves from time to time, then humbly shrink when we are shown our objective faults or how superior someone else's skills are. And ive seen this inflated view of ones qualities confirmed as a natural tendency in some psychology research, which somewhat healthily protects our confidence.
Oops, this quote actually belongs to the week 1 part. Well, there goes my ego ;)

Here is an interesting inconsistency in the story, or at least Swanns memory (by way of the narrator of course):

the thought of that afternoon when he had stood outside the little hôtel in the rue La Pérouse banging on the door.
(p.99)

As an annotation in the Penguin Edition says, when this was originally narrated in Swann's Way, actually Swann rang the door, then banged on the windows of a room after noone answered. So either Proust just mixed this up, or, and in any case if we agree that a work lives on its own and what its author had in mind does not matter, Swann's memory itself got mixed up here, as it so often happens to all of us, when we mix up details of the past in memory, and can even firmly believe to remember things that never happened. I like this latter explanation of course ;)

and two pessimistic points on love and relationship:
first of all, a definite overall negative evaluation of love:

there are few truly happy outcomes in the life of a feeling which can generally look for no better reward than a shift in the site of the pain it entails. At times, however, a temporary remission is granted, and for a while one may have the illusion of being cured.
(p. 74)

And these two quotes could be seen as showing how your partner shapes your future social circle, reading habits and an intellectual life on the lowest common denominator:

[of Swann's recently aquired cliche manner of talking]
Swann had acquired his facility in saying such things, which he said in all sincerity; and it was an ability he had kept. It served him now with the people who visited his wife.
(p. 89)

In any case, Swann was blind not only to the gaps in Odette’s education, but also to her poverty of mind. Indeed, when she told one of her silly stories, he would listen to her full of an obliging, cheerful, even admiring attentiveness, which could only be explained by his finding her still sexually arousing.
(p. 94)

I don't want to be arrogant by affirming this, but to me there is little doubt that from the Swann we initially got to know in Swann's Way to married Swann, his behavior, way with Marcel, thinking and social circle took a dramatic, often irrational turn.

Simon wrote: "Here is an interesting inconsistency in the story, or at least Swanns memory (by way of the narrator of course):"

I didn't even notice this inconsistency, pointing out the infallibility of my own memory. Thanks, Simon.

I also marked that comparison of socializing with making war. A great section.

Hello everybody, I have started reading the second instalment in the ISOLT series this weekend and Sue was kind enough to send me a link to this group. I am finding it a bit challenging to frame the historical events that the narrator alludes to in a very tangential way. I had to do a bit of research about the May constitutional crisis in 1877 and the, I suppose, imaginary king Theodosius, but there is a line in the section for this week that mystified me which I haven't been able to unravel. It has to do with a comment regarding milk the physician Dr. Cottard brings up when he repeats his prescriptions to the narrator's mother:

"Now remember, milk! Later on, when we've got the breathlessness and the agrypnia under control, I'm prepared to let you take a little clear soup, and then a little broth, but always with milk, au lait!You'll enjoy that, since Spain is all the rage just now, olé, olé!"(page 96 in the M&K translation)

I can't help but being curious about that reference to milk being fashionable in my country during the 19C. I don't know whether Proust was being ironic or referring to some political puns regarding milk producers in France and Spain. Does anybody's edition include an explanatory note on that?

I don't have the answer to your question, Dolors, but I'm so glad you found your way to us. Welcome!

We did have a brief discussion on Theodosius during Swann's Way, Week VII.

Hi Dolors. Well my Penguin edition is useful here but it's obvious when it's pointed out: Cottard likes puns and olé sounds like au lait (with milk).

The Penguin edition makes the pun clearer; instead of having Cottard say "olé, olé!" he says "olé! au lait!". I don't know whether Spain was particularly popular at the time though.

Dolors, that passage doesn't say that milk is popular in spain, but that spain is popular. So, since Spain (olé) is popular, milk (au lait) must be, too.
That passage might also relate to the discussion which doctors are good in their field and if they need to have wisdom (or understanding for Marcel's artisic personality).

@Teresa: Thanks Teresa, I will have a look at that thread.

@ Jonathan: That clarifies the mystery to me. I had forgotten how silly Cottard's jokes and word games were and "olé" and "au lait" do sound phonetically similar, indeed. Many thanks for your acute response.

@ Simon: I marvel at the thought that Spain might have been popular in the 19C among the French socialites, for it seems to have been the opposite for ages. France, and particularly Paris, has always been considered a trendy and sophisticated destination in my country and I never thought that French people could have regarded Spain in a similar fashion, although probably for very different reasons...

I don't know exactly what Dr Cottard was referring to, but several French composers were fascinated by Spain and wrote Spanish-influenced music during Proust's time--Ravel, Debussy, Chabrier, Lalo, among others....