How to Savour the Proustian Sentence (Patreon)

Reading Proust's sentences is akin to partaking in a sumptuous Michelin-Star meal.

The sentences that compose the Search gift us the blessings of time dilation.

Here is the sentence we're chiselling down today:

One day, when reflections of this sort had brought him back to the memory of the time when someone had spoken to him of Odette as of a kept woman, and he was amusing himself once again with contrasting that strange personification, the kept woman - an iridescent mixture of unknown and demoniacal qualities embroidered, as in some fantasy of Gustave Moreau, with poison-dripping flowers interwoven with precious jewels - with the Odette on whose face he had seen the same expressions of pity for a sufferer, revolt against an act of injustice, gratitude for an act of kindness, which he had seen in earlier days on his own mother’s face and on the faces of his friends, the Odette whose conversation so frequently turned on the things that he himself knew better than anyone, his collections, his room, his old servant, the banker who kept all his securities, it happened that the thought of the banker reminded him that he must call on him shortly to draw some money.

We're appreciating Gustave Moreau's L'Apparition, which depicts the biblical story of Salome demanding the head of John the Baptist, discussing the nature of time and unlocking memories, and collecting artistic "souvenirs" along the way.

Video Timestamps:

• 0:00 what characterises Proust's sentences? 
• 1:00 the longest Proustian sentence 
• 1:20 Proustian sentence as consciousness mirror  
• 3:00 meal metaphors - luxury Michelin star vs pub grub 
• 6:30 Proust as "long term cure" 
• 7:30 the busy modern world  
• 8:30 Robert Proust on the Search 
• 10:00 the theory of estrangement in literature 
• 11:30 a trick for identifying relative/subordinate clauses 
• 12:30 why doesn't Proust just write simpler sentences? 
• 15:00 reading Proust as a detective story  
• 16:30 analysing the Proustian sentence 
• 18:00 delayed gratification in literature  
• 19:00 tangents upon tangents  
• 21:30 rhythm and being active whilst passive  
• 22:00 suicide jumpers, being hit by a car, and time dilation  
• 28:00 comparing the French version ("souvenir" = "memory") 
• 29:00 Gustave Moreau's L'Apparition and Botticelli's Primavera

And here are two quotes from the video for you to ponder upon -

Roger Shattuck:

‘One must read Proust as carefully as a detective story in which any detail may become a clue to everything else.’

Robert Proust:

‘The sad thing is that people have to be very ill or have broken a leg in order to have the opportunity to read In Search of Lost Time.’

Happy reading, everybody!