Pascal's Wager (Close Reading of Proust) (Patreon)

Today we're following up a book recommendation from Monsieur Swann, and wagering with our lives, with Pascal's Pensées. 

We're also discussing the influence Proust's mother exerted over the writer in life and death, the trivial state of journalism, triggering a flooding of involuntary memories, elitism, snobbery, gossip, and how court diarist duc de Saint-Simon proved to be Proust's greatest influence.

We have reading assignments and questions below the timestamps.

Video Timestamps:

• 0:00 Swann and Marcel's grandfather
• 1:30 unlocking childhood memories
• 3:00 Proust the philosophical novelist
• 4:00 triggering & flooding involuntary memories
• 5:00 the history of anaesthesia 
• 6:30 an anaesthetised aesthete 
• 8:00 Madame Proust as muse 
• 9:00 the death of Proust's mother
• 10:00 how Proust began writing the Search
• 11:00 Swann on trivial journalism 
• 13:00 Pascal's Pensées
• 15:30 Pascal's Wager 
• 17:20 a reading assignment for you
• 19:00 following rabbit holes in Proust
• 20:00 how Proust collected characters
• 21:40 the duc d'Audiffret-Pasquier 
• 24:00 the Academie Française 
• 25:30 French vs English language
• 27:00 a discussion on elitism 
• 28:00 was Proust a snob?
• 31:00 Proust's wining the 1919 Prix Goncourt 
• 32:00 the duc de Saint-Simon's memoirs
• 35:20 some questions for you

Pascal Reading Assignment:

1- Feverishly tear off the packaging of Pascal's Pensées (this is the edition I have).

2- Try to read it with the same fervour and curiosity with which you read about current affairs.

3- Mark the effect upon you.

4- Swap out some frivolous entertainment, here and there, for Pascal's Pensées, and, again, mark the effect upon you.

5- Share your favourite thoughts with us.

Questions to Consider: 

1) Swann says that only three or four books give us anything in a lifetime. Is this true? And what are your three or four books?

2) Have you experienced a flooding of involuntary memories during your reading of Proust thus far? If so, can you pin down what triggered it?

3) We ended this video by saying that Proust might just be the "greatest gossip" in all of literature. Can you think of anyone else who could contend for that title?

Happy Prousting, everybody!