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The Gift of Insight (Close Reading of Proust) (Patreon)

Published:
2022-10-18 17:40:14
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

Today we reunite with little Marcel, who is scribbling a letter to summon his mother up to his bedroom.

And we’re using this opportunity to discuss intuition, introversion, shamanism, Blake’s doors of perception, peak experiences, Freudian and Jungian psychology, the Myers-Briggs, the power of slow reading, and much more.

The Everyman hardback edition contains these passages on pages 30-1, and the Vintage paperback edition has them from 32-4. 

Timestamps:

  • 0:00 the narrating self 
  • 1:31 unique modes of reading
  • 4:00 insight & hindsight 
  • 5:40 on slow reading
  • 7:22 Harold Bloom on Proust 
  • 9:30 rereading across time
  • 11:43 our deep analysis begins
  • 12:30 musicality & asides 
  • 15:00 recognising characters
  • 15:31 Wallace Stevens' 'first idea'
  • 18:00 Freud vs Jung 
  • 19:30 shamanism & mystics
  • 20:15 Blake's 'doors of perception'
  • 21:30 the blessing of intuition
  • 22:30 peak experiences 
  • 24:00 William James' vision
  • 25:55 the Myers-Briggs 
  • 27:00 Jung on intuition
  • 27:48 on personality types
  • 28:10 extroversion-introversion
  • 31:43 Proust's personality type
  • 32:42 little Marcel's letter
  • 34:30 a labyrinth of lost time
  • 37:00 the exquisite thread
  • 39:52 Freud vs Shakespeare
  • 40:42 the Oedipal vs spiritual 

Questions to ponder:

1) Have you had a peak experience? Has great literature ever altered your consciousness? 

2) What fictional characters remind you of the real people in your life? 

3) Do you think Marcel Proust is an intuitive introvert? And where are you on the extroversion-introversion scale?

Happy Prousting, everybody!

Files

Previews only

The Gift of Insight - Proust's In Search of Lost Time (Pages 26-27)

0:00 the narrating self 1:31 unique modes of reading 4:00 insight & hindsight 5:40 on slow reading 7:22 Harold Bloom on Proust 9:30 rereading across time 11:43 our deep analysis begins 12:30 musicality & asides 15:00 recognising characters 15:31 Wallace Stevens' 'first idea' 18:00 Freud vs Jung 19:30 shamanism & mystics 20:15 Blake's 'doors of perception' 21:30 the blessing of intuition 22:30 peak experiences 24:00 William James' vision 25:55 the Myers-Briggs 27:00 Jung on intuition 27:48 on personality types 28:10 extroversion-introversion 31:43 Proust's personality type 32:42 little Marcel's letter 34:30 a labyrinth of lost time 37:00 the exquisite thread 39:52 Freud vs Shakespeare 40:42 the Oedipal vs spiritual

Comments

Andres

Hello everyone. Joined recently and must say that the book club is simply fantastic! Am currently reading ISLT. I hope this is not off-topic.. Re: the labyrinth of lost time, discussed by Ben is this video (34:30). I.e., the narrator playing with time, going back and forth. This idea instantly reminded me of the starting lines of Garcia Marquez in One Hundred Years of Solitude: "Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice. At that time Macondo was a village of twenty adobe houses..." Some context on the ice: the novel is set in the 19th (?) century in a small town in the Caribbean. So no refrigerators. Ice was the most exotic of things, brought (melting, on the back of a mule!) from snow-capped mountains. Therefore seeing ice for the first time as a child was a big deal, so much so that it marked the character's memory for the rest of his life.

Florian Pesantes

On my day free of work, my beloved Saturday, I found the time and concentration to listening to the whole lecture while concentrating on the very inspiring paintings and photographs illustrating your, Benjamin‘s, meandering, highly intellectual and hence challenging lecture. You led us far away from the text to Blake, Freud, Jung, James, Maslow and back to the text in exquisite diligence savouring Proust’s thoughts, Proust‘s words, Proust’s phrases as translated by Scott Moncrieff and revised by Kilmartin. The former who’d been educated at the famous college in the ancient city at River Itchen where so decisively the world of English poetry and literature had been opened to me. When you praised the musicality in these lines, the rhythm even, I wondered if that is really Proust who created such or the translator. So I looked up the original. And yes, a perfect match! Interestingly Proust wrote “les parents” instead of “la famille”. I wondered why. Not even ‘my’ but ‘the ‘ parents. Maybe he wanted to avoid the strong allusion to the slogan of the political right now used worldwide “dieux, famille, patrie” ? I wondered what I’d journaled in summer 2021 when first I’d read these pages. I seemed to have gone lost in the story of the four sons of Aymon rather than pondering on the peculiarities of Françoise. I remember though having admired the craftsmanship of MP to get a twist of suspense after having lulled me into a quiet trance. I felt this boy’s drama as if it was my own. To finally answer your questions: peak experiences, I certainly had them and continue to having them. Not even more in grand settings as in my youth but in very mundane situations nowadays, when I’m suddenly stopped by a red traffic light or a long queue at the supermarket checkout in the pursuit of my rushed day. And even during the talk, at minute 27, when Jung seemed to be alive and fixating me from his armchair. Not like a kind grandfather, more the dangerous youth he once was. Do fictional characters remind me of the real people in my life? I’ve never asked me that. I think I couldn’t, I even see ‘real’ people as rather fluid, as myself, so I can’t compare these to anyone. Proust: an introvert certainly, intuitive? I’d rather read him as living in a world of sensual impressions. I myself, well, as I’m always content when alone, even happy and need significant amounts of booze to endure parties: I guess that makes me an introvert. Intuitive most likely as I can pretty well read the emotions of people I’m with and I seem to know the Umbanda spirits people are affiliated to after a short while. Ben’s being son of Xangô and Oxalá, tell me if I’m right, Ben! Happy Guy Fawkes’ day you all (“Remember, remember, the 5th of November) https://youtu.be/0h4TyEisNFM

hardcoreliterature
>>95041053

Beautiful insights and appreciation, Florian. I so dearly love reading your responses to Proust - as much as I delight in reading Proust himself! How marvellous that you can enjoy the original French and find that Moncrieff and Kilmartin have managed to render Proust quite faithfully into English. I'm even more thrilled that you were able to turn back to your journal entry from over a year ago to see your response to this passage. This is exactly the reflexive backwards-forwards approach to Proust that I so love! I couldn’t be happier to see you deploy it perfectly. And I love how you’ve crisply relayed the Florian of 2021’s response - ‘I felt this boy’s drama as if it was my own.’ Beautiful.