The Duchesse de Guermantes invites a poet to dinner

Back to Proust last night and the long section about the Duchesse of Guermantes and how she entertains.

Another example of Proustian humor which is so gentle, really and so wry and so understated that one possibly could read right over it which is what I did for years.

The Duchesse of Guermantes invites someone to dinner, telling him that a well-known poet has been invited and she knows he wants to meet the poet, etc. The dinner party takes place, and the poet is at the table, but the Duchesse talks about food, gardening, this and that and poetry is never, ever mentioned and the guest who wanted to meet the poet and get his opinion on the state of the art of poetry is out of luck. Like the elephant in the living room, is poetry at that party.

The implication is that the Duchesse thinks that in the interest of hospitality, maybe the poet would just like to eat dinner and take a break from talking about poetry.

The other implication is that the Duchesse is dominating the conversation with her blather about this and that and no one can get in a word edgewise.

If one envisions that dinner, the comic possibilities are endless.

I love Proust.

Reading Proust in Baghdad

In central Baghdad , as carp lolled in a circular pool, Al Faris Restaurant owner Haj Hashim said he now served fried fish to 10 or 12 tables of customers a night, up from only two tables a month ago.
A mile or so away, bookseller Jumaa Mohammed says sales of his newspapers and paperbacks have jumped 60 percent from early this year and 80 percent from a year ago. Now he boasts a table to display them. Before they were spread on the sidewalk.
Between their two establishments, bookstore owner Daoud Mohammed is proud to show his translations of Proust, Melville, Pasternak and Shakespeare. He does so in the dark: power is out again. He sells around 10 books a day, down from about 100 three years ago, but more than earlier this year.

This is quoted from Pat Dollard's blog which is normally not be on my radar. I would think life in Baghdad would not be conducive to reading Proust, but then maybe Proust is the ultimate escapist literature.

If you want one man's slanted view (surely all our views are slanted one way or another, n'est pas?) this is a link to the entire post.

http://patdollard.com/2008/06/decreased-violence-in-iraq-prompts-question-of-us-departure/

The heat in Boston, but not Baghdad, has finally broken and I am off to the city today for lunch with a friend at the Barking Crab, far away from UID and car bombs.

Odette

More on YSL and Proust

From New York Magazine:

I think I've exhausted the subject. Interesting bits and pieces have scrambled out of the quagmire of gossip and fashion.

http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/47563/

Proust with his dressing in lots of layers to stay warm , presumably, would not have been a fashion icon. Hate the word icon, the most overused and undeservedly used word in the language. Why did I use it? Merde. A fashion statement. That's better.

Odette

Yves St. Lauren and me

It is mega-annoying when Blogger craps out in the middle of a post and there you are, with the links and the prose and the thoughts in your head--all vapor.

Here are some interesting links to funeral news and obits of YSL. All mention Proust and it’s almost as if Proust died again with him.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article4074158.ece

http://www.style.com/trends/news/content_6866

http://www.redorbit.com/news/general/1411968/designer_mastered_appeal_to_masses_icon_of_haute_coutures_impact/

And now my own insignificant story. A newspaper article (most likely the NY Times) mentioned Laurent’s pumping new vigor into the Safari Suit. I remember I had one (not the designer’s) way back when. I put one on a character in The Shadow Warriors, in fact.

But this week, on a dark, rainy day, I pulled a linen safari blouse out of the ironing. Yes, readers, I am one of a handful of females who still iron. Napkins, handkerchiefs, towels, a few articles of clothing, and what have you.

The safari shirt/blouse is a bitch to iron with all the epaulet straps and garbage, but it’s kind of cool. Imagine my surprise (no, you absolutely cannot) when I saw in that newspaper article that in 2008 (this year!!!!) and 2007 (last year!!!) big name designers had touted safari clothing again, under the influence of YSL.

Which meant my long-in-the-tooth blouse was Au Courant. Who knew? So you may catch a glimpse of me flitting around Boston in black slacks and a safari blouse, or pale silk slacks and a safari blouse or even black jeans and a safari blouse.

And I am reading Proust again. After a month of thrillers and what have you, mostly written at third grade level (I am not making this up), Proust with his long sinuous sentences and subtle observations is a culture shock.

As ever,

Odette

Yves St. Laurent + Proust

So many of the YSL obituaries mention Proust, Proust as the only writer that could capture YSL's life, or that YSL lived a Proustian life. One does not often see those references these days. After all, how many of us live a life that is remotely Proustian in any aspect, except maybe for the gossip and the naughty bits. Not me, of course. No naughty bits at all. Boring.

Here is one example:
http://vivremagazineonline.com/2008/06/02/yves-stlaurent-is-dead/

And another, just added: http://operachanteuse.blogspot.com/

Proust and Fortuny

Apparently Fortuny's technique has been lost and can't be recovered. Interesting, that with all our technology no one has figured it out.

In the meantime, here's food for thought. Albertine and the Duchesse of Guermantes both wear Fortuny. La di dah!

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/30/arts/rcartborch.php

While we're on the topic of Fortuny, here is a link to the website:

http://www.fortuny.com/Mariano/History.html

Others are re-reading Proust like moi. I wish the blogger would change fonts and colors. Sometimes interesting blogs can be, alas, hard to read, font and colorwise.
http://anthonyscoggins.blogspot.com/2008/05/rereading-proust.html

Blogging Proust Blogging Proust

No hawthornes but an orange rhododendum. Lovely, n'est pas?

Blogging Proust Blogging Proust:
You read that right. I have often wondered whether Proust, if alive today, would blog.

Here is your answer, and the answer is . . . .

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2008/5/21kumar.html

Loved it. Spoken thrice.

There is so much cool talent in the blogosphere.




Web Cowgirl's progress through Proust is putting me to shame. http://webcowgirl.livejournal.com/1509874.html




Maybe a few summer afternoons of intensive reading. It's so lovely on our deck overlooking the slough with new flowers planted, the goldfinches visited the thistle seed feeder and the hummingbird making frequent trips to the red feeder full of sugar water. I've also planted lots of cool flowers the hummer will like, and blooms that will attract butterflies. We already have a host of dragonflies and soon (I hope) the bees will come for the oregano and other flowers. Wonder what oregano honey would taste like. Oregano? Hmmm.

Odette, who welcomes comments to this blog.

To Read or Not To Read

Lately, the Proust blogosphere has been a great void, but today, well, voila!

http://www.metafilter.com/72015/Reading-Proust-or-Proust-Reading-You

And more:

http://tiffanynorris.blogspot.com/2008/05/swanns-way.html

We have just returned from Montreal where they no doubt read Proust in French, a task I would find extremely daunting, although I get along fine with menu,signage,etc. in French. Montreal is a rather romantic city, not Paris of course, but still exciting.

We took in the fantastic exhibit of Cuban art at the Fine Arts Museum. In the early days, when the Spanish influence was still pronounced in Cuba, all the painters studied in France or Italy, and were obviously influenced by what they found abroad, which they interpreted in strictly Cuban ways.

One can eat well in Montreal and also coming and going at the CIA in Monpelier and at Simon Pearce in Queechee. We had bistrot chicken cooked on the grill last night and it was merveilleuse.

Odette

Reading Proust in Foxborough

This blog has a fair number of readers in countries outside the U.S., and for them and other far flung worshippers at the shrine of Proust, I'm posting a photo of the Foxborough village green.

Maybe I'll post a photo some time of the very famous Foxborough Stadium where the New England Patriots play football.

Foxborough is an old Massachusetts town that had a foundry where cannon balls were made during the revolutionary war. Then it became famous for making straw hats. The Foxboro company, now mostly known as Invensys, is the largest business in town these days. We have new shopping and the town is always changing.

I frequently blog about the herd of Scottish Highland Cattle that live around the corner from us. We also hear a rooster crow, and a slough and wetlands are behind the house, so Foxborough is still quite rural.

Odette

Taking Proust to Montreal

I'm trekking to Montreal to see the Cuban art exhibit, something that is hard to find in the states. I mentioned this to a friend who had actually been in Cuba, and she said she didn't remember seeing any art, which is odd, as she is a painter.

So we'll see what we see.

http://www.mmfa.qc.ca/en/expositions/a_affiche.sn

Would Proust like it? Who knows?

A small mention of Proust in this article:
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/cannes/article3978284.ece

And more yet still:

http://emmarytz.livejournal.com/287556.html

And of course Web CowGirl always has something interesting to say about Proust. I just have a few more pages of a thriller to read before I return to the kinder, gentler world of Marcel. Come to think of it, it's not kinder at all, but the violence is psychological, not physical.
http://webcowgirl.livejournal.com/

Odette

Book Rabbit

Blogger ate my prior post. Bad blogger! Merde.

Here is the Book Rabbit Link:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/connected/main.jhtml?xml=/connected/2008/05/17/dlclaud117.xml

A Gentle Proustian Joke

Ye gods, what fun. Our Marcel is a bit sly, and I love him. Now I have to get back to reading him.

http://theleedsarcadesproject.blogspot.com/2008/05/proust-joker.html

Onward,

Odette, back from Northern Nevada which is very unProustian

One of These Days

Hawthorne's from Wikipedia: aren't they lovely?

I have been so negligent, so lah-di-dah, so really bad about my Proust reading. It began when I went to Florida end of February and I'm still in a non-reading state. Leaving for Northern Nevada tomorrow, and don't want to carry the heavy volume on the plane. There is also the fact that I'm not that far from the final passages of volume 2, and it's not a book I would want to leave behind. Just can't bring myself to schlepp Proust.

New blog ideas: Schlepping Proust to Nevada; Leaving Proust on the Nightstand; My Nights Without Proust,The Absence of Proust.

Dunno. I need to get back into it. Proust seems to require a soupcon of leisure and quiet-mindedness which I haven't had. Maybe soon.

Damn! And I just know the hawthornes are in bloom somewhere.


Odette

Madame Proust

Some Proust blogs/articles/etc. of interest today. I wonder if the Hawthorne's are blooming. Always wanted to try to grow them, but I never did.

Some notes on Proust's family life

http://thelawsofnightandhoney.blogspot.com/2008/04/prousts-mom.html

And a review of the excellent bio, Madame Proust.

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v30/n09/lade01_.html

Odette who has been ultra-busy this month with this and that.