Opening Awakening & At Combray
p.1 –
• begins with consciousness of being conscious, but of not being anything whatsoever
• famous opening word, “Longtemps” that gives a sense of habbit and history, of the established patterns of an individual, as elaborated through the course of time, without delineating either a beginning or an end.
• the metonymic connection between “à peine ma bougie éteinte” and “mes yeux se fermaient si vite que je n’avais pas le temps de me dire: “Je m’endors.”” suggests the first image as a metaphor for the second. “he” goes to sleep so quickly that he is not event (entirely) conscious of the event (at least verbally)
• overall, in these first few lines, it is the illumination of the (exterior) world that matters: the candle is blown out and he cannot see, his eyes close and he becomes unconscious
• paradox: already asleep, he is awoken by the thought that it is time to go to sleep. This irony loosens the distinction between his world of dreams and his consciousness of reality [some of these terms may become problematic]
• this softening increases two sentences later, “il me semblait que j’étais moi même ce don’t parlait l’ouvrage”.
o The book is clearly given powers of creation, it speaks [look up the nuances of the verb “parler”; what does it mean to speak, both generally, and also specifically in French when referred to by the verb “parler”]
o The softening of the distinction between Marcel’s dreams and his reality is now extended: the fictif world of his reading is added to the mix; this has the important effect of being transferred to the reader, as any reader, present with the phrase, “it seemed to me that I was (myself) that about which the book was talking
o Importantly, the impression that “he” is what he was reading about (before sleeping) continues on, albiet briefly, after he awakens. At this point, the three worlds are very clearly intertwines. He believes himself to be that about which he was previously reading, a belief that began while he was dreaming. (or) While dreaming, the imaginary world of his book, became of the real world of his life, an experience that continues even after he has awoken.
• Why “écailles” (shell or tortoise shell)
• After he feels that “the subject of the book” has detached itself from him (again, a reflexive, “se détachait”, giving some sense of life and perhaps agency to the book and its subject. How else are these bestowed?
• His surrounding remain obscure, he has no clear reference point, and the world seems—like a dream (my addition)—to be without cause and incomprehensible
• next he wonders what time it could be— why “could” instead of “is”—“could” reinforces the sense of incomprehensibility
• next he hears something; the whitsling of trains far away—but still, it’s not clear, the trains are “plus ou moins éloigné”
• again, he chooses a metaphor that reinforeces the lack of reference point (spatially). He hears the trains as he would a birdsong in a forest.
• What does “relevant les distances mean”
• Then there’s the whole scene tha begins “me décrivait l’étendue de la compagne…” and ends “…à la douceur prochaine du retour.”
o Who is the “voyageur” Is he a figure? For what?
o Sense of journey and of saying goodbye
o Perhaps significantly, the image of night is brought back, “la lampe étrangère qui le suivent encore dans le silence de la nuit”
• A similarity to the earlier scene with the candle, the night is hear partially illuminated by a lamp, as I imagine it a street-light, and again, the experience preceding the fall of night follows him into it, and continues through the night, affecting his perception, or at least as he says, his memory of his journey.
o Is the voyageur possibly a figure with which the reader is supposed to identify, if only partially?
• Next we get touch, in the image of the tender touch of his cheeks against the pillow. Now there is both a physical sense of extension of (physical) self, and a spatial sense of location within a physical space
• Time enters again, as he lights a match to look at a clock. It is almost midnight. Again, we are on the threshold. Day will soon begin (in the sense of AM), though night has not quite ended.
• The voyageur comes back (though it is not necessarily the same), this time he is identified as “the malade”
• “L’espérance d’être soulagé lui donne du courage pour souffrir.” Another sort of paradox. How the simple hope of an end, or at the very least of abatement, of his suffering, can give him the courage to better endure his present suffering. But this hope quickly becomes a fleeting chimera, as he realises that it is but midnight, and the ray of light, which he had thought to be the sun, was in fact the glow of a lamp
“le tout don’t je n’étais qu’une petite partie et à l’insensibilité duquel je retournais vite m’unir”
o “le tout” ? l’insensibilité du tout?, l’unité avec le tout?
• “mais par mesure de précaution j’entourais complètement ma tête de mon oreiller avant de retourner dans le monde des rêves.” (p.47)
o again, there is a loosened sense of the distinction between the real world and the dream world,
And again, a loosend distinction between the two worlds. This time, his cheek is still hot from the kiss of a woman in his dream, who he believes to be Eve, and more
o again, the image of a voyajeur and journey comes back
• this time it is of the mistaken travelers who, “partent en voyage pour voir d leurs yeux une cité désirée et s’imaginent qu’on peut goûter dans une réalité le charme du songe
• L’homme qui dort and his extension into time, history and space
• Again, a sense or reference points, and lack of them, in the image of the man sleeping in the chair. The crucial verb, “désorbité” continues the image from the beginning of the paragraph, of the man holding the string of hours,
o There is some sense that spatial location is defined only relatively, with no absolute ground of reference to guarantee place and time
o There is also the recurrring theme of journey/voyage
• “comme j’ignorais où je me trouvais, je ne savais même pas au premier instant qui j’étais; j’avais seulement dans sa simplicité première, le sentiment de l’existence comme il peut frémir au fond d’un animal” (p.48)
o “…pour me tirer du néant d’où je n’aurais pu sortir tout seul”
• he can escape the void of nothingness, of not existing as self, without the aid of memories, of points of reference from his past. Quite clearly (in Proust’s description of it), we are to understand memories as the points of reference that give extension and duration to our sense of self.
• “les traits originaux de mon moi” - is there a particular significance to th adjective “original”. Are we to understand these traits as pre-existing, as innate, or are they original simply because they are past.
“Peut-être l’immobilité des choses autour de nous leur est-elle imposée par notre certitude que ce sont elles et non pas d’autres, par l’immobilité de notre pensée en face d’elles.”
o This seems a question of conceptuality. Marcel’s question, in other words: is the fixed nature of the outer world simply a product of the fixed nature of our concept of it
“…cherchait, d’après la forme de sa fatigue, à repérer…” what does, “from the (after) the form of its fatigue” mean?
• Reality, as experience by Marcel, changes with his memories of the rooms in which he has slept, the walls of his bedroom shifting as he moves from room to room, in a journey back through time, as he searches for himself
• There is a physical sense, which precedes even mental consciousness: “Et avant même que ma pensée, qui hésitait au seuil des temps et des formes…” (p.48)
“traversée par les feux de la lampe, seul phare dans la nuit.” (p.49)
• again, un image of a solitary light illuminating the night.
o Is this the light of consciousness?
o “que nous isolons” to isolate, therefore de demarcate and to make separate, to establish points of reference
o “qu’on finit par cimenter ensemble…” to cement, to make concrete and certain, to establish as real and existing
l’odeur du vétiver (p.50)
• projection of emotions onto surrounding (inanimate) objects
• “le bon ange de la certitude…” (p.51)
o reality is arranged and guaranteed by a divine force (or not at all, depending on perspective)
o
• begins with consciousness of being conscious, but of not being anything whatsoever
• famous opening word, “Longtemps” that gives a sense of habbit and history, of the established patterns of an individual, as elaborated through the course of time, without delineating either a beginning or an end.
• the metonymic connection between “à peine ma bougie éteinte” and “mes yeux se fermaient si vite que je n’avais pas le temps de me dire: “Je m’endors.”” suggests the first image as a metaphor for the second. “he” goes to sleep so quickly that he is not event (entirely) conscious of the event (at least verbally)
• overall, in these first few lines, it is the illumination of the (exterior) world that matters: the candle is blown out and he cannot see, his eyes close and he becomes unconscious
• paradox: already asleep, he is awoken by the thought that it is time to go to sleep. This irony loosens the distinction between his world of dreams and his consciousness of reality [some of these terms may become problematic]
• this softening increases two sentences later, “il me semblait que j’étais moi même ce don’t parlait l’ouvrage”.
o The book is clearly given powers of creation, it speaks [look up the nuances of the verb “parler”; what does it mean to speak, both generally, and also specifically in French when referred to by the verb “parler”]
o The softening of the distinction between Marcel’s dreams and his reality is now extended: the fictif world of his reading is added to the mix; this has the important effect of being transferred to the reader, as any reader, present with the phrase, “it seemed to me that I was (myself) that about which the book was talking
o Importantly, the impression that “he” is what he was reading about (before sleeping) continues on, albiet briefly, after he awakens. At this point, the three worlds are very clearly intertwines. He believes himself to be that about which he was previously reading, a belief that began while he was dreaming. (or) While dreaming, the imaginary world of his book, became of the real world of his life, an experience that continues even after he has awoken.
• Why “écailles” (shell or tortoise shell)
• After he feels that “the subject of the book” has detached itself from him (again, a reflexive, “se détachait”, giving some sense of life and perhaps agency to the book and its subject. How else are these bestowed?
• His surrounding remain obscure, he has no clear reference point, and the world seems—like a dream (my addition)—to be without cause and incomprehensible
• next he wonders what time it could be— why “could” instead of “is”—“could” reinforces the sense of incomprehensibility
• next he hears something; the whitsling of trains far away—but still, it’s not clear, the trains are “plus ou moins éloigné”
• again, he chooses a metaphor that reinforeces the lack of reference point (spatially). He hears the trains as he would a birdsong in a forest.
• What does “relevant les distances mean”
• Then there’s the whole scene tha begins “me décrivait l’étendue de la compagne…” and ends “…à la douceur prochaine du retour.”
o Who is the “voyageur” Is he a figure? For what?
o Sense of journey and of saying goodbye
o Perhaps significantly, the image of night is brought back, “la lampe étrangère qui le suivent encore dans le silence de la nuit”
• A similarity to the earlier scene with the candle, the night is hear partially illuminated by a lamp, as I imagine it a street-light, and again, the experience preceding the fall of night follows him into it, and continues through the night, affecting his perception, or at least as he says, his memory of his journey.
o Is the voyageur possibly a figure with which the reader is supposed to identify, if only partially?
• Next we get touch, in the image of the tender touch of his cheeks against the pillow. Now there is both a physical sense of extension of (physical) self, and a spatial sense of location within a physical space
• Time enters again, as he lights a match to look at a clock. It is almost midnight. Again, we are on the threshold. Day will soon begin (in the sense of AM), though night has not quite ended.
• The voyageur comes back (though it is not necessarily the same), this time he is identified as “the malade”
• “L’espérance d’être soulagé lui donne du courage pour souffrir.” Another sort of paradox. How the simple hope of an end, or at the very least of abatement, of his suffering, can give him the courage to better endure his present suffering. But this hope quickly becomes a fleeting chimera, as he realises that it is but midnight, and the ray of light, which he had thought to be the sun, was in fact the glow of a lamp
“le tout don’t je n’étais qu’une petite partie et à l’insensibilité duquel je retournais vite m’unir”
o “le tout” ? l’insensibilité du tout?, l’unité avec le tout?
• “mais par mesure de précaution j’entourais complètement ma tête de mon oreiller avant de retourner dans le monde des rêves.” (p.47)
o again, there is a loosened sense of the distinction between the real world and the dream world,
And again, a loosend distinction between the two worlds. This time, his cheek is still hot from the kiss of a woman in his dream, who he believes to be Eve, and more
o again, the image of a voyajeur and journey comes back
• this time it is of the mistaken travelers who, “partent en voyage pour voir d leurs yeux une cité désirée et s’imaginent qu’on peut goûter dans une réalité le charme du songe
• L’homme qui dort and his extension into time, history and space
• Again, a sense or reference points, and lack of them, in the image of the man sleeping in the chair. The crucial verb, “désorbité” continues the image from the beginning of the paragraph, of the man holding the string of hours,
o There is some sense that spatial location is defined only relatively, with no absolute ground of reference to guarantee place and time
o There is also the recurrring theme of journey/voyage
• “comme j’ignorais où je me trouvais, je ne savais même pas au premier instant qui j’étais; j’avais seulement dans sa simplicité première, le sentiment de l’existence comme il peut frémir au fond d’un animal” (p.48)
o “…pour me tirer du néant d’où je n’aurais pu sortir tout seul”
• he can escape the void of nothingness, of not existing as self, without the aid of memories, of points of reference from his past. Quite clearly (in Proust’s description of it), we are to understand memories as the points of reference that give extension and duration to our sense of self.
• “les traits originaux de mon moi” - is there a particular significance to th adjective “original”. Are we to understand these traits as pre-existing, as innate, or are they original simply because they are past.
“Peut-être l’immobilité des choses autour de nous leur est-elle imposée par notre certitude que ce sont elles et non pas d’autres, par l’immobilité de notre pensée en face d’elles.”
o This seems a question of conceptuality. Marcel’s question, in other words: is the fixed nature of the outer world simply a product of the fixed nature of our concept of it
“…cherchait, d’après la forme de sa fatigue, à repérer…” what does, “from the (after) the form of its fatigue” mean?
• Reality, as experience by Marcel, changes with his memories of the rooms in which he has slept, the walls of his bedroom shifting as he moves from room to room, in a journey back through time, as he searches for himself
• There is a physical sense, which precedes even mental consciousness: “Et avant même que ma pensée, qui hésitait au seuil des temps et des formes…” (p.48)
“traversée par les feux de la lampe, seul phare dans la nuit.” (p.49)
• again, un image of a solitary light illuminating the night.
o Is this the light of consciousness?
o “que nous isolons” to isolate, therefore de demarcate and to make separate, to establish points of reference
o “qu’on finit par cimenter ensemble…” to cement, to make concrete and certain, to establish as real and existing
l’odeur du vétiver (p.50)
• projection of emotions onto surrounding (inanimate) objects
• “le bon ange de la certitude…” (p.51)
o reality is arranged and guaranteed by a divine force (or not at all, depending on perspective)
o
posted by E at 11:17 PM
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