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10.15.2009

Our social personality...

But then, even in the most insignificant details of our daily life, none of us can be said to constitute a material whole, which is identical for everyone, and need only be turned up like a page in an account-book or the record of a will; our social personality is created by the thoughts of other people. Even the simple act which we describe as “seeing some one we know” is, to some extent, an intellectual process. We pack the physical outline of the creature we see with all the ideas we have already formed about him, and in the complete picture of him which we compose in our minds those ideas have certainly the principal place. In the end they come to fill out so completely the curve of his cheeks, to follow so exactly the line of his nose, they blend so harmoniously in the sound of his voice that these seem to be no more than a transparent envelope, so that each time we see the face or hear the voice it is our own ideas of him which we recognise and to which we listen.

10.14.2009

Giotto in week 6

Merci beaucoup encore to Proustiannes Mientje and Lynn for serving tea and madeleines (Mientje brought them straight from Paris!) at our last meeting. Everyone was transported....
Here are a few links to illustrations of the fresco in the Arena Chapel in Padua. Some duplication, but didn't know which would show up well on your screens. Double click the images to enlarge them.
Brill on whatamieating.com::Brill (Schopthalmus rhombus/Rhombus laevis) A flatfish lesser cousin of turbot with the same fine white nutritious firm flesh. It is fished in shallow waters of the North Atlantic and Mediterranean The top of the body is smooth grey or beige with small pearly markings The underside is creamy-white and it has small smooth scales. The bones are good for stock and it is itself often cooked off the bone. Can be used as a substitute for turbot.
Cardoon on whatamieating.com (Scolymus cardunculus/Cynara cardunculus). A white vegetable from southern Europe it is a member of the thistle family as is the globe artichoke. It resembles a large coarse head of celery and is similar to fennel and stalks are blanched in the same way that celery is. The stalks are flat long and wide with notched sides and a suede-like finish. They should be grated and peeled in the same way as celery and it is cooked in the same way In many parts of Europe they are likely to be served with ham in a white sauce or braised

10.07.2009

Steeple and Church at Combray : week 5


Interior & exterior Combray church photos at the Ecclesiastical Proust Archive :: WOW! There's an outstanding search feature, so you can search for Combray church windows and color!
Walking Combray  :: Someone went to Illiers-Combray & took pictures.
Map :: Modern
..."The [tea] leaves, which had lost or altered their own appearance, assumed those instead of the most incongruous things imaginable, as though the transparent wings of flies or the blank sides of labels or the petals of roses had been collected and pounded, or interwoven as birds weave the material for their nests."
  • Daily Proust … This writer from S.C. started reading & blogging. Here are his church entries. Looks like he didn’t finish. Or at least he stopped blogging.

10.01.2009

Combray (vol I): Pages for October 2009

(Enright paging; yours may differ)
Week 5
Combray. Aunt Léonie’s two rooms (66); her lime-tea (69). Françoise (71).

Week 6
The church (80). M. Legrandin (-). Eulalie (93). Sunday lunches (97). Uncle Adolphe’s sanctum (99). Love of the theater: titles on posters (100).

Week 7
Meeting with “the lady in pink” (104). My family quarrel with Uncle Adolphe (109). The kitchen-maid: Giotto’s “Charity” (110).

Week 8-
Reading in the garden (115). The gardener’s daughter and the passing cavalry (121). Bloch and Bergotte (124). Bloch and my family (125).

Week 9-
Reading Bergotte (129). Swann’s friendship with Bergotte (135). Berma (135). Swann’s speech mannerisms and mental attitudes (135). Prestige of Mlle Swann as a friend of Bergotte’s (138; cf. 582). The curé’s visits to Aunt Léonie (142). Eulalie and Françoise (148).

Gopnik on the Dreyfus Affair

Found this in last week's NEW YORKER Magazine. Dreyfus becomes important later in A LA RECHERCHE. Gopnik mentions Proust in the middle of the piece. There's also a nice podcast on the site. Extremely important politics & anti-Semitism, 1896.