Marcel Proust’s “Combray” was an interesting deep dive into the human experience of memory. Although I have come to appreciate how the writing style mimics the experience of being lost in thought so well, I found this week’s reading a little bit hard to follow. The style that Proust writes his book in makes for some lengthy tangents that made my mind wander from time to time. Although these tangents at times made the reading a bit dry to digest, as I read on I came to appreciate the feelings that the descriptions of the narrator’s childhood as it pertained to mine.
One of the things I found most interesting about the reading was how personal these explorations into his past memories felt. As I read, I found myself feeling a sense of familiarity in his reminiscing of his childhood. Although his tangents that The Narrator goes on are lengthy at times, I have come to appreciate the realness of how his mind trails off and comes back to the main topic. I often find that I lose myself in thought in a similar way, and I found it nice to read a piece of literature that encapsulates the feeling of those daydreams I have in class or the late nights I spend ruminating about my past experiences.
Another aspect of the book I that I enjoyed was how Proust described the experience of childhood. the descriptions of eavesdropping on the adults at dinner, sharing tea and pastries with his aunt, and staying up waiting for the comfort of his mother to put him to bed all evoked a sense of intense nostalgia in me that I had forgotten. It was very nice to reminisce over the similar memories I share with Proust as I read, and it made me appreciate the fond childhood memories that I share with my family a little bit more.
One of the details of how he describes his childhood that I found particularly interesting was how fixated The Narrator was with the love of his mother. Another student described this obsession as “Freudian” and I could not agree more. I think that the detail that The Narrator described his mother in made me feel a little uncomfortable at times, and also the sentiment that his father was preventing him from getting the love he desired made his descriptions of his mother a little bit weird to me.
In regards to his Father, I also found it interesting how he described the demeanor of his father in the book. I think that this description gave an interesting perspective on trauma as it pertains to memories. I find that while I reminisce over good memories there are small details that come through as well that make you confront feelings that you might not want to confront, such as the tough love of a father, and although I cannot relate to The Narrator’s relationship to his father, I did find it captivating how his descriptions made me feel so sympathetic to his experience.
All in all I thought that this week’s reading was a long, but interesting read.
My question for the class: Have you ever experienced an event that made you feel an intense feeling of nostalgia?
Hello Jonathan,
I completely agree with a lot of the points you made above, especially regarding the “personal” feeling you get from reading this exploration into the author’s memory. I felt that as you said the style in which Proust is writing the text is evocative of the confusing nature of memory itself. We do not always remember things perfectly and the introduction of the text shows a confusing state between sleep and wakefulness that definitely relates to the fuzziness of memory. Additionally, I agree with you that the tangents and lengthy sentences that Proust uses can make the text hard to read, but I also think it relates to the idea of childhood and the way that our childhood memories present themselves to us.
Hi Jonathan! I definitely agree that the tangents go on for a while and that it was interesting to read about the narrator’s relationship with his mother. I think you were really insightful about the relationship with his parents and that the family dynamics brought up feelings of nostalgia, which is interesting because I think it demonstrates the way the narrator can put us into those moments with his family and make us appreciate our own childhood memories. Thanks for sharing! Maia
Jonathan, thank you for your blogpost that has made me think about something very particular, the relationship between trauma and nostalgia… How do they work in relation to memory? I say this because this narrator seems to be delving into both almost at the same time, digressing between the two.
Hi Jonathan,
I like how you mentioned Proust’s childhood memories during family gatherings, and how they relate to you! Proust’s portryal of his memories are definitely very descriptive. While I also found it a bit hard me to follow along because of that, I think it showed how Proust was very sophisticated in his writing in the sense that he conjured up fond memories among readers, making connections with us.
– Janae