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?