Reading the first chapter of Swann’s Way honestly felt like being stuck inside someone’s thoughts at 2 a.m. when you’re half asleep and everything is weird and blurry. At first I kept waiting for something to actually happen, but it’s more like Proust just lets you float around inside the narrator’s head. I didn’t really get it at the beginning and I was kind of annoyed because there isn’t a normal storyline, but after a while I realized that this confusion is actually the whole point of the story.
The part that stood out the most to me was the madeleine scene. The narrator eats a piece of cake dipped in tea and suddenly his entire childhood in Combray comes flooding back. I liked how he didn’t sit there trying to remember but it just happened. That actually felt really relatable. I’ve definitely had moments where a smell or a song randomly brings back a memory I didn’t even know I had. It made me think about how our memories are kind of hidden inside us until something small unlocks them.
What I didn’t like was how long and complicated the sentences are. Sometimes I had to reread the same paragraph three times because I forgot what the sentence even started with. It also felt frustrating that he jumps between the present and the past so smoothly that I wasn’t always sure where I was in the story.
What confused me the most is how he can turn something as basic as tea and cake into this huge reflection about life and memory. I’m still not sure if I find that amazing or just exhausting.
In class, I’d really like to talk about whether this idea of “involuntary memory” still works today, especially since we’re constantly taking photos, videos, and screenshots of our lives. Proust suggests that our most meaningful memories come back when we least expect them, through something sensory like taste or smell. But now, instead of letting moments disappear and resurface on their own, we often try to preserve everything immediately. I wonder if this actually changes how memory works. Does documenting a moment right away make it less likely to come back in that sudden, emotional way later? Or does it flatten the experience because we’re focusing more on capturing it than actually feeling it? It makes me think about how different it is to randomly smell something that reminds you of childhood versus scrolling through old photos because an app tells you it’s a “memory.”
5 replies on “Proust”
“But now, instead of letting moments disappear and resurface on their own, we often try to preserve everything immediately.” This raises an interesting point, because, as you say, not all involuntary memory is completely involuntary, in the sense that we have ways of activating it. It’s a great topic for class discussion!
I love the questions in your final paragraph. I’m not sure we’ll get to them in class, but maybe…
I love the way you describe how it felt reading Proust!
About memory, I find that some random detail will trigger an unexpected memory for me, but, unlike Proust who lets it happen naturally, I immediately reach for my phone to find photos of what I was reminded of. In a way, I don’t think I’ve ever sat with the confusion that Proust seems to welcome (´～｀ˇ)
Hi Jasmine! I felt the same amount of surprise when reading that a madeleine and tea combination was able to elicit such a detailed, and even dramatic, response.
Your question is so interesting, and I began thinking about it after class. In my opinion, I think the type of memory can also be considered.
Hahah I totally agree that it feels like a fever dream, Proust really just kind of strings you along on this extremely detailed and specific story with his infamous run on sentences. I feel your pain having to re-read the sentences so many times. I honestly started to think I was out of touch with my reading comprehension at some point and had to take a break from reading LOL. The jumps between timelines also just adds to making a mess of my mental visualization of the whole picture!!!
The memory thing is totally real though, I think every time I heard the song “sweet disposition” by the temper trap I’d always feel a certain emotion, but at some point I guess it changed for me and lost it’s power (maybe due to overplaying it LOL).