Marcel Proust died a century ago on November 18, 1922, leaving behind one of the most remarkable literary investigations into human nature and society.
His gifted prose is indeed a gift, as natural to him as hitting a baseball was to Henry Aaron. Both men, despite their abilities, had to overcome long odds to achieve lasting success. Yes, thank you Mr. Hedges.
Hedges is so good because he's been inside the belly of the beast as a NY Times reporter. Although he frequently explains his locus as on the periphery of Empire, he knows how power works. He knows the power and respect a NY Times reporter is granted. He knows the impacts of the lies they all fabricate. He too has been invisibilized and "knows what the scapegoat knows".
Chris, thank you for speaking to the vital relevance of literature. When I'm coaching someone who wants to write great fiction but who reads mostly mainstream novels for "escape," I always hold up Proust as an example of what I consider to be escapist reading. Proust catapults me back to fin de siecle Parisian high society, and the experience of being there is so vivid, I recall those volumes as if they were personal memories. I have trouble infecting would-be writers/casual readers with my passion for language, because I'm afraid of sounding pedantic. And I struggle to explain that great writers take you deep inside their psyche (Proust called it "le moi profonde") with unparalleled generosity. Proust becomes my intimate. He invites me to love him unconditionally--the only way I can love him once I've gotten to know him. For instance, I prefer to think he was an impressionable, bedazzled sycophant, who became disillusioned over time. But even in his disillusion, he never judges. That is one failing he does not have. There is a kind of mercy that great writers possess. With their capacity for understanding our desperation, they absolve us. I can't imagine a finer compliment than reading an author during a brutal war as a way to hang onto your humanity. Thank you again for including literature in the wide range of important subjects you cover here.
Your are on my radar Chris. Whatever you write about and whoever you talk with on you webmcasts helps center me in these crazy times. Thank you for being in the ether.
We (the people in power and us all) should try to establish a cease fire in Ukraine during the Xmas/NewYear season by advocating to all faiths to echo there faith dictum "peace on earth". Maybe the holiday season could catalyzed -minimally- a cease fire and just maybe from there negotiations: the UN in some neutral country. As a non believer I pray for peace. As I'm sure you do.
This reflection on Marcel Proust is one of the most beautiful pieces you have ever written. After reading it I found myself in a state of wonderment and awe.
I also thought Chris's take on Melville and Moby Dick was deeply illuminating. The article is still up somewhere if you google Chris Hedges Melville Moby Dick.
Also recommend the 12 volume _Dance to the Music of Time_ by Anthony Powell. For comparative study read _A Dance to Lost Time: Marcel Proust's 'In Search of Lost Time' compared with Anthony Powell's 'A Dance to the Music of Time' Paperback –2022-by Patrick Alexander
Did you know that a quote from Proust played a small but important part in the fascinating movie Little Miss Sunshine? Her older brother was depressed and suicidal and a thought from Proust may have saved his life. You have to go through some struggle to become fully alive.
Read the Modern Library edition translated by C.K. Scott and Terence Kilmartin. Volume VI in that Modern Library edition is translated by Andreas Mayor and Terence Kilmartin.
"The hostility to difference is an ominous step toward tyranny, either the petty tyranny of the ruling class or the larger tyranny of totalitarianism."
Surely a novel written by a good thinker is worth reading because it teaches us the truths of living. Unfortunately novels are too long and take too much time, so I have not read Proust because I'm a slow reader and, besides, I enjoy so much reading that I've got stuck in some few ones that I have read twice and even three times. My solution to acquire wisdom from fiction literature is to read poems which are condensed windows to our reality. This is why I'm thankful to Mr. Hedges for bringing to us such enlightening reviews of these precious works of fiction. Your referred website for the Ecclesiastes was very helpful too. I read it for the first time.
"Inanimate objects carry within them a mystical force that can awaken these lost feelings of grief, joy and love"....and yet religions attack other religions for reliquaries, idol worship, ossuaries, etc. And by "attack"...i mean it's nasty.
Chris, Love that you continue to be a faithful witness to the time of our life now. Deeply appreciate your own recall and sharing of authors gone with their thoughts and writings living on independently of your appreciation and personal response. Most recently Proust for your appreciation of his use of language assisting your command of French to English for the right word. You do the same for me. Please continue to write on with grace and the burning day light of truth as you see it with second sense and sight. Your being and offerings much appreciated.
I've nearly finished Adam Hochschild's 'American Midnight: The Great War, A Violent Peace, and Democracy's Forgotten Crisis' (worth reading, believe me), and I'm seeing so many similarities in Hochschild's book as in Hedges piece on Proust and the meaning of 'Life and Fate', a great work by Vasily Grossman who was known as the Twentieth Century Tolstoy, meaning, life and death plays out and no knows For Whom the Bell Tolls? And when or where that bell will ring. Today, we all live on the edge of a great abyss, horrors to come which many will not survive, perhaps none will survive. But the point is this: In order to be prepared for death, one must understand the nature of life as well as the character if not temperament, damn near personality of time and being, of which, both have consciousness.
My job as a Crossing Guard is the safety if not protection of children to and from school, which for me, includes jumping in front on coming vehicles, if need be, which more often than not, it is necessary. The point being, being ready to face death in the pursuit of life, of which, has been my most cherished goal in this, (for all you Monty Python fans out there) The Meaning of Life!
In all seriousness I can say that in a few short sentences you have captured my imagination and become a near-mythical and inarguably heroic figure in it, a man who protects the young by gambling on losing his own human body while taunting the forces of death and destruction with the fact that they can never reach him in his essential inner life, a life rich with cultural knowledge and spiritual strengths.
I have other heroes, Viktor Schauberger, John Worrall Keely, John Kenneth Galbraith, Ernest Shackleton, now Chris Hedges, but the cause for which your risk and expend your life is so selfless and so transparently humble that I feel seized by a level of admiration and respect that I rarely if ever feel for anyone. I’m going to keep praying that you are never injured at work, however effective or otherwise that prayer may be. Sincerely, your new admirer Roland, (Scotland)
Dear Roland, thank you for your kindness, I am humbled, believe me. Every day at work is a treasure as I get to witness those beautiful faces coming to and leaving school which brings me tears of joy. I've worked a lifetime at good and God-awful jobs (7 years in the Amazon.com hell-holes known as Fulfillment Centers being the worst- the US Navy not being very much fun either, but did I ever get to travel) never wanting a "career" only a living, to merely get by, and I must admit, I've never gone without as what I needed (which has never been a lot) was always there exactly when I needed it.
Roland, the simplicity of life is always enough, at least for me. I never wanted anything beyond knowledge and the wisdom it brings. And believe when I say that wisdom is the laughter in those children as they take delight, forcefully, in just being alive, being with their friends, classmates and teachers, playfully enjoying what most adults have given up, the joy of life and living it to the max. And this' what I have always sought: To live in the vastness of everything around me, and that includes the vileness which surrounds us day in, day out. And if these children have taught me anything, it is this: never give in to that which surrounds us (that ever-present vileness), and just play.
I am in the Fields of the Lord, at play, knowing who I am, where I come from, where I am going, and most importantly, where I am in the moment, which is the most important, which is exactly where those children are, day in, day out.
Dear Mark, I’m glad that you saw my comment and the affirmation given it by another reader, Julio Santos. Your second message reinforces the first; I wish I could just download your mindset into my life; I wish we all could. My own working life has been mainly in freight-related jobs but I worked two years in the travel business in Europe. My wife and I have just bought my late father’s house from his estate and I am hoping to get an income from it, it’s in a nice part of the countryside for tourism.
Is there a way to exchange e-mails on this site? If you were willing to correspond occasionally, perhaps you could text your e-mail address to the UK ? My mobile is ++447765312431, Mark, you would be welcome here just from the little I’ve heard from you already, but I don’t know where you live, I’m assuming the US if I failed to pick up any more specific information. We British have been a bit impoverished by the effect on the value of the Pound of our illustrious government, or helpline, depending on how you see it, so we don’t have much travel in mind, but as you now know, I’m there with you in spirit and I hope to hear from you again, and / or read any blog or books you may put out.
It’s a privilege to be able to read about your good work with these children, and I’ve no doubt they will benefit from the guidance you give them in their lives as they open their minds to your way of thinking. Sincerely, Roland
Yes. I see you have grasped the meaning of life. I'm inclined to the epicurean point of view since our anxiety about dead can prevent us from experiencing all that is pleasurable in life. The meaning of my life is to enjoy living the most I can (while harming nobody) It is our only chance and there is nothing else after death. As Marcus Aurelius reminded us that there is beauty in finitude and impermanence because when our moments are few, they become important. If we lived forever no particular moment would be important.
Another profound and lyrical exigesis by Chris Hedges. I'm inspired now to read In Search of Lost Time in its entirety. Curious if he (or this audience) has a preference on the translation.
Read the Modern Library edition translated by C.K. Scott and Terence Kilmartin. Volume VI in that Modern Library edition is translated by Andreas Mayor and Terence Kilmartin.
Chris, I am left speechless by the beauty of your prose except to simply say thank you
His gifted prose is indeed a gift, as natural to him as hitting a baseball was to Henry Aaron. Both men, despite their abilities, had to overcome long odds to achieve lasting success. Yes, thank you Mr. Hedges.
Hedges is so good because he's been inside the belly of the beast as a NY Times reporter. Although he frequently explains his locus as on the periphery of Empire, he knows how power works. He knows the power and respect a NY Times reporter is granted. He knows the impacts of the lies they all fabricate. He too has been invisibilized and "knows what the scapegoat knows".
Probably not a mistake.
Chris, thank you for speaking to the vital relevance of literature. When I'm coaching someone who wants to write great fiction but who reads mostly mainstream novels for "escape," I always hold up Proust as an example of what I consider to be escapist reading. Proust catapults me back to fin de siecle Parisian high society, and the experience of being there is so vivid, I recall those volumes as if they were personal memories. I have trouble infecting would-be writers/casual readers with my passion for language, because I'm afraid of sounding pedantic. And I struggle to explain that great writers take you deep inside their psyche (Proust called it "le moi profonde") with unparalleled generosity. Proust becomes my intimate. He invites me to love him unconditionally--the only way I can love him once I've gotten to know him. For instance, I prefer to think he was an impressionable, bedazzled sycophant, who became disillusioned over time. But even in his disillusion, he never judges. That is one failing he does not have. There is a kind of mercy that great writers possess. With their capacity for understanding our desperation, they absolve us. I can't imagine a finer compliment than reading an author during a brutal war as a way to hang onto your humanity. Thank you again for including literature in the wide range of important subjects you cover here.
As always, Janet
Your are on my radar Chris. Whatever you write about and whoever you talk with on you webmcasts helps center me in these crazy times. Thank you for being in the ether.
We (the people in power and us all) should try to establish a cease fire in Ukraine during the Xmas/NewYear season by advocating to all faiths to echo there faith dictum "peace on earth". Maybe the holiday season could catalyzed -minimally- a cease fire and just maybe from there negotiations: the UN in some neutral country. As a non believer I pray for peace. As I'm sure you do.
Cheers and Peace
Like this?
https://www.history.com/news/christmas-truce-1914-world-war-i-soldier-accounts#:~:text=Indigo%2FGetty%20Images)-,Over%20Christmas%201914%2C%20singing%20and%20soccer%20broke%20out%20between%20British,be%20called%20the%20Christmas%20Truce.
There was a Doctor Who episode about this. Fantastic episode and I wish something like this could happen again
Chris,
This reflection on Marcel Proust is one of the most beautiful pieces you have ever written. After reading it I found myself in a state of wonderment and awe.
I also thought Chris's take on Melville and Moby Dick was deeply illuminating. The article is still up somewhere if you google Chris Hedges Melville Moby Dick.
Also recommend the 12 volume _Dance to the Music of Time_ by Anthony Powell. For comparative study read _A Dance to Lost Time: Marcel Proust's 'In Search of Lost Time' compared with Anthony Powell's 'A Dance to the Music of Time' Paperback –2022-by Patrick Alexander
Did you know that a quote from Proust played a small but important part in the fascinating movie Little Miss Sunshine? Her older brother was depressed and suicidal and a thought from Proust may have saved his life. You have to go through some struggle to become fully alive.
I've never read Proust so I was wondering which translation you would suggest I read.
Thank you
Nancy,
Read the Modern Library edition translated by C.K. Scott and Terence Kilmartin. Volume VI in that Modern Library edition is translated by Andreas Mayor and Terence Kilmartin.
Wow, stunning. Both your review, choice to review, and Proust's detailed insights regarding humanity through the ages.
"The hostility to difference is an ominous step toward tyranny, either the petty tyranny of the ruling class or the larger tyranny of totalitarianism."
Onwards White Christian Nationalist soldiers!
Surely a novel written by a good thinker is worth reading because it teaches us the truths of living. Unfortunately novels are too long and take too much time, so I have not read Proust because I'm a slow reader and, besides, I enjoy so much reading that I've got stuck in some few ones that I have read twice and even three times. My solution to acquire wisdom from fiction literature is to read poems which are condensed windows to our reality. This is why I'm thankful to Mr. Hedges for bringing to us such enlightening reviews of these precious works of fiction. Your referred website for the Ecclesiastes was very helpful too. I read it for the first time.
"Inanimate objects carry within them a mystical force that can awaken these lost feelings of grief, joy and love"....and yet religions attack other religions for reliquaries, idol worship, ossuaries, etc. And by "attack"...i mean it's nasty.
Thank you !!
Scott Ritter at his best – a must see short video: https://youtu.be/iAhdHIOd-9w
Scott Ritter: Talks German (and US) Government Politics – Nov. 19, 2022
Chris, Love that you continue to be a faithful witness to the time of our life now. Deeply appreciate your own recall and sharing of authors gone with their thoughts and writings living on independently of your appreciation and personal response. Most recently Proust for your appreciation of his use of language assisting your command of French to English for the right word. You do the same for me. Please continue to write on with grace and the burning day light of truth as you see it with second sense and sight. Your being and offerings much appreciated.
I've nearly finished Adam Hochschild's 'American Midnight: The Great War, A Violent Peace, and Democracy's Forgotten Crisis' (worth reading, believe me), and I'm seeing so many similarities in Hochschild's book as in Hedges piece on Proust and the meaning of 'Life and Fate', a great work by Vasily Grossman who was known as the Twentieth Century Tolstoy, meaning, life and death plays out and no knows For Whom the Bell Tolls? And when or where that bell will ring. Today, we all live on the edge of a great abyss, horrors to come which many will not survive, perhaps none will survive. But the point is this: In order to be prepared for death, one must understand the nature of life as well as the character if not temperament, damn near personality of time and being, of which, both have consciousness.
My job as a Crossing Guard is the safety if not protection of children to and from school, which for me, includes jumping in front on coming vehicles, if need be, which more often than not, it is necessary. The point being, being ready to face death in the pursuit of life, of which, has been my most cherished goal in this, (for all you Monty Python fans out there) The Meaning of Life!
Dear Mark Oglesby,
In all seriousness I can say that in a few short sentences you have captured my imagination and become a near-mythical and inarguably heroic figure in it, a man who protects the young by gambling on losing his own human body while taunting the forces of death and destruction with the fact that they can never reach him in his essential inner life, a life rich with cultural knowledge and spiritual strengths.
I have other heroes, Viktor Schauberger, John Worrall Keely, John Kenneth Galbraith, Ernest Shackleton, now Chris Hedges, but the cause for which your risk and expend your life is so selfless and so transparently humble that I feel seized by a level of admiration and respect that I rarely if ever feel for anyone. I’m going to keep praying that you are never injured at work, however effective or otherwise that prayer may be. Sincerely, your new admirer Roland, (Scotland)
Dear Roland, thank you for your kindness, I am humbled, believe me. Every day at work is a treasure as I get to witness those beautiful faces coming to and leaving school which brings me tears of joy. I've worked a lifetime at good and God-awful jobs (7 years in the Amazon.com hell-holes known as Fulfillment Centers being the worst- the US Navy not being very much fun either, but did I ever get to travel) never wanting a "career" only a living, to merely get by, and I must admit, I've never gone without as what I needed (which has never been a lot) was always there exactly when I needed it.
Roland, the simplicity of life is always enough, at least for me. I never wanted anything beyond knowledge and the wisdom it brings. And believe when I say that wisdom is the laughter in those children as they take delight, forcefully, in just being alive, being with their friends, classmates and teachers, playfully enjoying what most adults have given up, the joy of life and living it to the max. And this' what I have always sought: To live in the vastness of everything around me, and that includes the vileness which surrounds us day in, day out. And if these children have taught me anything, it is this: never give in to that which surrounds us (that ever-present vileness), and just play.
I am in the Fields of the Lord, at play, knowing who I am, where I come from, where I am going, and most importantly, where I am in the moment, which is the most important, which is exactly where those children are, day in, day out.
Dear Mark, I’m glad that you saw my comment and the affirmation given it by another reader, Julio Santos. Your second message reinforces the first; I wish I could just download your mindset into my life; I wish we all could. My own working life has been mainly in freight-related jobs but I worked two years in the travel business in Europe. My wife and I have just bought my late father’s house from his estate and I am hoping to get an income from it, it’s in a nice part of the countryside for tourism.
Is there a way to exchange e-mails on this site? If you were willing to correspond occasionally, perhaps you could text your e-mail address to the UK ? My mobile is ++447765312431, Mark, you would be welcome here just from the little I’ve heard from you already, but I don’t know where you live, I’m assuming the US if I failed to pick up any more specific information. We British have been a bit impoverished by the effect on the value of the Pound of our illustrious government, or helpline, depending on how you see it, so we don’t have much travel in mind, but as you now know, I’m there with you in spirit and I hope to hear from you again, and / or read any blog or books you may put out.
It’s a privilege to be able to read about your good work with these children, and I’ve no doubt they will benefit from the guidance you give them in their lives as they open their minds to your way of thinking. Sincerely, Roland
Agreed. You chose a very good new hero.
Yes. I see you have grasped the meaning of life. I'm inclined to the epicurean point of view since our anxiety about dead can prevent us from experiencing all that is pleasurable in life. The meaning of my life is to enjoy living the most I can (while harming nobody) It is our only chance and there is nothing else after death. As Marcus Aurelius reminded us that there is beauty in finitude and impermanence because when our moments are few, they become important. If we lived forever no particular moment would be important.
Another profound and lyrical exigesis by Chris Hedges. I'm inspired now to read In Search of Lost Time in its entirety. Curious if he (or this audience) has a preference on the translation.
Scott,
Read the Modern Library edition translated by C.K. Scott and Terence Kilmartin. Volume VI in that Modern Library edition is translated by Andreas Mayor and Terence Kilmartin.