06 - JFF (121-125) - Post-Kantian genius

probablement ce qui fait défaut est

probably what is lacking is (121)

dégager

dégager (often appears in Proust when something hidden or entangled needs to be disentangled, drawn out, or clarified from a complex (125)

Les deux auteurs sont profondément hostiles au geste même que vous tentez.

Both writers are profoundly hostile to the very gesture you are attempting. Both authors are trying to disrupt synthesis, system-building, and mental appropriation.

l’ensemble de la Recherche est un apprentissage dans lequel l’intelligence volontaire échoue sans cesse.

the entire Recherche is an apprenticeship in which voluntary intelligence repeatedly fails. The narrator’s repeated attempts to “convert” sensory impressions, memories, or ideas into clear mental possession end in frustration — until he discovers that only artistic creation can realize what intelligence cannot grasp. The book itself performs this lesson: it does not hand you a portable theory of memory or literature; it forces you to undergo the same disorientation and creative labor the narrator undergoes.

Deleuze interprète Proust comme une machine qui brise l’« image classique de la pensée ».

Deleuze reads Proust as a machine that shatters the classical “image of thought," — the comfortable assumption that thinking is simply a matter of recognizing and synthesizing pre-existing truths. Deleuze approaches concepts “par un petit côté” and refuses to let thought “rest” on any established universe.

« par des rapports vitaux que l'oreille ne dégageait pas immédiatement »

by vital connections that the ear did not immediately disentangle (125)

décevoir

to disappoint or let down (125); Proust frequently uses décevoir and déception in a slightly stronger, almost ironic way: it is not just mild disappointment, but a genuine frustration or being disconcerted, when reality fails to match an idealized expectation

qui décevait ceux qui s'attendaient à l'entendre parler seulement de

 “which disappointed those who expected to hear him speak only of (125)

prendre par un petit côté

- to approach something from an unexpected, oblique, or marginal angle; to tackle a question from a minor, secondary, or unusual side (125)

il avait l'air de la prendre par un petit côté, d'être dans le faux, de faire du paradoxe

(Bergotte) seemed to take the question from an unexpected angle, to be mistaken, to be indulging in paradox (125)

D'ailleurs toute nouveauté ayant pour condition l'élimination préalable du poncif auquel nous étions habitués et qui nous semblait la réalité même, toute conversation neuve, aussi bien que toute peinture, toute musique originales, paraîtra toujours alambiquée et fatigante.

Moreover, since every novelty requires the prior elimination of the cliché to which we were accustomed and which seemed to us to be reality itself, every new conversation, as well as every original painting and music, will always appear convoluted and tiring. (125)

les paperoles

strips of paper glued to manuscript (embody a literary assemblage that resists fixity; perpetually reworked and teeming with virtual potentials)

Au fond, les anciennes formes de langage avaient été elles aussi autrefois des images difficiles à suivre quand l'auditeur ne connaissait pas encore l'univers qu'elles peignaient. Mais depuis longtemps on se figure que c'était l'univers réel, on se repose sur lui.

“In reality, the old forms of language had themselves once been difficult images to follow when the listener did not yet know the universe they painted. But for a long time now one imagines that they were the real universe, and one rests comfortably upon them.” (125)   People forget that they were ever images at all. They start treating the old metaphors and formulas as if they were transparent windows onto reality itself (“on se figure que c’était l’univers réel”). The language feels natural, obvious, and comfortable — so people “rest” on it without effort. Therefore, when a truly original thinker like Bergotte refuses to use these worn-out conventions and instead offers fresh, living language, he is misunderstood. His audience complains that he is unclear or paradoxical, when in fact he is doing what every great innovator once did: forcing people to see the world anew.

l’univers réel

“the real universe” is in fact a habitual construction — a set of familiar linguistic and perceptual habits that have become so sedimented that we mistake them for transparent reality itself. The old forms of language once required real imaginative effort to follow; now we “rest” on them as if they were given.  After Kant showed that the world of experience is shaped by the structures of the mind, the post-Kantians emphasized that those structures are not fixed once and for all. They are productive, historical, and open to renewal through the creative activity of thought and imagination. What seems “natural” or “clear” is often just a reified product of past creative acts that have become invisible to us.

Deleuze par un petit côté

Deleuze takes familiar philosophical concepts (Being, Identity, Representation, the Subject, etc.) and approaches them from strange, oblique, unexpected angles. He creates new images, concepts, and vocabularies (rhizome, assemblage, becoming, virtual/actual, plane of immanence, etc.) that initially seem confusing, paradoxical, or “in the false.” He refuses to let us “rest” on the old forms. What looks like confusion or mere paradox to traditional readers is, for Deleuze, the necessary labor of creating new possibilities of thought — of bringing something that “does not yet exist” into the light.

Proust et les signes, Deleuze

 

Deleuze reads the Recherche as a machine for producing signs and forcing thought to confront its own limits and creative powers. For both Proust and Deleuze, true thinking is never mere recognition of the already-known; it is a violent, creative encounter that disrupts habitual perception and generates new “universes.”

 le nôtre, la nôtre, les nôtres

ours, replacing a noun; cf. notre/nos modifying a noun

entraîné par l'habitude hors des prises de ma sensibilité

carried away by habit from the grasp of my sensibility (121)

un raccourci

a shortcut, a condensed form (121)

le recul

distance

as-tu assez de recul pour juger du tableau ?

are you far enough away to judge the painting?

introuvable

unattainable (121)

il est aisé de s'imaginer

it is easy to imagine (121)

Songeons seulement à

Let us only think of (121)

ce qui appelle à l'existence les possibles ou les en exclut n'est pas forcément de la compétence du génie

that which calls into existence possibilities or excludes them is not necessarily within the competence of genius (121)

un destin foudroyé

a life struck down by tragedy (by lightening)

Odette eût-elle été mille fois plus compréhensive

even if Odette had been a thousand times more understanding (121)

pour nul de nous

for none of us (pour aucun d'entre nous, 121)

« C'est au fond assez joli, n'est-ce pas »

"It's rather lovely, isn't it" (121)

« ce n'est pas très aimable pour moi »

"It's not very kind to me" (121)

Mme de Cambremer

one of the aristocratic families maintained Norman & Breton pronunciations

« cela n'a rien de froissant ! »

"There's nothing offensive about that!" (121)

semblant d'être piquée

feigning annoyance (121)

C'est un type infect.

She's a revolting individual. (121)

la Tamise

Thames River

le mutisme

silence

« Swann garda un mutisme de sourd. » (idiom)

Swann maintained the silence of a deaf man. (maintain a deliberate, almost ostentatious silence, 121)

s'enfermer dans un mutisme

retreat into silence

les réalités crues

the stark realities

un billet de rupture

a break-up letter

Marcel Prou ste

M P (2 rhythmic beats)

entraîné par

swept along by, carried away by

entraîné par ses émotions

carried away by his emotions

câlin, câline

affectionate, cuddly (122)

faire l'éloge de quelqu'un

to praise someone (122)

infrangible

in- + frangere - to break - unbreakable, indestructible

les rayons infrangibles qu'émettait à l'infini derrière lui, jusque dans mon passé le plus ancien (par un le homard à l'américaine)

"unbreakable rays" (emitted by cooked lobster; sensations of taste and smell create an "unbreakable" link across time turning a simple meal into an overwhelming invasion of the self by the past, imprisoning the self in an infinite, unbreakable chain of recollection (122)

pour ce qui le concernait lui-même

as far as he was concerned (122)

...dit-elle à Swann, d'une grosse voix un peu maussade, en amie familière.

she said to Swann in a deep, somewhat sullen voice, like a familiar friend. (123)

Swann m'attira un moment à l'écart

Swann drew me aside for a moment

souffler

to whisper (chuchoter); to breathe hard, huff & puff (123)

Je soufflai à Swann de demander

I whispered to Swan to ask (123)

nous nous mîmes à table.

we sat down to eat (ps, mettre)

« ne desserrer pas les dents »

to not say a single word, "does not unclench his teeth"; a physical, bodily image - clenched jaws - to describe a psychological or social state (123)

inédite

unprecedented, never published before

vous demander la permission de prendre congé

ask your permission to take my leave (of you, 124)

un collectionneur de marque

a distinguished collector (Swann, 124)

pour une cause si insignifiante

for such a trivial reason (124)

une corbeille de camélias

a basket of camellias (124)

l'effet d'une méprise

the result of a misunderstanding (124)

la valeur du Beau

the value of Beauty (124)

un peu de feinte

a bit of pretense (124)

les convives masculins s'emparer d'un oeillet et l'insèrent dans la boutonnière

the male guests take a carnation and insert it into the buttonhole (124)

parler presque à contresens

to speak almost in contradiction (124)

un débit prétentieux

a pretentious delivery (of words, 124)

J'avais eu d'autant plus de peine à

I had all the more difficulty in (124)

un foisonnement d'idées

a profusion of precise ideas (124)

dans ce « genre Bergotte »

in that "Bergotte style" (124)

accessoire

incidental (125)

À un point de vue plus accessoire

From a more incidental point of view (125)

cette façon de traîner sur des mots

this way of lingering on words (125)

en clameurs de joie

in shouts of joy (125)

voire un peu vulgaires,

perhaps a little vulgar (125)

bêta

idiotic, easily manipulated (125)

n'importe lequel

it doesn't matter which one (any one at all)