Proustiennes follows Erik Satie's Gnossiennes--brief, deft
explorations of a theme. Jean Frémon traces Marcel Proust's influence
through hawthorns, soirées, and clairvoyance to attitudes on closure,
bringing the fin-de-siècle world of Paris's belle époque into
conversation with today.
From Other and Same:
Was it because, having already seen white hawthorn, the sight of a pink
hawthorn with blossoms that were multiple rather than singular gave him
the simultaneous sense of analogy and difference, both of which have so
much power over our minds? wonders Jean Santeuil, looking for a reason
for why he prefers the pink hawthorn to every other flower.
. . .
Between these two poles, stretched tight, is fiction. Musil's narrative
framework is a net under the feet of that aerialist of thought who
successively lets go and grabs hold of the notions which, like
heaven-sent trapezes, present themselves to him one after the other,
while he measures with irony the gulf that separates the past moment
from the future one.
census of eventualities
general examination of possibilities
Jean Frémon is the author of over twenty works of poetry, fiction,
and essay. The Island of the Dead won the 2004 PEN USA Award in
Literary Translation. He lives and works in Paris.
A three-time winner of the O. Henry Prize, Brian Evenson is the
author of Last Days, which won the ALA award for Best Horror Novel of
2009. He teaches at Cal Arts.
