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| Reading group: how LGBT is Proust? | Reading group: how LGBT is Proust? |
| (7 months later) | |
| At this stage in our month with Proust, I'd like to return to our original theme, and discuss the book in relation to LGBT history month. | At this stage in our month with Proust, I'd like to return to our original theme, and discuss the book in relation to LGBT history month. |
| But there's a problem. | But there's a problem. |
| Early on, Savidgereader wrote: | Early on, Savidgereader wrote: |
I wouldn't have put this down as an LGBT book, will be interesting to see how he creeps homosexuality in it, as apparently he did, and if in those parts of the book any of his secret is on show – as it were. | I wouldn't have put this down as an LGBT book, will be interesting to see how he creeps homosexuality in it, as apparently he did, and if in those parts of the book any of his secret is on show – as it were. |
| Well, I've finished The Way by Swann's now, and made a start on the second book – and so far there doesn't seem to be much on show at all. A few references to lesbian affairs, and that's it. Was Proust a suitable choice then? Certainly he would have been if we'd had a year instead of a month to look at him. Hoppo informs us: "If you get as far as volume four, you can't possibly miss [the homosexual references]." | Well, I've finished The Way by Swann's now, and made a start on the second book – and so far there doesn't seem to be much on show at all. A few references to lesbian affairs, and that's it. Was Proust a suitable choice then? Certainly he would have been if we'd had a year instead of a month to look at him. Hoppo informs us: "If you get as far as volume four, you can't possibly miss [the homosexual references]." |
| At my current rate of travel, I'll reach enlightenment in March – which is rather too late for LGBT history month. Fortunately, there are other alleys of discussion open to us. | At my current rate of travel, I'll reach enlightenment in March – which is rather too late for LGBT history month. Fortunately, there are other alleys of discussion open to us. |
| Marya50 writes: | Marya50 writes: |
At the time of writing, Proust had no accepted notions of homosexuality as social identity to draw on. (I keep recalling Colm Tóibín's portrait of the veiled, ambiguous young Henry James in The Master, the time when Wilde was just breaking through taboos at tremendous personal cost.) We are then talking about masked and duplicitous roles, nothing being what it seems and men's desire for one another finding parallels in the darker or more troubling dynamics of heterosexual affairs and marriages. (This doubling and reversal will play out eventually in the character of Albertine, the flirt and treacherous female lover of the narrator who has her own lesbian past and who also stands in for the promiscuous male chauffeur Proust so desired.) | At the time of writing, Proust had no accepted notions of homosexuality as social identity to draw on. (I keep recalling Colm Tóibín's portrait of the veiled, ambiguous young Henry James in The Master, the time when Wilde was just breaking through taboos at tremendous personal cost.) We are then talking about masked and duplicitous roles, nothing being what it seems and men's desire for one another finding parallels in the darker or more troubling dynamics of heterosexual affairs and marriages. (This doubling and reversal will play out eventually in the character of Albertine, the flirt and treacherous female lover of the narrator who has her own lesbian past and who also stands in for the promiscuous male chauffeur Proust so desired.) |
So Swann appears and he is a man with a secret life, a secretly famous life in which he moves among titled nobility and is the friend of dukes and duchesses, goes to the opera (there is a news report of his attending Figaro that enthralls the aunts). Marcel's family, however, have Swann pigeonholed and don't believe in this hidden life. They think of Swann as defined by his parents, pity him for having made an unfortunate marriage… Gradually, little by little, we realise Swann is not what he seems to be, that the narrator's view of him is not only partial but incorrect, that Swann's hidden lives are stranger and more tormented than we suspect. | So Swann appears and he is a man with a secret life, a secretly famous life in which he moves among titled nobility and is the friend of dukes and duchesses, goes to the opera (there is a news report of his attending Figaro that enthralls the aunts). Marcel's family, however, have Swann pigeonholed and don't believe in this hidden life. They think of Swann as defined by his parents, pity him for having made an unfortunate marriage… Gradually, little by little, we realise Swann is not what he seems to be, that the narrator's view of him is not only partial but incorrect, that Swann's hidden lives are stranger and more tormented than we suspect. |
| Marya50 also added: | Marya50 also added: |
So, if we say (tentatively) that in the character of Swann we see the foreshadowing of the closeted secret lives of gay men, we might ask why the narrator, the boy Marcel, is so preoccupied with Swann, his parent's friend and the man with a secret other life? | So, if we say (tentatively) that in the character of Swann we see the foreshadowing of the closeted secret lives of gay men, we might ask why the narrator, the boy Marcel, is so preoccupied with Swann, his parent's friend and the man with a secret other life? |
| That's intriguing. Certainly it seems possible to view this first book as a coded discussion of homosexuality. As well as the fascinating points made by Marya50, this reading would also add extra spice to – for instance – the social problems Swann encounters after his marriage, the mutterings about Odette's character, the poisonous letters Swann receives about her. Homosexuality wasn't illegal in France in Proust's time, but it was still dangerous to come out. Imagining Swann and others as taking part in a gay narrative raises the stakes in all the games they play. | That's intriguing. Certainly it seems possible to view this first book as a coded discussion of homosexuality. As well as the fascinating points made by Marya50, this reading would also add extra spice to – for instance – the social problems Swann encounters after his marriage, the mutterings about Odette's character, the poisonous letters Swann receives about her. Homosexuality wasn't illegal in France in Proust's time, but it was still dangerous to come out. Imagining Swann and others as taking part in a gay narrative raises the stakes in all the games they play. |
| A cautious reader could legitimately object here that we're seeing too much in the shadows. After all, there are also open discussions of lesbian affairs in The Way by Swann's. And if, as Hoppo tells us, homosexual love is discussed more and more frankly later on, why would Proust feel the need to employ the kind of codes that Marya50 has cracked for us here? | A cautious reader could legitimately object here that we're seeing too much in the shadows. After all, there are also open discussions of lesbian affairs in The Way by Swann's. And if, as Hoppo tells us, homosexual love is discussed more and more frankly later on, why would Proust feel the need to employ the kind of codes that Marya50 has cracked for us here? |
| One of the joys of The Way by Swann's is that it is open to many interpretations. Proust can have his cake and eat it. His lovers can be both gay and straight. It's possible to accept that they are discussed frankly and openly, and yet also concealed in shadow and innuendo. Seeing Swann as an illustration for a "gay" secret life, and taking him at face value as a heterosexual lover, aren't mutually exclusive … | One of the joys of The Way by Swann's is that it is open to many interpretations. Proust can have his cake and eat it. His lovers can be both gay and straight. It's possible to accept that they are discussed frankly and openly, and yet also concealed in shadow and innuendo. Seeing Swann as an illustration for a "gay" secret life, and taking him at face value as a heterosexual lover, aren't mutually exclusive … |
| Perhaps I'm tying myself in knots here. So let's bust things open with a typical refusal to mince words from Germaine Greer. She says that In Search of Lost Time is: | Perhaps I'm tying myself in knots here. So let's bust things open with a typical refusal to mince words from Germaine Greer. She says that In Search of Lost Time is: |
Damnable in its fake heterosexual voyeurism, and its disparaging and dishonest account of homosexuality. | Damnable in its fake heterosexual voyeurism, and its disparaging and dishonest account of homosexuality. |
| So far, I have seen little that I'd describe as voyeuristic or dishonest – beyond the fact that fiction is by its nature "dishonest" or at least, not true. Proust is making things up, changing them, disguising them, confusing them, adding extra elements to them – and he's perfectly within his rights to do so. It's tempting to dismiss Greer for sounding off: the rest of that article is a pretty exemplary piece of devil's advocacy. But she isn't the only one to say such things about Proust. André Gide also disliked the fact that Proust never acknowledged his own homosexuality in print, and that he disparaged homosexuality in his fiction. Gide accused him of committing "an offense against the truth". He might almost have been Swann, railing at Odette after he finally discovers she had an encounter with an woman on the island in the Bois Du Bolougne: | So far, I have seen little that I'd describe as voyeuristic or dishonest – beyond the fact that fiction is by its nature "dishonest" or at least, not true. Proust is making things up, changing them, disguising them, confusing them, adding extra elements to them – and he's perfectly within his rights to do so. It's tempting to dismiss Greer for sounding off: the rest of that article is a pretty exemplary piece of devil's advocacy. But she isn't the only one to say such things about Proust. André Gide also disliked the fact that Proust never acknowledged his own homosexuality in print, and that he disparaged homosexuality in his fiction. Gide accused him of committing "an offense against the truth". He might almost have been Swann, railing at Odette after he finally discovers she had an encounter with an woman on the island in the Bois Du Bolougne: |
My anger with you has nothing to do with your actions … but with your untruthfulness, the ridiculous untruthfulness which makes you persist in denying things which I know to be true. | My anger with you has nothing to do with your actions … but with your untruthfulness, the ridiculous untruthfulness which makes you persist in denying things which I know to be true. |
| Perhaps we should demand some standard of truth? In his biography of the author, Edmund White wrote: | Perhaps we should demand some standard of truth? In his biography of the author, Edmund White wrote: |
At the same time that Proust was eager to make love to other young men, he was equally determined to avoid the label "homosexual". Years later he would tell André Gide that one could write about homosexuality even at great length, so long as one did not ascribe it oneself. This bit of literary advice is coherent with Proust's general closetedness – a secretiveness that was all the more absurd since everyone near him knew he was gay. | At the same time that Proust was eager to make love to other young men, he was equally determined to avoid the label "homosexual". Years later he would tell André Gide that one could write about homosexuality even at great length, so long as one did not ascribe it oneself. This bit of literary advice is coherent with Proust's general closetedness – a secretiveness that was all the more absurd since everyone near him knew he was gay. |
| Stranger still, Proust even fought a duel with the journalist Jean Lorrain for saying he was involved with Lucien Daudet. (Both men shot wide of the mark, apparently deliberately. Proust later said that he was mainly worried about having to get up and dressed so early – since it was pistols at dawn.) | Stranger still, Proust even fought a duel with the journalist Jean Lorrain for saying he was involved with Lucien Daudet. (Both men shot wide of the mark, apparently deliberately. Proust later said that he was mainly worried about having to get up and dressed so early – since it was pistols at dawn.) |
| How should we respond to all that? Can we blame Proust for not coming out in public, living when he did? Gide may have had some claim to that right, having done so himself, but even so, it seems a big ask. Besides, as Rick Whitaker writes in Salon, Proust seems to have liked things as they were: | How should we respond to all that? Can we blame Proust for not coming out in public, living when he did? Gide may have had some claim to that right, having done so himself, but even so, it seems a big ask. Besides, as Rick Whitaker writes in Salon, Proust seems to have liked things as they were: |
Proust was very consciously in the closet, and he liked it there, the door always just slightly ajar so that he could see out but no one could quite see in. | Proust was very consciously in the closet, and he liked it there, the door always just slightly ajar so that he could see out but no one could quite see in. |
| So, Proust's narrator may not be gay – but that doesn't prevent him from being able to describe gay love. Which brings us to Gide's other accusation. Can we blame Proust for presenting this love so negatively? And is that different from the way he presents straight love? From my reading of The Way by Swann's, and of Swann's agonies, miseries and failures, I'd say not. But, of course, I haven't yet read anything like enough to give a full compare-and-contrast in his attitudes to different kinds of amour. Besides, to do so would almost certainly be absurd. | So, Proust's narrator may not be gay – but that doesn't prevent him from being able to describe gay love. Which brings us to Gide's other accusation. Can we blame Proust for presenting this love so negatively? And is that different from the way he presents straight love? From my reading of The Way by Swann's, and of Swann's agonies, miseries and failures, I'd say not. But, of course, I haven't yet read anything like enough to give a full compare-and-contrast in his attitudes to different kinds of amour. Besides, to do so would almost certainly be absurd. |
| Asking about homosexuality in Proust may have brought us down a cul-de-sac. Why criticise Proust for what he hasn't written when he's written so much – so very much – for which we can praise him? Why focus on this one issue when his authorial eye ranges so far over everything else? Why make Proust answer to 21st-century mores? Why subject him to questions that he may not even have seen as important? Why talk about his focus on heterosexual love as some kind of cop-out, when so many interpretations are possible? Why shouldn't Proust make his narrator, Marcel, straight? He isn't him, after all, is he? | Asking about homosexuality in Proust may have brought us down a cul-de-sac. Why criticise Proust for what he hasn't written when he's written so much – so very much – for which we can praise him? Why focus on this one issue when his authorial eye ranges so far over everything else? Why make Proust answer to 21st-century mores? Why subject him to questions that he may not even have seen as important? Why talk about his focus on heterosexual love as some kind of cop-out, when so many interpretations are possible? Why shouldn't Proust make his narrator, Marcel, straight? He isn't him, after all, is he? |
| Perhaps we could say Proust was simply talking about love, and sexual orientation be damned. Perhaps his blurring of the categories isn't obfuscation. Perhaps, rather, it illuminates a larger truth – that people are all different, all individual and all subject to unique desires and emotions. Or, to turn that on its head, that love, passion and jealousy can delight and torment almost everyone – no matter which side their bread is buttered. | Perhaps we could say Proust was simply talking about love, and sexual orientation be damned. Perhaps his blurring of the categories isn't obfuscation. Perhaps, rather, it illuminates a larger truth – that people are all different, all individual and all subject to unique desires and emotions. Or, to turn that on its head, that love, passion and jealousy can delight and torment almost everyone – no matter which side their bread is buttered. |
| Perhaps we might take the line expressed on glbtq.com that the book is actually a "camp tour de force". The secret codes, the homosexual characters, the intrigue, the arch wit of the narrative. | Perhaps we might take the line expressed on glbtq.com that the book is actually a "camp tour de force". The secret codes, the homosexual characters, the intrigue, the arch wit of the narrative. |
| Perhaps, finally, we might say it doesn't matter. The book is what it is and we should accept it as such. If any novel can speak for itself, it's this one. | Perhaps, finally, we might say it doesn't matter. The book is what it is and we should accept it as such. If any novel can speak for itself, it's this one. |
| But then again, this is LGBT history month, and teasing out the possible interpretations of this wonderfully complex book is fun. So let me know how you see it. | But then again, this is LGBT history month, and teasing out the possible interpretations of this wonderfully complex book is fun. So let me know how you see it. |
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