The Chris Hedges Report: Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time with Justin E.H. Smith

Philosopher Justin E.H. Smith joins Chris Hedges to discuss Marcel Proust's magnum opus, In Search of Lost Time, on the 100th anniversary of the author's death.
Justin E. H. Smith is a professor of history and the philosophy of science at University of Paris 7 - Denis Diderot. The main-belt asteroid 13585 Justinsmith is named after him. You can find him on Substack at Justin E.H. Smith’s Hinternet.
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[@vicproulx6843]

"He reminded his readers that empathy is the most important virtue in life, especially for the vulnerable."

[@uttaradit2]

a central theme of PKDick novels

[@peterivankovich2990]

I don`t know what passed for virtue in Proust`s time in France, but I certainly don`t notice much virtue in the United States. Or maybe I just don`t know what passes for virtue in the US. Maybe every American has their own, very personal notion of virtue. Maybe virtue stares me in the face and I don`t notice it. Maybe people are extremely virtuous toward me when they show I mean nothing in their lives. Go figure.

[@robertwhite711]

@@dethstark 😥

[@robertwhite711]

@@dethstark You were blessed to know your grandfather and I pray that he is resting in peace.

[@bboldt2]

One of the greatest blessings of my life is to share this troubled time with a profound thinker like Chris Hedges. One of my greatest regrets is I cannot get even one of any of my Liberal friends to read him.

[@Lachenmann7]

They aren't liberals. How could they be?

[@bboldt2]

Hedges reminds me a little of a Kafka hero thrust into what our society has largely become. He has been at the mouth of Plato's Cave and will not be fooled or denied.

[@bboldt2]

I call them Liberals because that is what they call themselves. They still believe the Democrat Party is democratic. Hasn't been democratic for thirty years!

[@l.w.paradis2108]

Are you joking? Do they read other books?

[@bboldt2]

@@l.w.paradis2108 They are otherwise well-read. And they read the NYT, reports from the Intelligence community, and watch MSM devoutly--all of which they believe uncritically. "Our Democrat Administration would never lie to me."

[@l.w.paradis2108]

WOW, what a lineup!! What would this world be without Chris Hedges?

[@cheri238]

We all must be grateful to Chris Hedges' words that walk with boots of truth of understanding with wisdom.

[@johntravena119]

The Monty Python sketch ‘Summarize Proust In 30 Seconds’ is bullseye. Proust has such great breadth that it is difficult to distill the essence of his work, to hold the work together in one’s mind or even to understand the whole at once. There is one passage, however, that might sum up his worship and the subsequent dissolution of his litany of obsessions, the realization and acceptance of which might be the key to his liberation: “We dream much of a paradise, or rather of a number of successive paradises, but each of them is, long before we die, a paradise lost, in which we should feel ourselves lost too.”

[@mikearchibald744]

LOL, lets see, Proust in his first book, wrote about, wrote about, Proust in his first book wrote aboooooooout.." The most universal aspect "Nobody has successfully captured Proust....so I'm giving the prize to the girl with the biggest tits". I remember a famous novelist who was asked to distil his work down as much as possible for the audience......he said "the".

[@cyberspore00]

It took nearly 50 years but now I finally get the joke 😂. I’m more of a, “shirt’s on fire - now it’s out” kind-a guy.

[@haydenwalton2766]

@@mikearchibald744 'this bloke comes though the gate, what's his name ? Oh I just said it - big bloke.........swan!' I'm sorry your times up !

[@cheri238]

Thank you, Chris Hedges, for having philosopher Justin E.H. Smith on with this discussion of Marcel Proust, novel of "In Search of Lost Time." It is one of my favorite novels, among many others. I missed this conversation, since I am not adequately advanced in technology of cell phones or computers. An exhilarating conversation between the both of you , plus I love to keep learning. With the deepest appreciation and respect for your wisdom and knowledge, I graciously thank you both.

[@Rowdyyy_rod]

We want Chris Hedges on Revolutionary Blackout Network.

[@patriceortovent6451]

One of the giant in french literature in his time. Regretfully, it is not read by the new generation outside of university and even during his time he was known only by the educated class. Proust and Celine, that is Louis Ferdinand Destouche were the two great writers and thinkers of the early 20th century, able to talk about our society with great depth and empathy through their novels.

[@captainpawpawchannel]

Don't forget Kafka, Lovecraft and Orwell ;)

[@colettescobie1878]

He doesn't fear grieving he fears the day he no longer grieves because the self that was once in love with those we lost no longer exists ...letting go of self and letting go of the other.

[@KawakebAstra]

excellent but low sound sabotaged on my iPhone here on YT😿strain2hear…vital talk by Chris & Prof Justin E H Smith ..Proust speaks 2my deep self ..ThankU🙏♥️🕊

[@daviechannon4990]

Proust's concern with time encapsulates not only the past and the memories we have of it but also the present in all its impressionistic detail and the future with the narrator's dreams of becoming a writer and even his suspicions of what Albertine might be up to at any one time.

[@cargotrailerkenny]

must be difficult to cram a discussion of a 7 volume work into a half hour but you guys did a great job with the time. for the hundredth time, thankyou Chris Hedges for the depth of your interests in literature, philosophy, and the giants of literary history.

[@cheri238]

It is truly amazing, isn't it?

[@mapagleason5311]

Thank you Mr Hedges, your interview with Mr Smith has encouraged me to again attempt the reading of Remembrance of Things Past. 46 years ago I purchased a used Random House 2 volume set for reading during my maternity leave, which I believed would be a month before the actual birth of my first child. My daughter had other ideas and was born on the Sunday after my Friday departure from the work force. Fast forward, still have the books and am now retired. Time to get past the petite madeleine. Thank you!

[@hisbigal]

Many years ago, I took part in a seminar at my uni which required us to read fifty pages of Swann’s Way. As an exiled American living in Scotland and working toward my PhD, I had a sense that I should participate, even though I’m an early modern scholar. As I read these passages, I developed a sense that Proust was sensing that events and circumstances were going to change irrevocably. Toward the end of the section that I read, he describes the glass-enclosed restaurant he was sitting in with his mother and grandmother, and observing the artifice of the well-off patrons, he notices groups of poorer people pressing themselves against the window. He then states that one day these people will burst inside the restaurant and tear it all down. I had my own revelation of a similar destruction of a “paradise,” namely the final two passages of Book II, Canto 12 of Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene, where the knight Guyon charges into the Bower of Bliss, kills all its inhabitants and destroys the entirety of the scene. Understanding Spenser’s own highly problematic life not only as a poet but an administrator in Ireland at a time when England was fighting the Nine Years War in order to subjugate its Gaelic Irish and Anglo-Norman population, I mentioned this analogy to the seminar leader. He told me that Proust had indeed read Spenser and incorporated that scene in this passage. In our twitchily dystopian post 9/11 world, where everything is, for the first time in recorded history, at stake at the same time, Proust spoke to me at that moment. I eventually did read the entirety of the his great opus, which took several years to read, because I was still writing my doctoral thesis and doing a post-doc. I began to re-read the entire text, but in the original French. Reading Proust has helped me as well to try and understand events that will come to reshape the world in ways that I likely will not live long enough to see but, like Proust and those who have come after him, can glean into its possibilities.

[@37Dionysos]

The two great literary masters of the 20th century---James Joyce and Marcel Proust---actually met one drizzly day in Paris, when they shared a taxi. What was said? Proust asked Joyce, "Would you roll up your window?" And Joyce replied, "No."

[@cheri238]

Lol

[@annejohnson8890]

One of the most reasonable, rational discussions of Proust I have ever heard.

[@iire2955]

Wow, didn't expect this show from you! Now you are my favorite journalist hands down.

[@gertrudewest4535]

And you are my Proust, Dr. Hedges.

[@kp6215]

Amen

[@jenpsakiscousin4589]

Historian Shelby Foote would take a break from writing every few years to re-read Proust.

[@cheri238]

Yes, Shelby Foote did. Also, Harold Blum, Professor at Yale, who is now deceased, has been an example of great authors of literature and poetry.

[@shadrackchabedi3447]

This was a wonderful conversation.

[@courtenaymariejones]

Thank you 💖🤍🤍🙏🏾 so much for this. I have been revisiting the works of Proust recently.

[@brianwheeldon4643]

Chris and Justin, Fascinating discussion, Thanks

[@marie-pierrebeaulieu9430]

Thank you very much, Chris, for such a conversation on the anniversary of Proust's demise and for sharing your understanding of his work. When you travel through Paris again, he is buried in Père Lachaise where I lived for a while.

[@randyrapaport2806]

Oh my gosh-I’m amazed by the quality of this interview. You are a national treasure at the near term collages of western culture. And as you have stated, this time everything goes away. Comforting to get a touch of culture from this interview. Even solace is lost near the end of days.

[@caseytithof]

Thank you Mr. Hedges ✊🏿✊🏾✊🏽✊🏻🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@megetmorsomt]

For what do I weep? -: all things lost to an ocean of time...

[@ngonsainti]

What I loved while reading Proust (and still do) was the formidable sense of humor. Hilarious scenes and descriptions.

[@jdcharlwood]

I agree. Joyce too is very funny. When he heard that George Bernard Shaw did not like Ulysses he said 'and I bet he never laughed once'!

[@ngonsainti]

@@jdcharlwood I will check it out. I have never read it.

[@cheri238]

Awesome ❤

[@anthonyunsworth1288]

Strange how Gorky didn’t recognise the evisceration of the elites, you’d have thought he would jump at the opportunity. Anyway what a fantastic conversation, well done both.

[@benjaminirwin4574]

Thank you for this really interesting and insightful interview on Proust and the human experience of time.

[@mp7161]

Thank you for the show

[@zulqadarrrashid6201]

Prof Chris Hedges, Sir. Thank you so much for your Excellent presentation of Marcel Proust ! Your faithful fan from Pakistan 🇵🇰 Former Pakistan Air Force 🇵🇰 Veteran

[@truthaboveall7988]

Grazie Chris /it’s incredible to have ur voice when most choose to sell out to the capitalists & boy do we need more like urself

[@johnayers2483]

Simply a great episode

[@TennesseeJed]

Thanks for this!

[@caseytithof]

Brilliant! Thank you. #ClassWarIsNow 👊🏿👊🏾👊🏽👊🏼🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@mariecarija6616]

What a pleasant surprise to come upon this "news." Also, the chat was pretty fascinating. :) --Second Marie

[@kp6215]

Now another philosopher I must read since we didn’t truly discuss Proust in my Liberal Arts degree but knew of him.

[@anubhaanushree536]

Chris, we should buy you a good light. 🥰

[@catherinepeter5231]

Life is already a relation. An integration of what relates. But since the thinking process is time and movement we are cut in ideologies , and certainly into fragmentations.

[@JosephDuvernay]

So much do I owe Marcel Proust. At least here in this chest.

[@epesooula6199]

I was one 1⃣ of those who searched for Proust novels. I bought the first book. In search of Lost time. Volume 1 the way by Swanns.

[@nathanngumi8467]

Very interesting!

[@jdcharlwood]

I went to Combray before reading the book - stayed in the hotel next to the church where a wedding was taking place. The landlady, looking out of the window, siad 'Me, I believe in divorce!'

[@catherinepeter5231]

The thinking process with ideas is tricky, because the word is not the thing. A tree is not a word or an idea or an image. A human being is not an idea or an image or time. It is very difficult to go beynd ideologies and beliefs systems. Because it characterizes through identification a personnal validation a personnal form of self as the center. The self is not a fixed center. But uses thoughts to get moving in every directions and attributes.

[@pierreleroy6826]

Is he going to speak about René Girard 's analyse of Proust ?

[@mikearchibald744]

Whoa, Chris is really digging out the big guns now!

[@mynhardt982]

Plain.....and great....true intel...

[@markantrobus8782]

Nice

[@jockmoron]

I'll never read Proust now, at age 75 I don't have the necessary reading commitment to put aside the time and effort to succeed. Indeed, I have no burning desire to do so. I've read great literature when I was younger, perhaps that the best time? I am happy that Chris and Justin Smith get so much pleasure from their discussion, but it's well, well above my head. But then if I were to explain things about my previous profession, as a doctor of medicine, much of that would be above their heads. Each to his own. Unlike much medical knowledge though, I imagine Proust would be available to any interested and intelligent party.

[@jdcharlwood]

It is available as audio on youtube - and is wonderful much easier to listen to than to read. try the first volume!

[@KawakebAstra]

😹yes Dr. .. BUT .. if U ever need to help insomniac patient.. w/o resorting to pills U could prescribe they read Proust ,)! 🕊♥️👍

[@astifan1]

just reading in search of a lost time. i am at the part where narrator went to see actress berma in theatre. reading paralely autobio of hercen and thought and language from vigotski. i guess that next half year i l be reading that

[@mac9954]

Not sure about time need more time to think about this.

[@stutzbearcat5624]

Christ I think I'm ½way smart - until I listen to people like Chris & this guy & say, Peter Joseph. Hell, I'm glad I have, if not this kind of brain wattage, at least a whole lot of strange and bizarre life experience to call upon.

[@VolcanoYT111]

Proust was dead when Man Ray took the photo at Cocteau's instigation.

[@geoffreynhill2833]

👍🤔

[@maxshea4762]

Proust in his first book wrote about wrote about....

[@gordonbartle1466]

What is it about the late 19th century and early 20th century that produced the greatest wordsmiths of English literature? Joseph Conrad, H G Wells, Arthur Conan Doyle, G K Chesterton, and on and on and on. It's really remarkable. I would love to hear from Chris Hedges and others for an analysis. like

[@kp6215]

Death masks were popular in the past

[@frogface66]

He took a mask from the ancient gallery and walked on down the hall…. Did Jim Morrison read Proust?

[@jimmycricket7385]

Any writer who takes seven volumes to tell a story needs to learn the importance of brevity.

[@KawakebAstra]

ha ha.. not enjoying Proust’s sensual paragraph long sentences.. vivid deep endless intertwining of conscious ‘n subconscious magical reality of the mundane with fragrance of an exceptionally redolent rose 🌹in Ur Grandmother’s old fashioned trellis garden or the fine chocolate U savored in a Viennese cafe n recalling in sensuous detail delight of how it’s taste changed from orange to hazelnut as it melted over Ur tongue contrasting w the bitterness of the creamed but unsweetened very free ❓😹.. ,) ♥️🕊

[@eddewan307]

Who the hell writes these ungrammatical titles?

[@alexanderx33]

Just came here to say Marcel Proust had a haddock (for a pet).

[@mikearchibald744]

No he didn't.

[@alexanderx33]

@@mikearchibald744 Did did did did did!

[@mikearchibald744]

@@alexanderx33 I'm very sorry sir, it appears I owe you an apology.

[@morkeljakeson9438]

^

[@alanstewart3425]

🙌 ρɾσɱσʂɱ

[@skypierce]

@2:52 Kamala Harris has to have read this then...

[@sebolddaniel]

I hate men like Chris who have read every masterpiece through and through. I was a poor reader of Proust, having read the first volume. I really liked it at the time, though I couldn't remember it six months later. I would be willing to bet I can speak and read Arabic far better than Chris and I take pride reading and re-reading--perusing Cervantes, Marquez, Asturias, Galdos and Unamuno in the original time and again. I suppose I could even write some funky deconstructive critiques, but in the end the nuns were correct in treating me like a moron and standing me in the corner. I still don't have a clue what is unequal in Bell' "inequalities.". But, you know, Chris is probably, in the end, in the same boat.

[@emilio5737]

I don't think the guy being interviewed has neither the right approach not personal attitude to properly interpret such masterpiece of universal literature.

[@jacquelineperet6599]

Emilio 💯✅

[@geoffreynhill2833]

He's very self-conscious, n'est-ce pas?

[@nochaser1641]

Get him outta here he’s delusional.

[@chuletaization]

I don't think anyone who has not read great literature is qualified to stand for public office. Guess that leaves Trump out.

[@geoffreynhill2833]

Excellent idea! 😉

[@andreawisner7358]

There's a question that I didn't see answered: Why should I care at all about Marcel Proust? Talking about him seems to be one of those upper class follies.

[@KawakebAstra]

reading Proust is ..imao🙏😹.. an unwinding .. a meditation of sorts .. one sentence that goes on for an entire page is an experience in introspection 🕊♥️👍

[@cev12]

This is a waste of 30 minutes, when there are so many more important things happening in the world, other than discussing one person's perception of the world turned into fiction and those views then forced on readers. Spend your life doing something valuable for humanity instead?

[@onceamusician5408]

you lack eyes of your own that you need a novellist to show you reality??? literature as TRUTH??? these writers are story tellers seeking to puff their own reputations or story readers needing to justify their own effort in reading what amount to nothing but stories. after all what value the insights of novellists even if occasionally true. no one will be improved by any of them, for the idea of the redemptive or transformative power of art is utter hogwash if authors are going to unsparingly dissect the vileness of the human condition let them also dissect the futily of their own enterprise

[@KawakebAstra]

guess U never read Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk’s Museum of Innocence ❓.. huge book .. not a page turner .. like a modern Proust.. got so bored .. put it down .. but always eventually continued reading .. was arduous .. put it down .. after a bit ..continued .. till finally… The End closed book OMG‼️ ((((changed )))) it moved me .. the preciousness of ordinary mundane flooded into my consciousness .. as the world around changes .. the confines of the ordinary actually spectacular .. reading Museum of Innocence book was arduous but yielded an unexpected Transformation .. of mundane inner life as our Museum of Innocence

[@AudioPervert1]

back in the time of Marcel Proust, there must have been some sort of hope, or even compelling desire to seek hopeful paths. Back then human beings were still within the limits of growth. Today, that aspect of humanity has totally dwindled, given that we are 8 billion... mostly parasitical and hopelessly trashed down by the consequence of civlisation, that very gutted system which Marcel Proust went under...Adios. Great Job Chris Hedges and RNN. Kudos from Valencia ESP

[@Clusterboy]

I have no clue. Can’t understand the speaker. What a waste!