My Year With Proust - Day 121

"There was another reason, apart from those given above, for the flowers' having more than a merely ornamental significance in Mme Swann's drawing-room, and this reason pertained not to the period but, in some degree, to the life that Odette had formerly led.  A great courtesan such as she had been, lives largely for her lovers, that is to say at home, which means that she comes in time to live for her home.  The things that one sees in the house of a 'respectable' woman, things which may of course appear to her also to be of importance, are those which are in any event of the utmost importance to the courtesan.  The culminating point of her day is not the moment in which she dresses herself for society, but that in which she undresses herself for a man.  She must be as elegant in her dressing-gown, in her night-dress, as in her outdoor attire.  Other women display their jewels, but she lives in the intimacy of her pearls.  This kind of existence imposes on her the obligation, and end by giving her the taste, for a luxury which is secret, that is to say which comes near to being disinterest.  Mme Swann extended this to include her flowers. There was always beside her chair an immense crystal bowl filled to the brim with Parma violets or with long white daisy-petals floating in the water, which seemed to testify, in the eyes of the arriving guest, to some favourite occupation now interrupted, as would also have been the cup of tea which Mme Swann might have been drinking there along for her own pleasure; an occupation more intimate still and more mysterious, so much so that one wanted to apologise on seeing the flowers exposed there by her side, as one would have apologised for looking at the title of the still open book which would have revealed to one Odette's recent reading and hence perhaps her present thoughts.  And even more than the book, the flowers were living things; one was embarrassed, when one entered the room to pay Mme Swann a visit, to discover that she was not alone, or if one came home with her, not to find the room empty, so enigmatic a place, intimately associated with hours in the life of their mistress of which one knew nothing, did those flowers assume, those flowers which had not been arranged for Odette's visitors but, as it were forgotten there by her, had held and would hold with her again intimate talks, which one was afraid of disturbing, the secret of which one tried in vain to read by staring at the washed-out, liquid, mauve and dissolute colour of the Parma violets."

Marcel Proust, Within a Budding Grove, pp. 638-639

We continue to learn more and more about Odette, not simply as the object of Swann's mad, jealous desire, but as a more nuanced character.  Proust starts by reflecting on Odette's complicated response to receiving flowers, and, as is his wont, then moves on to deeper and more intimate issues, in this case Mme Swann's life as a "courtesan." At first blush, and blush seems more than the appropriate word here, it could be seen a mere prurient intrusion into her bedroom. "The culminating point of her day is not the moment in which she dresses herself for society, but that in which she undresses herself for a man.  She must be as elegant in her dressing-gown, in her night-dress, as in her outdoor attire.  Other women display their jewels, but she lives in the intimacy of her pearls."  OK, it's difficult to not read pearls as a sexual metaphor, but when you get beyond that you end up with a a sad but still lovely description of a woman's personal universe.  If Odette was actually a courtesan, then she, in a patriarchal society, was forced to be even more reactive to the needs of men, so the juxtaposition of dressing/undressing is even more apt.  Liminal spaces play such a huge role in Remembrance of Things Past, and here are two more.  I have a pet theory that one of the things that causes the sex life of long-term relationships to grow stale is not enough time devoted to dressing and especially undressing.  And this is not a clarion call for more trips to Victoria's Secret since I can honestly state that I don't find anything sexier on a woman than a t-shirt, jeans and Keds; which I think is a reflection of natural, unaffected sexuality.  Well, there is something to be said for a conservative business suit with just a bit of lace revealed, but I digress.

The dressing and undressing duality here is an interesting one.  There is always that time in the flowering of any relationship when that first undressing occurs, and, clearly, it is one of the most memorable moments.  Now, it begs the question: will it be the dressing or the undressing that comes closer to revealing truth and identity?  I remember one of my first year students several years ago producing an extraordinary self-portrait in Concepts of the Self.  It was a nude, although, thankfully, nothing was revealed, which was actually the point - and what made it brilliant.  The young woman was naked in front of a window - or at least appeared naked (it was very artfully done) - but the light streaming in from the window dominated the picture and she appeared in a stark silhouette.  Her point, which she expressed in a beautifully written paper, was that she only revealed what she wanted to reveal, and even if she were naked you wouldn't really be seeing anything that she didn't want to reveal.  And, assuming that anyone's nude body actually expressed something profound about them is pretty shamefully reductive.  So, oddly, is dressing actually the part which, in addition to expressing identity, actually the action that shares the truth of the individual?  As the great Canadian philosopher reminds us, "you're only real with your make-up on."

The Parma Violet, the favorite of Mme Swann. Apparently they are believed, incorrectly, to be sterile, but with careful nurturing they can produce a seed pod. As with most things related to Remembrance of Things Past, I can't believe their selection in this case was an accident.