Nearer still to nature - and the multiplicity of these analogies is itself all the more natural in that the same man, if we examine him for a few minutes, appears in turn a man, a man-bird, a man-fish, a man-insect - one might have thought of them as a pair of birds, the male and the female, the male seeking to make advances, the female - Jupien - no longer giving any sign of response to these overtures, but regarding her new friend without surprise, with an inattentive fixity of gaze, doubtless considered more disturbing and all that was called for now that the male had taken the first steps, and contenting herself with preening her feathers.
Marcel Proust, Cities of the Plain, p. 628
It is interesting to me how many times Proust analyzes love and sex through the lens of nature, and it especially true as he dissects this homosexual relationship between Jupien and M. de Charlus. I wonder if it is because it allows him to retreat into the world of the coldly scientific in his analysis, also shielded him from criticism. It is also interesting to consider the simple duality expressed in this section, whereas today we tend to view sexuality and especially gender as a much more fluid construct.
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