(no subject)
before i forget:
proust on the infiltration of
the paris aristocracy
by the bourgeoisie
after the great war
"The persons who, according to the old social code, should not have been there were, to my great astonishment, on terms of close friendship with others of excellent family who had been willing to come and be 'bored' at the Princesse de Guermantes' only for the sake of meeting their new friends. For the distinguishing characteristic of this social set was its prodigious aptitude at wiping out social classifications.
Whether replaced or broken, the springs of the protective apparatus no longer functioned and much foreign matter was getting in and destroying the homogeneousness and the distinctive appearance and co lour of the group. Like a senile old dowager, the Faubourg Saint-Germain replied only with timid smiles to insolent servants who invaded its drawing-rooms, drank its orangeade and introduced their mistresses to it. But even so, the sensation of the passage of time and of the wiping out of part of my vanished past was not so vividly conveyed to me by the breaking up of the oldtime Guermantes salon, that coherent composite of elements whose presence, assiduous attendance and interrelations were accounted for by a thousand reasons, a thousand subtle consideration, as it was explained by the disappearance of even a comprehension of the thousand reasons and considerations as a result of which certain people who still formed part of the salon were quite properly there and in their right place, whereas others who rubbed elbows with them there had a suspicious appearance of novelty."
proust on the infiltration of
the paris aristocracy
by the bourgeoisie
after the great war
"The persons who, according to the old social code, should not have been there were, to my great astonishment, on terms of close friendship with others of excellent family who had been willing to come and be 'bored' at the Princesse de Guermantes' only for the sake of meeting their new friends. For the distinguishing characteristic of this social set was its prodigious aptitude at wiping out social classifications.
Whether replaced or broken, the springs of the protective apparatus no longer functioned and much foreign matter was getting in and destroying the homogeneousness and the distinctive appearance and co lour of the group. Like a senile old dowager, the Faubourg Saint-Germain replied only with timid smiles to insolent servants who invaded its drawing-rooms, drank its orangeade and introduced their mistresses to it. But even so, the sensation of the passage of time and of the wiping out of part of my vanished past was not so vividly conveyed to me by the breaking up of the oldtime Guermantes salon, that coherent composite of elements whose presence, assiduous attendance and interrelations were accounted for by a thousand reasons, a thousand subtle consideration, as it was explained by the disappearance of even a comprehension of the thousand reasons and considerations as a result of which certain people who still formed part of the salon were quite properly there and in their right place, whereas others who rubbed elbows with them there had a suspicious appearance of novelty."