April 29th, 2009 / 2:43 pm
Power Quote

Power Quote: Marcel Proust

marcel-proust-001

Marcel Proust describes a booger:

Its viscous, warm core had slipped down the linen of one, but had adhered to the cloth of the other, and held the silvery, fluent fringe that dripped from it in suspense above the void. The sun, piercing them, confused the sticky mucus with the diluted solution. One could make out just the one single succulent, quivering mass, transparent and hardening; and in the ephemeral brilliance with which it decorated [his] attire, it seemed to have fixed the prestige of a momentary diamond there, still hot, so to speak, from the oven from which it had emerged, and for which this unstable jelly, corrosive and alive as it was for one more instant, seemed at once, by its deceitful, fascinating beauty, to present both a mockery and a symbol.

From video games to porn, the explicitness of today is merely rendered before the eyes, not inside the mind. In the old days, a sickly gay french dude who lived with his mom was all there was — and it was good.

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16 Comments

  1. blake

      i like this quote muchly. fuck. i need to crack the P-nut

  2. blake

      i like this quote muchly. fuck. i need to crack the P-nut

  3. pr

      Plath, Selby Jr- and now Proust. It’s a contest. Which of the three booger descriptions are the best? Public vote.

  4. Jimmy Chen

      whoa that’s odd — i may have subconsciously posted about a booger, as the Plath post had completely slipped my mind.

      or maybe it’s the color of this website that brings it all together.

  5. Jimmy Chen

      whoa that’s odd — i may have subconsciously posted about a booger, as the Plath post had completely slipped my mind.

      or maybe it’s the color of this website that brings it all together.

  6. Shane Jones

      i need to read proust i think.

  7. Shane Jones

      i need to read proust i think.

  8. keith n b

      “the explicitness of today is merely rendered before the eyes, not inside the mind”

      jimmy, would you write an essay about the cultural significance of that–what it signifies about the societal differences and the machinations/values of the contemporary psyche as opposed to 100/150 years ago?

      who are we? we’re in a place. we’re in 2009. i can’t quite make out the colors of the walls but i feel the exposure of an immense skylight above me.

      does anybody else feel it? the tangibility of our cultural milieu? i swear i can lick the air and taste it. it’s really strange, we’re not the humans we were 100 years ago. nor will we be in 50 years.

      pr, what was that evolution post of yours? something equilibrium. stability and then an evolutionary leap, paralleling the sudden and discrete changes of quantum states. technology is reinventing us. “rendered before the eyes, not inside the mind”, jimmy, that’s gotta signify something, even if it doesn’t mean anything. dammit. i should probably shut up. basically, good post jimmy. thank you. and if you write the essay, i’ll send you a handmade thank you card or something, if you want.

  9. keith n b

      “the explicitness of today is merely rendered before the eyes, not inside the mind”

      jimmy, would you write an essay about the cultural significance of that–what it signifies about the societal differences and the machinations/values of the contemporary psyche as opposed to 100/150 years ago?

      who are we? we’re in a place. we’re in 2009. i can’t quite make out the colors of the walls but i feel the exposure of an immense skylight above me.

      does anybody else feel it? the tangibility of our cultural milieu? i swear i can lick the air and taste it. it’s really strange, we’re not the humans we were 100 years ago. nor will we be in 50 years.

      pr, what was that evolution post of yours? something equilibrium. stability and then an evolutionary leap, paralleling the sudden and discrete changes of quantum states. technology is reinventing us. “rendered before the eyes, not inside the mind”, jimmy, that’s gotta signify something, even if it doesn’t mean anything. dammit. i should probably shut up. basically, good post jimmy. thank you. and if you write the essay, i’ll send you a handmade thank you card or something, if you want.

  10. pr

      Punctuated equlibrium, which does indeed imply, in my mind, to other growth spurts, not just evolutionary ones. I have two pages left in your amazing essay-I’ve been reading it slowly, Keith. Congrats on it. It’s so right on- I’ll email you.

  11. pr

      Punctuated equlibrium, which does indeed imply, in my mind, to other growth spurts, not just evolutionary ones. I have two pages left in your amazing essay-I’ve been reading it slowly, Keith. Congrats on it. It’s so right on- I’ll email you.

  12. Jimmy Chen

      keith, i got a better idea. how about you take a stab at that essay, email it to me, i’ll add commentary, and i’ll post it on htmlg.

      it could be like a dialog or something. good times.

  13. Jimmy Chen

      keith, i got a better idea. how about you take a stab at that essay, email it to me, i’ll add commentary, and i’ll post it on htmlg.

      it could be like a dialog or something. good times.

  14. keith n b

      pr: thanks :)

      jimmy: hmm.. that’s a tasty idea. thanks. i don’t think i have the knowledgebase on the topic to write something that is informed and as all-encompassing as i had in mind. i’ll email you to see if i can’t borrow some of your pre-brain-commentary.

  15. keith n b

      pr: thanks :)

      jimmy: hmm.. that’s a tasty idea. thanks. i don’t think i have the knowledgebase on the topic to write something that is informed and as all-encompassing as i had in mind. i’ll email you to see if i can’t borrow some of your pre-brain-commentary.

  16. <HTMLGIANT> > Blog Archive » A reader responds: Keith Nathan Brown

      […] reader ‘keith n b’ offers a thoughtful response to a recent post quoting Proust, which induced the commentary “the explicitness of today is merely rendered […]