Roger Shattuck
PROUST'S
"MYSTERIOUS LAWS OF THOUGHT"
fl
is ten minutes after nine o'clock Friday morning in the rundown
basement ro01l1s of the Stentor Recording Studios in St. Louis. Sam Gates,
fifty, owner and operator of the studio, is seated in front of his equipment
threading a reel. Callie Szonic, thirty-Jive, freelance radio journalist and pro–
ducer, is reviewing a script and refeTring to some books. They are waiting for
Henry Fitzhugh, forty-five, Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University,
and for Ned Price, graduate student in French at Washington University in
St. Louis. Professor Fitzhugh, known among philosophers for his book on
solipsism, has recently published another,
Proust and Perverseness of
Thought.
Yesterday he gave a lecture at Washington University sponsored by
the Philosophy and Romance Languages departments. His plane leaves today
at noon.
Sound of knocking.
Callie:
The door's open. Good morning, Professor Fitzhugh. I'm Callie
Swnic. You brought your suitcase! That's fine. We'll have more time
to
talk
before you have to catch your plane. CoHee?
Prof
F:
Yes. Thank you.
Callie:
This is Sam Gates. Professor Fitzhugh. Sam lets me use his
place as my headquarters. I have no office.
Sam:
Don't mind me. I have
to
go out in a few minutes. Why don't you
two go into the studio? There's more space and better chairs.
Callie:
Thanks, Sam.
(They move to the studio.)
Prof F: (Clearing his throat.)
You can understand, Ms. Szonic, that I
need to know a little more about what you're doing before I can decide
whether to participate. Your letters say you have funding to do a series of
Editor's Note: This essay was delivered as a lecture at the University of Al–
abama at Birmingham on October 4, 1988, as a part of a symposium celebrating
the seventy-fifth anniversary of the publication of
Swann's Way;
it will be pub–
lished this winter by Summa Publications in a volume entitled,
The VAB Manel
Proust Symposium.
