70
PARTISAN REVIEW
programs on major authors in world literatu re. Do you mean to record a
short talk on each author? And who are the authors?
Callw'
No, not little lectures. More like conversations. We'll do an hour
on each author. So
f~.r
we've chosen Faulkner, George Eliot, Ac hebe,
Goethe, Pascal, Lady Murasaki, and Proust. First a discussion
to
place the
author and describe his or her genius. Then actors will read- really perform
- selections from the work
t()!·
the rest of the hour. Oral interpretation some
people call it. We're hoping National Public Radio will air the programs. The
point is to appeal to a wiele audience. It's not a scholarly project.
ProJpssor F:
I don't understand. Why did you pick me then? My books
are very scholarly, particularly the one on Proust.
Callie:
Yes, but you talk about subjects that ...
(I\I/()ck.)
Just a moment.
Come in, Ned.
Ned:
Excuse me, excuse me. My car wouldn't start today. Naturally.
Professor Fitzhugh? Ned Price. I'm a grad uate student in French at
Washington University. Did Calli e te ll you how we met? In a bookstore,
where I was reading your book on Proust. She asked me what it was like.
Now she calls me her advisor on Proust. I'm very pleased
to
meet you. The
reviewers didn't do justice
to
your Proust book.
Callie:
I was just starting
to
tell Professor F. why we chose him to talk
about Proust.
Ned:
That's easy. Your chapter on perverseness of thought swept us
away. Also the section on how the overall style of Proust's novel arises from
gossip - malicious, I(wing. idle, compulsive gossip - the gossip of someone
who cannot bear te)
!ct
the wheel of words stop turning for fear that then
everything else might di.'i'ppC'ar. You make your scholarship pretty lively.
Callie:
Ned is an incorrigible Proust enthusiast. Which means he gossips
too. But there's another reason why I invited you to do the Proust program.
We're dealing with an author who took fifteen years
to
find his way to the
novel and then, after the age of thirty-five, poured everyth ing in to o ne im–
mense book which he just barely finished in his last fifteen years. Story of a
man obsessed. You know all this better than I do. Hundreds of characters,
complex subplots, hilarious scenes of people's behavior in social situations,
lengthy meditations
011
the major philosophical questions of life. In the last
stage just before he got started on the
Search
-
incidentally, I agree with you
that the old title must go - Proust wrote an essay on the French romantic
author, Gerard de Nerval. It 's in
Against ,'-)ail1le-Beuve.
The essay contains
a passage which rYe always wanted to hear a Proust scholar comment on.
A philosopher more than anyone else. Proust has been talking about ...
Prof F:
Ms. Szonic, this is beginning to sound like an oral examination. I
thought we were going
to
conlCr about ways of doing the program.
