the laws of night and honey: November 18, 1922

Tuesday 29 April 2008

November 18, 1922

portrait of Proust on his deathbed in drypoint by Paul César Helleu from November 19,1922. Only two copies had been made. Helleu gave both to Proust's brother Robert who kept one copy and gave another one to Céleste Albaret. After Helleu made his portrait, Dunoyer de Segonzac came and made a coal drawing and after that Man Ray came and took a photograph. Elstir has some characteristics of Helleu who had been asked by Proust to do this portrait.

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the laws of night and honey

"Ses ruses pour composer son miel trompèrent plus d'un intime. [. . .] Car Proust SERVAIT. Il servait sa ruche. Il obéissait à des lois de miel et de nuit. Le dix-huit novembre, il a quitté son corps sans accepter la médecine, comme une ruche se vide le jour de l'essaimage, en pleine gloire. Il faut y reconnaître, sans le comprendre, un acte analogue au sacrifice des abeilles." (92) "His ruses for composing his honey deceived more than one intimate . [. . .] Because Proust SERVED. He served his hive. He obeyed the laws of honey and of night. The 18th of November, he left his body without accepting any medicine, as a hive empties itself the day the hive swarms and scatters, in full glory. We should recognize this, without understanding it, as an act analogous to the bee's sacrifice."

Cocteau - Hommage à Marcel Proust

"Marcel Proust's bedroom, in the house on the Boulevard Haussmann, was the first darkroom in which I witnessed almost daily, or to be exact almost nightly, for he lived by night, the development of a great work. He was still unknown, but we acquired, from out first visit, the habit of regarding him as an illustrious writer. In that stifling room, filled with benzene fumes and the dust which covered the furniture like gray fur, we watched a toiling hive in which the thousand bees of memory manufactured their honey."

"I cannot remember first meeting Proust. I see him, with a beard, on the red banquettes at Larue (1912). I see him, without a beard, at Madama Alphonse Daudet's. I see him again, dead, with the beard from the beginning. I see him, with and without a beard, in that cork-lined room cluttered with medicine bottles; I see him in his sordid dressing alcove, buttoning up a lavender velvet vest over a wretched squat torso that seemed to contain nomore than machinery; I see him lying down, gloved; and I see him standing up, eating a plate of noodles."

Cocteau - Professional Secrets: An Autobiography.

"Jean Cocteau was able to say in a beautiful essay that the intonation of Proust's voice obeyed the laws of night and honey. By submitting to these laws he conquered the hopeless sadness within him (what he once called "l'imperfection incurable dans l'essence même du présent") and from the honeycombs of memory he built a house for the swarm of his thoughts."
[Und dennoch, eben darum vielmehr, konnte Jean Cocteau in seinem schönen Essay vom Tonfall seiner Stimme sagen, daß sie den Gesetzen von Nacht und Honig gehorsam war. Indem er unter ihre Herrschaft trat, besiegte er die hoffnungslose Trauer in seinem Innern (das was er einmal 'l'imperfection incurable dans l'essence même du présent' genannt hat), und baute aus den Waben der Erinnerung dem Bienenschwarm der Gedanken sein Haus.]

Benjamin - The Image of Proust

the laws of night and honey

Tuesday 29 April 2008

November 18, 1922

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the laws of night and honey