Time Regained

The Philosophy of Art & Aesthetics.

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e_dog
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Time Regained

Post by e_dog » July 11th, 2005, 11:58 am

At the turn of the millenium, director Raoul Ruiz made a film adaptation of Marcel Proust's Time Regained, the "last" installment of the modern novelist's series Remembrance of Things Past. The film is remarkable because of its luscious set decoration and extraordinary cinematography, as well as its fabulous ensemble of actors. The subtitles -- at least in the VHS version I saw -- were rather poor, given the colors and brightness of the pictures, often the text is absorded making it difficult to read at times -- a shame because some of the lines, adapted from the book of course, are poetic-aphoristic gems. The "plot" is confusing even if you are somewhat familiar with the premise of the novel. Essentially it starts with the writer on his deathbed, in the throes of -- to borrow an excellent term from Kurt Cobain -- "memorrhea." Nostalgia radicalized. As an artist, though, the combination of recollection and fiction is foregrounded, as is the theme of art as an attempt to achieve a reconciliation of life that is impossible in living. A swirling collage of scenes paints a tapestry of the decadence of the French elite before, during and after WWI. (I am aware of the barbarity of that mixed metaphor but I will go with it.) At what seems to be the climax, the writer, through a voice-over narrator, asserts that it is through creating a work of art (the novels he obsessively produced) that he can achieve an extra-temporal connection with the past; why does he want to (is he compelled to) do this?-- because, we are told, the projection into the future of a heaven for immortal souls is really an inversion of the attempt to recover the past "paradises" which are the precious moments of ones life: experiences of beauty, love, family, youth, etc. The twist is, he also says that when one was living in those moments, one wasn't even happy. Thus, the implication is inescapable that the reconciliation desired is an attempt to return to a past paradise that never existed as a paradise -- a confirmation of the (Joni) Mitchell Parking Lot Theorem. So, isn't the artist really deceiving himself in his claim to have transcended the bonds of temporality? As W. H. Auden put, you cannot conquer time.

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jimboloco
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Post by jimboloco » July 13th, 2005, 9:11 am

give me a sec to think about it.

Image

Image


Image

Image
[color=darkcyan]i'm on a survival mission
yo ho ho an a bottle of rum om[/color]

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jimboloco
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Post by jimboloco » July 14th, 2005, 9:20 am

Pay attention and write snippets, i guess.

Ring the bell of mindfullness,
i don't project into the afterlife
hope someboby is laughing when i go
[color=darkcyan]i'm on a survival mission
yo ho ho an a bottle of rum om[/color]

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stilltrucking
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Post by stilltrucking » July 14th, 2005, 8:55 pm

You asked me which books I hauled around with me on the road. I said books woud come and go , Proust Rememberance was one of those, caught an ublievable yard sale flea market thing on the main street of a small Florida town, inland somewhere away from the coast on one of the dreaded Florida two lane roads, spent every cent I had on me for books. Hualed the book around for years read less than half, lost it a couple million miles ago. Very nice, the bit about the invalid waking to a light under the door and thinking it is dawn and someone will come to.... why am trying to paraphrase Proust, that is a pretty good joke. Never seen the movies the pics are pretty good captures of time, if you want my opinion, I am just full of opinions today.

time recaptured, so what do you think?
are you asking or just thinking out loud
of course we are talking about oranges and apples
books and movies.

is the artist decieving him self, this as permanent as pixels on a computer screen. so is a little deception inevitable in art, what about our vanity, oh pardon me, I meant your vanity? is that part of the deception, write the perfect novel on carbon steel, it will last for ever, like shakespeare on toilet paper.

over come temporality I hold with joni mitchel theorem of Jazz,
a confirmation of the (Joni) Mitchell Parking Lot Theorem. So, isn't the artist really deceiving himself in his claim to have transcended the bonds of temporality? As W. H. Auden put, you cannot conquer time
.

you don't know what you had until its gone
I did not know what I was missing until love returned

a circle game for sure big dog

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tinkerjack
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Post by tinkerjack » July 14th, 2005, 10:29 pm

I can't imagine a film made from that novel How could that language be transfered to images, and I read a translation. How I miss reading lost the book, that happens so much with my mobile life stlye over the years, books alway escaping in mid read. Going to try and find it again. A book for a quiet mind. A quiet time. And most of the time I read it I was surrounded by commercial chaos, wharehouses, factories, truck stops, I heard it was a bout a degenerate, that is what she called it in The Big Sleep, a book about a degenerate. I must not have read that part yet.

Language, what does deception matter, time geez I wish perezoso was here there is a subject he could run with. So Auden said you can not conquer time? Is that profound. Seize the day, and still it slips away..

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stilltrucking
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Post by stilltrucking » July 15th, 2005, 11:59 am

credit to where credit is due
your play jimbo is as healing as your work
naturally I zeroed in on the nekkid ladies
avocado breasts and a sidelong look
woman holds a child
which appaears to be a skeleton?

I been thnking about the hitch hiker in west texas a lot, the one seen through the windshiled of a truck

good intentions of image map

but most of all I think of a two lane stretch of road on the old lincoln highway, it is winter time in Wyoming and the road is just a ribbon of ice, the sky and horizon look a lot like they do in your west tex drawing. Maybe that is why I imagine myself rolling by that hitch hiker, I can't turn the wheel or touch the breaks, the coefficent of friction where the rubber meets the road is probably zero. I but I can make a hand sign, to let you know a smokey is on the way, little america truck stop only a mile away, no time to be hitch hiking, the only problem is no back packs allowed. (circa 1984) going to have to leave it outside, every other driver is a combat vet or close to it. Not a bad place to ride out the storm

sorry e-dog just chance to write someting to an old friend, did not mean to HiJack your post.
sometimes I think the only thing we have in common was we were both sorry to see perezoso deleted. Hell he can fuk my poor old dead mamma up the ass anytime he wants to. I was not offended by those remarks, just his vanity.
LR and Doreen I owe them my sanity for this little garden of refuge for the terminally vain.
J

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diesel dyke
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Post by diesel dyke » July 15th, 2005, 1:02 pm

mystery of human face
before language it was
gesture and expression

now it is smoke and mirrors
"We are made to be immortal, and yet we die. It's horrible, it can't be taken seriously. —ianeskimo"

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