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Friday, August 30, 2002
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How Else is Proust Relevant Today?
Not only did Proust have profound insights into psychology and neurology and describe useful modes of adult socializing, but he also gave us views into the ill-advised economic decisions of the desperate social climber and the absurd vapidity of the socially successful dullard that are still applicable today. There is a whole world in In Search of Lost Time, and that world is ours.
Karyn Bosnak moved to Brooklyn and decided that she deserved all of the good things that New York has to offer. After living the high life for a while, she discovered that, cumulatively, that life cost $20,000 more than she could get her hands on. Her response was obvious--she set up an anonymous Web site asking strangers to pay her bills. Bob and Ben don't share her views on the matter:
Thank you all for visiting our website! Our names are Bob and Ben. We're really nice, and we're asking for your help! Bottom line is that we aren't fiscally responsible, and we don't know how to live within our means! We like buying expensive stuff like ying-yang tables, big-screen TVs....and Prada shoes of course, and quite frankly, we would probably be diagnosed with some sort of compulsive spending disorder should we ever visit a psychologist! So if you have an extra buck or two, please send it our way and help us avoid taking responsibility in our lives!
And The Smoking Gun has decided that it wasn't really fair for her to be able to do this anonymously. Good for them.
Sean P. Puff Diddy Daddy Combs, like the Baron de Charlus or the Prince de Guermantes before him, decided to throw "The Greatest Party of All Time" after last night's MTV Video Music Awards, but he wasn't confident that the invitation to this grand event would be met with the sophistication that could have been expected 100 years ago. So the ever helpful (and chronically cheap) Mr. Combs issued a "Party Policy" for his guests' guidance, which included such advice as:
Pull out the flyest sh*t [one shouldn't swear in such a refined context, after all] in your closet, or have your stylist pull something for you. Definition of fly sh*t: the top designers ie, [sic] Sean John Collection, Gucci, Dolce and Gabana [sic again], YSL Couture, Versace.
It's interesting to learn that Mr. Combs is not only the "Inventor of the Remix" (just as Michael Jackson is the "King of Pop"), but that he is also a designer on a par with Gucci and Versace.
7:26:10 PM 
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A Salon In This Day and Age?
Chris's complaints about living in New York got me thinking. Even though I'm married, and thus have some minimum guarantee against loneliness, I wouldn't say that I have a rich social life. That is partly a matter of choice (I enjoy a number of solitary pursuits like reading and coding), but it is also environmental. I don't know if it's a fact of life in New York or a fact of adult life in general, but whatever the reason, it's difficult to maintain a group of friends. That's what I find fundamentally inaccurate about shows like Friends and Sex and the City.
When I was in college, and especially when I was in graduate school, I was part of a group of people with ample free time, all living near each other. In graduate school, there was always at least a handful of people in our apartment, playing cards and listening to music on week nights and eating pizza and watching sports (and watching my roommate do obscene things to the television--his televsion, thank God--to protest bad officiating) on weekends. But that doesn't happen in the "real" world. No one has the necessary free time, and groups of friends don't live within walking distance of each other. And I miss that more than the carefree days of childhood or the blush of first love or whatever else it is that romantic poets go on about.
To address this longing, I have thought about starting what could only be called a salon. Any social group needs a center around which to gather, a place at which to meet regularly and a time to engage in shared pursuits. Given how structured people's time has become, I would imagine that a salon must have a regular schedule (like Madame Verdurin's "Wednesdays" in In Search of Lost Time). We have found that scheduling in advance works well for our reading group. I'm not quite sure what to do once everyone is gathered at a set time and place. I guess it would be very much like a Proustian salon, with cards, music, philosophizing, and socializing. I would like that.
8:57:00 AM
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Does It Feel Different to Be an Owner?
Since we closed on our new apartment, several people have asked me if it feels different to be an owner. I can honestly say that it doesn't. I've heard stories about nervousness writing out the checks for the closing or signing the papers at the closing or whatever, but we haven't experienced any of that. The only emotion that I feel is sheer panic at everything that still needs to be done.
But our lawyer did ask an insightful question. He wondered if it felt different being in our current apartment knowing that we were going to be moving. I thought about it a minute and realized that it did feel different. We had the exterminator in on Monday, and cockroaches and water bugs have been staggering to their deaths here and there ever since. The other night, I smacked one such dazed roach with a magazine and decided that the resulting splotch on the wall wasn't my problem. I don't think that's what he meant though.
8:11:17 AM
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© Copyright 2003 Morgan N. Sandquist.
Last update: 11/2/03; 10:27:06 AM.
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