NP-Proust

[Paul Mackin]

On 9/24/2012 2:37 AM, Michael Bailey wrote:
>> in Diary of a Mad Housewife, that Richard Benjamin character assumes
>> all kinds of superiority in telling his put-upon spouse that proust
>> was actually writing about Albert when he mentioned Albertine.
>>
> actually carrie snodgress was the mad housewife (beautiful performance)
> - richard benjamin was the husband,
>
> but the person who told her about proust's proclivities was this
> writer dude she has an affair with (not to spoil it...)
> played by Frank Langella...who is if anything even more inconsiderate
> than the husband...the character, that is...i do not at all mean to
> impugn the reputation of Mr Langella...
>
> anyway, she had done her senior paper on proust and didn't know that.
>
> but y'know, it's a work of fiction, so honestly, albertine is albertine!
> (to flesh out one of Ayn Rand's favorite sayings)

It would be exceedingly difficult to miss the extraordinary strangeness 
of M's relationship with Albertine.  It seemed to be most intimate while 
she was asleep.  He's pull aside her dressing gown and gaze at her. He 
was too distracted by an awake self  that could observe him  to really 
enjoy her that way.  Their awake relationship was mostly consumed with 
her alleged unfaithfulness with other women--his paranoid suspicions and 
questioning of the poor girl.  She eventually vanishes with which the 
entire next book is concerned. I loved it.

P
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