The Madness of Marcel Proust

At the age of 19, Proust began to take notes for the work which would make him famous. At age 34, after the death of his mother, he is said to have "retired from the world" in order to devote himself to recording what his experience had been. He knew by then what it means to live; what was left to him was the creation of literature. At age 42, or thereabouts, he published Swann's Way. He was dead at 51 and the final volume of his work was published 5 years later.

The madness of Proust (like the madness of Kierkegaard, and many others) was a literary one. The power of the written word is immense; it can become tyrannical and all-consuming.

When we are told that the Word becomes flesh and dwells among us, should we be comforted by this news, or terrified?

How ought we to compose ourselves? That is the question...

It is no accident that, in the Islamic tradition, adab means both personal conduct and literature.