Arts
The Age of the Madeleine
You can buy this madeleine for a buck at All City Coffee, Pioneer Square.
The main reason why madeleine’s are easy to find in Seattle is Remembrance of Things Past. A bite of the petite sweet opens one of the longest and greatest novels of the 20th century.
She sent out for one of those short, plump little cakes called petites madeleines, which look as though they had been moulded in the fluted scallop of a pilgrim’s shell. And soon, mechanically, weary after a dull day with the prospect of a depressing morrow, I raised to my lips a spoonful of the tea in which I had soaked a morsel of the cake. No sooner had the warm liquid, and the crumbs with it, touched my palate than a shudder ran through my whole body, and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary changes that were taking place…I bought and brought the madeleine to the office and had Jen Graves eat it, as I permit nothing except coffee to enter my stomach in the morning.
Jen took a bite but was not inspired to write a very long novel about how she became herself, an art critic. She was even not happy to bite the madeleine. It seemed like a waste of time to her. Indeed, the world of the madeleine has left us for good. Like some temple artifact that has survived its age of meaning at the total price of its religious power, the madeleine has survived its age at the sad price of persisting in a world that is dead to the novel.
Comments (31)
I agree Gibbon got in wrong on Christianity, superb writer though he was. One minor quibble with the thrust of your argument, however: Gibbon died in the 18th century. Nietzsche was born in the 19th.
It would’ve taken quite some doing for Gibbon to steal from a man who was yet to be born.
Posted by Huh? | April 13, 2007 12:49 PMWTF! You have to dip it in tea to get it to work. Duh! Charles did you really read those books?
Posted by Jude Fawley | April 13, 2007 12:55 PMbeing the confused head i be, i always mix spengler and gibbon. sorry about that.
as for proust, i read every fucking page of that novel.
Posted by charles | April 13, 2007 12:56 PMOR maybe it's prepackaged madeleines that are a waste of time. (I know my coworkers love the ones I make at home.) But don't let that stop you, Chaz- clearly the age of the madeleine is over and it remains only as a meaningless husk of its formerly rich and redolent self.
Posted by Ursula | April 13, 2007 12:58 PMMadeleine's what are so easy to find?
Posted by Levislade | April 13, 2007 12:59 PMso, there was a red velvet cupcake but you chose a pre-packaged Madeleine? I don't know what to say.
Posted by monkey | April 13, 2007 1:01 PMnot to take anything away from all city coffee, but i just bought an eight pack of madeleines for 2.99 at lam's seafood market on 12th and king in little saigon
Posted by the original nappy headed ho | April 13, 2007 1:15 PM.. i forgot to add that they're made by the same company as the single packaged ones at all city coffee
Posted by o.n.h.h | April 13, 2007 1:17 PMPersonally I'd rather have a Violet Crumble right about now.
Posted by Sally Struthers Lawnchair | April 13, 2007 1:30 PMYour far-too-deep analysis of the madeleine as having lost its station in life is akin to my far-shorter opining on the phrase "Going postal" being a lost art as well. I've never met a disgruntled postal worker - they're all sweet and happy about selling stamps and offering you express service and insurance or written confirmations of some sort - and I've certainly never been inspired by a madeleine.
God I need to do some work today.
Posted by Sam | April 13, 2007 1:41 PMYou have to have fresh baked Madeline, not a prepackaged ones, which I assume had some preservatives. You robbed Jen a potential food orgasm. She should kick you in the nuts.
Posted by elswinger | April 13, 2007 1:41 PMFor a better, more accurate translation, try In Search of Lost Time.
Posted by Not Working Either | April 13, 2007 1:49 PMSam, if you're sick of perfectly gruntled postal workers, get thee to the Greenwood Post Office. There is this lady there who is beyond description; she can barely be bothered to put enough force into stamping a package so that the stamp is on all the way. She is a wonder of disgruntle-tude, but I can't imagine her ever putting the effort in to actually wasting any co-workers or customers or anything.
Posted by Levislade | April 13, 2007 1:50 PMmoncrieff did not call it "in search of lost time." moncrieff called in it "remembrance of things past."
Posted by charles | April 13, 2007 1:59 PMelswinger @ 11
Posted by original nappy headed ho | April 13, 2007 2:15 PMfyi. the donsuemor brand sold by all city coffee and various other spots in the international district do not contain preservativesalthough the ingredients list boasts niacin, thiamin, riboflavin, iron, and folic acid in addition to the usual sugar, butter, flour, eggs, vanilla buisness you find in most madeleines everywhere else
Levislade...Are you speaking of that old lady that moves at a snail's pace? She is the bane of my existence.
Posted by Red Wendy | April 13, 2007 2:17 PMOh yes indeed, that's the one. And for some reason, even though the much nicer, speedier lady must process at least twice as many customers, I end up with the Grouchy Snail 8 or 9 times out of 10. I wish they would install a mailing machine in that post office!
Posted by Levislade | April 13, 2007 2:25 PMOn Wednesday, she refused to cash a man's money order (she couldn't figure out the computer process) and made him switch with the customer that was already being helped by the nice lady. If anyone whips out a gun at that post office, it will be a customer...would that still count as someone "going postal?"
Posted by Red Wendy | April 13, 2007 2:39 PMHave to agree on dipping it in tea. Best is a good Assam with milk or cream, one lump of sugar.
If you put honey and lemon in your tea, it is not the same thing.
That said, additives as mentioned in @15 are apparently not in enough of our diets and we are starting to see people deficient in such nowadays - apparently we all used to eat a lot more bread - darn you Atkins dieters!
Posted by Will in Seattle | April 13, 2007 2:40 PMI know that postal worker. She works on the madeleine factory graveyard shift.
Posted by Orson | April 13, 2007 2:40 PMGood call, Wendy; that's definitely a new twist on the phrase.
Posted by Levislade | April 13, 2007 2:42 PMEat them July 12, The Feast of Mary Magdalene. They represent her journey across the sea to France.
Posted by Catman | April 13, 2007 2:42 PMSo, was The Transporter playing on Spike last night or something?
Posted by Statham and Cheese | April 13, 2007 2:45 PMSaw "Madeleine," guessed there would be a predictable aside to Proust, saw it was Mudede and realized it would be not just an aside but rather an extended and probably unreadable discursion, and skipped down.
But I stopped to comment because I dig Ms Graves' black nail polish.
Posted by Joe | April 13, 2007 2:52 PMmoncrieff did not call it "in search of lost time." moncrieff called in it "remembrance of things past."
Yes. Becuase Moncrieff was the translator. Anyone in the comparative literature department (or any high school French teacher for that matter) will tell you that "In Search for Lost Time" is a more precise, less archaic translation of À la recherche du temps perdu". And this goes for most of the the volume as well.
Ultimately this is not worth arguing about.
Posted by Former Proust Scholar Who Wasted 2 Years of His Life Analyzing These Books | April 13, 2007 2:52 PMMoncrieff to the end! i'm purist when it comes to his translation. leave it alone. as is. it's perfect. besides, any lover of literature will tell you "remembrance of things past" is a better title, in english at least, than "in search of lost time."
Posted by charles | April 13, 2007 3:13 PM#15 My bad, but I have some pretty good fresh baked Madelines, but I would have gone for the cupcake myself.
Posted by elswinger | April 13, 2007 3:16 PMTo the existential arguers and literature purists:
It's Friday, please grab a brew and continue the discussion of mass-produced cookie treats and postal workers. But please, for the sake of everything Friday-ish, please do not continute to discuss translations of Moncrieff.
Thank you, that is all.
Posted by Sam | April 13, 2007 3:52 PMMadeleines just really aren't that good. Maybe in France. Everything is better in Europe. But here in North America, Québec compris, cupcake>madeleine.
My gf's named Madelaine [sicut scriptum], and even she doesn't like thim.
Posted by John | April 13, 2007 4:07 PMGood god yes, Charles. Why do they want to take the art out of translations? Technical accuracy is not all it is cracked up to be. Capturing the spirit is at least as important!
Posted by Huh? | April 13, 2007 4:50 PMTake a look at an analysis of Proust's madeline:
http://www.slate.com/id/2118443/
The conclusions of the article:
- Madelines don't leave crumbs in tea (the crumbs being basis of the memory surge).
- His original version of the story used toast, not madelines, and toast does leave crumbs in tea.
Posted by Krrrk | April 13, 2007 4:58 PMComments Closed
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