New Obsession: Quora

Quora, the more thoughtful version of Yahoo Answers has me glued to my chair. Why? Check out this crowd-sourced gem on the answer to "What are the most gripping stories in human history?"

In Search of Lost Time

Recently watching La Captive, I was enthralled by how gently the plot was allowed to unfold, not without event but without judgement. Like in life there was no overt narration or curation that encouraged a definitive value judgement on the moral make of the characters. Watching the string of experiences woven together was both liberating and burdensome.

The film is based on Maurice Proust's "La Prisonnière". The work is the fifth volume of Proust's definitive work In Search of Lost Time. The role of memory and symbols as a means of capturing time are developed throughout the novel and most prominently evidenced with the madeleine episode.

The madeleine episode reads:

No sooner had the warm liquid mixed with the crumbs touched my palate than a shudder ran through me and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary thing that was happening to me. An exquisite pleasure had invaded my senses, something isolated, detached, with no suggestion of its origin. And at once the vicissitudes of life had become indifferent to me, its disasters innocuous, its brevity illusory – this new sensation having had on me the effect which love has of filling me with a precious essence; or rather this essence was not in me it was me. ... Whence did it come? What did it mean? How could I seize and apprehend it? ... And suddenly the memory revealed itself. The taste was that of the little piece of madeleine which on Sunday mornings at Combray (because on those mornings I did not go out before mass), when I went to say good morning to her in her bedroom, my aunt Léonie used to give me, dipping it first in her own cup of tea or tisane. The sight of the little madeleine had recalled nothing to my mind before I tasted it. And all from my cup of tea.

The excerpt is a striking example of instances of involuntary memory. In life these moments possess a powerful ability to transport us back to the past. The sensation of slipping on an old pair of shoes - ones which have not been worn since a summer vacation years ago - triggers a muscle memory of a past time.

A silly notion of time travel would be collecting these sensational artifacts as gateways. In another final moment we would savour these captured essences before they too are forever lost to time.

Getting Engaged

I haven't blogged about anything directly personal in a while, though my thoughts are as personal as it gets.

I got engaged a few months back to a wonderful man. We both want a wedding, and a life, that reflects our ethic. For starters my engagement ring - that item of envy and girlish giggles - is 100% conflict free. It belonged to his grandmother AND it is a pearl. Not only is it crafted in such amazing detail - unlike some of the more ubiquitous designs of today but by not getting a diamond, even an ethical diamond mined in Canada, we helped by not contributing to the market for diamonds with our demand for them.

If the argument about blood diamonds, or other minerals mined to finance conflict in a far off land, isn't convincing then maybe the fact that diamonds are not all that rare will do the trick. The market for diamonds was created by De Beers by artificially restricting the flow of diamonds and manipulating the market to drive up price.

So if you are contemplating getting engaged, or hinting at a ring for your sweetheart consider an antique ring (where no new metals were mined) or something unique like pearl.