Link: An ode to envy

Proust actually links the language of scholarship and jealousy. When Swann is like in his jealous throes, and suddenly he is listening at doorways and bribing his mistress‘ servants, he defends these behaviors. He says „You know, look, I know you think this is repugnant but it is no different from interpreting an ancient text or looking at a monument.“ Hey says, „They are scientific investigations with real intellectual value.“ Proust is trying to show us that jealousy feels intolerable and makes us look absurd, but it is, at its crux, a quest for knowledge, a quest for truth, painful truth.

An ode to envy: Literaturkritikerin Parul Sehgal bei TED über Eifersucht, die niemals ausreichend von einer Wissenschaft untersucht worden sei, außer von der Literatur.