I've seen the episode several times but never really noticed Dr. Melfi's reason for why Tony might be passing out whenever he's got a pile of meat in his hands:
Tony tells Dr Melfi what he has remembered. She recalls the attack which led to Tony beginning therapy, happened when he was cooking meat. She says his very first attack happened when he short circuited after witnessing his parents’ sexuality, the violence and blood associated with the food he was about to eat, and the thought that some day he would have to bring home the bacon like his father. Melfi relates this to an experience of writer Marcel Proust, which inspired a seven-volume classic. She says understanding root causes will make Tony less vulnerable to future attacks.
I guess I noticed it because
I mentioned it in a post last year, along with badgering everybody to buy Peter Leroy! :)
In most posts on the book I've mentioned Proust's influence on the author; he himself is unrelenting in his praise of Proust's style and how it shaped his own writing. But I just realized that Peter Leroy is dedicated to the author's wife, who is named Madeline (whom I met when the author came to my college.) And having finally read Swann's Way, I discovered that the single defining "this is Proust" moment comes as the narrator is tasting a madeline cookie. Wtf? Bit of a strange coincidence, n'est-pas? Be like me marrying some chick named Imjustaregulargirlatamidwesterncollegewhoneverdreamedshedbewritingintoamagazinewithastorylikethis, no?
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