I still remember when I first saw that photograph, browsing one of the big biographies in a library (Carter’s, I think). It’s such a sad and arresting image.

I am a member of that Yahoo group and so have seen the discussion of Vermeer’s yellow wall (or not) going on there; I posted Schjeldahl’s quote there too, just to add a little fuel to that fire But I also consulted Eric Karpeles’ book “Paintings in Proust” and on the page opposite the title page is a close-in detail of the far right side of View of Delft showing what looks to be yellow walls beneath sloping roofs. And so the debate rages on…

In case you didn’t know, the Schjeldahl comment on Vermeer has been reverberating on the Proust group/list at Yahoo [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Proust/], with people looking at everything Vermeer ever painted yellow!

Enjoy your blog. Thanks for writing!

Your reply is a wonderful surprise, and I am heartened to hear of the responses you have gotten to using the word Combray. Your story of how you came about naming the product, the warm and comforting associations, the cycle of names and the eventual coming back to Combray, is so Proustian in itself that Marcel himself might have been pleased. I can’t imagine that he would have been offended with your use of the word, although he might have wanted a little mention of himself and the novel somewhere as well?

My grandmother, who is dead now, used to use a product that is still on the market and when I smell it, I am taken back to her time and place. Maybe someday, if your product is successful, it will inspire a similar involuntary memory in someone who will then be grateful to you for returning to them, if only briefly, their loved one. That, I am sure, would please Marcel.

My sincere thanks to you for taking the time to share this with me and my readers and I do hope that your product and it’s name will help foster recognition and appreciation of Proust and his work, which is my hope for this blog as well.

Mari

Somehow it came about as an association with the product for me. We didn’t hire branding consultants, etc., and we’re not a big corporation. I can’t remember the moment when it came to me, but when it did it just seemed to fit. I wasn’t reading Proust at the time either. The product does inspire warm and comforting feelings, so I guess this is what brought it up as an association. Then, when you look at the word Combray, it is easy to read and say if you’ve never seen it, relatively easy to remember, and it looks good when written. Plus, it has the C A R B O of carbon, which is what the antioxidant is based on.

I liked it when I thought of it, then much later (a couple of years), when the product was ready and ready to be named, we went through a whole cycle of names, and at one point everything reverted back to Combray.

So, it really is not a literal reference or connection, we just though it fit.

Now, I have never heard once from anyone who knows the Proust reference that they were offended by it. Everyone who recognizes it likes it. I was worried that perhaps a Proust scholar would be offended, etc. for using a Proust reference in a commercial setting. Then, I realized, the net result would have to be more positive for the recognition and appreciation of Proust, since Proust is so underappreciated in the US. So, I don’t think we can be accused of cashing in on Proust’s popularity. But, maybe more people would become just a little acquainted with his work. This is borne out after a year or so – an extremely low number of people in the general population recognize it.

In the end, I look at it as an homage to Proust and Swann’s Way, and I hope you feel the same way.

If you would like, you can email me your contact info and I will send a sample to you (david at solenne.eu).