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<\/figure><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\nI just loved that word all by itself. – the u and the o a bit of a tongue twister for me, the non-native French speaker. And in my mind, twisting letters around- because the line preceding it… used the word tour. “Ces r\u00e9flexions avaient pris un tour un peu particulier.<\/mark><\/em> OR “These reflections had taken a somewhat particular turn.”<\/mark><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n And then my<\/em> thoughts started taking a turn that was a bit particular. It started with a question, no surprise.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Could Martin and Martine<\/a> be part of a quartet? But I had no idea how. Or what Moors had to do with it. Or blacksmiths, for that matter.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n I did some swift Wikipedia reading about the Moors and the Crusades, about a Moor wielding a hammer to face Charles Martel in the battle of Tours. I knew as well that there was a Persian influence answering to the dialogue taking place between Swann and young Marcel. But I didn’t find anything relevant, at least to serve my purposes. I kind of gave up looking after a point.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n About a year or two later, bored I guess, and frankly super frustrated that I was missing something- I just knew I was- for some reason I plugged in the search terms ‘Moors Clocktower ‘ or ‘Moors Giant’ or ‘Moors jacquemart’- I can\u2019t remember exactly what. And up popped this.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n I was blown away.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n But I felt stupid. I\u2019d been to Venice before, but did not remember much other than our hotel flooding. It was November, and we came down in the morning to get our coffee and the entire entry was filled with water. I’m sure I heard the clocktower, but did I look up? Study it? Remember it? No.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n No clue about the most famous clocktower sporting two Moors was located in Venice, on St. Mark\u2019s Square, dating back to 1499. Two giants- one young, one old, shepherds both- strike the hours with hammers. Though not Moors, they came to be referred to as such because, years passing, their bronze skin developed a dark patina.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n If you’re new to Proust, you probably haven’t yet read the very last sentence of the very last volume of ISOLT. Here it is:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n So, if I were given long enough to accomplish my work, I should not fail, even if the effect were to make them resemble monsters, to describe men as occupying so considerable a place, compared with the restricted place which is reserved for them in space, a place on the contrary prolonged past measure, for simultaneously, like giants plunged into the years, they touch the distant epochs through which they have lived, between which so many days have come to range themselves \u2013 in Time.\u201d<\/mark><\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Did you get that? Here was a sentence literally referred to giants standing on a small pedestal, between them Time itself, a clock.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/theproustquestion.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/images-2-1.jpg\")
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