the gift shop
what to read, and what to wear while reading it
Some of these are books. Some are shirts. All of them are here because they belong to the same preoccupation.
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In Search of Lost Time
The Penguin Classics Deluxe edition, under Christopher Prendergast’s general editorship — a different translation from the Moncrieff Remembrance of Things Past many people met first. Seven volumes, each with its own translator, the last three of which reached American readers only recently.
1. Swann’s Way
Where it begins: the madeleine, Combray, and the long descent into involuntary memory. As an aside I can’t recommend Lydia Davis’ other work enough. Davis’ skillful work as a translator surely enhanced her abilities to write in English. I can’t think of a better writer, and I’ve enjoyed every single piece I’ve ever read by Lydia Davis.
2. In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower
Balbec, the sea, and the first serious education of desire.
3. The Guermantes Way
The salon as a machine for sorting people; the narrator learns its grammar.
4. Sodom and Gomorrah
The novel turns and looks directly at what it had been circling.
5. The Prisoner
Love as surveillance. The most claustrophobic volume, and the most honest about jealousy.
On Proust
How Proust Can Change Your Life
De Botton reads Proust as a practical guide — unserious in tone, serious in effect.
to wear
Abhinava-Tee
Devotional-intellectual streetwear: Part 10th c. Philosopher icon, part bhairava yantra. WHoly on fleek!
There may be as much as 3–4 weeks lead time on the tee. These are models generated by Artificial Intelligence and the Sanskrit is not as clean as one would desire. As of 29 July ’26 the vector files are in production.
Abhinavabsurd… yet funny!
Abhinavagupta in luminous neon, framed by a radiant mandala. Part tantra, part tech satire.