Another significant use of iteratio

Another significant use of iteration occurs in the last third of Sodom and Gomorrah. Recalling his journeys to La Raspelière during the autumn, the narrator imaginatively revisits the train stations along the route of the transatlantic train (the T.S.N.) to spur his memory. The present of his recollections merges with the past of his experiences: “But already my memories of what I was told about all this are giving place to others, for the T.S.N., resuming its slow crawl, continues to set down or take up passengers at the succeeding stations” (ML 4: 656–67/G 1569). An interestingly Shandy-like conflation of narrative levels occurs both here and in an earlier passage in which the narrator excuses himself for not elaborating on certain incidents concerning the violinist Morel: “There were others, but I confine myself at present, as the little train halts and the porter calls out ‘Donciéres,’ ‘Grattevast,’ ‘Maineville’ etc., to noting down the particular memory that the watering-place or garrison town recalls to me” (ML 4: 648/G 1564). In each passage, the present of the narrating instance is conflated with the past of the train’s journey, as if the narrator were not only recalling his journeys on the T.S.N. but also participating in them again, which, if we accept the underlying premise about the recovery of lost time, he would, in effect, be doing.