Sedgwick: "The Weather in Proust"

I am pasting here an excerpt -- one of the few available -- from Jonathan Goldberg's recent note -- "On the Eve of the Future" -- from the Theories and Methodologies section published in the most recent volume of the PMLA (125.2); Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick writes:

That the universe along with the things in it are alive and therefore good; here, I think, is the crux of Proust's mysticism. [...] Moreover, the formulation does not record a certainty or a belief but an orientation, the structure of a need, and a mode of perception. It is possible for the universe to be dead and worthless; but if it does not live, neither do the things in it, including oneself and one's contents. So put it comparatively: the universe itself is as alive as anything it holds. (376-77)

Goldberg, for those who do not know, is the author of various important works of literary criticism, notably Sodometries: Renaissance Texts, Modern Sexualities (1992) which was, and in many ways, continues to be a pioneering text in sexuality studies and early modern/renaissance studies. He is Sedgwick's literary executor and is currently preparing "a volume of Eve's writing that represents her work since Touching Feeling" (374).

J.A.