What is a metaphysical experience? If we disdain projecting it upon allegedly primal religious experiences, we are most likely to visualize it as Proust did, in the happiness, for instance, that is promised by village names like Applebachsville, Wind Gap, or Lords Valley. One thinks that going there would bring the fulfillment, as if there were such a thing. Being really there makes the promise recede like a rainbow. And yet one is not disappointed; the feeling now is one of being too close, rather, and not seeing it for that reason. And the difference between the landscapes and regions that determine the imagery of a childhood is presumably not great at all; what Proust saw in Illiers must have happened elsewhere to many children of the same social stratum. But what it takes to form this universal, this authentic part of Proust’s presentation, is to be entranced in one place without squinting at the universal.

From Theodor W. Adorno’s Negative Dialectics, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1973 (first published in 1966), p. 373.

Addendum (December 15, 2014)

This is not about Adorno, it goes without saying. Neither is it about Proust. I have plucked this quote because of my imminent departure from Motovun. Even though I will be away for no more than a week this time around, the longer departure is already quite palpable. Starting just after New Year’s, I will be away from the hilltown for three whole months. Actually, the entire winter! As far as I am concerned, being here indeed borders on a metaphysical experience. Perhaps I am a bit too close to this place, but I am still entranced by its streets, squares, and magical vistas that open up behind many a corner. Whenever I catch myself squinting at the universal, which does occasionally happen even if briefly, I shake my head in disbelief. To my lasting comfort, Motovun is one and only.