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— Adam Donaldson Powell + AI

Marcel Proust sex appetite

Marcel Proust’s experiences with brothels and cruising spanned two distinct periods in his life:

1. Age of First Brothel Visits

• First Experience (Age 16): Proust first started visiting traditional (female) brothels around 16 years old (in 1888). His father, Dr. Adrien Proust, gave him money and sent him to a local brothel in an attempt to “cure” his compulsive masturbation. Proust famously recounted this visit in a letter to his grandfather, noting that he had used up his money there.
• Later Male Brothels (In his 40s): Much later in life, during World War I (starting around 1916–1917, when Proust was in his mid-40s), he frequented secret male brothels. Most notably, he helped fund and regularly visited the Hôtel Marigny on the Rue de l’Arcade, operated by his former valet/friend Albert Le Cuziat. Proust used these visits for both sexual encounters and gathering material for his writing (he even furnished part of the establishment with furniture inherited from his parents). Police famously raided the venue in January 1918 and caught Proust inside.

Marcel Proust’s relationship with masturbation, sexual compulsion, and voyeurism is one of the most thoroughly documented—and frequently discussed—aspects of his private life. It influenced both his personal history and the psychological depth of his monumental novel, In Search of Lost Time.

(Vijesti)

The Adolescent Letters

Proust’s struggle with masturbation (then often termed onanism) began in adolescence. His father, Dr. Adrien Proust—a prominent professor of medicine and hygiene—was deeply concerned that compulsive masturbation would lead to physical decay or “check” his development.

(Flashbak+ 1)

In May 1888, a 16-year-old Proust wrote a famous, highly candid letter to his grandfather asking for 13 francs:

(Vijesti)

• The Brothel Experiment: His father had given him 10 francs to visit a local brothel, hoping sex with a woman would “cure” his habit. (Flashbak)
• The Mishap: In a state of intense anxiety, young Proust broke a chamber pot (costing 3 francs) and found himself sexually incapacitated. (Flashbak)
• The Request: He wrote to his grandfather asking for money to cover the broken pot and try again, noting dryly: “It cannot happen twice in one lifetime that a person is too flustered to screw. (“Flashbak)

Later Life and Brothels

In his adult years, Proust’s sexuality developed into a complex mix of closeted homosexuality, voyeurism, and solitary gratification.

(Vijesti)

• Albert Le Cuziat’s Establishment: Proust funded and frequented a male brothel run by Albert Le Cuziat (located on the Rue de l’Arcade in Paris). Proust supplied furniture inherited from his family to help set up the establishment. (dokumen.pub)
• Observation over Participation: Biographies (including accounts by contemporaries like André Gide) record that Proust rarely engaged in direct physical intimacy with the young men there. Instead, he preferred to watch them masturbate through spyholes or paid young men to undress and perform in front of him while he masturbated in bed.
• The Rat Myth & Erotic Stimulation: André Gide’s posthumous memoirs (Ainsi soit-il) detail a night conversation where Proust discussed combining diverse sensations—including extreme or dark stimuli, such as watching rats being pierced with pins—to achieve orgasm. While scholars debate whether Proust actively participated in sadism or merely used taboo imagery to overcome sexual inadequacy, the underlying drive was consistent: solitary arousal triggered by ritualized observation. (dokumen.pub+ 1)

Literary Reflections in In Search of Lost Time

Proust translated these compulsions directly into his art, exploring themes of voyeurism, shame, and the mechanical nature of desire:

• Solitary Desire: Throughout In Search of Lost Time, the narrator views love and desire as fundamentally solitary processes—where the actual presence of the other person is almost an intrusion on the inner imagination.
• Voyeurism: Key moments in the novel center on spying (e.g., the narrator secretly watching Mlle Vinteuil and her friend, or spying on Baron de Charlus in Jupien’s brothel). (dokumen.pub)
• Guilt and Habit: Desire in Proust’s world is tied to repetitive habit and memory, mirroring how his own sexual expression became tied to specific, controlled conditions.

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THE ABORTION.

The stillness of the room is
gently broken by the first stroke
of the young concertmaster’s baton.
Onstage, the unfolding curtain of flesh
slowly reveals the
rising stamen of Ganymede.
Life force swells: the crescendo é accelerando
of aching muscles and rallying corpuscles
soon cheer on an intimate pas de deux
between hand and penis.
At once, the ritual fountain catapults
stars and comets in a
grand feu d’artifice.
How suddenly the triumphant applause of
body and emotion dissipate into silent shame
as the youth wipes away the seed
of the aborted fetus.

— Adam Donaldson Powell, Collected poems and stories, 1987

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2. Cruising Locations in Paris

During Proust’s lifetime (the late 19th and early 20th centuries), male-male cruising (la drague) was heavily monitored by Parisian police. Proust—and the culture he depicted in In Search of Lost Time—cruised in several key locations around Paris:

• Public Urinals (Vespasiennes): Cast-iron public street urinals were primary hubs for anonymous, rapid cruising across Paris.
• Public Gardens & Promenades: The Champs-Élysées gardens, the Tuileries Garden, and the Bois de Boulognewere common meeting grounds during dusk and late evenings.
• Boulevards & Arcades: Covered walkways and dark corners along the Grand Boulevards and near railway stations (such as the Gare Saint-Lazare).
• Baths (Bains-Douches): Public bathhouses across the city provided private spaces for gay men of various social classes to meet away from public scrutiny.

__________________________

Many women and heterosexual men might be surprised that Proust frequented heterosexual brothels. That was not and is not uncommon. I frequented heterosexual sex cinemas in the East Village and Midtown in the ‘70s. They were always full of gay and bisexual men cruising and having sex with one another. Watching horny men in action has always been a turn-on (since ancient Greece and Rome). Gay sex cinemas, gay bathhouses, and gay sex clubs eventually thrived alongside these, but the appetite for straight men never subsided.

Back then we queers actively reclaimed the terms “fags” and “pédés” just as Blacks referred to other Blacks as “nigger”. But only within our own community. An outsider who used those terms could risk getting his ass kicked.

STRAIGHT BOYS.

Being the old-fashioned faggot
that I am, I delight in
chasing straight boys
until they catch me.
I buy them drinks,
light their cigarettes,
and tell them they are
the biggest and the best.
Then I take them home
and give them what they want
and deserve –
as deep and as hard as
possible.

— Adam Donaldson Powell

___________________________

stud.

responding to the call
of a warm summer night,
the muscled youth surveys the
streets from his oakland stoop
with the vigilance of a vulture.
he soothes the heat
pervading his loins
with beer and cigarettes,
and gyrates to rhythms
from his sony walkman to
intensify his baiting scent.
at the passing of each female,
he extends greetings and suggestion —
lastly to a haughty one who
requests that he kindly ‘drop dead.’
the youth throws a kiss and laughs
in sport and self-defence,
until he spies the adoring stare
of another boy, and yells:
“what are you looking at, faggot?!!”

(from “Collected poems and stories”, 2005, Cyberwit publishing.)

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Meanwhile, in NYC: