Marcel Proust 
Cities of the Plain 

While watching the pollination of the Duchess de Guer-mantes’s orchid, the narrator secretly observes a sexual encounter between two men. ‘Flower and plant have no conscious will, ‘ Samuel Beckett wrote of Proust’s representation of sexuality. ‘They are shameless, exposing their genitals. And so in a sense are Proust’s men and women… shameless. There is no question of right and wrong.’