Proust has probably ruined more writers than he's helped

Lle When you are a writer of novels who's reading a novel, there's a natural tendency to think, "what can I learn from this?"

One wants to pick novels apart, especially  great ones, and find within them some sort of lesson. 

But one cannot do this with Proust, because his novel is fucking crazy. How does it work? What is its appeal? What guiding impulse d…