Dave’s Comments (group member since May 24, 2014)

Dave’s comments from the Reading Proust's In Search of Lost Time in 2014 group.

Uh Oh Marcelita, now you have gotten me in trouble. I opened an account with Abe Books. I applied for the "Marcelita" Discount on "all things Proustian."

On the "most important character" game, I have my own choice, a guess on what the panelists collectively guess, and a guess on Professor Carter's choice. Do the panelists explain their choices?

I certainly wouldn't want to disrupt Professor Carter's Annotations for Yale. But I also don't mind him quoting me in his annotations. I sure he would be thrilled to strengthen his annotations by citing my own thoughts. That just the kind of sharing guy that I am!

Thanks, that will be fun! I will bide my time, but I already made my choice - I had to be strong, but I did not choose Aunt Leonie!

Following up on your tip about Professor Carter answering email questions, I considered my first question. In preparation of my question, I spent a good part of the day analyzing the first page of "Swann's Way." My comments on the five sentences on the first page are 1100 words long. Now I have drafted my first email to Professor Carter:

Dear Professor Carter, Marcela Swan told me that you answer question's about Proust and his book by email. Below are my thoughts on the first page of "Swann's Way." My first question is: What are your thoughts on my thoughts? Please be specific in responding. Thank you so much! David

PS I will send page two thoughts tomorrow. I don't think I will have time to analyze more than five pages a week to send to you. I hope you won't think me a Proustian slacker!

The Sun Also Rises....I can lob puns over the net all day. :)

The Sun is rising behind us so we must be going West!

Thank you Sunny for your interesting thoughts. It is always fun to read what interests other readers.
Your phrase "ride along the same river" gave me an involuntary memory of the Jungle Boat Ride in Adventure Land at Disney World! Yes, its a Small World and Proust is Mickey Mouse Welcoming me to his Magic Kingdom! lol

Yes, laundry girls....er. washing, yes washing, thats what they are doing! Exactly what they were washing is left to discretion of the reader's imagination. Ha!

Keep going, Andree, like the ghost in A Christmas Carol, pays him three visits.

Ha! Wishful thinking on the Narrator's part I suspect. Andree was close to Albertine (even if only as a friend) in a way that could never be.

Thank you Marcelita! As always, you generously share your extensive knowledge of all things Proustian. I will follow these links as I do the others, but the backlog of reviewing all the material you have shared in the last 10 months is pretty large and growing larger despite my best efforts to see/ read it all.

My problem is that after only three months of standing under the Proustian commentary firehose, I need to have ways to "work through" what I have been exposed to. To some degree I can "think through" and form opinions, but my life experience has taught me the there is no substitute for in-person, shooting-the-breeze bull sessions to sort out what I think. Expert opinion is to be valued but expert opinion overlaps, repeats, and contradicts. And is unavailable unless I hold a Proustian A-Lister captive and promise them a Rolls Royce or Yacht if they will only exclusively talk to me about Proust.

As Proust suggests, I am trying to use his book to be a reader of myself. The experts can't help me there.

Since I can't have all-night, in-person bull sessions, our small group here suits my purpose. We share our views and scratch our heads in perplexity at some things, but we move forward in our understanding of the book and perhaps of ourselves.

Renato wrote: "It's not available on amazon.com.br. I'll search for it better later.

And yes, I count on your help for sure! I just got interested in those as you listed them as very helpful."

Moss' book is available on Amazon.com as Kindle for $5.00 and used for less than $10.00. I have the edition with Damion Searles' introduction which is also good.

Oh, I meant to mention, I read the Modern Library Edition yesterday. I still can't say I have much preference for translation (other than "no translation" is best) but I do like Penguin best for the footnotes.

I'm just following the Golden Rule. It's taken me months or reading references and bumbling around to get to where I am. I would have much rather had someone just tell me the basics. Frankly, I have seen no reference, blog or video that gives a concise primer in reading for understanding. Perhaps because I still hold strongly to the opinion I formed when I started rereading - you can only understand Proust if you have "experienced" the whole novel first and return to the beginning. I thought understanding required a complete reread, now I think selections of Swann's Way will do the job. After that, as so many readers find, rereading is a joy, not a "to do".

Renato wrote: "I still don't know what I'll do next year to be honest. My desire is to re-read everything immediately, but I don't want it to become a burden. I want to enjoy and appreciate it, not just be done w..."

The Moss book is not available to you Renato? Its still my top pick for post reread. Of those you mentioned I'd say look over Shattuck. But without wanting to be an egoist, you have me who has been reading all these books for months. These are only my opinions, but I can make suggestions, ask leading questions, and give you "my" answer if something doesn't click. Then, after we talk about the first and last of Swan's Way, you can read the other books as you are inclined.

Thats a major point of Rogers' book, all of his earlier writing can be seen as experiments in style and form as he struggled to express in writing what he had to say. Ultimately, he invented his own form and techniques to express his message. This alone would have placed him as a giant in the history of literature. We can never know whether the profundity of his content would ever have been perceived outside the original artistry of the structure he created to showcase it.

Renato wrote: "That's one of the sections I'm most eager to re-read as in the beginning I had a hard time with his style and to understand his long sentences."

The beginning is like a crash course in style and long sentences. By volume VI, if you're like me, you're already doing graduate studies in his style. Its remarkable to me that he wrote for so many years without any notable change in style.

Jonathan wrote: "I must admit I'm quite keen to re-read the Combray section again once I've finished the whole book as I'm sure I've read that this section is supposed to contain all the characters and topics of th..."

I'm available to stick with Proust stuff as long as someone want to read/ comment. In retrospect reading Proust the first time was a marathon for me. I was satisfied to get my certificate of completion. As was apparent, I soon discovered the reward of rereading. But my opinion has changed, rather than a marathon, rereading is very different, an evening walk in the park. I can pick up the book and open anywhere (as someone noted on the BBC program) and become immediately engrossed. For me rereading has become a lifetime "timeout". The only risk is I'll get fascinated as I did yesterday. I do believe that the First Part of Combray and the very end of Swann's Way are very important to understanding. The rest can be read at leisure.
Whatever outside reading is decided on I'll follow along and comment as I may. I recommend reading the first and last of Swann's Way closely and having a discussion and then figuring out reading/rereading preferences and priorities.

I've ordered three more books. All are cheap used on Amazon.

1. Reading Proust: In Search of Wolf Fish (Theory and History of Literature) by Maria Paganini

2. The Mottled Sceen: Reading Proust Visually by Meike Bal

3. Allegories in Reading: Figural Language in Rousseau, Nietzsche, Rilke and Proust by Paul de Man

I read Vincent Descombes book "Proust: Philosophy of the Novel"
I didn't agree with his main point. I found Lundy's points about philosophy more convincing. Not unexpectedly I guess, my opinions on Proust's work as well as opinions about the Proust "aftermarket" have and will continue to evolve. At this point I'm generally finding more insight in the books from the 60's and 70's. Beyond references and guides, more recent books are more abstract in their analysis. That's ok if there is an underlying understanding of the content and the Narratology of the novel in both authors and the readers.

I feel it is the "key" to the whole book - a key that will not unlock the book unless someone has read the whole book first. The generalized descriptions of the beginning I see - about a young man waiting for his mother to kiss him goodnight and the Madeleine tasting, are just so inadequate/incomplete if you have read the whole book. I'm planning to go back and reread from the beginning with you and whoever else joins us, but I hope you will indulge me in this section and go slow - there is just so much to be commented on about every page.

I've seen "experts" make generalized comments that address the content of the Oveture, but (at least in English) there needs to be an "annotated" Proust that speaks to every reference and allusion made to other events, themes, characters, and motifs within the whole work. I've decoded some tentatively, but I know there are others I am still clueless about.

Yesterday, following a lead from the Rogers' book, I went to check out an example near the beginning of Swan's Way. I ended reading the whole Overture (Combray Part I) again. And again I was stunned and amazed at how much Proust packed into this section.