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Welcome goonlings to the Awful Book of the Month! In this thread, we choose one work of Resources: Project Gutenberg - http://www.gutenberg.org - A database of over 17000 books available online. If you can suggest books from here, that'd be the best. SparkNotes - http://www.sparknotes.com/ - A very helpful Cliffnotes-esque site, but much better, in my opinion. If you happen to come in late and need to catch-up, you can get great character/chapter/plot summaries here.  For recommendations on future material, suggestions on how to improve the club, or just a general rant, feel free to PM the moderation team. Past Books of the Month [for BOTM before 2019, refer to archives] 2019: January: Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky February: BEAR by Marian Engel March: V. by Thomas Pynchon April: The Doorbell Rang by Rex Stout May: Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman June: 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann July: The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach August: Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay September: Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay October: Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado November: The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett December: Moby Dick by Herman Melville 2020: January: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair February: WE by Yevgeny Zamyatin March: The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini by Benvenuto Cellini April: The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio May: Black Lamb and Grey Falcon by Dame Rebecca West June: The African Queen by C. S. Forester July: The End of Policing by Alex S. Vitale August: The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, of Great Renown in Nottinghamshire, by Howard Pyle September: Strange Hotel, by Eimear McBride October:Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things (怪談)("Ghost Stories"), by Lafcadio Hearn November: A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear: The Utopian Plot to Liberate an American Town (And Some Bears) , by Matthew Hongoltz Hetling December: Ignition!: An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants by John Drury Clark 2021: January: The Mark of Zorro by Johnston McCulley February: How to Read Donald Duck by Ariel Dorfman and Armand Mattelart March: Carrier Wave by Robert Brockway April: The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brian May: You Can't Win by Jack Black June:Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson July:Can Such Things Be by Ambrose Bierce Current:  Swann's Way by Marcel Proust Book available here: New translation by Lydia Davis: https://www.amazon.com/Swanns-Way-Search-Penguin-Classics/dp/0142437964 Gutenberg edition, out of copyright, Moncrieff translation: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/7178/7178-h/7178-h.htm About the book "Swann's Way" or "The Path by Swann's" is the first installment in Marcel Proust's multi-volume novel "A La Recherche du Temps p\Perdu.", which is variously translated as "Remembrance of Things Past" or "In Search of Lost Time." This first volume was finished in 1912 and first published in 1913. The publisher submitted it to a writing contest; it didn't win. It is now considered one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century. Hieronymous Alloy posted:
This time I'm gonna try an ebook version quote:In Search of Lost Time follows the narrator's recollections of childhood and experiences into adulthood in the late 19th century and early 20th century high society France, while reflecting on the loss of time and lack of meaning in the world.[1] The novel began to take shape in 1909. Proust continued to work on it until his final illness in the autumn of 1922 forced him to break off. Proust established the structure early on, but even after volumes were initially finished, he continued to add new material and edited one volume after another for publication. The last three of the seven volumes contain oversights and fragmentary or unpolished passages, as they existed only in draft form at the death of the author; the publication of these parts was overseen by his brother Robert. quote:The protagonists of the first volume (the narrator as a boy and Swann) are, by the standards of 19th century novels, remarkably introspective and passive, nor do they trigger action from other leading characters; to contemporary readers, reared on Honoré de Balzac, Victor Hugo, and Leo Tolstoy, they would not function as centers of a plot. While there is an array of symbolism in the work, it is rarely defined through explicit "keys" leading to moral, romantic or philosophical ideas. The significance of what is happening is often placed within the memory or in the inner contemplation of what is described. This focus on the relationship between experience, memory and writing and the radical de-emphasizing of the outward plot, have become staples of the modern novel but were almost unheard of in 1913 quote:In Search of Lost Time is considered, by many scholars and critics, to be the definitive modern novel. It has had a profound effect on subsequent writers, such as the British authors who were members of the Bloomsbury Group.[13] Virginia Woolf wrote in 1922: "Oh if I could write like that!"[14] quote:So, Proust. Have you made it past the first 50 pages? https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/feb/07/reading-group-swanns-way About the Author quote:Proust was born on 10 July 1871, shortly after the conclusion of the Franco-Prussian War and at the very beginning of the Third Republic.[4] He was born in the Paris Borough of Auteuil (the south-western sector of the then-rustic 16th arrondissement) at the home of his great-uncle on 10 July 1871, two months after the Treaty of Frankfurt formally ended the Franco-Prussian War. His birth took place during the violence that surrounded the suppression of the Paris Commune, and his childhood corresponded with the consolidation of the French Third Republic. Much of In Search of Lost Time concerns the vast changes, most particularly the decline of the aristocracy and the rise of the middle classes, that occurred in France during the Third Republic and the fin de siècle.. Pacing  Read as thou wilt is the whole of the law. Please post after you read! Please bookmark the thread to encourage discussion. References and Further Materials  https://www.amazon.com/How-Proust-Change-Your-Life/dp/0679779159 https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/292003/swanns-way-by-marcel-proust/9780142437964/readers-guide/ https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/feb/15/stephane-heuet-in-search-of-lost-time-swanns-way-review-marcel-proust-graphic-novel Suggestions for Future Months These threads aren't just for discussing the current BOTM; If you have a suggestion for next month's book, please feel free to post it in the thread below also. Generally what we're looking for in a BotM are works that have 1) accessibility -- either easy to read or easy to download a free copy of, ideally both 2) novelty -- something a significant fraction of the forum hasn't already read 3) discussability -- intellectual merit, controversiality, insight -- a book people will be able to talk about. Final Note: Thanks, and we hope everyone enjoys the book!
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Aug 3, 2021 21:41
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if you feel like the narrator comes across as overly pompous, that is entirely 100% the point. just let yourself get carried away by his meandering observations and thought, that’s what In search of lost time does best, and something that makes it stand out amongst other works, in my opinion
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Aug 3, 2021 22:27
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If I knew that it was about a man struggling to sleep I'd probably have read it a long time ago. I'm considering reading this in French, but it's been a while since I've read any French. How difficult is the language, generally?
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Aug 4, 2021 19:08
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I’ve only read it in translation, but it suggest a pretty advanced vocabulary. he is writing about everything from the aesthetic experience of art to the deeper meanings of emotions and jealousy, from a well-educated/-read perspective. there’s always at least one goon who has read something in the original, so someone else might chime in with a more authoritative opinion
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Aug 4, 2021 19:16
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Excited as I haven't really made time to read Proust in my adult life. Let's goooooo
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Aug 5, 2021 00:42
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I'm reading the Lydia Davis translation but the comic book version also sounded interesting. It arrived today. 
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Aug 6, 2021 03:30
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Ok, I'm really enjoying the Lydia Davis translation, especially the extensive footnoting, almost annotations, so I know who all the various french political and social figures are who are being referred to. This introductory section always has this odd quality, at least for me, of absolute identification, as if I myself were the narrator recollecting my own childhood.
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Aug 13, 2021 11:33
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:I'm reading the Lydia Davis translation but the comic book version also sounded interesting. It arrived today. Huh. I thought the narrator vacationed in Balbec, not West Egg.
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Aug 14, 2021 04:39
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I've always maintained a certain fascination with Proust, and felt a certain connection to him. I've attempted to read the whole thing a few times, starting when I was about 15 the first time I made an attempt - and only got about halfway through. I'm extremely glad I made that attempt when I did, though, because it made an extremely strong impression on me. The last time I tried to read Swann's Way again, it was actually kind of overwhelming because it brought me back to the feeling of being a child again, and was oddly evocative of feelings and thoughts that I hadn't had myself since I was around 15 years old. I've really been meaning to give it a try again. Probably it's about time.
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Aug 15, 2021 04:44
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I ended up picking up a Portuguese translation (by Mario Quintana, who's a famous Brazilian writer). The translation is really good; it's not fully modern Brazilian Portuguese which makes it a bit less accessible than it could be, but that also helps establish the time in which the novel takes place. When I started reading it I was visiting Switzerland, where I lived for a while 10 years ago. Simply by walking around the streets I'd get this flurry of random memories, things I haven't thought about for years. And then I'd sit down to read the book and have a similar experience, but with even earlier memories. It's been an intense experience for me.
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Aug 16, 2021 13:02
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I just started it last night after having finished last months BotM, reading the Moncrieff translation, and it is loving gorgeous. I've always been curious about his work, but being a science goon only now back capturing literary classics I've never read him. Back in the day I had a two month long posting in Paris, and on day one had a wonderful time just wandering all over town with my host. Our first destination was Cimetière du Père Lachaise, next door to which he lived. The grave of Proust was one of the prominent figures he made sure to bring me by (along with Cuvier, Buffon, Balzac, and Wilde; we steered clear of Morrison, he with a Gallic distain for "the visitors). olorum posted:I'm considering reading this in French, but it's been a while since I've read any French. How difficult is the language, generally? Tempted myself but I'm no doubt lacking the literary/aesthetic vocabulary. LMK if you try it and I'll do the same.
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Aug 16, 2021 15:33
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I'm reading the version from Project Gutenberg. It took me a little time to get into it (and even now I'm only about 20/25% through it.) What really strikes me, to put it in modern terms, is the freedom he's been allowed to have to see such wonder in the world, to think of all his encounters with such beauty, and to never have been undermined in his perceptions. I know it starts off with a young-enough child, but I can easily imagine (again in modern terms) that when he faces his first bit of hardship, even just "reality" he turns full incel. "How dare this thing of beauty, provided for me, turn on me!" Throughout there's an undercurrent to it where I don't know if I want to be envious of his ease through life, and still having that ease seeing as he seems to be writing from, "the future," or if I want to pity someone who was never allowed form an idea of society through contrast and difficulty, to be so enraptured by his own form of idealism.
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Aug 16, 2021 15:48
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Mrenda posted:I'm reading the version from Project Gutenberg. It took me a little time to get into it (and even now I'm only about 20/25% through it.) What really strikes me, to put it in modern terms, is the freedom he's been allowed to have to see such wonder in the world, to think of all his encounters with such beauty, and to never have been undermined in his perceptions. I know it starts off with a young-enough child, but I can easily imagine (again in modern terms) that when he faces his first bit of hardship, even just "reality" he turns full incel. "How dare this thing of beauty, provided for me, turn on me!" Yeah, I was waiting for someone to talk about having this reaction. I'm still in the Combray section myself and there's a near-absolute innocence to it, especially early on, the sort of innocence you can only have as a child when you grow up with privilege. There's definitely immense beauty to it but if this were a realistic biography and not a work of art I'm sure there'd be an interlude where some other kid in the neighborhood gave little Marcel a split lip and ruined his fancy clothes. The writing is so sublime that it carries the reader away with a sense of perfect reality . . . For me it seems real enough that I find scenes from my own childhood interleaving with the text, the view from my bed as a child towards the staircase, etc. - the beautiful soap bubble carries me away floating and it's hard to separate myself from the narrator . . . but from another angle in another light I can imagine some readers finding this soap bubble, transient and easily popped. Interestingly the narrator is clearly heterosexual, whereas Proust was not (although he never acknowledged this publicly in his lifetime, apparently even fighting a d uel over it). . Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 19:22 on Aug 16, 2021 |
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Aug 16, 2021 19:00
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Here's a neat article about the duel:quote:It all began when the gay literary critic Jean Lorrain accused author Marcel Proust (also thought to have been gay) of having a homosexual relationship with the son of one M. Alphonse Daudet, Lucien Daudet (pictured right). Proust demanded satisfaction for the accusation that he had a tryst with Daudet, and challenged Lorrain to a duel. Yes, this was two gay men dueling over the suggestion that one of them was gay.  (Proust seated; Lucien Daudet right) http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2015/02/day-history-february-5th-dueling-dandies/
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Aug 16, 2021 19:34
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Yeah, I was waiting for someone to talk about having this reaction. I think the latest research showing unhappiness, trauma, depression, anxiety, etc. has serious effects on making lasting memories could (but not really) imply a lot about this type of reconstruction of a childhood. I don't find any prompting to remember my own childhood. I don't share any of these memories. There is no stepping off point for me to go into my history. At most, when he writes about reading, there's an allowance for how reading may have made me feel, and a "today" relevance to what reading may be to some people. I don't relate to any of this. It's still good. And as I said in discord it's a lot more "modern" in places than I would have thought. Especially when we see thought-having-effect-on-thought. It's still within the confines of what I'd see as 19th century writing, but it's just rounding the border in what I'd imagine was coming down the line from about 1920 onwards.
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Aug 16, 2021 19:40
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Goon Lit Class writing assignment: write 20 pages comparing and contrasting Swann's Way with Blinding. Due next Friday.
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Aug 16, 2021 21:33
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Vinteuil's Sonata for Piano and Violin is fictional but may have been modelled on or a reference to / inspired by the Violin Sonata in A major by César Franck https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinteuil_Sonata Another possible candidate is the Violin Sonata No. 1 in D minor by Camille Saint-Saëns.
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Aug 17, 2021 13:20
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Just read a little more. I'm currently at the point where he's visiting Legrandin. I particularly like the sort of strange circling it does where it starts with family, and there's a blip every so often of someone outside the family intruding. So far, as it's gone on, these "blips" are becoming more significant. It's a child discovering there's a world outside the immediacy of his parents, grandmothers, grand-aunts, etc. Even if it's still presented, from a future, with the "innocence" of a childhood, and the childish view, there's signs of society infringing on the stable core of family, of that stable core of guaranteed innocence. To be honest, these are the most interesting aspects so far. I don't know anything about Proust's sexuality other than what Hieronymous Alloy has said, but there's a kind of (again to put it in modern terms) queer learning to it. It's further than simply realising you're family isn't the be all and end all, it's a "worldliness." An infringing of ideas you feel, from your point of disbelief that is both dogmatic and quasi-guilty, at a your desire, and these infringements are both intrusions on peace but also a glimpse at something greater. It's not just growth, it's something secretive and desirable, in finding out there's worlds you haven't been even prepared to fathom. So far it's all been presented as men with ideas on art, and society, and women (even men who have daughters,) but there's absolutely this idea of a underlying world that gets dealt with in looks so subtle they might appear rude-in-ignoring-you, and adults recognising in children something "other."
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Aug 17, 2021 14:46
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So this was me today at lunch: basically me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJfHF312STE
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Aug 18, 2021 00:25
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I would murder a crêpe salée right now. Hell, I'd even do that pizza/calzone hybrid monstrosity Little Caesar's is hawking
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Aug 18, 2021 03:56
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This is Botticelli's Zipporah: 
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Aug 18, 2021 12:37
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:This is Botticelli's Zipporah: The first time I read Swann's Way about five years ago, I had never seen this painting, and still hadn't until you posted it just now. Yet Proust's description was evocative enough that this was almost exactly what came to mind when I read the passage back then.
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Aug 18, 2021 14:51
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This book is really good yo
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Aug 19, 2021 20:53
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and the chapters loooong
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Aug 21, 2021 03:14
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I forgot how terrible the Verdurins were. They're just the absolute worst garbage people.
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Aug 21, 2021 15:28
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Speaking of which, I'm wondering the difference between great aunt and the grandmother's sisters? I guess the great aunt is grandfather's sister? She's also not great
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Aug 21, 2021 15:38
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Bilirubin posted:Speaking of which, I'm wondering the difference between great aunt and the grandmother's sisters? I guess the great aunt is grandfather's sister? She's also not great NM, Proust explained it at the beginning of the next chapter
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Aug 22, 2021 03:33
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He sure loves that church steeple
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Aug 23, 2021 04:07
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While we all meander along these garden paths we need to pick something for next month. Suggestions?
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Aug 26, 2021 18:13
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Maybe part of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon? The whole thing would be out of the question, I'm sure; the whole thing is almost 2,500 pages long.
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Aug 27, 2021 02:48
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As I am only one quarter through this book I expect I'll be sticking with it in September too
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Aug 27, 2021 04:05
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:While we all meander along these garden paths we need to pick something for next month. Suggestions? Let’s do Lathe of Heaven! It’s the only major Le Guin work I haven’t read already and I just got it for cheap. And rumor has it you did too. e: oh, I misread the Discord, you’ve had it for years
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Aug 27, 2021 06:29
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That's a good idea
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Aug 27, 2021 15:14
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Lathe of Heaven is great, and Ursula K. Le Guin is probably my favorite author of all time. I feel like Left Hand of Darkness was already BOTM a few years back, because I'd strongly recommend that as perhaps being the most worthwhile of her novels. That or The Dispossessed. Lathe is definitely a lot of fun, and eminently readable. Though you can tell Le Guin is rather consciously trying to ape PK Dick a bit, that's all part of the fun.
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Aug 27, 2021 18:45
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Yeah, there are only two problems with LeGuin as BOTM: 1) we've already done a few of her books and 2) everyone on the forum already reads her and already knows she's great, so we aren't exactly breaking new ground.
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Aug 27, 2021 22:41
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Gonna suggest Ann Petry's The Street yet again.
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Aug 27, 2021 22:58
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:While we all meander along these garden paths we need to pick something for next month. Suggestions? I’ve got two, possibly dumb, suggestions if they haven’t been done before. If we want to stick with classic authors how about Lord Dunsany’s The King of Elfland’s Daughter? Or for simpler, bucolic fare, how about Anne of Green Gables?
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Aug 31, 2021 01:17
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We'll do A Dreamer's Tales by Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany If you want to get started before I get a thread up start here: https://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/dun/swld/swld09.htm
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Sep 2, 2021 11:20
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idk how long into it you guys are yet, but one of the moments from the first book that’s still pretty present in my memory, is the scene where the narrator introduces Bloch to his parents. that, along with his grandmother lowkey roasting him in the next volume (either that or volume 3) is pretty funny
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Sep 4, 2021 22:46
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there are some weird assed people in this book. Legrandin's conversation about going to visit Balbec is just such an odd exchange, holy poo poo weirdo
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Sep 7, 2021 04:28
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