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ulvir posted: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 Volume two is hilarious. It fills one with the pure joy of watching a dumbass teenager constantly scoring own-goals.
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Sep 7, 2021 18:28
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C.K. Scott Moncrieff wrote in a letter to his friend Vyvyan Holland (weirdly, Oscar Wilde's son), encouraging him to try translating Stendhal: “You can do it straight on to the typewriter without even stopping to masturbate, as in the case of Proust.”
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Sep 11, 2021 07:32
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I still have not finished this, but am half way through and will get it done as my next step in The Year of the Brick (TM)
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Apr 3, 2023 19:49
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Bilirubin posted:I still have not finished this, but am half way through and will get it done as my next step in The Year of the Brick (TM) I am now 90% done with this! I had thought I didn't give two shits about these upper class French twits (although the writing is lovely) in the first bit of Marcel's boyhood in Combray but then I got into the first bit of Swann in Love, at the Verduins, and holy poo poo it nearly slayed me. It wasn't until I got to see how casually cruel they could be to one another whilst also maintaining dignified airs that I got sucked in. Now I am in the final back to boyhood discussion of place names, anticipation and imagination of what those places might be like (storms at Balbec, Florence) and the dullness of the reality, and I am here for it.
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Oct 10, 2023 03:13
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Bilirubin posted:I am now 90% done with this! I had thought I didn't give two shits about these upper class French twits (although the writing is lovely) in the first bit of Marcel's boyhood in Combray but then I got into the first bit of Swann in Love, at the Verduins, and holy poo poo it nearly slayed me. It wasn't until I got to see how casually cruel they could be to one another whilst also maintaining dignified airs that I got sucked in. Now I am in the final back to boyhood discussion of place names, anticipation and imagination of what those places might be like (storms at Balbec, Florence) and the dullness of the reality, and I am here for it. See I have the opposite problem. The first chunk is somehow like a dream of my own childhood, but the minute I hit Paris I'm like, why do I care about these assholes
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Oct 10, 2023 03:31
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:See I have the opposite problem. The first chunk is somehow like a dream of my own childhood, but the minute I hit Paris I'm like, why do I care about these assholes The first bit in Paris I am totally in accord with you, but once the Verduins start scheming to exclude Swann, and you start to get a look at the real Odette, it clicks into place for me; how Swann tortures himself over bullshit (lacking real emotional maturity and self awareness for such an otherwise learned person). And it justifies my previous distaste for everyone in those social circles (especially the really high brow version of the same Verduin attitude you see in the Princess in one scene)
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Oct 10, 2023 03:38
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but a buddy of mine, now a professor emeritus in literature, once told me "life is too short to read Proust" lol (strangely, he's otherwise a huge fan of modernism, and adores Woolf)
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Oct 10, 2023 03:40
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Bilirubin posted:but a buddy of mine, now a professor emeritus in literature, once told me "life is too short to read Proust" lol (strangely, he's otherwise a huge fan of modernism, and adores Woolf) life is too short to not read proust 
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Oct 10, 2023 14:53
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but V woolf owns a whole lot too, I love to the lighthouse
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Oct 10, 2023 14:54
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Done! The close, with the contrast of his memory of walking the Bois with the modern era and it's cars replacing the horse drawn carriages was notably strong I thought. Shame about the upper class idiots.
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Oct 14, 2023 22:44
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As an aide I am really glad I didn't try it in French, it's a real powerhouse of vocabulary
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Oct 14, 2023 22:49
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