Welcome to Litsy!

“The Intermittences of the Heart”—that‘s the name of a section here, and it was almost the name of the entire novel…. We‘re talking how time affects our feelings about events, as well as our view of individuals; how hurt springs up seemingly out of nowhere; how someone can feel so indifferently distant and then suddenly it‘s as though they live inside us, a part of us. Incisive, cutting prose is the standard with Proust. His wisdom pierces.

This is actually Vol. IV. I had to give it thumbs up because Proust and anyone tackling “In Search of Lost Time” must read all volumes. But, for me, this has gone downhill and I don‘t have high expectations for the last volumes. His tangents this time were so illogical that they were grueling to read. I wondered about his sanity. Now reading the back story of this book, I feel fooled by him (won‘t spoil) & there‘s too much of the Verdurin socials

The life of a seaside resort removed from an introduction the consequences for the future that might have been dreaded in Paris.

I‘m over halfway through this, but I‘m kind of feeling like I need something else to read besides Proust. I was trying to go straight through while reading nothing else, but I don‘t know if I‘m gonna make it….

Mme Verdurin did not give “dinners,” but she had “Wednesdays.” Her Wednesdays were a work of art.

It cannot be said that she was stupid; she overflowed with an intelligence that I sensed was of not the slightest use to me.

Finished another volume. This one felt longer, maybe because the narrator is growing increasingly annoying (and my annoying I mean a jealous, possessive a$$hole ?).That said, reading his depictions of gay men ("inverse" in early 20th century parlance) and gay relationships is fascinating knowing that Proust himself was gay. Because I would not say it's exactly flattering. (The narrator in the book is not.)
On to Volume 5! #morningswithMarcel

The fact is that, even in the most genuine fatigue, especially among the nervous, there is an element that depends on our awareness and is preserved only by the memory. We are suddenly weary the moment that we fear being so, and to overcome fatigue it is enough to forget it.

“Goodbye, I‘ve hardly spoken to you, that‘s how it is in society, we don‘t meet, we don‘t say the things we‘d like to say to one another; anyway, it‘s the same everywhere in life. Let‘s hope it‘ll be better organized after we‘re dead. At least we won‘t have to wear low-cut dresses. Yet who knows? Perhaps we shall show off our bones and our worms on big occasions. Why not?”

Any action of the mind is easy when it is not subject to reality. Here I was forced to submit.

On to Volume 4. #morningswithmarcel

All Skate!

Also on today‘s reading list: Proust! I couldn‘t keep to my usual pace (100 pages every 2-3 days) when I had all those nonrenewable library chunksters on my docket, but I‘m back into it now and I hope to finish SODOM AND GOMORRAH tomorrow or Sunday. Ruby‘s been a big help.

I‘ll be interested to read the translator‘s introduction after I finish. I understood this was the volume that helped Proust come to terms with his own homosexuality, but ⬇️

I stopped in at my summer-regular McDonald‘s for coffee, pie, and Proust. I‘m in the midst of one of his extremely long party scenes right now, and it‘s a blast.

I finished THE GUERMANTES WAY before I took Daisy on her walk, went to just casually stick my bookmark in SODOM AND GOMORRAH, and ended up 15 pages deep in it.

Proust, man. He‘s addictive, and his long-ass paragraphs make it tough to stop.

I didn‘t actually read the book out of the house, but I ended up on the river road for the very first time and I thought y‘all might like to see one of the public art pieces I came across on there.

It was finally warm enough today for some library tourism! Daisy‘s local branch is one of the few I‘d never been to, so I trekked on over there this afternoon to return all the stuff I finished this week and borrow my next volume of Proust.

As always I enjoyed the beautiful descriptions of scenery and the nostalgic feeling of time and memory. The narrator returns to seaside Balbec where he spends time with Albertine and the Verdurins (horrible people) at the house they are renting from the Cambremers, La Raspelière. This volume discusses a lot of homo-erotic relationships, hence the title, but all is not equal when it came to the view of the sapphic. Great, but some problems with ?

Well, it is August 2020 and how the world has changed since I started reading Proust. Finished Volume 4 and we are steeped in the narrator‘s encounters with the gay men of fashion in Paris. Mssr Charluese in particular who pursues one does not believe for lust but for attention and devotion. Society is more in evidence in its pettiness and the narrator falls in and out of obsession- finally the last sentence “I must marry Albertine.” On to V.5.

Love this illustration of Proust by Simon Brett for the Folio Society Shakespeare‘s Sonnets. Had to share it.

Pizza and Proust: For to the disturbances of memory are linked the intermittences of the Heart. 🍕❤️

As I started this book, I noticed that I bought it 11 years ago on a book crawl with @lalatiburona in San Francisco. I miss Bibliohead books in Hayes Valley. 📖💔

Apparently I only have 2 purple books on my shelves- both Penguins. The 4th volume of the penguin translation of Proust (bought for my 2020 year long read of Search of Lost Time) and this lovely penguin drop-cap of the norwegian classic Undset (The Wreath). #ChillingPhotoChallenge @Clwojick #TeamSlaughter

In the Norwegian edition of Proust works this is the 4th of 7 books. When you have gotten this far into the story, you have accepted Proust writing style and eye for details. I have started to like his eye for details and it make you feel as if you are there.

In this novel the protagonist is back in Balbec. And after all the descriptions of the surroundings and the hotel, I had to hit the internet and found out that the Normandy town of Cabourg is the inspiration behind Balbec, and Le Grand Hotel de Cabourg is the inspiration for the Grand Hotel described in the novel.

These are some photos I found on proust-ink.com that shows both the inside and the outside of Le Grand Hotel in Cabourg

Next up.

This is the first day I‘m officially on vacation. When I don‘t have any other plans than stay at home reading, I like to begin my vacation by reading Proust.

To be honest...I can‘t. Remember. What has happened. In this. Particular. Volume. Necessarily. But I am still thoroughly enjoying it.

“I returned by the roads from which you can see the sea, and where once, before it appeared between the branches, I used to close my eyes to reflect that what I was about to see was indeed the plaintive ancestress of the earth, pursuing, as when the days when no human beings yet existed, its crazed, immemorial agitation.”

I finally finished the fourth installment of In Search of Lost Times. It starts with Marcel discovering that M. De Charlus is gay and he becomes obsessed with homosexuality. He sees gays and lesbians everywhere and is afraid Albertine might be one as well. He gets terribly jealous and keeps her by his side all the time. They pretend she is his cousin when they are both in Balbec again. 👇👇#1001books

#Riotgrams, day 11: #punctuation

“He lives at Balbec?” crooned the Baron in a tone so far from interrogatory that it is regrettable that the written language does not possess a sign other than the question mark to end such apparently unquestioning remarks.”

I need to get back to Proust. I've started Remembrance of Things Past as a buddyread on LibraryThing in January. Since then I have finished the first three installments (of seven). I actually enjoyed reading them but somehow I haven't been in the mood to continue with this fourth book.
I don't want to give up! I am too far in! I will try again to read 50 pages after every other book I finish.

#1001books

Morning Prousting.

Though problematic and sometimes even dull (any part with or about Albertine is both infuriating and boring to me), I did ultimately enjoy this book. Part of it is Proust's ability to create characters so sharp and real you can at once laugh at them and say: I know that person! It is also fascinating to read honest, human (if also snide and self-loathing) descriptions of "inverts" (read: gay) men and women in the early twentieth century.

He had that detailed knowledge of things Parisian peculiar to the people who rarely go there 😂

Candy coated sins 🍭

"It was a whole state of being, a whole future existence, which had assumed in front of me the fateful, allegorical form of a girl." Marcel's obsession bears a close resemblance to stalker Joe Goldberg in You, which I read alongside S&G. #gross #straightmalegaze