Here in Foxborough, not far from the Massachusetts coastline, we are preparing for Hurricane Irene. However neither storm nor earthquake can keep us from Proust, who received his own share of PR this week.
First, there was a description with photos of the famous Cork Lined Room. A Visit To The Cork Lined Room . Fortunately, the blogger took time to sample some restaurants. Proust would approve.
Next, there's a Proust meetup in L.A. How cool is that? Marcel would be intrigued. I Love Proust in LA. Unfortunately, Foxborough is too far away from Tinseltown to make it practical or economical to join the group, alas.
Next, some sad news. The director of "Time Regained," Raul Ruiz has died. He just had a new movie out too. Raul Ruiz dies .
Your faithful correspondent has been reading Proust again, still in Balbec and La Raspelier, and the humor is lovely and subtle and I am enjoying it ever so much. Proust is so sly and so witty.
The Other Odette
Showing posts with label The Cork Lined Room. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Cork Lined Room. Show all posts
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Monday, October 26, 2009
Why is Everybody Reading Proust?
Well, Proust gets a lot of free PR. Proust and the Squid, How Proust Can Change Your Life--Proust's name in the title of a book is not uncommon.
How many undergraduates read Proust these days? That's when/where I learned about the Narrator. My god, I read parts of Jean Santeuil and all sorts of references. Poulet's Studies in Human Time and ??? I wish I still had the list. Wish I still had my paper. Hmmm. Maybe one more trek through the folders of olde college stuffe.
I doubt that anyone in my writing group has read Proust. Suspect a couple of them may not have even heard of him. But of course, unless you are writing long, long sentences, Proust isn't required for writers. These days, those sentences would be out of favor.
Saturday evening at the Boston Festival of Books, I listened to Orhan Pamuk's address, and tried to think when, except for Proust, I read anything the least bit "literary." Couldn't think of anything going back to The Corrections. That novel, while excellent, did not read as "literary"--think big words and long sentences.
Pamuk, whom I have not read, seemed literary. Maybe literariness is a European thing. Literary Americans? Faulkner was literary. Thomas Wolfe. My mind has gone blank. Who else? Ah, Henry James. Definitely James. The Golden Bowl. Very literary. Is literary a function of writing structure or of subject matter. What makes literary?
Proust is definitely "literary." Here is a link again to a new Proust reading group.
http://thecorklinedroom.wordpress.com/
And here's a link to an opinion about the cork-lined room. I notice the author does not have this blog in his sights. Oh well, no matter.
http://pykk.blogspot.com/2009/10/possessor-possesses-nothing.html
When I climb out from under 2009, I'll read Proust again. Practically salivating. Can't wait to get to the last book, The Past Recaptured, the reward for all that hard reading.
Onward
How many undergraduates read Proust these days? That's when/where I learned about the Narrator. My god, I read parts of Jean Santeuil and all sorts of references. Poulet's Studies in Human Time and ??? I wish I still had the list. Wish I still had my paper. Hmmm. Maybe one more trek through the folders of olde college stuffe.
I doubt that anyone in my writing group has read Proust. Suspect a couple of them may not have even heard of him. But of course, unless you are writing long, long sentences, Proust isn't required for writers. These days, those sentences would be out of favor.
Saturday evening at the Boston Festival of Books, I listened to Orhan Pamuk's address, and tried to think when, except for Proust, I read anything the least bit "literary." Couldn't think of anything going back to The Corrections. That novel, while excellent, did not read as "literary"--think big words and long sentences.
Pamuk, whom I have not read, seemed literary. Maybe literariness is a European thing. Literary Americans? Faulkner was literary. Thomas Wolfe. My mind has gone blank. Who else? Ah, Henry James. Definitely James. The Golden Bowl. Very literary. Is literary a function of writing structure or of subject matter. What makes literary?
Proust is definitely "literary." Here is a link again to a new Proust reading group.
http://thecorklinedroom.wordpress.com/
And here's a link to an opinion about the cork-lined room. I notice the author does not have this blog in his sights. Oh well, no matter.
http://pykk.blogspot.com/2009/10/possessor-possesses-nothing.html
When I climb out from under 2009, I'll read Proust again. Practically salivating. Can't wait to get to the last book, The Past Recaptured, the reward for all that hard reading.
Onward
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