07.24.09
Proust: The Guermantes Way
It is not that I have now trouble discerning reality from fiction, but I am beginning to sense a certain attachment to our narrator. Now a young adult in The Guermantes Way, I feel as if I have grown up with him. No, I cannot regard him as a role model or someone I would choose to have as a best friend, but a being akin to a relative, someone with whom you are bound to have close ties one way or another. Moreover, growing up with a fruit of Proustian imagination yields a fancy that one is not only growing up as a reader, but as a person as well – and to think I am already having such sentiments when I have only finished the third volume. Oh, what Proust can do!
The Guermantes Way, I gather, is an exploration on manifold and kaleidoscopic human relations from the recondite to the perfunctory. If one were to single out this third volume apart from the entire In Search of Lost Time, the reader might sense an unexciting plot, but as in reading any great work of literature, we do not seek after the plot, otherwise we should very well settle for a Sidney Sheldon. What we seek after are passages – may it be about pianists, or artists and neurosis – which urge us to ponder, or enhance the way we view art or life. However, in The Guermantes Way, there are lengthy sections that I deem discouraging to some readers, particularly those that are about aristocracy and political issues of that time (distinctly the Dreyfuss Affair) which today’s reader might find irrelevant, even though they were duly appreciated as it gave me a thorough portrait of a past era.
Of these paragraphs describing the superficial conversations and elaborations about genealogies among the elite, the narrator also laments that it “supplied no food for my favourite trains of thought; and besides, even had they possessed the elements which they lacked, they would have had to be of a very exciting quality for my inner life to awaken during those hours in which I lived on the surface, my hair well brushed, my shirt-front starched, in which, that is to say, I could feel nothing of what constituted for me the pleasure of life.”
The prolonged descriptions of high society would dismay some young readers today. In fact I have recently heard of someone who does not like Proust’s works so much. This does not surprise me, and I shall not judge that person since we are all entitled to our own preferences. However, in my view, these aspects of a work which we cannot relate to (excluding graphic obscenities which I find I really cannot take), are like qualities of a person that we cannot fully understand simply because we have been raised differently. If we welcome and try to understand these seemingly un-understandable qualities along with the accompanying higher percentage of wisdom instead of ignoring the work or the person’s entirety just because of these details, something happens. We learn.
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lemo said,
July 24, 2009 at 4:07 pm
true… but you cannot change it by the way you praise Proust, no matter how you try. Sometimes pushing too hard tends to hide our openness to take notice of what others are saying. I think it is also important to listen to why someone doesn’t like Proust. who knows, we might also learn something essential.
elaine said,
July 24, 2009 at 4:36 pm
i noticed that you recent posts have been obsessed with Proust. I shall check him out myself.
Miracle ♪♫ said,
July 24, 2009 at 5:09 pm
To Lemo:
Precisely, Lemo. I am not attempting to change the opinion of others. In fact, that’s what I meant by comparing the admiration of an author to “qualities of a person that we cannot fully understand simply because we have been raised differently. And if we welcome and try to understand these seemingly un-understandable qualities along with the accompanying higher percentage of wisdom instead of ignoring the work or the person’s entirety just because of these details, something happens. We learn.” That’s why I will not judge anyone who cannot appreciate Proust fully because as I’ve said, we are entitled to our own preferences and I can also understand the reason behind this, and thereby learning and being open to the reason why it is also possible not to like his works… and again, I will stress that yes, the learning is mutual if the understanding is “vice versa”. I understand why someone cannot like Proust… and I hope the same can understand why it is also so hard not to like Proust after reading him. So… pushing too hard? I doubt it. I’m just letting my feelings flow. =)
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To Elaine:
Haha… obsessed might be too strong a word, Elaine. I’m simply recounting my attempts in conquering the so-called longest novel… and I guess the length is taking its toll on my entries. hihi I’d also like to know what you think of Proust. So, do share your thoughts as well after reading him. =)
sopraninigabi said,
July 24, 2009 at 7:38 pm
“So, do share your thoughts as well after reading him.”
—> Haha okay, will get back to this post 5-10 years from now :)
Kidding aside, I believe you write extremely well-balanced book reviews, Mir. More power!
mika said,
July 24, 2009 at 8:17 pm
oooh, you’re on the 3rd book already! go Miracle! i wonder how you’ll be after reading the last page of the last book of the series… i suddenly remember my brother’s long and slow movies. supposedly, they were created that way so that the viewer is immersed in the movie’s “world”. it takes time for this immersion to take place - the viewer has to slow down from the speed of daily life into the meditative pace of the images… after several hours of soaking in the movie, one leaves the cinema in a completely different mood, as if you just arrived from a different world… maybe it’s the same with proust! haha
Miracle ♪♫ said,
July 25, 2009 at 12:02 am
To Gabi:
Hehe… right now I just happen to be blessed with extra time in my hands. Thank you for the boost, Gabi. It means a lot coming from you. =)
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To Mika:
Hmmm… I don’t doubt the possibility of a similar experience, Mika. I’m expecting a substantial transformation to occur… =)