who read the entire 6 volume novel? i've read one of the volumes
a while ago and liked it but i'm wondering if anyone on here has
read all of it.

how many damn pages is it? there's a new boxed set available and
i'm thinking of getting it:

http://www.amazon.com/Sea...72&sr=11-1

is it humanly possible to read them all one after the other in o
let's say 2 weeks? without going insane?

thanks

that would give me a headache all that reading! maybe I should get my eyes tested

IstenSzek said:

tried reading it once but never got into it, maybe if u were on holiday with no interruptions u could ? by the way your thread title makes my bath or shower one look really dumb lol



[Edited 7/27/07 5:45am]

jami0mckay said:

could you read "A Suitable Boy"?

ZombieKitten said:

couldn't get going with it, could you? or 'The god of small things' either, finished The Shadow Of the wind recently that was an easier read lol

jami0mckay said:

I think I am still up to p42 after a year

ZombieKitten said:

u made it further than me

jami0mckay said:

but don't ask me what it is about

ZombieKitten said:

lol I always buy books like that fooling myself that i'll read then and then just end up watching Friends on tv

jami0mckay said:

I think I took that book back to the op-shop, can't see it on my shelf any more! oh well, what a shame

i want to read these books from beginning to end, but i find it hard to know how to read them, if that makes any sense.

i have a problem with classical literature, and the problem is all mine. i think i've been so thoroughly weened on minimalist, modern literature that it's hard for me to slow myself down enough to enjoy all the description and languid, floral imagery that gets packed into classical writing. i read proust, and an impatient little voice in my head keeps saying, "alright, what's the point? wrap it up!"

and, of course, the entire point of proust is that he is not ABOUT to "wrap it up".

i suppose proust wouldn't be considered "classical literature" compared to works that are hundreds or thousands of years old. still, i think he wrote in a time when literature was what people used for movies/television/internet/etc. today. there were higher stakes for authors when he lived, and the task of description was a lot heavier. i think the challenge for me in cracking these books is to put myself in that mindset, of completely giving myself over to all this rambling, beautifully worded description and exposition, and not worrying about where it's going or what i'm supposed to take from it. and for me, THAT'S FREAKIN' HARD.

i remember wanting an electronic proust translator so i could just scan it over a page of writing and have a little screen pop up a translation like: "dude, i'm bummed."

I tried (well, that's a lie - I didn't try much at all) to read Swann's Way, once, and felt it flew far above my head. I decided then and there to consider any and all Proust beyond me.

jillybean said:

i think it's all about getting comfortable with sentences that go on for an entire page or two.

Anxiety said:

i love that! it's like -holy flippin cow, is this entire chapter just one
long sentence?

Anxiety said:

you've just covered all six volumes!

but for real, my attention span is very much like what u have described. i have trouble sticking through one book -- quite sure six just won't happen.

IstenSzek said:

What happened to The Corrections?

2the9s said:

i mixed them up

i already read the corrections ages ago and it was pretty so-so.

i was more than halfway through the recognitions a while back,
but through some personal crisis i forgot all about it and now
i have to start it all over again because i hate starting just
in the middle somewhere simply because i read the first part...



anyway, what i read was great a bit hard i have to admit,
but still great. i like a challange.

madartista said:

i want to try all 6 and see if i go insane

IstenSzek said:

Didn't TheResistor get through all of Remembrance? If not I remember he made some serious headway about a year ago.
[Edited 7/27/07 15:29pm]

IstenSzek said:

I've read all 6 volumes...twice!

First time through, I was reading other books between the volumes. I had trouble getting in and out of Proust reading mode. I read too quickly, and I never felt properly immersed.

Second time, I was more prepared and relaxed. I read nothing but Proust and made my way through the novels in succession. I was also in a pretty relaxed mental state (no job or school & no immediate need to look for work) and I may have had to reaffirm for myself every once in awhile that I was reading for the sake of enjoying it and escaping, not reading to 'get through it'. In other words, no two-week limit. That's like setting your kitchen timer to remind yourself when to stop meditating.

I don't know if it's personal preference, but the translations I've read of Proust make me think that he is a very smooth, seamless writer. It's easy to just drift away on the current. I wouldn't call it dense (until you're in a recollection embedded in another recollection) the way I would call say, Thomas Pynchon dense. Now there's someone who's phrasing causes me to re-read sentences because I didn't understand them, not because my mind drifted.

2the9s said:

Highjacking this to say I loved The Corrections!

jillybean said:

Franzen actually wrote an essay several years ago on Gaddis (author of The Recognitions, the book Istenszek was reading), called "Mr Difficult," where he slams Gaddis for being unnecessarily obscure and hard.

Critic Ben Marcus later wrote a great rejoinder in Harper's.

PeteZarustica said:

IstenSzek said:

You mean insanER... right?

HamsterHuey said:

you sir, know me too damn well

I am bored. But I do not feel like reading Proust.

HamsterHuey said:

i bet i know what you do feel like

IstenSzek said:

Actually, going back to bed beckons most, of all possibilities.

HamsterHuey said:

Sounds like you're living Proust.