I was unfortunately unable to attend our last meeting, but luckily Sean took some notes on what was discussed and passed them on to me to post here. Looks like it was once again a pretty thought-provoking meeting and I'm sorry that I couldn't attend. As Sean writes, the topics of discussion were:
-Proust's sense of humor in many sections, e.g. King Theodosious character (who is actually a Roman emperor who banned homosexuality)
-The place-name section serving as a bridge between Swann in Love and the next volume
-The change in the point of view of narrator from volume one to two
-"Multiple Swanns" - Swann from the point of view of young Marcel, vs. slightly older Marcel, etc.
-How we are experiencing reading the book - higher tolerance for longer sentences - "breaks" from very long descriptions make reading on easier
-We spent lots of time talking about the visit at Marcel's house from M. Norpois, and his initial encouragement of Marcel's literary career, and later his criticism of his admiration of Bergotte
-We also got into an interesting discussion of Marcel's experience at Phedre - how his expectations were higher of Berma than what he saw, but that he changes his mind after talking to M. Norpois
-Another interesting point brought up by MC is that Proust seems to be playing with the formation of an aesthetic theory throughout the novel
The next meeting will be on Wednesday, March 7 at the same place/time (7pm at the Strathcona Library meeting room). I hope to see you there!
Hi Everyone,
ReplyDeleteI have a fair amount of time to read here, so am moving right along in Volume two, with Marcel now at the Grand Hotel in Balbec with Grandma and talking alot about social class.and making friends with a couple of rather unpleasnat guys. M. Charlus has surfaced here again; a strange character!. Marcel hasn't met the group of girls yet, but that is coming soon. I'm wondering where everyone is in the series and what you are discussing tonight. I don't want to get too far ahead as I will forget what has gone before; I have started making a few notes, and at least listing the characters as they turn up.
Yvette
I'm at the end of the first part of Volume Two, not quite to the Balbec section. I'm not sure where everyone else is, but we'll sort that out after our meeting tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteDid you find Robert de Saint-Loup unpleasant? I actually find him one of the most sympathetic characters in the whole book. And as for Charlus: just wait, he gets even stranger! Definitely one of the most fascinating characters in the whole novel.