“Are you Judd Nelson?” I asked. A ridiculous question!

November 1, 2024 1:04 PM

I first started to read In Search of Lost Time in the fall of 2003. I was 29, unemployed, had recently finished graduate school, was still traumatized by a frightening experience in the World Trade Center on 9/11 (and deeply in denial of that trauma), and had picked up, semi-randomly, a copy of Swann’s Way. In a dim sense I was aware that the novel was part of a vaster work that was considered “difficult,” and featured a scene where a guy dunked . . . something into a beverage and then remembered things. But I knew nothing else about the book. from On Proust, Judd Nelson, and Some Other Things [The Millions]
posted by chavenet (15 comments total)

Well, I hope he didn't identify too much with the middle books. Because, my God.

But, yes, one of the more startling aspects of reading Proust for me was how he captured certain phenomena of perception that I had thought idiosyncratic to me, or at least not fully describable. These weren't, mind you, great aesthetic breakthroughs or anything, just certain interactions along the border of perception and reality. Genuinely surprising.
posted by praemunire at 1:21 PM on November 1 [6 favorites]

Oh, that was a lovely read.
posted by Czjewel at 1:29 PM on November 1 [2 favorites]

The minds simile of Proust and Judd Nelson is a titular Archie Goodwin.

Only after I stopped trying to understand the book
every teacher I ever had teaching joyce said the same thing.

moved past the sheer awe I felt merely holding it, did I actually begin to enjoy the damn thing.
I have to highly disagree it is not a fine glass of wine, it is something you chew through.

there's something antiproustian for Judd is a good actor and smart but I can't recall more then 3 movies he's done.

but he'd play a good Archie Goodwin.
posted by clavdivs at 2:03 PM on November 1 [2 favorites]

I have never made it through Proust, though I have very much wanted to, and it pains me that I have always gotten stuck rather quickly.

Some years ago, I took up a reading project: to read Ulysses, Moby Dick, and Middlemarch, three classics I'd never managed before. I also found reading Ulysses without trying to understand everything about it to work very well; I enjoyed Middlemarch, especially in the sense of finally understanding a great many references to it that I'd only vaguely gotten in the past; and I adored Moby Dick and became a great fan of Melville as a result. I especially loved the whale chapters that so many of my friends can't stand.

I've read both Ulysses and Middlemarch a second time. I often re-read books, and they often benefit from it, and Ulysses was very much like that. It made more sense to me, I saw how the pieces fit together better, and I enjoyed it more, though I am still not in love with James Joyce. I also enjoyed a second reading of Middlemarch without falling in love with George Eliot, though I do love the way the novel follows so many people's lives.

In fact, I was partly inspired to read Middlemarch by an excellent alternate universe/high school/no powers fanfic by M_Leigh, Middletown: A Study of Suburban Life, which also takes up a whole community and which, rare among any contemporary writers and rarer still, I suppose, among fanfic writers, is written in third-person omniscient. (A friend recently read a novel that claimed to be written in third-person omniscient but which turned out to be written in close third person, and we were both disappointed and disdainful.)

I have not re-read Moby Dick in its entirety, despite it being my favorite of the three books from this project. It is so chewy—so full of great sentences that I want to linger over, make sure I remember, embroider on samplers, share with the whole world—that I have trouble tackling it. Walden is something like the same way for me.

I am usually a binge reader, picking something up and reading until I am done with it, not necessarily in one sitting but certainly in one, say, week. I like this writer's ten-pages-a-day system for reading Proust, and it inspires me to do something similar with Moby Dick, and perhaps with Leaves Grass, for although I am actually a Whitman scholar and teach him regularly, I am not as familiar with the whole body of his poetic work as I might like to be.

And perhaps, I will do it with Swann's Way again. It is one of those books that I aspire to read, and I'd pretty much given up on it. But the idea of ten pages with a cup of coffee at the start of my day is a very pleasant one.
posted by Well I never at 2:42 PM on November 1 [6 favorites]

praemunire, this was exactly how I described my experience with Proust after having read the first two books!

I read them when I was 22, then for some unknown reason stopped, then read the whole cycle recently, 20 years later. I'll wait another 20 years and read them again.

The last book reminded me, in a very different style, of reading, as a kid, the sequel to "Les trois mousquetaires", "Vingt ans après"; and of the movie "Robin and Marian"; the bitter-sweetness of growing old.
posted by anzen-dai-ichi at 2:46 PM on November 1 [3 favorites]

And perhaps, I will do it with Swann's Way again. It is one of those books that I aspire to read, and I'd pretty much given up on it. But the idea of ten pages with a cup of coffee at the start of my day is a very pleasant one.

It took me three tries over a number of years to finish Swann's Way, but then I read all the others over a period of about one year. And, in fact, I reread the first part of Swann's Way then, because I didn't want to say good-bye yet. So give it a try; this time might be the time.
posted by ALeaflikeStructure at 5:05 PM on November 1 [1 favorite]

I tried picking up Swanns Way in college once, on a whim, and very quickly put it back down - not because I didn't like it, but more because I couldn't get a purchase on it - and I had a gut feeling that the reason why I couldn't was because it was just not the right time. I didn't have enough experience, or enough of the right kind of experiences, or something. I may try again in a few years.

I've read both Ulysses and Middlemarch a second time. I often re-read books, and they often benefit from it, and Ulysses was very much like that.

Years ago I was at the Joyce Center in Dublin, poking around while on a vacation. It was January, the off season, and I was one of maybe only two people there. The manager stopped to chat with me as I was browsing, and curiously asked me what brought me there. He'd caught me taking a picture of a mural depicting the different chapters of Ulysses and asked if I'd read it; I confessed that I'd started it a couple times but hadn't been able to get through it yet. "Oh, sure, but 'tis a meaty book," he reassured me. "It's not the kind of thing you can just pick up and read your first time through."

"Okay, but," I said sheepishly, "I've tried four times and still haven't made it."

He burst out laughing. "Ah, love, it took me twelve tries!"
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:14 PM on November 1 [8 favorites]

He does capture the way that Proust lures you on. At the very point where, having read 200 pages of the narrator’s meditations on his own pathetic jealousy, and when you are heartily sick of Marcel and his endless self-regarding bullshit, Proust gives you a sentence that perfectly shows you a feeling that you thought only you had ever felt, and promises you more epiphanies if you only climb the holy mountain alongside him.

Jesus fcking christ, I need to read this book again, even if it kills me. It is the Holy Grail.
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:23 PM on November 1 [5 favorites]

I tried picking up Swanns Way in college once, on a whim, and very quickly put it back down - not because I didn't like it, but more because I couldn't get a purchase on it - and I had a gut feeling that the reason why I couldn't was because it was just not the right time.

Didn't read it til my forties, no regrets about waiting that long.
posted by praemunire at 7:39 PM on November 1 [2 favorites]

Organizing a reading group can be really rewarding — it doesn’t have to be big, and, at 10 pages/day, it takes less than a year to finish — you can encourage each other and share observations. Well worth it, in my opinion.
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:02 AM on November 2 [3 favorites]

In my immediate family I became known for a continuous lugging around of one of Proust's volumes during two attempts at completion between ages 17 and 23. My mother (who I don't think has any connection to knowing who he is outside of me) still sends me clippings, say, of a Proust scholar lecturing at the metro library. I'm still kinda proud I got part-way through 'Cities of the Plain'.

I don't think Proust is for me. The older I get, the more I read of Proust fans' relationship to À la Recherche du Temps Perdu, the more I'm reinforced in thinking, this is exactly the type of novel I've grown to hate reading. I really enjoyed the style. And, having similarly bounced off Joyce's Ulysses twice, it's a refreshingly accessible tome despite its length, structure and obsession overall ephemeral flashes of emotion.

This is not to say 'Your Favorite Book Sucks' or dump on TFA. After R'ing TFA I actually admire Bryan Alistair Charles's writing for making it clear the small differences that separate me from inveterate Proust fans. Thanks for the link!

Maybe I'll try again in my 50s or 60s. In the meantime, Lolita is probably the top of my list for books to re-read for want of enough life experience to truly appreciate them the first time around.
posted by midmarch snowman at 7:24 AM on November 2 [1 favorite]

he captured certain phenomena of perception that I had thought idiosyncratic to me, or at least not fully describable

a sentence that perfectly shows you a feeling that you thought only you had ever felt

A definition of the best kind of fiction: the personal made universal. One precise moment in time made timeless.
posted by scratch at 7:36 AM on November 2 [3 favorites]

If you have any grounding in Romance languages, I might suggest trying the Combray section of Du côté de chez Swann in French. I do not speak French, nor do I understand it spoken, but with a grounding in Spanish and Italian, I was able to read it, sometimes paragraphs at a time, with only minimal use of a dictionary or a trot. Other times, I was looking up every third word, so it averaged out. The text in French is extremely satisfying to consume. I'd read ...chez Swann in English years and years ago, and it was fine. But I really got something (aside from a sense of accomplishment) out of doing it in French.
posted by the sobsister at 7:49 AM on November 2 [3 favorites]

Since we are all sharing, I started Proust in my 40s and finally finished in my 50s. I don't think I would have managed if I'd started earlier. Since it is more about remembering your youth rather than about being you, it probably helps to have some distance to your own younger years.
posted by YoungStencil at 11:22 AM on November 2 [4 favorites]

At the very point where, having read 200 pages of the narrator’s meditations on his own pathetic jealousy, and when you are heartily sick of Marcel and his endless self-regarding bullshit, Proust gives you a sentence that perfectly shows you a feeling that you thought only you had ever felt, and promises you more epiphanies if you only climb the holy mountain alongside him.

So much this! Of all things, I started reading it in an upper level undergrad class in about 2003! The professor was going to teach the whole thing in 4 months. Like, all 4,593 pages or whatever. A few in the class did finish, and I believe them. It took me 16 months. And the second I finished Time Regained I picked up Swann's Way and read it again. It's such a beautiful circle.

Along with the accomplishment of actually just finishing it it also cured me of a lot of jealousy just like you describe here. And to look for those sentences that just pop out with their beauty and accuracy; actually getting at the heart of what it means to be human or have an experience that I am so so so sure so many other humans have had. My favorite line from the whole thing, though, is "Gosh! Gosh! Gosh! Gosh!"

Great article, too!
posted by Snowishberlin at 12:20 PM on November 3 [1 favorite]