Reading Proust's In Search of Lost Time in 2014 discussion

I considered it, but have not gotten my act together yet. : )

Alia I have read it! Just now admittedly. :-)
I enjoyed reading your blog about reading Proust. In a way your photo encapsulates very accurately what it's like to read Proust; and probably, how it was like to be inside Proust's head. So much going on - finding the time and solitude to put it down before it's lost forever, which was probably what made him take to the bed to write so intensely in the later part of his life. Perhaps to look at a work of art...really look or listen, as Proust seemed to, was a way to slow down, and catch one's breath.
I was going to try and create a couple of works of art around my reading of Proust this year (albeit I’m not sure whether I’ll be blogging about it. I do a lot of writing but I write for myself and when I try to write for others it’s not quite the same. Perhaps I feel that writing leaves you too exposed and vulnerable), – the theme of how art is central to make sense or make meaning or get one’s bearings in the novel resonates with me. I suffered from a back injury towards the end of last year, which made me unable to work for four months and my making requires lots of physical labouring, so I’m not sure I’ll be able to achieve what I want. I’ll have to pace myself and see how my body holds up. You mention working in bursts or when the inspiration strikes and it's not necessarily a flaw of character. Sometimes you need to give yourself permission not to do and just be (often we have to rely on illness to take time out). I suppose we can learn a lot from the dilettantes Swann and Marcel. Or the way Keats phrased it - encourage more ‘diligent indolence’ in our days. It was a blessing to be flat on my back, unable to move as it gave me permission to idle my days reading, or thinking or doodling.
(In a letter to his friend Reynolds Keats wrote) ‘I had an idea that a Man might pass a very pleasant life in this manner - Let him on a certain day read a certain page of full Poesy or distilled Prose, and let him wander upon it, and bring home to it, and prophesy upon it, and dream upon it: until it becomes stale - But when will it do so? Never - When Man has arrived at a certain ripeness in intellect any one grand and spiritual passage serves him as a starting-post towards all 'the two-and-thirty Palaces.' How happy is such a voyage of concentration, what delicious diligent Indolence!...’
So much of art making requires the capacity, not only for solitude, but for play, and reverie.
While I like that I can converse with you from ‘down under’ I dislike so much the way people don’t think and everything is required fast. People don’t bother picking up books but want a ‘link’ – something fast and easily digestible, so that they can click on another link and ‘share’. Sometimes I think ‘Proust get to the bloody point’ and then I come across a sentence that is so insightful and beautifully written that I think ‘yes but what makes you bury it’. He makes us work at getting to the gems of his writings and insights and isn’t that definitely a bonus?
Well I've babbled on for long enough. Off to the physio.
Cheers

Very nice blog, Alia. Good insight. I too, don't think Proust is for everyone. I enjoyed the pictures as well!