I ate something I shouldn't have...can Steven Drakker...

[whipped guy]

Personally I was never into Proust. However, Prowse and Abbé Prévost were another story!

 

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51RHtg%2BQTHL._SX382_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

 

http://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/data/images/1311157-Labb%C3%A9_Pr%C3%A9vost.jpg

 

[Guest Starbuck]

...That's when I was enjoying some of the other guys in the showers.

 

I think I know what you mean, but I hope you mean more than I think!

[+ WilliamM]

Amazing how that works. And his writing is ideal for that -- every paragraph has so much even on its own, never mind how it advances the story line.

 

I dip back into Proust again every few years now, but I like having a guide to the characters nearby. I know the major characters, but I enjoy being reminded who everyone is.

 

For me, it is richer experience. And some of the characters change social status significantly as well as spouses and lovers

[+ WilliamM]

Amazing how that works. And his writing is ideal for that -- every paragraph has so much even on its own, never mind how it advances the story line.

 

I am reading Norman Mailer's World War Two Pacific war novel, "The Naked and the Dead" again. Mailer was only 24 when he wrote the book. In the 50th anniversary edition, Mailer wrote that he often started the day reading passages from "Anna Karenina," learning writing and life skills, especially compassion, from Tolstoy.

 

For me, I also learn from Thomas Mann's "The Magic Mountain" again and again.

[AdamSmith]

Madame Bovary is good to dip into at random too. (Not too often!)

[Guest Starbuck]

Personally I was never into Proust.

 

I dip back into Proust again every few years .

 

I can't help but wonder if our fellow Forum poster "marcelproust" has noticed your comments, Gentlemen. If that's him in his avatar, well -- zowie! -- I guess congratulations are in order for you, WilliamM!

[+ Gar1eth]

We used to have a Forum Member named Charlus who I believe is a character in Proust. But he hasn't posted in years, and I'm fairly sure he doesn't even check in on the Forum anymore.

 

Gman

[+ WilliamM]

I can't help but wonder if our fellow Forum poster "marcelproust" has noticed your comments, Gentlemen. If that's him in his avatar, well -- zowie! -- I guess congratulations are in order for you, WilliamM!

 

marcel has posted infrequently, but is online now. My avatar is really me; what a coincidence if marcel's avatar is actual him. long odd, i am afraid.

 

We used to have a Forum Member named Charlus who I believe is a character in Proust. But he hasn't posted in years, and I'm fairly sure he doesn't even check in on the Forum anymore.

 

charlus is one of the three or four main characters in proust. you have been reading swann in love, i guess.

[AdamSmith]

If I were not AdamSmith, I should have been Jupien.

[Guest Starbuck]

If I were not AdamSmith, I should have been Jupien.

 

So I clicked on the link, and rather than going right to the top of the page, my eye fell upon ...

 

A kind of dance begins, where Jupien, “in perfect symmetry with the Baron” had “drawn back his head, set his torso at an advantageous angle, placed his fist on his hip with a grotesque impertinence and made his behind stick out, striking poses with the coquettishness that the orchid might have had for the providential advent of the bumblebee.” ...

 

... and now when I look at your avatar, AdamSmith -- that sober profile -- I imagine a more frolicsome fellow below the shoulder.

[AdamSmith]

... and now when I look at your avatar, AdamSmith -- that sober profile -- I imagine a more frolicsome fellow below the shoulder.

 

You should see when I take off the wig.

[+ Gar1eth]

So I clicked on the link, and rather than going right to the top of the page, my eye fell upon ...

 

A kind of dance begins, where Jupien, “in perfect symmetry with the Baron” had “drawn back his head, set his torso at an advantageous angle, placed his fist on his hip with a grotesque impertinence and made his behind stick out, striking poses with the coquettishness that the orchid might have had for the providential advent of the bumblebee.” ...

 

... and now when I look at your avatar, AdamSmith -- that sober profile -- I imagine a more frolicsome fellow below the shoulder.

 

You should see when I take off the wig.

 

Adam, do you often stand impertinently with your arms .....(wait for it).....akimbo?

 

Gman

[MiamiLooker]

You should see when I take off the wig.

Don't take off the wig...

[+ WilliamM]

If I were not AdamSmith, I should have been Jupien.

 

Would Robert, Marquis de Saint-Loop-en-Brey be your second choice, Adam? Or are you turned off by his amazing, but declining, artistocratic relatives, including Charlus.

 

Smart pick in selecting Jupien, by the way.

[AdamSmith]

Adam, do you often stand impertinently with your arms .....(wait for it).....akimbo?

 

Hardly ever!

 

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01484/rembrandtEDDIE_1484467c.jpg

 

However...

 

http://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Arts/Arts_/Pictures/2014/4/30/1398873149854/Peter-Duggans-Artoon---co-017.jpg?w=940&q=85&auto=format&sharp=10&s=a4f4bd3bd9ad1c18c95b30022b65cb62

[AdamSmith]

Would Robert, Marquis de Saint-Loop-en-Brey be your second choice, Adam? Or are you turned off by his amazing, but declining, artistocratic relatives, including Charlus.

 

Oh, my second choice would have to be Bergotte.

 

But if I actually died and somehow woke up inside Recherche, I would almost certainly find that I was instead Brichot. (Remember him?)

 

If not Mme Verdurin!

[whipped guy]

Sorry to admit to being so shallow.... But!!!! Damn this thread more than any other has driven me not only to my Thesaurus, but to Google search as well... and a multiplicity of times.

 

Well I just checked out these Charlus and Jupien characters and they are indeed "characters" in more ways than one! All I can say is OMFG!!!!!

 

Well, I guess that I have indeed lived a sheltered life and up until this point wasted waaay too much time pulling teeth and at times literally so. If only I were privy to more Proust!

[AdamSmith]

WG, you carry around enough opera knowledge to sink Proust and a dozen like him. Way ahead of the game!

[+ WilliamM]

But if I actually died and somehow woke up inside Recherche, I would almost certainly find that I was instead Brichot. (Remember him?)

 

Brichot is in one of the best scenes in the entire story, involving Morel and Charlus.

[+ Gar1eth]

Adam, do you often stand impertinently with your arms .....(wait for it).....akimbo?

 

Gman

 

Hardly ever!

 

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01484/rembrandtEDDIE_1484467c.jpg

 

 

Aren't you at least half akimbo here? I can't see what your left arm is doing.

 

However...

 

http://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Arts/Arts_/Pictures/2014/4/30/1398873149854/Peter-Duggans-Artoon---co-017.jpg?w=940&q=85&auto=format&sharp=10&s=a4f4bd3bd9ad1c18c95b30022b65cb62

 

I'm not good at visualizing things. But in this picture is Heptup putting all his weight on his back or front foot? I think it's his front. But I'm not a good visualizer as I said. I couldn't even do mechanical drawings in Shop Class in 7th and 8th grade.

 

Gman

[bigvalboy]

Sorry to admit to being so shallow.... But!!!! Damn this thread more than any other has driven me not only to my Thesaurus, but to Google search as well... and a multiplicity of times.

 

I'm with WG, and actually I've just about given up, besides Judge Judy is on, and that I can understand.

[whipped guy]

WG, you carry around enough opera knowledge to sink Proust and a dozen like him. Way ahead of the game!

Well there is some overlap!

 

http://www.operanews.com/uploadedImages/Opera_News_Magazine/2011/6(3)/Departments/BooksOperaNovel1211.jpg

 

Balzac, Tolstoy, Flaubert, Dumas dealt mainly with Italian composers. Proust made references to Wagner's Tristan und Isolde if I recall correctly.

 

PS: For non opera aficionados that's a quite different Tristan by the way!

 

Though it does fit nicely into this thread!

[+ Gar1eth]

Sorry to admit to being so shallow.... But!!!! Damn this thread more than any other has driven me not only to my Thesaurus, but to Google search as well... and a multiplicity of times.

 

 

I'm with WG, and actually I've just about given up, besides Judge Judy is on, and that I can understand.

 

Y'all think y'all are shallow? I can't imagine getting anywhere close to Proust until he comes out in a Classic Illustrated Comics, and that isn't very likely as the title is defunct.

 

http://www.tkinter.smig.net/classicsillustrated/TaleOfTwoCities/images/Cover.jpg

The only thing making me feel somewhat better is that I made a 96% on this quiz of Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader.

 

http://www.washingtontimes.com/quiz/2015/jul/14/are-you-smarter-5th-grader/

Gman

 

 

[bigvalboy]

Y'all think y'all are shallow? I can't imagine getting anywhere close to Proust until he comes out in a Classic Illustrated Comics, and that isn't very likely as the title is defunct.

 

http://www.tkinter.smig.net/classicsillustrated/TaleOfTwoCities/images/Cover.jpg

 

Is it just me, or is this illustration kinda hot? ...WG is gonna like this one.

[whipped guy]

Y'all think y'all are shallow? I can't imagine getting anywhere close to Proust until he comes out in a Classic Illustrated Comics, and that isn't very likely as the title is defunct.

 

http://www.tkinter.smig.net/classicsillustrated/TaleOfTwoCities/images/Cover.jpg

The only thing making me feel somewhat better is that I made a 96% on this quiz of Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader.

 

http://www.washingtontimes.com/quiz/2015/jul/14/are-you-smarter-5th-grader/

Gman

 

Yeah that's how I made it through high school! The CliffsNotes had no pics.

Is it just me, or is this illustration kinda hot? ...WG is gonna like this one.

Yeah, the executioner guy looks like he would be a fun guy with whom to spend some time!