It’s 2020: phones are faster than necessary, attention spans are shrinking, there’s something new to get upset about every day, the planet is burning, and there seems to be no real traction being made against the people responsible for all of it happening despite our efforts. Life is meaningless & existence is exhausting.
It may seem like an absolutely ridiculous suggestion, but now is the PERFECT time: you should read Marcel Proust’s magnum opus, In Search of Lost Time. Or Remembrance of Things Past. Or À la recherche du temps perdu if you wanna be a purist / a dick about it.
I think it’s a timely read not because the book discusses climate change, or it’s about the “Trump era” (a fave phrase among lazy pop culture writers these days). There aren’t crazy parallels to modern life that come to mind right away (although I’m sure there probably are). The reason I think it’s the perfect work for right now is primarily because the book is completely antithetical to what we have become as North Americans. Google around and you’ll find the internet is littered with people that have said idiotic things like, “it’s to long!!!” Or “1000000000 pages to describe a guy falling asleep?” Or a variation of “wtf y is it so long af, i’m not reading dis shit.” Indeed, some of the funniest reviews I’ve ever encountered are the book’s Google user reviews; many people have reviewed it without actually having read it.
I completely understand that this book is clearly not for everyone. But if you consider yourself a person of intelligence, a reader, a lover of language, or just generally enjoy fiction….it would be a crime to live a whole life without reading this. Whenever I hear that someone has read all of the novel my respect for them increases tenfold. And alternately: when I hear someone started and stopped reading it at like book 2 or 3, my level of respect for them immediately decreases. Sometimes I use it as a litmus test for girls I’m interested in as well: if she has no desire to read ISOLT she may not be marriage material IMO.
The unfortunate thing about Proust is he has this reputation as being one of the most daunting writers of all time, but when you get past that you might find yourself thoroughly enjoying it and thinking, “THIS is what people were complaining about?” There’s literally nothing to be afraid of. Reading his work is like luxuriating in a fucking jacuzzi surrounded by vanilla scented candles. You don’t even have to be that smart to understand what’s going on (I’m not a genius myself, I’m just some goof): you only have to be willing to dedicate the time to do it. It might take you all year, but by the end of your journey you’ll learn a lot about yourself.
Proust really went off: he famously immersed himself in a room lined with cork (yes, you read that correctly) in order to ensure zero noise would disturb him while writing, he wrote mostly lying down in bed, and as a result: no other work exists like this. Name another writer right now off the top of your head that completely lined their room with cork, or altered their writing process significantly in order to improve their writing. G’head I’ll wait. You probably can’t do it because no one else even comes close! So there!! It’s been 107 years since it was first published, and no other writer has gotten remotely close at all. It’s a favourite of mine for a lot of reasons, but a big one for me is the fact that it clearly accomplishes something impossible in any other medium: attempting to make a film adaptation of this book would be a lost cause.
It’s one of the few works I can think of, that by merely existing, forces you to reflect on its main themes: time, memory, and growth. It’s not just a great story, it’s a comment on the reader as well. The phrase, “I am a changed person,” when it comes to art gets thrown around frequently, and it may sound lazy, but no other phrase rings truer when discussing a book like this. When reading it you might find yourself nodding off, wanting to give up, or getting tired of the characters……but that is all part of it. Just embrace all the adversity of this great work and dive in. Don’t be a pussy! Read it! (Can we please make that a thing? Let’s start bullying people if they haven’t read Proust. You heard it here first, folks: if you haven’t read Proust in the 2020s that means you’re a loser!!! Pass it on!!! Look at this loser, he’s on his phone scrolling through photos of a girl that doesn’t even know he exists and never will instead of reading Proust!!! Idiot!! Let’s throw eggs at him because he doesn’t read books!!! lmao).
If you find yourself struggling to pay attention to things these days (and really, let’s be real here: who isn’t?), I urge you: get off your fucking phone, and please read all of IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME this year. It’s the ultimate brain training exercise (and I’d love to have more people to talk about it with).
