My Summer with Proust, Eventually

Recently I was making the point, actually, quite honestly, that I was hoping to get most of my research (an impossible task) for the epics project done by next summer that I could devote the time to reading Proust's Remembrance of Things Past.  Not surprisingly, I was immediately attacked, albeit gently, by my friends because the statement was either immeasurably self-serving or the absolute definition of something a nerd would say.  My supposition is that it is probably about 10% of the former and 90% of the latter, although I may be cutting myself too much slack.  That said, I have been thinking about reading Proust (I think I made it through most of the first two books, but that was around twenty years ago), and the notion of setting aside an entire summer to focus on it seems like a wonderful way to spend one's time (sadly, and appropriately, the only person, besides myself, who thinks this is an excellent idea is my great friend Sanford Zale).  Part of the project would be finding someone to meet once a week for coffee so that we could discuss Proust (the picture below is truly representative expression of the responses to my proposal.  Secondly, I'd like to write every day, probably in this blog, on my reflections on that day's reading, and then tie it to deeper explorations of Proust's ideas and how they related to my own life and memory (as Proust reminds us, the memory of a particular image is just regret over a particular event).  So, I'd reflect on the words of Proust, and then tie them to a specific memory of my own.  And then just see where it takes me, either in the direction of an introduction to Proust or a novel.  So far, no takers on the coffee front, but I'll keep plugging away.  Now, all I need to do is get this book on the epics completed . . .

My excellent friend Heidi Steiner-Burkhardt.  The look on her face tells all you need to know of her response to my proposal that we meet weekly in the summer to discuss Proust.