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casparb's review
OKAY for the meme maybe I did indeed do three or four thousand pages of prep reading for this. anything for u anne <3
THIS BEING SAId imagine my surprise that the three or four thousand pages of prep reading felt like they were needed, that I wouldn't have loved this pamphlet half so much if I hadn't swanned through (har har har) all of proust
going to spiel but this is just A Great Piece of Literary Criticism she's so precise, incisive, and knows when her point has been made. ..
I'm with anne in that the autobiographical reading of the novel 'is a graceless, intrusive and saddening hermeneutic mechanism; in the case of Proust it is also irresistible'. This I think puts it perfectly. There are so many colours to this tiny (38page) pamphlet. I think if you read this without context you could be persuaded (or feel you'd been persuaded) to hate proust, and Carson is absolutely, rightly, stressing the more concerning, problematic elements of MP's representation of Albertine asleep, of plant respiration. but she's also, unsurprisingly, wiser than tapping the big sign that says PROBLEMatic & calling it a day. The extraordinary pathos with which Carson draws attention to the real-life death of Proust's lover, his chauffeur Alfred Agostinelli, in an aviation accident (in a plane Marcel bought for him, under the name "Marcel Swann", with the Mallarmé inscription 'un cygne d'autrefois'...) made me ache. I think I've been obsessing about planes in Proust for as long as they're in the novel, as a fresh piece of technology. Carson seems to tie this all up.. o the dark-wing dove... I'm tatters
I luv that she has fun reading proust too, , devises a little catalogue of adjectives throughout as they are applied to 'air'.... what would we do without you anne
thank you kate !mwah
THIS BEING SAId imagine my surprise that the three or four thousand pages of prep reading felt like they were needed, that I wouldn't have loved this pamphlet half so much if I hadn't swanned through (har har har) all of proust
going to spiel but this is just A Great Piece of Literary Criticism she's so precise, incisive, and knows when her point has been made. ..
I'm with anne in that the autobiographical reading of the novel 'is a graceless, intrusive and saddening hermeneutic mechanism; in the case of Proust it is also irresistible'. This I think puts it perfectly. There are so many colours to this tiny (38page) pamphlet. I think if you read this without context you could be persuaded (or feel you'd been persuaded) to hate proust, and Carson is absolutely, rightly, stressing the more concerning, problematic elements of MP's representation of Albertine asleep, of plant respiration. but she's also, unsurprisingly, wiser than tapping the big sign that says PROBLEMatic & calling it a day. The extraordinary pathos with which Carson draws attention to the real-life death of Proust's lover, his chauffeur Alfred Agostinelli, in an aviation accident (in a plane Marcel bought for him, under the name "Marcel Swann", with the Mallarmé inscription 'un cygne d'autrefois'...) made me ache. I think I've been obsessing about planes in Proust for as long as they're in the novel, as a fresh piece of technology. Carson seems to tie this all up.. o the dark-wing dove... I'm tatters
I luv that she has fun reading proust too, , devises a little catalogue of adjectives throughout as they are applied to 'air'.... what would we do without you anne
thank you kate !mwah
arthurian's review
3.0
"53.
There are four ways Albertine is able to avoid becoming entirely possessible in volume 5: by sleeping, by lying, by being a lesbian or by being dead.
54.
Only the first three of these she can bluff."
There are four ways Albertine is able to avoid becoming entirely possessible in volume 5: by sleeping, by lying, by being a lesbian or by being dead.
54.
Only the first three of these she can bluff."
lattelibrarian's review
5.0
Anything that Anne Carson does impresses me. This little chapbook was better than any book review I could ever read about Proust's work. I mean, how does she manage to give both everything and nothing away? I gotta know how all these points intersect and link to one another!!
Written with her usual style that typically leaves me feeling nostalgic for something I've never experienced, this book is one of a kind and greatly differs from the other two works of hers I've read. If there's one thing in this world that I want to know, it's how Carson learned to categorize her ideas and how she wrote them down so eloquently.
Cross-listed here!
Written with her usual style that typically leaves me feeling nostalgic for something I've never experienced, this book is one of a kind and greatly differs from the other two works of hers I've read. If there's one thing in this world that I want to know, it's how Carson learned to categorize her ideas and how she wrote them down so eloquently.
Cross-listed here!
agneix's review against another edition
4.0
adjetivos são as alças do Ser. substantivos nomeiam o mundo, adjetivos permitem que agarremos esses nomes, impedindo-os de esvoaçar por nossa mente como uma explanação pré-socrática do cosmos.
em outro momento,
conhecer os outros é insuportável. os quimonos japoneses estavam em moda em paris nos anos 20. foram redesenhados para o mercado europeu, com mangas mais estreitas e bolsos mais largos. albertine guarda todas as suas cartas no bolso do quimono que tão descuidadamente atira sobre uma cadeira no quarto de marcel um minuto antes de adormecer. a verdade a respeito de albertine perto assim. marcel não investiga. conhecer os outros é insuportável.
não sei se a anne carson já escreveu algo desinteressante
em outro momento,
conhecer os outros é insuportável. os quimonos japoneses estavam em moda em paris nos anos 20. foram redesenhados para o mercado europeu, com mangas mais estreitas e bolsos mais largos. albertine guarda todas as suas cartas no bolso do quimono que tão descuidadamente atira sobre uma cadeira no quarto de marcel um minuto antes de adormecer. a verdade a respeito de albertine perto assim. marcel não investiga. conhecer os outros é insuportável.
não sei se a anne carson já escreveu algo desinteressante
kassiani's review against another edition
Amazed by AC’s brain.
On unknowable things.
Proust uses Albertine to show his understanding of human love: that we only love that which we cannot fully possess (what's always in movement, attractive and loveable due to its apparent freedom and unattainability), but we want to fully possess that which we love (which detracts from its attractiveness and inevitably leads to boredom). So the narrator holds her hostage, while knowing that he really wants her to resist his possession. So he becomes obsessed with the ways in which she can escape him: sleeping, lying, being gay, being dead.
Anne Carson also questions the connection between desire and control: Why do we love that which eludes us? Why do we gravitate toward that which we cannot fully comprehend?
// René Girard : "et dans la mesure où il la séquestre, il ne désire plus. Il est donc obligé de la laisser échapper, pour récupérer son désir, mais qui est aussi récupérer sa souffrance, et chercher à la faire revenir. Donc il y a un va-et-vient... On fait l'expérience répétée, presque scientifique, du fait que le désir mimétique est avant tout désir de la distance, désir de l'absence, désir de ce qui ne se donne pas."
// as opposed to 'The Whistler' by Mary Oliver - learning new things about a loved one even after thirty years together, always be amazed by them: "I know her so well, I think. I thought. Elbow and ankle.. Mood and desire. Anguish and frolic. Anger too. And the devotions. And for all that, do we even begin to know each other? Who is this I’ve been living with for thirty years?"
Carson also weaves in allusions to other texts to amplify her reading of Albertine—from snippets of Barthes, to excurses on boredom in Beckett, to ruminations on Zeno’s second paradox. Carson dwells on the famous “transposition theory” of Albertine’s identity. This theory, championed by André Gide among others, argued that Albertine was really a female proxy of Alfred Agostinelli, Proust’s chauffeur and unrequited love object.
Loved especially the Appendix - on adjectives, with a little catalogue of adjectives Proust applied to 'air' - on the speed limit in France at the time and Alfred's "speed nun" rubber outfit.
38. This pictorial multiplicity of Albertine evolves gradually into a plastic and moral multiplicity. Albertine is not a solid object. She is unknowable. When he brings his face close to hers to kiss she is ten different Albertines in succession.
53. There are four ways Albertine is able to avoid becoming possessable in Volume Five: by sleeping, by lying, by being a lesbian or by being dead.
On unknowable things.
Proust uses Albertine to show his understanding of human love: that we only love that which we cannot fully possess (what's always in movement, attractive and loveable due to its apparent freedom and unattainability), but we want to fully possess that which we love (which detracts from its attractiveness and inevitably leads to boredom). So the narrator holds her hostage, while knowing that he really wants her to resist his possession. So he becomes obsessed with the ways in which she can escape him: sleeping, lying, being gay, being dead.
Anne Carson also questions the connection between desire and control: Why do we love that which eludes us? Why do we gravitate toward that which we cannot fully comprehend?
// René Girard : "et dans la mesure où il la séquestre, il ne désire plus. Il est donc obligé de la laisser échapper, pour récupérer son désir, mais qui est aussi récupérer sa souffrance, et chercher à la faire revenir. Donc il y a un va-et-vient... On fait l'expérience répétée, presque scientifique, du fait que le désir mimétique est avant tout désir de la distance, désir de l'absence, désir de ce qui ne se donne pas."
// as opposed to 'The Whistler' by Mary Oliver - learning new things about a loved one even after thirty years together, always be amazed by them: "I know her so well, I think. I thought. Elbow and ankle.. Mood and desire. Anguish and frolic. Anger too. And the devotions. And for all that, do we even begin to know each other? Who is this I’ve been living with for thirty years?"
Carson also weaves in allusions to other texts to amplify her reading of Albertine—from snippets of Barthes, to excurses on boredom in Beckett, to ruminations on Zeno’s second paradox. Carson dwells on the famous “transposition theory” of Albertine’s identity. This theory, championed by André Gide among others, argued that Albertine was really a female proxy of Alfred Agostinelli, Proust’s chauffeur and unrequited love object.
Loved especially the Appendix - on adjectives, with a little catalogue of adjectives Proust applied to 'air' - on the speed limit in France at the time and Alfred's "speed nun" rubber outfit.
38. This pictorial multiplicity of Albertine evolves gradually into a plastic and moral multiplicity. Albertine is not a solid object. She is unknowable. When he brings his face close to hers to kiss she is ten different Albertines in succession.
53. There are four ways Albertine is able to avoid becoming possessable in Volume Five: by sleeping, by lying, by being a lesbian or by being dead.
readbynorah's review
3.0
Carson’s writing is unmatched, this book just didn’t do it for me unfortunately