Lost Time Thursday: Little M. Goes Outside
Jun. 9th, 2016 02:58 pmArchive from Livejournal
We have Guermantes! I've been buying these books as I go, because I still anticipate wanting to keep them, but this month I have zero dollars in the bank, so I had to go to the library. I got The Guermantes Way and a stack of other books. But before I begin, I promised![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
osprey_archer, who was worried about Little M. spending so much time indoors with the curtains drawn (doctor's orders!), that I would post a more representative passage about all the time he does get to spend hanging out with Albertine and her friends on the beaches and bike paths of Balbec, after he's finished his prescribed agony of anticipation every morning. This scene is quintessentially Albertine and quintessentially Little M.:
( People shouldnt play if they wont pay attention )
And here's Little M. enjoying cake and the outdoors:
( With sandwiches I had nothing in common )
Everyone's age is a little ambiguous. Little M. seems to be about fifteen or sixteen here? But that's just a guess, and not exactly to the point, either: he's fifteen and imagining himself looking back from an imaginary far future, and an ancient fifteen lingering over distant golden memories of innocent fourteen, and also a grown man writing about himself at fifteen, plus any dozen or more child selves, no longer public but never really gone -- each one with its own inevitable haze, and each one inseparable from the others. The girls are stated to be a little younger than M., but earlier we heard them complaining about their high-school leaving exams, which would make them a little older. The answer is probably that there isn't really an answer, because this is a book about how no one is ever just one age.
That's really it for Within A Budding Grove! (for now). Next week, get ready for more bourgie French people walking back and forth in The Guermantes Way!
We have Guermantes! I've been buying these books as I go, because I still anticipate wanting to keep them, but this month I have zero dollars in the bank, so I had to go to the library. I got The Guermantes Way and a stack of other books. But before I begin, I promised
osprey_archer, who was worried about Little M. spending so much time indoors with the curtains drawn (doctor's orders!), that I would post a more representative passage about all the time he does get to spend hanging out with Albertine and her friends on the beaches and bike paths of Balbec, after he's finished his prescribed agony of anticipation every morning. This scene is quintessentially Albertine and quintessentially Little M.: ( People shouldnt play if they wont pay attention )
And here's Little M. enjoying cake and the outdoors:
( With sandwiches I had nothing in common )
Everyone's age is a little ambiguous. Little M. seems to be about fifteen or sixteen here? But that's just a guess, and not exactly to the point, either: he's fifteen and imagining himself looking back from an imaginary far future, and an ancient fifteen lingering over distant golden memories of innocent fourteen, and also a grown man writing about himself at fifteen, plus any dozen or more child selves, no longer public but never really gone -- each one with its own inevitable haze, and each one inseparable from the others. The girls are stated to be a little younger than M., but earlier we heard them complaining about their high-school leaving exams, which would make them a little older. The answer is probably that there isn't really an answer, because this is a book about how no one is ever just one age.
That's really it for Within A Budding Grove! (for now). Next week, get ready for more bourgie French people walking back and forth in The Guermantes Way!
