What's In a Place?

Happy Friday, readers! It's my first weekend after starting school this year of 2012, and as much as I've been enjoying all the fun and excitement I still get from beginning classes, I've also been itching to write more. I finished In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower a few days ago, but quickly started Gravity's Rainbow, a delicious, valid excuse for being a bit distracted. I've loved this going-back-to-books-I-never-finished, starting with The Meaning of Night, then Swann's Way, and now Pynchon; hopefully, I'll get to Ulysses, too. I've been even wondering if I should re-read some I did manage to finish a long time ago. Mainly this was because, on a trip to Barnes and Nobles tonight with my awesome boyfriend, I saw a copy of one of my favorite books ever that I sadly lost of over the years: East of Eden, my introduction to Steinbeck years ago. I was young enough that I thought I was old enough to read it; I think sufficient time has lapsed (I read it in the years when my room had only one bookshelf) for me to revisit it and not only get a completely different reading than I did then, but a much greater understanding. And, honestly, I don't remember it very much, just parts, and, of course, knowing then and there that never will there be a writer like Steinbeck. And I haven't found one since; he is genius, one of my absolute favorites, and having only his work to read doesn't even sound like a bad idea. 

I've probably drowned you all in Proust, so I really will (try to) keep this short. I ended last post talking about the first section, "At Mme Swann's," in which the narrator is finally allowed to become friends with his first love, only to experience the adolescent milestone of falling out of love for the first time. The second and last section is called "Places-Name: The Place," making clear the connection to "Places-Names: The Name." In the latter, at the end of Swann's Way, Marcel (always referring to the narrator, not to Proust) imagines and idealizes the places he wishes he can visit, but cannot, due to his frail health and sensitive nature. It's a short section, very pleasant to read, where he discourses on the ways a human mind conceptualizes a place yet visited. The name, he says, is suddenly distorted when it no longer strictly refers to a location, having taken on as well the grand ideas an individual has of the place. In "Places-Names: The Place," Marcel is finally able to visit one of his dream destinations, Balbec, a seaside town. As the contrasting title shows, here he ruminates on the actual impressions of a new a place: the removal and re-establishing of habit that a new location causes, the attitudes of hotel life, both in the aristocracy and the working class, and the change in our perspective of the location, for of course no expectation is ever met. At the very close of the novel, Marcel notes the irony; in Paris, he wanted to see Balbec for its storms, picturing beautifully violent and wild waves crashing into the church. Not only is he slightly disappointed by the church, and not only is the church far from the water--the weather remains sunny, blue, and calm for most of the summer, and Marcel seems just fine with this instead. He has his next experience in romance in Balbec with a group of girls he befriends, whom he loves vaguely and collectively, except for sometimes when his love focuses on Albertine, also from Paris.  

I definitely enjoyed this second section more than "At Mme Swann's", though they were both very different. The end of the novel introduced more characters, and, more importantly, there were greater times where I felt Marcel was participating in his surroundings. Though he remains quite a pansy, there are many things about Marcel's character to commend, and he does experience a certain growth in character. It is not only the enchanting girls he sees and/or meets that are " in flower," but Marcel is himself growing, experiencing new things and places, budding into a young man.  Anyways, I'm going to finally go to sleep, but tomorrow I will post some cool pics and talk about Gravity's Rainbow, maybe even give some good quotes from Proust. Goodnight, everyone!