{"id":29,"date":"2026-01-12T00:32:52","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T07:32:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/qtrmst\/?p=29"},"modified":"2026-01-19T00:34:58","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T07:34:58","slug":"memories-a-mosaic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/qtrmst\/2026\/01\/12\/memories-a-mosaic\/","title":{"rendered":"Memories = a mosaic"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m not gonna lie, guys… this was a tough one to get through \ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n

Though after finishing the reading and watching the lecture, I can see how the difficulty and challenge in understanding Proust are part of the Modernism era. The start of Swann’s Way<\/em> jumped back and forth between narration and memories, which seemed to have no correlation to each other besides being part of an author’s rant. It wasn’t until the introduction of M. Swann that I began to tune into the narrator’s story and grasp some sort of plot that I could envision. With this being said, I now understand how Modernist texts can challenge a reader’s habits, as I was not accustomed to this type of storytelling; the type that does not have a basic framework of “beginning, conflict, resolution.”<\/p>\n

Proust’s novel also made me realise how easy it is to dismiss lengthy and confusing writing as bad<\/em> writing. Perhaps my ego was insulted, or maybe I genuinely did not think it was good, but I know for sure that I was left uncomfortable and questioning my own ability to interpret written language. Looking at Proust’s work through the goals of the Modernism era made the reading more enjoyable and allowed me to be more flexible when it came to trying to interpret what was being portrayed. There is often a need to find a resolution in a story once it is being told, and at the beginning of the book, I entered with such a mindset. Funnily enough, it was only through self-reflection, understanding the “frame” that surrounded Proust’s writing, and not requiring full transparency to actually “accept” the novel mentally.<\/p>\n

I’m wondering if any of you guys also felt similarly? Like, was it hard for you to focus in on the book, or is it my ADHD kicking in? Also, when Prof. Jon talked about how some Modernism texts could be seen as “classist” (e.g. TS Elliot’s The Waste Land), I could totally see how Proust’s writing has the same forceful language that seems unnecessary for a mundane audience. For example, this run-on sentence looks like a huge wall:<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

And his usage of “viscissitudes,” “innocuous,” “brevity,” and “illusory” in THE SAME ONE sentence.<\/p>\n

Hm, my other thoughts on the book! There are a couple of quotes that stuck with me.<\/p>\n

“Habit! That skillful but very slow housekeeper who begins by letting our mind suffer for weeks in a temporary arrangement; but whom we are nevertheless truly happy to discover, for without habit our mind, reduced to no mpre than its own resources, would be powerless to make a lodging habitable.” (p. 8)<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“I could cry without sin.” (p. 38)<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I love this second one. Were there any quotes or parts in the story that felt compelling to you? Comment down your fav ones ! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m not gonna lie, guys… this was a tough one to get through \ud83d\ude41 Though after finishing the reading and watching the lecture, I can see how the difficulty and challenge in understanding Proust are part of the Modernism era. The start of Swann’s Way jumped back and forth between narration and memories, which seemed to have no correlation to...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107696,"featured_media":32,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,23],"tags":[12,11,13,9,10],"class_list":["post-29","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-meh","category-proust","tag-childhood","tag-memories","tag-mommys-boy","tag-proust","tag-time"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/qtrmst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/qtrmst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/qtrmst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/qtrmst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107696"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/qtrmst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/qtrmst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/qtrmst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29\/revisions\/47"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/qtrmst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/qtrmst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/qtrmst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/qtrmst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}