Hi everyone!

While reading “Combray”, I realized that the main thing I struggle with when reading older literature is the specific way that they often construct sentences, especially figures of speech. It feels very convoluted to me, and I find it challenging to keep track of where sentences began in the first place. Often, there are complete, complex sentences within the first, and I find myself having to go back and reread the sentence to get the main point. At that point, I can go back and read the more descriptive complexities of the writing. I think that’s almost entirely what made this novel so challenging at times for me.

Besides that, I enjoyed the emotions that this evoked. In many ways, I felt that the narrator and his experiences were a reflection of the thoughts and feelings I’ve had throughout my life. In some ways, I mean this literally; I accidentally dislocated my sister’s elbow when I was around 6 while trying to pull her back to give me a hug and a kiss goodnight because she was refusing, so I absolutely understand how he’s feeling.

One of my favorite feelings is the way time seems to pass differently while reading, and I loved the way that Proust described it. Many parts of this work described feelings that I had never been able to put into words, and gave me a new perspective on my memories and experiences. I like the idea that the people in our lives are a culmination of our idea of them from our past experiences with them. Swann is perceived as two completely different people among the narrator’s family and among his friends in the ‘fashionable world’, and this is something I’ve often felt among my different relationships in my life.

Nostalgia has always felt very complex: it’s some combination of grief for what you used to have, but also joy as you re-experience the feelings you had during the time you’ve been taken back to. It’s also something that, for me, changes with time: generally speaking, the more recently the event happened, the more grief I feel, but with time, the joy and happiness take over, and I enjoy reflecting on it for the feeling it brings up. This mirrors the narrator’s descriptions of Guermantes and Méséglise way, and wanting to return to specifically those places as they were, and chasing something similar in the hopes of “recreating” that emotion.

While having to look up many of the references to “iconic” characters, I started to think about the pop culture references in books today. I think in this work, it helped to set the book in a certain period, but I was thinking about the ways that references to things like TikTok or popular TV shows today in books will be perceived in the future. I’m curious what your thoughts are about whether references like this may reduce relatability in books or help to add historical context?