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Showing posts from March, 2019

Reading Proust: Madam Swann At Home

One of the many interesting puzzles about In Search of Lost Time involves the age of the narrator or, rather, narrators.  In Swann’s Way there is clearly an older, overarching narrator augmenting the narration of a young boy.  In Within A Budding Grove , the second book of the novel, the narrator begins as a slightly older boy, though of undetermined age.  Meanwhile, the overarching narrator (possibly multiple older narrators of various ages) is present throughout to provide details that the boy/teenager does not yet comprehend. The book is divided into two lengthy parts.  “Madam Swann At Home” consists of about 300 pages while “Place-Names: The Place” becomes the longest section of the novel thus far weighing in at about 400 pages.   The reader is uncertain of the amount of time that actually passes in Part One.  Though two separate New Year’s Days are mentioned, the story reads as if a longer period of time has passed than it may seem.  The boyish narrator is more sophisticated t

Do Democrats Want Donald Trump Replacing Ruth Bader Ginsberg?

I already harped on this a couple of times previously .  For the Democrats in 2020 the question is very simple.  Do you want to be right or do you want to win? Young liberal Dems seem to be the most energized part of the party.  I would classify them as the only Democrats with as much energy as Trump's legions of hardcore supporters.  In 2020 Trump will have more than 60 million voters turn out and attempt to re-elect him.  Political passion, articulation, intelligence and bright ideas are not what elections are all about.   Elections are about numbers.  Presidential elections are about Electoral numbers.  That's all. So the wonderful ideas of change and a supposedly "better" world and so-called "progress" are bankrupt without the numbers supporting them. Do the liberal Democrats think there are more of them than there are conservative Republicans?  If they do, they are dead wrong .  There are not enough rabid liberals in America to offset the rabid

Reading Proust: Swann’s Way

After the first 200 pages or so of  Swann's Way the reader is acquainted with Proust’s style and what to expect in terms of elaboration going forward.  The first part of the book continues on in Combray.  That we are seeing things from the perspective of a young narrator is indicated by such passages as: “The walls of the houses, the Tansonville hedge, the trees of Roussainville wood, the bushes adjoining Montjouvian, all must bear the blows of my walking stick or umbrella, must hear my shouts of happiness, these being no more than expressions of the confused ideas which exhilarated me, and which had now achieved the repose of enlightenment, preferring the pleasures of a lazy drift towards an immediate outlet rather than submit to a slow and difficult course of elucidation.” (page 218) Much of Proust’s novel is sensual in its expression.  An early significant erotic moment comes when the boy is out late on a walk, his parents giving him permission to do so (it was a different,

Buffalo Springfield's Last Jam

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At the end of the last jam session.  Richie Furay, Stephen Stills playfully choking Neil Young, a shirtless Dewey Martin and Bruce Palmer.  These guys would never all play together again. For the past several months, I've been spending a lot of time on youtube exploring everything from rock classics to contemporary piano concerti.  One of the few instances where I don't mind my privacy being violated online is when youtube offers recommendations based on my viewing history.  There are usually some good ones in there and I have discovered several cool videos this way.   None are more cool than a 1986 rough video recording I recently came across featuring the original members of Buffalo Springfield jamming out in the second of what was supposed to be three rehearsals for a proposed 20th anniversary tour that never happened. The plans were always tentative.  The group was secretly meeting in one of Stephen's California homes.  It was hoped that some new material would