proust

Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (pronounced [maʁsɛl pʁust]) (July 10, 1871 – November 18, 1922) was a French novelist, essayist and critic, best known as the author of À la recherche du temps perdu (in English, In Search of Lost Time; earlier translated as Remembrance of Things Past), a monumental work of twentieth-century fiction published in seven parts from 1913 to 1927.

Proust, who was homosexual[2], was one of the first European novelists to treat homosexuality openly and at length.
His life and family circle changed considerably between 1900 and 1905. In February 1903, Proust's brother Robert married and left the family home. His father died in September of the same year. Finally, and most crushingly, Proust's beloved mother died in September 1905, leaving him a considerable inheritance. (In today's terms, a principal of about $6 million, with a monthly income of about $15,000.) His health throughout this period continued to deteriorate.
Proust spent the last three years of his life largely confined to his cork-lined bedroom, sleeping during the day and working at night to complete his novel. He died in 1922 and is buried in the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.

So i was watching 'Little Miss Sunshine' for about the third time, and Steve Carrell's character is is a preeminent Proust scholar, and having both an english and philosophy major i wonder how i get to the end of my degree without having studied such an important figure. And the fact is that after fist year classes, there are only specialist classes that can skip certain key figures in culture. So you can actually go through your whole degree without learning about one of those literary or historical figures that yo u'should' know about. Kind of like that list that has the 1,000 books you should read before dying. And you'll be lucky to read a couple of them while paying the bills and working to make a living. Even if you read a few horus a day for the rest of your life you'll be lucky to get through abotu 10% of the book you 'should' read.

So i guess my point is that fitting in work , and social activities and such you can't be expected to know every little culture reference in a piece of cinema or so forth... and also i would say , and strongly say that if you are doing a degree such as philosophy english or even science degrees you can learn more if yo ujust sit down and read the text books at your own leisure without worrying about university and exams and all that BS. like when it comes to philosophy if i bought a whole bunch of books like Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, or Satre, and just sat down and read them, i would learn more in five weeks then i would in a whole three year degree. And i strongly believe that becaus ei have a philosophy major and i have never even read one piece by Nietzsche, and i would say that is an atrocity.

i'm pretty taxed with my time lately so i have no time to scratch myself or have the leasure of thought that i used to so talk about.Even now i feel like instead of rambling i should be relaxing so i can chill and be refreshed for my business work on monday. i am testing and tagging a whole coal mine, it's a big job but hopefully will be rewarding, running a business is proving to be very taxing on time and emotions, but now everything is set-up it is getting easier, and hopefully i'll have some time to blog ... so also let me know with a comment if you are still reading,, i'm like a talk-back radio guy who needs calls to have somethign to talk about and feel inspired.

have a nice day everyone,

ciao