So, am I wasting my time? I believe Proust would have thought so....
Today I read the following from Proust:
"A book is a product of a different self from the one we manifest in our habits, in society, in our vices. If we mean to try to understand this self it is only in our inmost depths, by endeavoring to reconstruct it there, that the quest can be achieved."And, indeed, Proust very firmly believed that the book is not the man, and that knowing about the man does absolutely nothing in terms of understanding his writing. Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve, a respected 19th c. critic (1804-1869), felt that the artist and his or her work were inseparable, that one must know and comprehend the artist's biography in order to understand their work.
Proust took great exception to this, and set out to refute it in a series of essays, called Contre Sainte-Beuve (Against Sainte-Beuve), from which the quote above is taken. But how can one discount the life-experiences of an author and say that none of these have any bearing whatsoever on his or her writing. Proust was, I feel, contradicting himself, as so much of ISOLT is drawn from his own experiences: his illnesses, his insomnia, his relationship with his mother, his wide circle of friends and acquaintances who had a great deal of influence on his thoughts and ideas....
I suppose that knowing all this information before hand might predispose one to some prejudice of opinion when reading the author's work; however, as soon as I started reading Proust, I felt the need to learn more about the man and what shaped his life and mind, what might have led him to write in such a way and about such subjects as sleep, dreaming, and memory.
In any case, it is too late now! I cannot take away the knowledge I have gained.
"Tant pis!!" I say!
-Michel
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