Why NOT "A screaming comes across the sky"?

[Paul Mackin]

On Aug 27, 2006, at 8:28 AM, Otto wrote:

> Yeah, agreed, and it's the only short sentence in Proust's whole book.


What about the importance of last lines? Nobody ever talks about  
these. But in the  Proust book the last sentence is pretty  
remarkable. Especially the final phrase, which--though part of a  
slightly long sentence (set off by a dash) --is even shorter than  
"for a long time I used to go to bed early."  It too includes the  
concept of time,  but now in an all encompassing sense. Thus the book  
travels from "longtemps" to "dans le Temps." The later currently  
translated literally,  as "in time" though earlier translations had  
"in the realm of time."

Used to keep big chunks of the book on my iPod for falling-asleep  
purposes. It's very soothing. Now I have Finnegans Wake which  
surprisingly is not  soothing or sleep prompting  at all, even though  
it is  sometimes interpreted as a dream.

Just because Proust is soothing doesn't mean it isn't good.

Please excuse  my indulgences.



>
> Otto
>
> 2006/8/27, robinlandseadel at comcast.net <robinlandseadel at comcast.net>:
>> Just to set the record straight (it's a great beginning):
>>
>> "For a long time, I went to bed early."
>>  -------------- Original message ----------------------
>> From: Dave Monroe <monropolitan at yahoo.com>
>> Why Ishmael?
>>
>> From Proust's madeleines to Du Maurier's Manderley, first lines  
>> set the reader on track - but not always the right one. John  
>> Sutherland ponders the enigma of beginnings . . .
>>