Literary Summits

The agony of defeat

Posted on June 23rd, 2008 in In Search of Lost Time, Tale of Genji, Literary Summits project by benmc

So it’s time to come clean and admit that I’ve abandoned “Tales of Genji.” Time to go back down this mountain — after 85 pages and a mere 5 chapters, I admit defeat.

It’s not as spectacular a failure as the ski-jumper who wipes out in the opening of “ABC’s Wide World of Sports” — but without a doubt, I’ve lost my way at the base of only the second of seven summits.

Sure, there has been lots going on in my life:

moving to a new condo in Chicago
traveling to Germany for a study tour, and
staying busy at work

. . . but those are lame excuses. Since the move, I’ve actually had MORE reading time now that my commute is longer, so I can’t really make the “no time to read” excuse.

Still, “Genji” is a book that requires an attention span of more than my present 28-minute limit, so I decided yesterday to take another book with me on the train: “Swann’s Way: In Search of Lost Time, Vol. 1“

And guess what? It’s working. Maybe it’s because I’m more familiar with Marcel Proust’s general storyline (or lack thereof), and I’ve studied it a bit in college. And his sleepy cadence fits well with my summer rhythm. We’ll see if it lasts.

So for right now I’ve put “Genji” back on the shelf and look forward to another attempt, another time.

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Getting started

Posted on October 26th, 2007 in Literary Summits project by benmc

Ten years ago, my brother gave me a book to celebrate my graduation from the Divinity School at the University of Chicago. The book was War and Peace. Since then, I’ve started it at least four times, and it didn’t stick.

This summer, however, was different. I pushed through the first 60 pages, and all of a sudden, I was into it. I made it to base camp.

Mountain climbers set their sights on Seven Summits — the tallest mountain on each continent. The big ones. For a city-dweller like me, it’s books that loom large: War & Peace, Don Quixote, The Tale of Genji — these are my Everest, Denali, Kilimanjaro.

I’ve selected seven literary summits:

Tolstoy’s War & Peace [finished 02/14/08]
Murasaki’s The Tale of Genji [started 02/25/08]
Dante’s Divine Comedy
George Eliot’s Middlemarch
Proust’s In Search of Lost Time
Cao’s Story of the Stone (or Dream of the Red Chamber) and
Cervantes’ Don Quixote

Though not all the books are novels, they each have a reputation for standing out as monumental works in their respective languages. I’ve already completed two of them and read parts of several others for classes along the way, but I hope this blog will offer a fresh chance to enjoy them individually and in contrast with one another.

How long will it take? Who knows? They are big books, so it’ll be a while. I hope this blog will be a motivation to keep things moving and keep it fun.

One other note: I’ll be reading the books in English (big surprise!). When it comes to literary expeditions, I’m a generalist. Unlike Ed Viesturs (climbing legend who scaled the seven summits without oxygen tanks), I’ll use any assistance (i.e., translation, commentary, maps, family trees) needed to get the job done and to see over the peak to the other side.

Just as any mountain has many routes to the top, so each of these works has multiple translators. Part of the fun is in choosing the particular route, and comparing it with other people’s experiences.

I hope to hear from you along the way.

Join me!

Here are the translations/editions I plan to use:

[mouseover for title & translator name, click for full info]