The Proustian moment concept reminds me of that moment in Pixar’s Ratatouille when the food critic takes a bite of food and is suddenly inspired to flashback to his childhood. When one considers the film’s French setting, that might even be deliberate.
The great thing about this novel is that it's so damn beautifully written and evocative, it automatically creates that feeling of 'being alive' he's talking about just by reading it. This is coming from someone who only read the first part, but it's on every page.
@Cole Reed yeah I started in 2011. This year I'm reading 5th tome, and I l've been reading the same page for weeks. It resonates so much with my current experience, I'm not reading further for now. It's becoming like the never ending story for Bastian : it's like an oracle telling you your own heart's messages... Proust is like an entheogenic drug... Fractal literature. Love xoxo
@Cole Reed I've restarted from the third novel, "Guermantes Way". It seems to be easy to pick up anywhere, especially with an annotated translation. It's a completely different experience than starting from the beginning.
I usually wake up at 6:30am and recently I started to watch School of Life videos after or while I'm having breakfast. This gives me tremendous amount of energy before I go to work. I highly recommend this to everyone and please share your relevant experiences with us.
My 18 year old daughter just said "The School of Life is the most addictive channel on RUclips; I can spend hours just clicking through it". Funny, I feel just the same :). Thank you for your inspired offerings.
After seeing this video, i feel so grateful, The School of Life... I dont want to over dramatize what i mean. I just want to say thank you. For everything. I have learned alot.
"In Search of Lost Time" is a great work indeed. A masterpiece of world literature. I feel very lucky that it happened to be in my list of mandatory literature at university.
i'm halfway through swann's way and I'm so distracted by the fact that none of these people have jobs. they just lounge around and socialize and holiday for 100% of their lives. wow. lucky them.
I can now see how Proust had a profound influence on Virginia Woolf, one of my favorite writers, who wrote about ordinary moments and memories in an extraordinary way. In Mrs. Dalloway she wrote that moments like these are like buds on the tree of life. In To the Lighthouse she defines art as: making of these exquisite moments the thing that endures.
such awesome lines: -There's no party where the perfect people are. -only successful candidate for the meaning of life: Art. -Opposite of Art.....Habit!! I like this guy!! This is great channel btw!! Great job!!
I have a whole file with them, but I like "The habit of thinking prevents us at times from experiencing reality, immunises us against it, makes it seem no more than any other thought.”
Manutallu when you first read it, did you read it all the way through? or did you read it bit by bit? I reached seascape with freize of girls. I didn't stop because I didn't enjoy it, it was because I felt I wasn't ready. or if it was incredibly good as everyone said (people said the same thing about ecstacy and LSD and both of those made me fell like death, or, perhaps, worst) and it seems so terrible to finish it's goodness. and then a minor paranoia that I'll only mimic the writing. I did finish INFINITE JEST and that was about just as long. also thomas Pynchons Against The Day was brutal but miraculous.
***** I read crime and punishment not so long ago and fell in love with Russian literature, so i told myself i have to read War and peace. Currently reading Beyond good and Evil by Nietzsche but i won't lie, i'm not understanding that much.
What a lovely recap of Marcel ! I adore him. After reading him, you realize why he was so unique, so perfect, - he is capable of moving you with words, beyond measure :)
Feels a lot like Hesse's novels, mostly The Glass Bead Game. I just love the turn of the 20th Century literature for it's romantic look towards life and the individual. It has so much optimism through the hero's shortcomings. It speaks of bleak moments and brief joys. I think in a rapid world it gives us space to feel connected to that journey within the span of a nostalgic cup of tea.
One of my favorite quotes on the meaning of life can be found in Bergman's masterpiece, The Magician (1958): "One walks step by step into the darkness. The movement itself is the only truth." The last words of a dying, drunken actor to Vogler. I believe that since there are very specific laws that govern our universe, and since we are products of such a universe, we can only think and conceive in terms of these laws. Anything outside of our universe is not governed by said laws and, therefore, it is impossible for us to define what lies beyond. We can only attempt to give meaning to what we can actually observe, which is barely even scratching the surface, unfortunately. All we know is that we are venturing into an unknown future in a world we barely understand, so, like the dying actor claims, meaning is derived only from our individual actions as we approach this unknown. It's all relative in the end; your actions in the face of death are what give meaning to your life. There is no one meaning just as there is no one absolute truth. That being said, fantasizing about what might be out there is fun and great fodder for both artists and intellectuals alike, but anybody claiming to have the truth on the matter is either delusional or swelling with hubris.
Appreciate the quotidian - you will miss it so when you are ill....you will want just the simplest thing...a moment free of pain. Live simply, live on less money, stop chasing something "out there"...we all know if we have lived long enough there is no there there. Nice little summary of Proust.
Thank you so much for such a beautiful lesson! It is so true... All these wise words about the beauty of the ordinary reminded me of two short poems by one of my most beloved poets from Turkey: Orhan Veli. ( 1914- 1950 Istanbul ). After such an incredibly strict and long tradition of Ottoman Poetry, which was mainly for the " elite" to understand, always talking about their endless sufferings either to reach God or to find eternal love , Orhan Veli surprised everyone by talking about the " corns on the feet of an old man" in a poem! He was criticised very harshly for being so disrespectful of 700 years of tradition! ( Well yes in another poem he also said that: " he would like to be a fish in a Raki bottle" ! ) Turning back to the corns; Orhan Veli could touch "everyone's" hearts with this poem and tell them something so tender about that Süleyman Efendi, an old man who could be anybody from the neighbourhood... EPITAPH I He suffered from nothing in the world The way he suffered from his corns; He didn't even feel so badly About having been created ugly. Thought he wouldn't utter the Lord's name Unless his shoe pinched, He couldn't be considered a sinner either. It's a pity Süleyman Efendi had to die. And the following poem is so tender too.... I guess I would also have to be "a fish in a Raki bottle" in order to get so drunk as to look at my left hand and at any right handed person's left hand, and feel so much compassion: MY LEFT HAND I got drunk and again I thought of you My clumsy hand, My pitiful hand.
***** Hi there Zviago! I am from Turkey. Thanks a lot for reading the poems! If you google for " Orhan Veli translated by Talat Sait Halman" you can find more of his poems in English on a website.
@@aldoborja4590 Hello Aldo! Thanks a lot for reading this comment. Oh unfortunately I don't use social media you know... I don't even have a smart phone. I am the kind of person who gets distracted very easily, that's why... But thanks a lot for asking! I am a loyal follower of this channel and I am often in the comments section. Best wishes :- )
Hearing and learning about Proustian moments for the first time truly gave me that beautiful feeling of something that I’ve thought about for so long being perfectly articulated and brought to life.
I'm not a huge reader, but I started reading Swanns Way after watching this and I have to say, I completely agree. The language is a bit harder and feels stiffer than what I'm used to, but the beauty and ingenuity shines through nonetheless.
I think Kafka would go with the sensibility of this channel. Can you make one video on Franz Kafka? You did one on Camus who was heavily influenced by Kafka.
Suggestions: How about Dostoyevsky for literature; Viktor Frankl & logotherapy for psychotherapy and the general human condition of loneliness (should we treat or cure?) ?
The Sharmanic Nucleus I'd imagine there will be one on Tolstoy. If you visit the thebookoflife . org and visit the curriculum you'll see a list of very likely candidates for their videos (he's there!).
Viktor Frankl - Just a guy with a lot of feel good chemicals in his brain so he could overcome. Voltaire would have told him the truth. "The Holocaust sucked and was pointless. I'm glad you made it out alive, but there was no meaning to the senseless suffering of it all."
If we're condemned to never understand anyone completely, and therefore feel loneliness of an entire, fusional connection, we can still watch every single person with an artistic sight, and nourish ourselves with the variety of them
I just discovered The School of Life channel when watching the Spinoza video and now this one on Proust and sometimes you find real gems on youtube. Thank you The School of Life I know what I will be spending my extra time this summer watching!
I had a problem with that in Swanns Way but it sort of glides eventually. he will never shy away from a paranthetical that provides more information and it sort of goes with the whole associative memory thing
The long sentences allow you to have "proustian" moments while reading. You drift away and get back in time without missing out. The long sentences and the way he wrote them is what makes the experience special (at least in my opinion)
Art is so powerful. It can make people see things in different ways, give hope or empathy or make you feel better about something. That's why I think all of the best art (or more favorable to me) is art that shows a melancholic side but sort of says "even though this is bad, its ok and there will be better things to come". Having something to relate to can give you hope and a feeling of belonging or happiness.
What an awesome little movie about an oceanic work of art, Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu. The two years which it took to read Proust, were probably the two years where I felt most alive.
I have but one true goal in life, especially after reading all 7 volumes and much of James Joyce: To write a combination of "Lost Time" and "Ulysses" from the perspective of a lower class 21st century kid. Maybe not the same length, but equally as powerful.
Thank you School of Life. I used to worry that the possibility of RUclips putting forth content that informed and inspired was slim. But with you guys and Wisecrack, I've learned to more appreciate knowledge and existence.
This is probably the best discovery I've done on RUclips. I've read the first volume of In Search of Lost Time and started the second one. This short video allowed me to understand the goal and whole idea of the novel. Now I feel obliged to read it to the end. Thank you so much.
0cards0 They have a meaning from genetic perspective, as to pass on their genes and reproduce. But from a perspective of a conscious, intelligent being, no.
Wow, what a lovely video. I’ve been looking for a long novel to get lost in and also desiring to read all the ‘classic’ novels I own and discover even more. This sounds perfectly right up my alley, already being someone who yearns so much to live with intentionality, never forgetting how beautiful life is. When I was a child, I wanted so much to climb Mount Everest, and this spawned an intense desire to experience things that absolutely must be experienced, or that few have ever done. I don’t want to exit this world and have missed out on the most profound novels, the greatest ever films, the most beautiful paintings. All this to say that I’m now entirely convinced that this novel must be experienced.
There is no other channel like yours . In RUclips it`s full of science channels ,where philosophy and culture are abandoned . There are basically no competitors.
Marcel Proust was almost an enigma. He had so many beautiful facets. His book , A La Recherche du temps perdu, is in my book cupboard., in the original. Magnificent writer.💜
Thank you for this type of video. You successfully help to find new areas of interest. Short describing of authors is a great way to discover new horizons.
I like enjoying the small things in life. The big small worries of the world may make us think that our life is bad, but there's joy to be found if you look for it. Happiness is nowhere but everywhere. I will be definitely be reading this novel someday.
Thanks for this video. Here is my favourite passage of the Recherche: "And my person today is only an abandoned quarry, which believes that everything it contains is the same and monotonous, but from which each memory, like a Greek sculptor, draws innumerable statues."
Yeah, that's what I was thinking about my whole life. How long ago was that time, when I belived in winged horses and mermaids, wanted to jump into every puddle, was amazed by rainbow or stopped for every dog or cat in my neighbourhood just to pet them. True happiness is right in front of us, but we can't feel it bc of our daily lives that make us worried about everything, except catching pure joy, which for me is for example taking a few breaths in the middle of the night trough the window, or laying in bed and listening to rain, or smelling an old book, or freshly milled cofee... I am turning 18 next week, and I have birthday at 02.11, which is the day my family visit graves, and the smell of cementary always reminds me of this... filosophy every year. I don't want to grow up and loose everything is dear to me, that's what I promised to myself on that cementary eight years ago, so I hope I won't die while worrying about dinner or job :'D
He has a good French accent Très belle émission en plus d'avoir parlé de l'un de mes écrivain préféré vous lui avais donner vie avec votre charmante voix Thank you Merci
Probably one of the best choices of my life to embark on reading this amazing book (I still got two hundred pages left to go but I think I got the gist of it)
Back in my high school years I used to like every subject except three that I used to HATE: literature, history and physical education. I never understood what they can be good for and consequently I was locked out of ever understanding anything that took place during the lessons; yet I was forced to regurgitate bullshit/act in bad faith on these topics. As opposed to math, sciences and languages which are very efficient in achieving clear tasks and consequently easy to grasp. I think there were two main causes: 1. lack of insight and passion from the teachers' side 2. disrespect for students' inner motivation and conscience. You, kind Sir, are among the most honorable RUclipsrs who today help me reclaim what I was deprived of during my years of eastern-european compulsory education. You extract easy-to-take-in understanding from wisdom of ages past an make it as addictive as cocaine. It turns out that humanities are worthwhile too. Today I know that above all I love to learn, understand and teach: 1. What I like about being around people? I want to learn from their mistakes, understand them and practice compassion. 2. What do I want from exercise? I want to learn, experience the combat skills of and empathize with countless desperate men, warriors and heroes from the past. 3. What is history good for? It helps us improve politics and rediscover lost wisdom and ways of life. 4. Why do I want to start a family one day? I want to learn and mature from the difficulties I am going to face with a wife by my side and have kids whom I will try my hardest to teach to become great people. 'He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.' - Nietzsche
I agree with him. In my life I've found a great way to live this philosophy. I live a simple life outside of my work, of much routine, and am happy with that. What keeps me balanced is the fun and wonder experienced in being a Support Worker for adults with learning difficulties. If you want to see life through a brilliant lens, then go hang out with these guys. They will teach you to re-appreciate puddles, shopping trolleys, combination locks and ultimately, life, again.
I find this channel amazing, because things that on books seem boring, here are explained easily and in an interesting way, reminding us that what we study is useful for our lives. Books often get lost in details, and never really focus on the point. Literature gives us important clues on how to live, it should be studied under this perspective to me.
We all must appreciate our life , because for us it's the most precious thing ever in our LIFE.Death should be appreciated too because it may end your life but also it ends all your wondering,problems or let's call it everything and also the most important question - When I will die?
I spent a very very long time reading In search of lost time. First I hated it, the long passages that went on and on. then at some point I realised that I had to abandon my preconception of what a novel was and start reading this as a book of philosophy, emotion, time, memory, and .....above a book about me, about what it means to be human, what it means to age, what it means to experience pleasure, disappoointment, obsessions, love and everything else. That is how you appreciate this book if you go about reading it as though it's your own story, your own life, your own memory. I love this book. I think it is the best novel or book ever written, the depth that it goes, yet how it traces things so delicately and beautifully, you can visualise an artist applying the most deft and beautiful brushes on a canvas that is you and everyone who is reading. it touches you. tingles your nostrils. tickles your tastebuds. it is simply amazing.
Currently watching Little Miss Sunshine. This channel's videos about Proust and Nietchze have really helped me gain a deeper understanding of what the writers were trying to do.
Memory and Time: . I still recall just the one line from John Galsworthy's "Forsyte Saga" from forty years ago where he described bluebells...."like little pieces of sky fallen between the trees".
Let me thank you so much for all the videos in general, I have been watching almost all of them and they keep bring me some light to the reality of everyday. Good Job Monsieur
It's videos like these that make me want a "love" option on youtube (like the one facebook recently introduced). I actually teared up a little, because this video is so profound and beautiful! Thank you so much :)
Alain was raised in Switzerland, French is a second language - he knew it before English I think, which is incredible given his mastery of English too!
Any chance you'll make a video on Tarkovsky? I can't help but feel that there are a lot of themes in his works that fit in well with the general motifs in the channel.
The Proustian moment concept reminds me of that moment in Pixar’s Ratatouille when the food critic takes a bite of food and is suddenly inspired to flashback to his childhood. When one considers the film’s French setting, that might even be deliberate.
I thought about the same thing too.
My mind is blown 😲
Immediately came to my mind too!
It’s funny, me too, but it was an obvious parallel, wasn’t it
It is deliberate, every french people including myself thought about Proust at that very moment
"We're awkwardly lonely pilgrims trying to give each other tusk kisses in the dark".
Genius.
Strangers in a strange world
i do not understand the tusk bit. Can you explain it Luke?
eyes!! #thanks me :)
The great thing about this novel is that it's so damn beautifully written and evocative, it automatically creates that feeling of 'being alive' he's talking about just by reading it. This is coming from someone who only read the first part, but it's on every page.
You fomulated the reason reading Proust is my go-to antidote to depression.
@Cole Reed yeah I started in 2011. This year I'm reading 5th tome, and I l've been reading the same page for weeks. It resonates so much with my current experience, I'm not reading further for now. It's becoming like the never ending story for Bastian : it's like an oracle telling you your own heart's messages... Proust is like an entheogenic drug... Fractal literature. Love xoxo
@Cole Reed I've restarted from the third novel, "Guermantes Way". It seems to be easy to pick up anywhere, especially with an annotated translation. It's a completely different experience than starting from the beginning.
@Andrea Boudin It must be read in French . Only use a translation as an aid to comprehension .
@@kenmorley2339 Come on. Translators can be writers as well.
who's this guy blessed with such a beautiful voice? Be peace upon him.
+mahesh kamble I think he is Alain de Botton.
It is Alain de Botton.
Alain de Botton
I love the clarity of his voice and his wonderful French accent.
Ibraheem M. Are you Alain’s biographer?
"Man's maturity: to have regained the seriousness that he had as a child at play." ― Friedrich Nietzsche
TheEccentricLad Today we have the the eternal man child that is serious about nothing.
Yes,it is true that only art can satisfy the soul's thirst for beauty, classicism is the pinnacle or the ultimate utopia to which men can aspire.
Almost all great writers, Proust but also Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky emphasize the importance of art, that gives me hope..
@@AlexDeLarge77 aaaaaaaaaa
Àaaaaa
Homo ludens
The Curriculum just keeps getting better and better!
***** the few seconds in black and white showing a cup of tea being filled made me feel a proustian moment. Thank you :3
***** thank you so much
I usually wake up at 6:30am and recently I started to watch School of Life videos after or while I'm having breakfast. This gives me tremendous amount of energy before I go to work. I highly recommend this to everyone and please share your relevant experiences with us.
Wow thanks! It’s a great tip to start a day! ❤
Amazing tip
My 18 year old daughter just said "The School of Life is the most addictive channel on RUclips; I can spend hours just clicking through it". Funny, I feel just the same :). Thank you for your inspired offerings.
After seeing this video, i feel so grateful, The School of Life... I dont want to over dramatize what i mean. I just want to say thank you. For everything. I have learned alot.
"In Search of Lost Time" is a great work indeed. A masterpiece of world literature. I feel very lucky that it happened to be in my list of mandatory literature at university.
i'm halfway through swann's way and I'm so distracted by the fact that none of these people have jobs. they just lounge around and socialize and holiday for 100% of their lives. wow. lucky them.
I can now see how Proust had a profound influence on Virginia Woolf, one of my favorite writers, who wrote about ordinary moments and memories in an extraordinary way. In Mrs. Dalloway she wrote that moments like these are like buds on the tree of life.
In To the Lighthouse she defines art as: making of these exquisite moments the thing that endures.
such awesome lines:
-There's no party where the perfect people are.
-only successful candidate for the meaning of life: Art.
-Opposite of Art.....Habit!!
I like this guy!! This is great channel btw!! Great job!!
Proust is by far my favourite author. In Search of Lost Time is my bible, i refer to it every time i feel down
would you mind sharing some of your favorite quotes from it?
=)
I have a whole file with them, but I like "The habit of thinking prevents us at times from experiencing reality, immunises us against it, makes it seem no more than any other thought.”
Manutallu great quote
thanks, man :)
Manutallu when you first read it, did you read it all the way through? or did you read it bit by bit? I reached seascape with freize of girls. I didn't stop because I didn't enjoy it, it was because I felt I wasn't ready. or if it was incredibly good as everyone said (people said the same thing about ecstacy and LSD and both of those made me fell like death, or, perhaps, worst) and it seems so terrible to finish it's goodness. and then a minor paranoia that I'll only mimic the writing. I did finish INFINITE JEST and that was about just as long. also thomas Pynchons Against The Day was brutal but miraculous.
Definitely will read it after i finish war and peace. It's going to be a long summer..
***** I read crime and punishment not so long ago and fell in love with Russian literature, so i told myself i have to read War and peace.
Currently reading Beyond good and Evil by Nietzsche but i won't lie, i'm not understanding that much.
Tunisian Atheist atheist ? matehshemsh ? :p
ChillPill149 moch ena li lemni nehchem, la3bed li te3bed f allah w mohamd lezmhom yehchmou :p
it's your choice ..anyway it's nice to see tunisians here !
ChillPill149 Nice to see you here and nice that you are open minded too. :)
What a lovely recap of Marcel ! I adore him. After reading him, you realize why he was so unique, so perfect, - he is capable of moving you with words, beyond measure :)
Are you a relative of his?
Feels a lot like Hesse's novels, mostly The Glass Bead Game. I just love the turn of the 20th Century literature for it's romantic look towards life and the individual. It has so much optimism through the hero's shortcomings. It speaks of bleak moments and brief joys. I think in a rapid world it gives us space to feel connected to that journey within the span of a nostalgic cup of tea.
I agree with your sentiment, but wasn't The Glass Bead Game written in the mid 20th century? It's a beautiful book, btw.
please more LITERATURE curriculum
Agreed!
***** who will you be doing? I'd like to hear about Marquez, Whitman, Wilde, Woolf ...
J.D. Salinger or Herman Melville !
One of my favorite quotes on the meaning of life can be found in Bergman's masterpiece, The Magician (1958): "One walks step by step into the darkness. The movement itself is the only truth." The last words of a dying, drunken actor to Vogler.
I believe that since there are very specific laws that govern our universe, and since we are products of such a universe, we can only think and conceive in terms of these laws. Anything outside of our universe is not governed by said laws and, therefore, it is impossible for us to define what lies beyond. We can only attempt to give meaning to what we can actually observe, which is barely even scratching the surface, unfortunately. All we know is that we are venturing into an unknown future in a world we barely understand, so, like the dying actor claims, meaning is derived only from our individual actions as we approach this unknown. It's all relative in the end; your actions in the face of death are what give meaning to your life. There is no one meaning just as there is no one absolute truth.
That being said, fantasizing about what might be out there is fun and great fodder for both artists and intellectuals alike, but anybody claiming to have the truth on the matter is either delusional or swelling with hubris.
LITERATURE & PHILOSOPHY are the best!
Appreciate the quotidian - you will miss it so when you are ill....you will want just the simplest thing...a moment free of pain. Live simply, live on less money, stop chasing something "out there"...we all know if we have lived long enough there is no there there. Nice little summary of Proust.
Thank you so much for such a beautiful lesson! It is so true... All these wise words about the beauty of the ordinary reminded me of two short poems by one of my most beloved poets from Turkey: Orhan Veli. ( 1914- 1950 Istanbul ).
After such an incredibly strict and long tradition of Ottoman Poetry, which was mainly for the " elite" to understand, always talking about their endless sufferings either to reach God or to find eternal love , Orhan Veli surprised everyone by talking about the " corns on the feet of an old man" in a poem! He was criticised very harshly for being so disrespectful of 700 years of tradition! ( Well yes in another poem he also said that: " he would like to be a fish in a Raki bottle" ! )
Turning back to the corns; Orhan Veli could touch "everyone's" hearts with this poem and tell them something so tender about that Süleyman Efendi, an old man who could be anybody from the neighbourhood...
EPITAPH I
He suffered from nothing in the world
The way he suffered from his corns;
He didn't even feel so badly
About having been created ugly.
Thought he wouldn't utter the Lord's name
Unless his shoe pinched,
He couldn't be considered a sinner either.
It's a pity Süleyman Efendi had to die.
And the following poem is so tender too.... I guess I would also have to be "a fish in a Raki bottle" in order to get so drunk as to look at my left hand and at any right handed person's left hand, and feel so much compassion:
MY LEFT HAND
I got drunk and again
I thought of you
My clumsy hand,
My pitiful hand.
***** Hi there Zviago! I am from Turkey. Thanks a lot for reading the poems! If you google for " Orhan Veli translated by Talat Sait Halman" you can find more of his poems in English on a website.
@@bolivar1789 do you have Twitter or something?
@@aldoborja4590 Hello Aldo! Thanks a lot for reading this comment. Oh unfortunately I don't use social media you know... I don't even have a smart phone. I am the kind of person who gets distracted very easily, that's why... But thanks a lot for asking! I am a loyal follower of this channel and I am often in the comments section. Best wishes :- )
Hearing and learning about Proustian moments for the first time truly gave me that beautiful feeling of something that I’ve thought about for so long being perfectly articulated and brought to life.
wow I am so uneducated
+Ka'lika T. Fria'niquia (Tay Tay) lol felt the same
It's ok. Life is all posturing for the affection and recognition of people you probably don't like anyways. :)
Hey, remember: when you learn more and more, you realise how dumb you are :).
Wisdom is knowing that one is not informed enough on something to claim the opposite.
😂😂😂
You did win the Summarize Proust competition!
Brilliant. I feel no need to read the novel, but just look around me. This is heaven , hiding in plain sight,everywhere. Wonderful. Many thanks
You should do Hermann Hesse.
Amine Absolutely, especially the "Steppenwolf"!
Yeeeeeees! And Thomas Mann!
Agreed!
Cliff : now don't
Being at peace with who you are, building relationships, knowledge and adventure is what I live for.
I'm not a huge reader, but I started reading Swanns Way after watching this and I have to say, I completely agree. The language is a bit harder and feels stiffer than what I'm used to, but the beauty and ingenuity shines through nonetheless.
he forgets that in order to appreciate life, one needs to live. I guess he didn't struggle with the necessities of life as common folk.
Hardcore Prawn
yes yes yes!
I think Kafka would go with the sensibility of this channel. Can you make one video on Franz Kafka? You did one on Camus who was heavily influenced by Kafka.
Thank you.
***** Can Shakespeare come in at sometime?
+Bakhtiyar Ibn Ashraful LOVE Kafka! We just did a series of videos on Dostoevsky -- can't lose with the Russians! :D
+Bakhtiyar Ibn Ashraful Yes! Yes! Yes! Kafka needs to happen.
+Bakhtiyar Ibn Ashraful Yes. Bring the Kafka! In the Penal Colony is one of my all time favorite short stories.
Suggestions: How about Dostoyevsky for literature; Viktor Frankl & logotherapy for psychotherapy and the general human condition of loneliness (should we treat or cure?) ?
The Sharmanic Nucleus I'd imagine there will be one on Tolstoy. If you visit the thebookoflife . org and visit the curriculum you'll see a list of very likely candidates for their videos (he's there!).
Viktor Frankl - Just a guy with a lot of feel good chemicals in his brain so he could overcome.
Voltaire would have told him the truth. "The Holocaust sucked and was pointless. I'm glad you made it out alive, but there was no meaning to the senseless suffering of it all."
If we're condemned to never understand anyone completely, and therefore feel loneliness of an entire, fusional connection, we can still watch every single person with an artistic sight, and nourish ourselves with the variety of them
I just discovered The School of Life channel when watching the Spinoza video and now this one on Proust and sometimes you find real gems on youtube. Thank you The School of Life I know what I will be spending my extra time this summer watching!
Proust is a genius but that long sentences are killing me... literally one sentence is one page...
try and keep up
You are not the book you read.
I had a problem with that in Swanns Way but it sort of glides eventually. he will never shy away from a paranthetical that provides more information and it sort of goes with the whole associative memory thing
welcome to french
The long sentences allow you to have "proustian" moments while reading. You drift away and get back in time without missing out. The long sentences and the way he wrote them is what makes the experience special (at least in my opinion)
I came here after watching the movie "Little Miss Sunshine". Sublimely brilliant, just like Marcel Proust.
Art is so powerful. It can make people see things in different ways, give hope or empathy or make you feel better about something. That's why I think all of the best art (or more favorable to me) is art that shows a melancholic side but sort of says "even though this is bad, its ok and there will be better things to come". Having something to relate to can give you hope and a feeling of belonging or happiness.
YES more Literature videos please. I love how they combine lit and philosophy
What an awesome little movie about an oceanic work of art, Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu. The two years which it took to read Proust, were probably the two years where I felt most alive.
Beautiful, enlightening and helpful. Thank you Alain. Love you
I have but one true goal in life, especially after reading all 7 volumes and much of James Joyce: To write a combination of "Lost Time" and "Ulysses" from the perspective of a lower class 21st century kid. Maybe not the same length, but equally as powerful.
Thank you School of Life. I used to worry that the possibility of RUclips putting forth content that informed and inspired was slim. But with you guys and Wisecrack, I've learned to more appreciate knowledge and existence.
Make any progress yet?
Hows in goin with your books? Hopefully, you've had time to work on it, especially with this COVID-19 going around trapping us in our homes xD
@@queensaharaice7376 Lots of rewrites! Not quite like I described in my OP at this point, but it's got some meat to it.
@@danielraftery3688 That's awesome!☺️💕
This is probably the best discovery I've done on RUclips. I've read the first volume of In Search of Lost Time and started the second one. This short video allowed me to understand the goal and whole idea of the novel. Now I feel obliged to read it to the end. Thank you so much.
The sensations gasp the mind and make us see the world in a very beautiful way .
Knowledge and understanding are the meaning of life in my opinion.
You would like Spinoza then
***** I'm home, you filthy imperialist.
***** Sex.
Bobor
so animals dont have meaning?
0cards0 They have a meaning from genetic perspective, as to pass on their genes and reproduce. But from a perspective of a conscious, intelligent being, no.
The video Alain was born to make! nailed it!
7:06 That moment reminded me of Ratatouille, in the scene where Ego tastes the meal.
Alexei Arwinson It is a reference to the novel, especially being set on France.
OMG SAME
Alexei Arwinson Yeah it's a reference to the book
Wow, what a lovely video. I’ve been looking for a long novel to get lost in and also desiring to read all the ‘classic’ novels I own and discover even more. This sounds perfectly right up my alley, already being someone who yearns so much to live with intentionality, never forgetting how beautiful life is. When I was a child, I wanted so much to climb Mount Everest, and this spawned an intense desire to experience things that absolutely must be experienced, or that few have ever done. I don’t want to exit this world and have missed out on the most profound novels, the greatest ever films, the most beautiful paintings. All this to say that I’m now entirely convinced that this novel must be experienced.
Well I hope that School of life will make a video on Thomas Mann and Goethe!
+The School of Life
I was wondering if you would consider making a video on David Foster Wallace?
+The School of Life What about Mann? I am waiting for it with my heart!
+The School of Life Shakespeare school of life
+Giorgi Merabishvili Mann is my favorite Writer! Just the Magic Mountain need a stand alone video!
Chinese music beautiful67
This is easily one of the best channels on RUclips. This and NPR Tiny Desk Concert.
Currently about to start the fourth part. I love this video.
French writers are adepts at portaying universal truths and well fleshed out characters, nice
Also, with sublime wordings, narratives and descriptions. Particularly Flaubert and Proust.
Adept at
Three cheers for the School of Life!!! I've never had an adverse comment on the School of Life.
Best channel in RUclips without doubt .
There is no other channel like yours . In RUclips it`s full of science channels ,where philosophy and culture are abandoned . There are basically no competitors.
Perception is reality. I've been coming back to this concept repeatedly for the past few years.
Let me just say that your animators are the best.
Will you ever do one on Jorge Luis Borges? Great video as usual, Marcel Proust is one of my favorite authors.
What a lovely and sensitive piece. I thoroughly enjoyed your insightful presentation. Thank you for making accessible Proust's beautiful philosophy.
Finally, a video on Proust.
Marcel Proust was almost an enigma. He had so many beautiful facets. His book , A La Recherche du temps perdu, is in my book cupboard., in the original.
Magnificent writer.💜
Thank you for this type of video. You successfully help to find new areas of interest. Short describing of authors is a great way to discover new horizons.
I love the way you make these videos guys. And how you even accompany education with humor!
Intensity! Feeling is understanding! All lessons from great people are connecting. I MUST LEARN MORE!
I like enjoying the small things in life. The big small worries of the world may make us think that our life is bad, but there's joy to be found if you look for it.
Happiness is nowhere but everywhere.
I will be definitely be reading this novel someday.
Thanks for this video.
Here is my favourite passage of the Recherche: "And my person today is only an abandoned quarry, which believes that everything it contains is the same and monotonous, but from which each memory, like a Greek sculptor, draws innumerable statues."
Strange segue. From one man's hubris waffling of how he won his Lamborghini, to the bent wonderment of Marcel Proust. Thanks, RUclips!
Yeah, that's what I was thinking about my whole life. How long ago was that time, when I belived in winged horses and mermaids, wanted to jump into every puddle, was amazed by rainbow or stopped for every dog or cat in my neighbourhood just to pet them. True happiness is right in front of us, but we can't feel it bc of our daily lives that make us worried about everything, except catching pure joy, which for me is for example taking a few breaths in the middle of the night trough the window, or laying in bed and listening to rain, or smelling an old book, or freshly milled cofee...
I am turning 18 next week, and I have birthday at 02.11, which is the day my family visit graves, and the smell of cementary always reminds me of this... filosophy every year. I don't want to grow up and loose everything is dear to me, that's what I promised to myself on that cementary eight years ago, so I hope I won't die while worrying about dinner or job :'D
this novel truely changes your life, just read it !
:)
This is one of your best videos.
ONE ABOUT RAINER MARIA RILKE PLEASE!
four years later but he is my favourite poet after Celan!
These videos are lovely. I'd love to see one on Tesla, he was such a fascinating man
He has a good French accent
Très belle émission en plus d'avoir parlé de l'un de mes écrivain préféré vous lui avais donner vie avec votre charmante voix
Thank you
Merci
just thought i'd say that you guys are doing some special here, keep it up, please.
Probably one of the best choices of my life to embark on reading this amazing book (I still got two hundred pages left to go but I think I got the gist of it)
Back in my high school years I used to like every subject except three that I used to HATE: literature, history and physical education. I never understood what they can be good for and consequently I was locked out of ever understanding anything that took place during the lessons; yet I was forced to regurgitate bullshit/act in bad faith on these topics. As opposed to math, sciences and languages which are very efficient in achieving clear tasks and consequently easy to grasp. I think there were two main causes: 1. lack of insight and passion from the teachers' side 2. disrespect for students' inner motivation and conscience.
You, kind Sir, are among the most honorable RUclipsrs who today help me reclaim what I was deprived of during my years of eastern-european compulsory education. You extract easy-to-take-in understanding from wisdom of ages past an make it as addictive as cocaine. It turns out that humanities are worthwhile too.
Today I know that above all I love to learn, understand and teach:
1. What I like about being around people? I want to learn from their mistakes, understand them and practice compassion.
2. What do I want from exercise? I want to learn, experience the combat skills of and empathize with countless desperate men, warriors and heroes from the past.
3. What is history good for? It helps us improve politics and rediscover lost wisdom and ways of life.
4. Why do I want to start a family one day? I want to learn and mature from the difficulties I am going to face with a wife by my side and have kids whom I will try my hardest to teach to become great people.
'He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.' - Nietzsche
I agree with him. In my life I've found a great way to live this philosophy. I live a simple life outside of my work, of much routine, and am happy with that. What keeps me balanced is the fun and wonder experienced in being a Support Worker for adults with learning difficulties. If you want to see life through a brilliant lens, then go hang out with these guys. They will teach you to re-appreciate puddles, shopping trolleys, combination locks and ultimately, life, again.
I find this channel amazing, because things that on books seem boring, here are explained easily and in an interesting way, reminding us that what we study is useful for our lives. Books often get lost in details, and never really focus on the point. Literature gives us important clues on how to live, it should be studied under this perspective to me.
The book of Life would be the perfect name for this masterpiece. It'd take a lifetime to (maybe) finish it. Good stuff.✌️
I'm in love with the way he speaks french. Great Channel by the way.
Why haven't I heard about him more frequently. Love and resonate with his ideas
We all must appreciate our life , because for us it's the most precious thing ever in our LIFE.Death should be appreciated too because it may end your life but also it ends all your wondering,problems or let's call it everything and also the most important question - When I will die?
I spent a very very long time reading In search of lost time.
First I hated it, the long passages that went on and on. then at some point I realised that I had to abandon my preconception of what a novel was and start reading this as a book of philosophy, emotion, time, memory, and .....above a book about me, about what it means to be human, what it means to age, what it means to experience pleasure, disappoointment, obsessions, love and everything else.
That is how you appreciate this book if you go about reading it as though it's your own story, your own life, your own memory. I love this book. I think it is the best novel or book ever written, the depth that it goes, yet how it traces things so delicately and beautifully, you can visualise an artist applying the most deft and beautiful brushes on a canvas that is you and everyone who is reading. it touches you. tingles your nostrils. tickles your tastebuds. it is simply amazing.
I identify with this author's understanding of life deeply.
How beautifully u narrated this....
I love these so much School of Life! Please do more Literature ones, they are addictive and give me so much to read. :)
+Amy Bryans I couldn't have said it better.
What a wonderful summary of the virtues of Proust.
Currently watching Little Miss Sunshine. This channel's videos about Proust and Nietchze have really helped me gain a deeper understanding of what the writers were trying to do.
I was inspired to read Proust after watching this. Thanks so much.
Fantastic video!!! I especially liked the part about artists being the part of the population who's stripped away the veil of habitus.
This was a beautiful summary
Memory and Time: . I still recall just the one line from John Galsworthy's "Forsyte Saga" from forty years ago where he described bluebells...."like little pieces of sky fallen between the trees".
My favourite youtube channel! Looking forward to episodes on postmodernists.
Marcel Proust it's just one of the best artists of all time
Now I need:
- Balzac
- Emile Zola
- Flaubert
- Baudelaire
Thank you
Let me thank you so much for all the videos in general, I have been watching almost all of them and they keep bring me some light to the reality of everyday. Good Job Monsieur
This is so beautiful.
appreciating existence, my new life goal
It's videos like these that make me want a "love" option on youtube (like the one facebook recently introduced). I actually teared up a little, because this video is so profound and beautiful! Thank you so much :)
blew my mind I will always cherish the moment I watched this video thank you
Your french accent is remarkable. It is a pleasure to listen to.
Alain was raised in Switzerland, French is a second language - he knew it before English I think, which is incredible given his mastery of English too!
Any chance you'll make a video on Tarkovsky? I can't help but feel that there are a lot of themes in his works that fit in well with the general motifs in the channel.
Would love to see you do Robert M. Pirsig. Crazy life and hugely influential with Zen & The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
But Pirsig was of dubious Quality.
Beautiful description of what art can be!
Could do do Balzac? :)