Gérard Genette's Social Media
Shmoop eavesdrops on your favorite critic's online convos.
Hey, Gérard. I was wondering if you wanted to check out that new Monet Exhibit at the Met.
Well, uh, yes. You know—the Impressionist painter, Claude Monet—the water lilies guy?
So is it art?
Yes. They are great paintings by Claude Monet. I just said that.
I did not ask you if they were good. I asked you if they were art. I've been thinking a lot of how and why art exists. What is an art piece, and how do we distinguish our feelings for it from the images it expresses?
I think Roland said he was free.
Hey, Gerry. We're tossing around the idea of reading Proust for our next book group. We were wondering if you'd like to lead the discussion…?
That sounds delightful. Would you like me to discuss how Proust's Remembrance of Things Past is not a brilliant novel, but in fact uses most of the fictional conventions other authors use?
Actually, I thought you could talk about some of the standard subjects the book raises, like memory, childhood, longing…
I should at least dip into how Proust interweaves the specific and the universal. Oh, and how he plays knowledge and mystery off of each other.
Well, I thought we'd spend at least one meeting on the madeleine scene. Such a classic.
Only if I can talk about how Proust leaps forward and back in time in order to develop the character named Swann.
Deal.
Doing a shout-out for anyone interested in going to see Apocalypse Now.
Must say, I am tempted. It's such a downer thinking about the Vietnam War. First the French lost, then the Americans bit the dust. Don't we ever learn our lessons?
I'd go just to watch Martin Sheen. I love it when he punches that mirror at the beginning. Somebody should show Lacan.
I actually find myself annoyed that Coppola's adaptation is so different from Conrad's Heart of Darkness.
In all fairness, it's not an adaptation; it's an interpretation. And what Coppola does with the narrator is pure genius: he is both in the story, of the story, and finished with the story. Then when you get Kurtz in there—talk about a captivating narrator.
Is this an exhibit of paintings?