Yoon Kim
@yoonkim.bsky.social
Clarice Lispector on reading Proust (in a letter, 1944):
“I thought I would love Proust the way one loves things that overwhelm. But to my great pleasure, I find that I experience an enormous and sincere pleasure in reading him. I find him very natural… (1/2)
“I thought I would love Proust the way one loves things that overwhelm. But to my great pleasure, I find that I experience an enormous and sincere pleasure in reading him. I find him very natural… (1/2)
December 12, 2025 at 6:49 PM
Clarice Lispector on reading Proust (in a letter, 1944):
“I thought I would love Proust the way one loves things that overwhelm. But to my great pleasure, I find that I experience an enormous and sincere pleasure in reading him. I find him very natural… (1/2)
“I thought I would love Proust the way one loves things that overwhelm. But to my great pleasure, I find that I experience an enormous and sincere pleasure in reading him. I find him very natural… (1/2)
“This perpetual error, which is precisely ‘life’...”
(Proust, The Fugitive)
(Proust, The Fugitive)
“We see, we hear, we conceive the world in a lopsided fashion. […] We have of the universe only inchoate, fragmentary visions, which we complement by arbitrary associations of ideas, creative of dangerous illusions.”
— Proust, The Fugitive (tr. Scott Moncrieff et al.)
— Proust, The Fugitive (tr. Scott Moncrieff et al.)
December 12, 2025 at 5:00 PM
“This perpetual error, which is precisely ‘life’...”
(Proust, The Fugitive)
(Proust, The Fugitive)
“We hear things retrospectively when we have understood them.”
(Proust, The Captive)
(Proust, The Captive)
December 12, 2025 at 4:59 PM
“We hear things retrospectively when we have understood them.”
(Proust, The Captive)
(Proust, The Captive)
“We guess as we read, we create; everything starts from an initial error… A large part of what we believe to be true… with an obstinacy equalled only by our good faith, springs from an original mistake in our premises.”
(Proust, The Fugitive)
(Proust, The Fugitive)
December 12, 2025 at 4:58 PM
“We guess as we read, we create; everything starts from an initial error… A large part of what we believe to be true… with an obstinacy equalled only by our good faith, springs from an original mistake in our premises.”
(Proust, The Fugitive)
(Proust, The Fugitive)
“We see, we hear, we conceive the world in a lopsided fashion. […] We have of the universe only inchoate, fragmentary visions, which we complement by arbitrary associations of ideas, creative of dangerous illusions.”
— Proust, The Fugitive (tr. Scott Moncrieff et al.)
— Proust, The Fugitive (tr. Scott Moncrieff et al.)
December 12, 2025 at 4:56 PM
“We see, we hear, we conceive the world in a lopsided fashion. […] We have of the universe only inchoate, fragmentary visions, which we complement by arbitrary associations of ideas, creative of dangerous illusions.”
— Proust, The Fugitive (tr. Scott Moncrieff et al.)
— Proust, The Fugitive (tr. Scott Moncrieff et al.)
It reminds me of an entry in Proust’s notebook of 1908:
“L’intellectualité c’est l’art d’éviter la difficulté. La difficulté vaincue seul mérite de l’art. (Renan / mais Michelet?)”
“L’intellectualité c’est l’art d’éviter la difficulté. La difficulté vaincue seul mérite de l’art. (Renan / mais Michelet?)”
December 11, 2025 at 5:56 PM
It reminds me of an entry in Proust’s notebook of 1908:
“L’intellectualité c’est l’art d’éviter la difficulté. La difficulté vaincue seul mérite de l’art. (Renan / mais Michelet?)”
“L’intellectualité c’est l’art d’éviter la difficulté. La difficulté vaincue seul mérite de l’art. (Renan / mais Michelet?)”
“All those who have done great things did so to escape a difficulty, a dead end.” I am translating this from French, a sentence I found in an old notebook. But who wrote it? When? It scarcely matters; it is one of life’s truths, and many people could have written it.
— Lispector, Too Much of Life
— Lispector, Too Much of Life
December 11, 2025 at 5:55 PM
“All those who have done great things did so to escape a difficulty, a dead end.” I am translating this from French, a sentence I found in an old notebook. But who wrote it? When? It scarcely matters; it is one of life’s truths, and many people could have written it.
— Lispector, Too Much of Life
— Lispector, Too Much of Life
“It was with this attitude that I used to read Kant. The man’s mind was still remote to me. The whole thing couldn’t have been more foreign. But every evening I had overcome new difficulties, which gave me a consciousness of my freedom.”
— Hölderlin to his brother Karl, 1797
(trans. Charlie Louth)
— Hölderlin to his brother Karl, 1797
(trans. Charlie Louth)
December 11, 2025 at 5:32 PM
“It was with this attitude that I used to read Kant. The man’s mind was still remote to me. The whole thing couldn’t have been more foreign. But every evening I had overcome new difficulties, which gave me a consciousness of my freedom.”
— Hölderlin to his brother Karl, 1797
(trans. Charlie Louth)
— Hölderlin to his brother Karl, 1797
(trans. Charlie Louth)
“My preoccupations are pretty focused at the moment. Kant and the Greeks are virtually all I read. I am trying to become particularly familiar with the aesthetic part of the critical philosophy.”
— Hölderlin to Hegel, July 1794
— Hölderlin to Hegel, July 1794
December 11, 2025 at 5:32 PM
“My preoccupations are pretty focused at the moment. Kant and the Greeks are virtually all I read. I am trying to become particularly familiar with the aesthetic part of the critical philosophy.”
— Hölderlin to Hegel, July 1794
— Hölderlin to Hegel, July 1794
Robert Walser, The Tanners:
“Winter arrived… He didn’t know what to do with all the time on his hands, and since his profession had accustomed him to writing, he now sat and wrote offhandedly, without forethought, on small strips of paper he’d cut to size with scissors. (1/2)
“Winter arrived… He didn’t know what to do with all the time on his hands, and since his profession had accustomed him to writing, he now sat and wrote offhandedly, without forethought, on small strips of paper he’d cut to size with scissors. (1/2)
December 10, 2025 at 7:59 PM
Robert Walser, The Tanners:
“Winter arrived… He didn’t know what to do with all the time on his hands, and since his profession had accustomed him to writing, he now sat and wrote offhandedly, without forethought, on small strips of paper he’d cut to size with scissors. (1/2)
“Winter arrived… He didn’t know what to do with all the time on his hands, and since his profession had accustomed him to writing, he now sat and wrote offhandedly, without forethought, on small strips of paper he’d cut to size with scissors. (1/2)
“Misfortune allows us to grow tired of beautiful things and shows us new ones with its outstretched fingers.”
“Es [das Unglück] läßt uns Schönheiten überdrüssig werden und zeigt uns mit seinen ausgestreckten Fingern neue!”
— Robert Walser, The Tanners (tr. Susan Bernofsky)
“Es [das Unglück] läßt uns Schönheiten überdrüssig werden und zeigt uns mit seinen ausgestreckten Fingern neue!”
— Robert Walser, The Tanners (tr. Susan Bernofsky)
December 10, 2025 at 7:57 PM
“Misfortune allows us to grow tired of beautiful things and shows us new ones with its outstretched fingers.”
“Es [das Unglück] läßt uns Schönheiten überdrüssig werden und zeigt uns mit seinen ausgestreckten Fingern neue!”
— Robert Walser, The Tanners (tr. Susan Bernofsky)
“Es [das Unglück] läßt uns Schönheiten überdrüssig werden und zeigt uns mit seinen ausgestreckten Fingern neue!”
— Robert Walser, The Tanners (tr. Susan Bernofsky)
🖤 Returning to a book I started two years ago
December 10, 2025 at 5:42 PM
🖤 Returning to a book I started two years ago
Philippe Sollers, Mysterious Mozart
“In our time, speed is everywhere except in the mind. In Wolfgang’s time, it was the opposite. People travel by diligence, prejudices limit the horizon, the provinces are still immense; the aristocracy has no perception of what’s coming; (1/2)
“In our time, speed is everywhere except in the mind. In Wolfgang’s time, it was the opposite. People travel by diligence, prejudices limit the horizon, the provinces are still immense; the aristocracy has no perception of what’s coming; (1/2)
December 10, 2025 at 5:40 PM
Philippe Sollers, Mysterious Mozart
“In our time, speed is everywhere except in the mind. In Wolfgang’s time, it was the opposite. People travel by diligence, prejudices limit the horizon, the provinces are still immense; the aristocracy has no perception of what’s coming; (1/2)
“In our time, speed is everywhere except in the mind. In Wolfgang’s time, it was the opposite. People travel by diligence, prejudices limit the horizon, the provinces are still immense; the aristocracy has no perception of what’s coming; (1/2)
“Who among us does not spend the greater part of his life in the shadow of an event that has not yet taken place?”
— Robert Musil (tr. Philip Payne)
— Robert Musil (tr. Philip Payne)
“Wer von uns verbringt nicht den größten Teil seines Lebens im Schatten eines Ereignisses, das noch nicht stattgehabt hat?”
— Robert Musil, Tagebücher
— Robert Musil, Tagebücher
December 8, 2025 at 6:35 PM
“Who among us does not spend the greater part of his life in the shadow of an event that has not yet taken place?”
— Robert Musil (tr. Philip Payne)
— Robert Musil (tr. Philip Payne)
“Wer von uns verbringt nicht den größten Teil seines Lebens im Schatten eines Ereignisses, das noch nicht stattgehabt hat?”
— Robert Musil, Tagebücher
— Robert Musil, Tagebücher
December 8, 2025 at 6:34 PM
“Wer von uns verbringt nicht den größten Teil seines Lebens im Schatten eines Ereignisses, das noch nicht stattgehabt hat?”
— Robert Musil, Tagebücher
— Robert Musil, Tagebücher
“All men live enveloped in whale-lines… the silent, subtle, ever-present perils of life… If you be a philosopher, though seated in the whale-boat, you would not at heart feel one whit more of terror, than though seated before your evening fire with a poker.”
#MelvilleMonday 🐳
#MelvilleMonday 🐳
December 8, 2025 at 6:33 PM
“All men live enveloped in whale-lines… the silent, subtle, ever-present perils of life… If you be a philosopher, though seated in the whale-boat, you would not at heart feel one whit more of terror, than though seated before your evening fire with a poker.”
#MelvilleMonday 🐳
#MelvilleMonday 🐳
Marcel Proust:
“The people of bygone ages seem infinitely remote from us… We are amazed when we come upon a sentiment more or less akin to what we feel today in a Homeric hero… it is as though we imagined the epic poet to be as remote from ourselves as an animal seen in a zoo.”
“The people of bygone ages seem infinitely remote from us… We are amazed when we come upon a sentiment more or less akin to what we feel today in a Homeric hero… it is as though we imagined the epic poet to be as remote from ourselves as an animal seen in a zoo.”
December 7, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Marcel Proust:
“The people of bygone ages seem infinitely remote from us… We are amazed when we come upon a sentiment more or less akin to what we feel today in a Homeric hero… it is as though we imagined the epic poet to be as remote from ourselves as an animal seen in a zoo.”
“The people of bygone ages seem infinitely remote from us… We are amazed when we come upon a sentiment more or less akin to what we feel today in a Homeric hero… it is as though we imagined the epic poet to be as remote from ourselves as an animal seen in a zoo.”
“A writer of genius today has everything to do. He is not much further advanced than Homer.”
— Marcel Proust
(“The Method of Sainte-Beuve,” in ASB, tr. John Sturrock)
— Marcel Proust
(“The Method of Sainte-Beuve,” in ASB, tr. John Sturrock)
December 7, 2025 at 5:16 PM
“A writer of genius today has everything to do. He is not much further advanced than Homer.”
— Marcel Proust
(“The Method of Sainte-Beuve,” in ASB, tr. John Sturrock)
— Marcel Proust
(“The Method of Sainte-Beuve,” in ASB, tr. John Sturrock)
“Why must almost everything appear to me as its own parody? Why must it seem to me as if almost all, no, all the means and contrivances of art nowadays are good only for parody?”
— Thomas Mann, Doctor Faustus
(from Adrian’s letter to Kretzschmar)
trans. John E. Woods
— Thomas Mann, Doctor Faustus
(from Adrian’s letter to Kretzschmar)
trans. John E. Woods
December 7, 2025 at 5:15 PM
“Why must almost everything appear to me as its own parody? Why must it seem to me as if almost all, no, all the means and contrivances of art nowadays are good only for parody?”
— Thomas Mann, Doctor Faustus
(from Adrian’s letter to Kretzschmar)
trans. John E. Woods
— Thomas Mann, Doctor Faustus
(from Adrian’s letter to Kretzschmar)
trans. John E. Woods
“Warum müssen fast alle Dinge mir als ihre eigene Parodie erscheinen? Warum muß es mir vorkommen, als ob fast alle, nein, alle Mittel und Konvenienzen der Kunst heute nur noch zur Parodie taugten?”
— Thomas Mann, Doktor Faustus
— Thomas Mann, Doktor Faustus
December 7, 2025 at 5:14 PM
“Warum müssen fast alle Dinge mir als ihre eigene Parodie erscheinen? Warum muß es mir vorkommen, als ob fast alle, nein, alle Mittel und Konvenienzen der Kunst heute nur noch zur Parodie taugten?”
— Thomas Mann, Doktor Faustus
— Thomas Mann, Doktor Faustus
“The end is in the beginning and yet you go on.”
— Beckett, Endgame
— Beckett, Endgame
December 6, 2025 at 4:49 PM
“The end is in the beginning and yet you go on.”
— Beckett, Endgame
— Beckett, Endgame
“Yet another then. Of whom nothing. Devising figments to temper his nothingness. . . .
Devised deviser devising it all for company.”
— Beckett, Company
Devised deviser devising it all for company.”
— Beckett, Company
December 6, 2025 at 4:47 PM
“Yet another then. Of whom nothing. Devising figments to temper his nothingness. . . .
Devised deviser devising it all for company.”
— Beckett, Company
Devised deviser devising it all for company.”
— Beckett, Company
“Indeed nothing is more painful than this contrast between the mutability of people and the fixity of memory.”
(Proust, Time Regained)
(Proust, Time Regained)
December 5, 2025 at 4:37 PM
“Indeed nothing is more painful than this contrast between the mutability of people and the fixity of memory.”
(Proust, Time Regained)
(Proust, Time Regained)
“The real love object is constantly changing, and one can love you today only by betraying the person you were yesterday.”
— Krzhizhanovsky, “In the Pupil” (tr. Joanne Turnbull)
— Krzhizhanovsky, “In the Pupil” (tr. Joanne Turnbull)
December 5, 2025 at 4:36 PM
“The real love object is constantly changing, and one can love you today only by betraying the person you were yesterday.”
— Krzhizhanovsky, “In the Pupil” (tr. Joanne Turnbull)
— Krzhizhanovsky, “In the Pupil” (tr. Joanne Turnbull)