A variant of mine on the Proustian moment, btw, is the fact that when I find myself unbearably, shatteringly, overwhelmingly bored by something I am trying to read or watch, I am immediately reminded of my several efforts over a long life actually to read À la Recherche... I honestly have tried several times over the years to come to terms with the mighty œuvre; but I have always, I confess, succumbed to the intolerable boredom induced before I have even left Swann's Way and given up the effort.

≈M≈