More than a century ago Williams James wrote in Principles of Psychology: “Every one knows what attention is.” But that is no longer true. Have you the ability to attend to something with focus for a long stretch? Have you felt that ability atrophy or disappear? And what about your children? If everyone in 1890 knew what attention was, what’s known to all of us today is distraction.
We cannot transform the nature of our age, but we can spend the summer cultivating the habits of “focalization, concentration, of consciousness” that James identified as the essence of attention (in contrast to “the confused, dazed, scatterbrained state” he notes as its opposite). Attendant to attention is memory, “the storehouse of whatever knowledge we possess.” The dissipation of memory is inseparable from the dissipation of attention, and the recovery of one is the recovery of the other.
So what ought we to do? We will spend the summer with the great writer of attention and memory, Marcel Proust. Join us in reading SWANN’S WAY in June and July.
Which translation should you read? We recommend either the Moncrieff and Kilmartin translation published by Modern Library or Lydia Davis’ translation published by Penguin. Each is widely available as an affordable paperback, and page numbers for both are provided below.
Reading schedule:
- 6/15 – Penguin (pp. 1-48) | Modern Library (pp. 1-64)
- 6/22 – Penguin (pp. 49-111) | Modern Library (pp. 65-151)
- 6/29 – Penguin (pp. 111-191) | Modern Library (151-264)
- 7/6 – Penguin (pp. 195-263) | Modern Library (265-359)
- 7/13 – Penguin (263-324) | Modern Library (359- 444)
- 7/20 – Penguin (324-396) | Modern Library (444-543)
- 7/27 – Finish the book!
Discussions will take place from 5:30-6:45 in downtown Fairhaven at 1106 Harris Ave., Suite 307. The format is simple: read the assigned pages for that day before you arrive and compose a short question about the reading. The cost of the seven week seminar is a sliding scale.
Questions? Call or text 360-230-8012 or email donald@fairhavenprogram.org.