Saturday, August 11, 2007

Belshaw's Favourite Blogs - Marcel Proust's Stumbling on melons

Continuing my very irregular series on my favourite blogs, Marcel Proust's Stumbling on Melons is a very different blog from some of those I read.

Marcel is, I think, a serious and precise person. He is also a barrister practising in Sydney. Both show in the precision and clarity of his English.

I sometimes imagine Marcel at his computer striving for the exact phrase that will most accurately capture the meaning he wants to express. Well, Marcel, this is one reader who appreciates your efforts. Even with topics in which I have no interest, I find myself dropping below the story to examine and admire the English expression.

Marcel loves music and especially opera with a passion, a passion reflected in his many posts about concerts.

I fear music has passed me by. I always thought of this as a weakness, and indeed have tried to overcome it. Now music does have a small place in my life: Vivaldi in Venice, the classical music I listen to when working at home, Gilbert and Sullivan, a few operas, some popular music. Yet my tolerance for staged performances is quite low. I find myself shifting uncomfortably in my seat, watching the first violin or almost anybody else as a distraction.

So I do not share Marcel's passion. Yet I am happy to read his posts in part as an education, in part because I am never quite sure where he will end up. Sometimes quite literally in fact! There, Marcel, included just as evidence that I do actually read your posts!

As might be expected, Marcel also writes frequently on legal topics. Again he does so with clarity, but also with compassion and an eye for social justice.

There is a strong gay theme in many of his posts. As a conventional heterosexual male my interests lie elsewhere. But I can read these posts with interest and a degree of understanding.

So, in all, MP and Stumbling on melons forms a valuable part of what I have sometimes the University of Blogging, or at least my part of that University. I commend him to you.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for your kind words. I'm now daunted at the prospect of living up to them. However, I think those who know me in the flesh might be amused by your take on me as "serious and precise." Could this be a triumph of (blogging) art over life?

Jim Belshaw said...

Interesting question. Perhaps it is indeed a case of the triumph of art!

Serious and precise or not, in this case perhaps not, I will continue reading and enjoying so long as you keep writing.