September 17, 2024, 1:05pm

Have you ever wondered what would happen if Proust’s seven-volume classic In Search of Lost Time and your text messages stepped into the telepod from The Fly? You might get something like Andrew Weatherhead’s bizarre and compelling web literature project, the full text of Proust’s masterwork with “lol” added to the end of each and every sentence.

Andrew shared a full PDF of his mash-up in a tweet. It’s brilliant; the opening lines of Swann’s Way, the first volume, become:

For a long time I used to go to bed early lol. Sometimes, when I had put out my candle, my eyes would close so quickly that I had not even time to say “I’m going to sleep lol.” And half an hour later the thought that it was time to go to sleep would awaken me; I would try to put away the book which, I imagined, was still in my hands, and to blow out the light; I had been thinking all the time, while I was asleep, of what I had just been reading, but my thoughts had run into a channel of their own, until I myself seemed actually to have become the subject of my book: a church, a quartet, the rivalry between Francois I and Charles V lol.

And the “lol”s keep coming, at the end of every sentence for 2,154 pages.

The added acronyms shifted my reading of Proust’s Big, Important, Classic Novel onto more pedestrian terrain, closer to a text or an email with a friend. “For a long time I used to go to bed early lol” becomes an insecure admission, something you’re embarrassed to have said aloud at a dinner with friends. It also reads as a casual, almost flirty reveal, like something you’d DM a crush.

The whole project is fascinating and very fun to flip through. I got curious about the mind behind the lols and reached out to Andrew, a writer and artist who has published four poetry collections. He’s already at work on another literary pastiche: “an experimental, “collage” translation of Infinite Jest.” (He sent me some pictures of that in-progress project.)

I chatted with Andrew over email about his lol Proust, what the response has been like, and the thing he considers to be as embarrassing as going viral.

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What inspired this project? What was your lol-madeleine moment?

I was writing a work email and ended consecutive sentences with “lol.” In that moment, I recognized the literary potential of using “lol” at the end of every sentence of a piece of writing, and immediately—almost reflexively—thought: “In Search of Lost Time but every sentence ends with ‘lol.’” I thought I would just tweet that, but then I wanted to see what that would actually look like.

What would you call this? Is it an act of translation? A cover? A Twitter bit?

I’d say part translation and part conceptual art, in the form of a Twitter bit.

Do you know Gilbert Sorrentino’s novel Gold Fools? He takes a campy Western novel and just makes every sentence interrogative. E.g. Were Nort Shannon, Dick Shannon, and Bud Merkel exceptionally morose as they sat before the small bunkhouse and about the flames of the blazing campfire? Was their recent failed adventure in ranching all over, and did Bud, in particular, think it time to pack it in?

It’s amazing.

In hindsight, I was definitely channeling that influence, though I did not think of it until right now, sitting here answering your question.

Beyond the fun juxtaposition of high-brow with low-brow, what do your additions add to the text? Were there any surprises?

I was surprised how well the idea worked and to realize how “low-brow” Proust actually is. His grammar is intense, but he’s really just a chatty romantic, like so many of us. The “lol” punctuation fit perfectly.

Are there any In Search of Lolst Time sentences that you found particularly satisfying?

I like them all. The short ones are good, and the long ones have this fun mounting suspense, waiting for the “lol” punchline to drop.

What has the response been like?

Kind of annoying, actually. I usually have a pretty healthy relationship with my phone and social media, but it’s like I can’t help myself from checking since the tweet started to snowball.

I’m glad people are getting a kick out of it, but it’s been the kind of ephemeral, “very online” memeification that doesn’t translate to the real world, so it feels a little dubious and embarrassing. Like, I apologized when I told my wife, a school teacher, that my tweet was going viral. It’s like being in a ska band or something.

Are you a big Proust fan? What do you like about his writing?

I feel generally positive towards Proust. I’ve only read the Lydia Davis translation of Swann’s Way, which I loved, and I probably loved it for all the same reasons other people love it. I have Within a Budding Grove on my bookshelf and look forward to reading it one day.

What would you say to folks who are intimidated by Proust?

Just stay positive.