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Modern Classics in Search of Lost Time Volume 4: Sodom and Gomorrah (Revised)
Modern Classics in Search of Lost Time Volume 4: Sodom and Gomorrah (Revised) | Marcel Proust
35 posts | 26 read | 1 reading | 8 to read
The final volume of In Search of Lost Time chronicles the years of World War I, when, as M. de Charlus reflects on a moonlit walk, Paris threatens to become another Pompeii. Years later, after the war's end, Proust's narrator returns to Paris, where Mme. Verdurin has become the Princesse de Guermantes. He reflects on time, reality, jealousy, artistic creation, and the raw material for literature - his past life. This volume also includes the indispensable Guide to Proust, an index to all six volumes of the novel. The final volume of a new, definitive text of A la recherche du temps perdu was published by the Bibliotheque de la Pleiade in 1989. For this authoritative English-language edition, D. J. Enright has revised the late Terence Kilmartin's acclaimed reworking of C. K. Scott Moncrieff's translation to take into account the new French editions.
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Taylor
Sodom and Gomorrah | Marcel Proust
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Pickpick

“The Intermittences of the Heart”—that‘s the name of a section here, and it was almost the name of the entire novel…. We‘re talking how time affects our feelings about events, as well as our view of individuals; how hurt springs up seemingly out of nowhere; how someone can feel so indifferently distant and then suddenly it‘s as though they live inside us, a part of us. Incisive, cutting prose is the standard with Proust. His wisdom pierces.

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DrSabrinaMoldenReads
Sodom and Gomorrah | Marcel Proust
Pickpick

This is actually Vol. IV. I had to give it thumbs up because Proust and anyone tackling “In Search of Lost Time” must read all volumes. But, for me, this has gone downhill and I don‘t have high expectations for the last volumes. His tangents this time were so illogical that they were grueling to read. I wondered about his sanity. Now reading the back story of this book, I feel fooled by him (won‘t spoil) & there‘s too much of the Verdurin socials

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Taylor
Sodom and Gomorrah | Marcel Proust

The life of a seaside resort removed from an introduction the consequences for the future that might have been dreaded in Paris.

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Taylor
Sodom and Gomorrah | Marcel Proust

I‘m over halfway through this, but I‘m kind of feeling like I need something else to read besides Proust. I was trying to go straight through while reading nothing else, but I don‘t know if I‘m gonna make it….

DrSabrinaMoldenReads The next book is lots better 11mo
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Taylor
Sodom and Gomorrah | Marcel Proust

Mme Verdurin did not give “dinners,” but she had “Wednesdays.” Her Wednesdays were a work of art.

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Taylor
Sodom and Gomorrah | Marcel Proust

It cannot be said that she was stupid; she overflowed with an intelligence that I sensed was of not the slightest use to me.

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merelybookish
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Pickpick

Finished another volume. This one felt longer, maybe because the narrator is growing increasingly annoying (and my annoying I mean a jealous, possessive a$$hole ?).That said, reading his depictions of gay men ("inverse" in early 20th century parlance) and gay relationships is fascinating knowing that Proust himself was gay. Because I would not say it's exactly flattering. (The narrator in the book is not.)
On to Volume 5! #morningswithMarcel

merelybookish Tagging @DrSabrinaMoldenReads since we seen to be in this together. 😉 13mo
DrSabrinaMoldenReads I already like the next volume a lot better. I feel so fooled by him because I did not know he was gay until I finished. He certainly was conflicted @merelybookish (edited) 11mo
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Taylor
Sodom and Gomorrah | Marcel Proust

The fact is that, even in the most genuine fatigue, especially among the nervous, there is an element that depends on our awareness and is preserved only by the memory. We are suddenly weary the moment that we fear being so, and to overcome fatigue it is enough to forget it.

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Taylor
Sodom and Gomorrah | Marcel Proust

“Goodbye, I‘ve hardly spoken to you, that‘s how it is in society, we don‘t meet, we don‘t say the things we‘d like to say to one another; anyway, it‘s the same everywhere in life. Let‘s hope it‘ll be better organized after we‘re dead. At least we won‘t have to wear low-cut dresses. Yet who knows? Perhaps we shall show off our bones and our worms on big occasions. Why not?”

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Taylor
Sodom and Gomorrah | Marcel Proust

Any action of the mind is easy when it is not subject to reality. Here I was forced to submit.

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merelybookish
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On to Volume 4. #morningswithmarcel

Centique You are a legend 🙌🙌 1y
merelybookish @Centique Lol. I'm making my pokey way through it. And I do enjoy it - mostly. 1y
DrSabrinaMoldenReads Those Wednesdays became unbearable. His tangents were off the wall @merelybookish 11mo
55 likes3 comments
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bunneeboy
Sodom and Gomorrah | Marcel Proust
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Pickpick

All Skate!

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xicanti
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Also on today‘s reading list: Proust! I couldn‘t keep to my usual pace (100 pages every 2-3 days) when I had all those nonrenewable library chunksters on my docket, but I‘m back into it now and I hope to finish SODOM AND GOMORRAH tomorrow or Sunday. Ruby‘s been a big help.

I‘ll be interested to read the translator‘s introduction after I finish. I understood this was the volume that helped Proust come to terms with his own homosexuality, but ⬇️

xicanti there seems to be a lot of internalized self-loathing here. Or is he mocking society‘s expectations, as he so often does? I‘m curious to read a Proustian scholar‘s take. 2y
merelybookish I am amazed at your progress! 2y
CBee Ruby!! I thought you only had Casey! Ruby is just adorable too 😍 2y
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xicanti @merelybookish it‘s going much faster than I thought it would, even considering the times when I was too busy to really dig in! 2y
xicanti @CBee I‘m just looking after Ruby for the day! Her parents went snowmobiling. 2y
CBee @xicanti oh neat! She‘s a cutie. 2y
xicanti @CBee she really is. I love her little flippy ears. 2y
dabbe Hi, Rare Ruby! ❣️🐾❣️ 2y
xicanti @dabbe she‘s definitely a rare and precious little treasure! 2y
42 likes9 comments
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xicanti
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I stopped in at my summer-regular McDonald‘s for coffee, pie, and Proust. I‘m in the midst of one of his extremely long party scenes right now, and it‘s a blast.

charl08 No madeleine? 2y
xicanti @charl08 I‘m still waiting for the local McDonald‘s to add them to the menu. 2y
charl08 @xicanti my local Lidl is doing macarons this week- so who knows what might be possible 🤣 2y
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xicanti @charl08 fast food luxury pastries for everyone! 2y
AlaMich I‘ve been reading a volume of essays by Lydia Davis, one of Proust‘s translators. She kept a translation diary of Swann‘s Way, and it‘s very interesting. (edited) 2y
xicanti @AlaMich ooh, I‘ll have to look for that! 2y
AlaMich The book is called Essays Two (not to be confused with her other book of essays, Essays One 😉). 2y
xicanti @AlaMich ah ha! I‘ve got Essays One stacked. I‘ll add Two as well. 2y
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xicanti
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I finished THE GUERMANTES WAY before I took Daisy on her walk, went to just casually stick my bookmark in SODOM AND GOMORRAH, and ended up 15 pages deep in it.

Proust, man. He‘s addictive, and his long-ass paragraphs make it tough to stop.

I didn‘t actually read the book out of the house, but I ended up on the river road for the very first time and I thought y‘all might like to see one of the public art pieces I came across on there.

xicanti (If you don‘t have river roads where you live, it‘s exactly what it sounds like. There‘re separate trails for walkers/cyclists, skiers, and skaters, with art and occasional warming shacks.) 2y
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xicanti
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It was finally warm enough today for some library tourism! Daisy‘s local branch is one of the few I‘d never been to, so I trekked on over there this afternoon to return all the stuff I finished this week and borrow my next volume of Proust.

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Palimpsest
Sodom and Gomorrah | Marcel Proust
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As always I enjoyed the beautiful descriptions of scenery and the nostalgic feeling of time and memory. The narrator returns to seaside Balbec where he spends time with Albertine and the Verdurins (horrible people) at the house they are renting from the Cambremers, La Raspelière. This volume discusses a lot of homo-erotic relationships, hence the title, but all is not equal when it came to the view of the sapphic. Great, but some problems with ?

Palimpsest situating in my head that it was permissible to be with someone so much younger in this time whether heterosexual or homosexual, as I can‘t entirely tell what age Albertine is compared to the narrator either. Lovely prose and again I love how closely the narrator can tell what another character is about. 3y
BarbaraBB Good question. I have always assumed Marcel and Albertine are more or less of the same age but I really wouldn‘t know. 3y
39 likes2 comments
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Booksnchill
Sodom and Gomorrah | Marcel Proust
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Pickpick

Well, it is August 2020 and how the world has changed since I started reading Proust. Finished Volume 4 and we are steeped in the narrator‘s encounters with the gay men of fashion in Paris. Mssr Charluese in particular who pursues one does not believe for lust but for attention and devotion. Society is more in evidence in its pettiness and the narrator falls in and out of obsession- finally the last sentence “I must marry Albertine.” On to V.5.

TheBookHippie Just finished four!!! Now ... I have to buy 5!! 4y
Booksnchill @TheBookHippie awesome- 5 is the last one I have so will need to get the final book in a different translation as the Penguin has only gotten to 5. How do you like it in this age of pandemic? I find it comforting. 4y
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jveezer
Sodom and Gomorrah | Marcel Proust
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Love this illustration of Proust by Simon Brett for the Folio Society Shakespeare‘s Sonnets. Had to share it.

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jveezer
Sodom and Gomorrah | Marcel Proust
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Pizza and Proust: For to the disturbances of memory are linked the intermittences of the Heart. 🍕❤️

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jveezer
Sodom and Gomorrah | Marcel Proust
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As I started this book, I noticed that I bought it 11 years ago on a book crawl with @lalatiburona in San Francisco. I miss Bibliohead books in Hayes Valley. 📖💔

lalatiburona 😭😭😭 5y
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Booksnchill
Sodom and Gomorrah | Marcel Proust
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Apparently I only have 2 purple books on my shelves- both Penguins. The 4th volume of the penguin translation of Proust (bought for my 2020 year long read of Search of Lost Time) and this lovely penguin drop-cap of the norwegian classic Undset (The Wreath). #ChillingPhotoChallenge @Clwojick #TeamSlaughter

BkClubCare Wow - that is VERY purple! 💜 5y
Booksnchill @BkClubCare yes- they did stand out a bit!🤣 5y
49 likes2 comments
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AnneCecilie
Sodoma e Gomorra | Marcel Proust
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Pickpick

In the Norwegian edition of Proust works this is the 4th of 7 books. When you have gotten this far into the story, you have accepted Proust writing style and eye for details. I have started to like his eye for details and it make you feel as if you are there.

Simona Absolutely agree! His descriptions are so sensible and vivid. 5y
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AnneCecilie
Sodoma e Gomorra | Marcel Proust
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In this novel the protagonist is back in Balbec. And after all the descriptions of the surroundings and the hotel, I had to hit the internet and found out that the Normandy town of Cabourg is the inspiration behind Balbec, and Le Grand Hotel de Cabourg is the inspiration for the Grand Hotel described in the novel.

These are some photos I found on proust-ink.com that shows both the inside and the outside of Le Grand Hotel in Cabourg

Kalalalatja Stunning! 5y
KarouBlue Beautiful! 5y
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AnneCecilie
Sodoma e Gomorra | Marcel Proust
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Next up.

This is the first day I‘m officially on vacation. When I don‘t have any other plans than stay at home reading, I like to begin my vacation by reading Proust.

review
Taylor
Sodom and Gomorrah | Marcel Proust
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Pickpick

To be honest...I can‘t. Remember. What has happened. In this. Particular. Volume. Necessarily. But I am still thoroughly enjoying it.

Simona Maybe the problem is that nothing happens ... and I ♥️ those books 😁 6y
Taylor @Simona Seriously. All I remember is a long flower metaphor, how disturbed he is by gay people, and his anxiety about Albertine. 6y
BarbaraBB @Taylor That‘s all I remember too. Maybe that‘s just about it! Did you start The Captive yet? 6y
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Taylor @BarbaraBB Okay, the edition of translations I‘ve been reading, which I‘ve been really enjoying, is this translation put out by Penguin where it‘s a different translator on each volume, but they maintain some consistencies in translation style (I can‘t remember what those consistencies are). 6y
Taylor @BarbaraBB Like I said, I‘ve been liking this series a lot, and when I went to buy the next volume, book four, I discovered to my astonishment that it isn‘t out yet! I knew it was a recent translation but had no idea the entire series wasn‘t finished. I still want to continue with these particular translations, I think, so I decided to just wait it out, even if it takes a few years for them all to be out, and then I‘ll finish. 6y
Taylor @BarbaraBB I‘m planning on rereading the whole thing anyway, once I‘m finished. But I think I‘m just gonna pick up on book four in a couple years with that gap in between and see how it goes? As I said, I can‘t remember much of it anyway, even with having recently read them. Though I‘ll admit I would have picked a different translation had I realized this one isn‘t yet complete; because I was enjoying it and wanted to read it all the way through. 6y
Taylor @barbarabb Although on the other hand, I do kind of like this reprieve from Proust. I‘m reading Doestevsky now and loving it. So which Proust translation have you been reading?? 6y
BarbaraBB Oh that‘s a bummer, to have to wait gor such a long time. And after book four you‘ll probably have to wait again until the next one will be translated. 6y
BarbaraBB I am Dutch and reading a Dutch translation (the whole series has been translated by the same person, fortunately). I also have the English Penguin edition of the first book but I preferred the Dutch one. 6y
Taylor @BarbaraBB Yeah, I think I‘m gonna just wait until they‘re all finished and then read them back to back. So it‘ll likely be a few years until I pick up Proust again. Kind of weird, but I‘m not sure I want to switch translations. 6y
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Taylor
Sodom and Gomorrah | Marcel Proust

“I returned by the roads from which you can see the sea, and where once, before it appeared between the branches, I used to close my eyes to reflect that what I was about to see was indeed the plaintive ancestress of the earth, pursuing, as when the days when no human beings yet existed, its crazed, immemorial agitation.”

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BarbaraBB
Sodom and Gomorrah | Marcel Proust
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Mehso-so

I finally finished the fourth installment of In Search of Lost Times. It starts with Marcel discovering that M. De Charlus is gay and he becomes obsessed with homosexuality. He sees gays and lesbians everywhere and is afraid Albertine might be one as well. He gets terribly jealous and keeps her by his side all the time. They pretend she is his cousin when they are both in Balbec again. 👇👇#1001books

BarbaraBB These are the times in which the aristocratic salons of the Guermantes are still unchanged and timeless but are eventually surpassed by the intellectual salons of civilians. Marcel is visiting those all the time, having intellectual discussions and keeping track of how everyone is related to everyone else. In the end he grows bored - of Summer, of the people and of Albertine. It is interesting how his mind works and to keep following him. (edited) 7y
emilyhaldi That‘s a mouthful!! Glad you liked this classic but I‘m not sure I‘ll be reading it anytime soon 😬 (edited) 7y
Kalalalatja I don‘t have the courage to start this one! 7y
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Simona 👏👏👏👏 Great! Are you planning to read the rest? 7y
AnneCecilie I have read one of books for the last few years over summer and this is next up. This seems like quite the book. 7y
BarbaraBB @Simona Yes I want to finish the series but am taking my time 😉 7y
BarbaraBB @AnneCecilie I enjoyed this one less than the former three. What a good idea to read one each year! 7y
AnneCecilie @BarbaraBB I find that Proust's writing demands a lot of the reader, so I'm afraid that I will get in a Proust reading slump if I read too much of him in a row. Also I have started using 1 week out of my 3 week vacation to read him. Otherwise I would have used forever to read the books. 7y
BarbaraBB @AnneCecilie It is hard working indeed. I started in January 2017 and have read 4 books in 16 months so I am taking my time as well 😉 7y
AnneCecilie @BarbaraBB I think that is the only why to read them all 😀 7y
Graywacke Congrats on another Proust! 7y
AshleyHoss820 Keep it up!! I borrowed Swann‘s Way through Inter-Library Loan, but I ran out of time. I‘m going to buy a copy because I think Proust is one which requires slow digestion. 😊 6y
BarbaraBB @AshleyHoss820 Yes it is slow reading. I read about 50 pages a month ☺️ 6y
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BarbaraBB
Sodom and Gomorrah | Marcel Proust
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#Riotgrams, day 11: #punctuation

“He lives at Balbec?” crooned the Baron in a tone so far from interrogatory that it is regrettable that the written language does not possess a sign other than the question mark to end such apparently unquestioning remarks.”

TrishB Beautiful cover 💕 7y
Suet624 😂😂😂 7y
Taylor I loved this passage. 6y
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BarbaraBB
Sodom and Gomorrah | Marcel Proust
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I need to get back to Proust. I've started Remembrance of Things Past as a buddyread on LibraryThing in January. Since then I have finished the first three installments (of seven). I actually enjoyed reading them but somehow I haven't been in the mood to continue with this fourth book.
I don't want to give up! I am too far in! I will try again to read 50 pages after every other book I finish.

#1001books

Ole I guess reading Proust can easily become a 'task' 😁 I've only read the first and have thought about picking up again many many times 7y
BarbaraBB @Ole Yes it is kind of a task but I am surprised by how much I like it though. And I really want to finish it! 🤓 7y
Simona It is task, but very rewarding! 7y
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BarbaraBB @Simona I feel that way too. Did you finish it? 7y
Simona Yes, twice 🤓 First in English (and I wasn't impressed) and after I was finished with reading it was published in Slovenian translation. I can't remember who was English translator, but Slovenian was much better, more fluent and sensitive. 7y
BarbaraBB @Simona I also started in English but have changed to Dutch. Much better as well! 7y
Simona Maybe we have read the same edition 🤷‍♀️ 7y
39 likes7 comments
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chowmeyow
Sodom and Gomorrah | Marcel Proust
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Morning Prousting.

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Michael_Gee
Sodom and Gomorrah | Marcel Proust
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Pickpick

Though problematic and sometimes even dull (any part with or about Albertine is both infuriating and boring to me), I did ultimately enjoy this book. Part of it is Proust's ability to create characters so sharp and real you can at once laugh at them and say: I know that person! It is also fascinating to read honest, human (if also snide and self-loathing) descriptions of "inverts" (read: gay) men and women in the early twentieth century.

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Michael_Gee
Sodom and Gomorrah | Marcel Proust

He had that detailed knowledge of things Parisian peculiar to the people who rarely go there 😂

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Michael_Gee
Sodom and Gomorrah | Marcel Proust
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Candy coated sins 🍭

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Michael_Gee
Sodom and Gomorrah | Marcel Proust
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"It was a whole state of being, a whole future existence, which had assumed in front of me the fateful, allegorical form of a girl." Marcel's obsession bears a close resemblance to stalker Joe Goldberg in You, which I read alongside S&G. #gross #straightmalegaze