A "meta-argument" against all future arguments for God's existence ?

[Belacqua]

What do you think of Swann's Way? I started reading that/listening to it as an audiobook a long time ago, based on the recommendation that it was a good book about love, but found it very hard going and gave up about half way through. If I recall correctly (which I might not, it really has been a long time), I found it very heavy going and repetitive its descriptions of the scenery. I understand that that's important for painting a picture with words, but it was still very hard going for me, and not what I really enjoy most about reading books... I prefer dialogue I guess, as a means to move a book along, than descriptions of the surroundings. Basically I found reading Dickens easier, and that's probably saying quite a lot. But still, is that a book you'd recommend revisiting?... indeed in line with, like you say, a measurement of personal growth... ie like with the layers of Plato or any revisiting of ideas, usually there is a change in perspective, so maybe I'd see it different now. Or would you recommend something else?

Swann's Way is the first volume in Proust's enormously long novel. And you're right, it's hard going, repetitive, slow, intentionally boring, with wordy run-on sentences and confusing grammar. It's also a great great work of art. It's way easier than some of the middle volumes, though, like The Captive. That's like punishment. 

When Proust first submitted it to a publisher they asked André Gide to read it and decide whether to accept it or not. He turned it down flat and said that it took fifty pages to describe going to bed and didn't hold his interest. (He later admitted he'd made a mistake.) 

I don't know... It's clearly not everyone's cup of tea (pun intended). Maybe it's one of those things where you get it or you don't, and it doesn't reflect badly on a reader if he doesn't want to put up with it. 

Now that you mention it, I suppose that one element of its greatness is that it makes unique demands on people. Corporate media like Star Trek is designed to flatter and massage the audience, spoon feeding emotions in pre-tested satisfying amounts. So if a book demands that a person change his pace and his type of attention, and sort of re-do how he relates to a thing, it has managed something important. 

Nobody would blame you if you wanted to stick with Dickens, however. Nothing wrong with that.