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La vie lente
I'm sitting here staring at my computer who is staring at me while I read about other people's lives. I'm so envious. I just finished French Lessons by Alice Kaplan -a book that made me wish I had gone to Duke University and had the vague chance of being one of her students- and I am floored as to how interesting her life is/was. A few tragic moments here and there, but really, how interesting! How excitingly different!
The story begins to hold interest when the reader begins to follow a 15 year old girl who gets sent off to boarding school in Switzerland and from then on has a love affair with the French language and culture. She continues on to receive her PhD from Yale and studied under Paul De Man during this time, who was considered a literary genius for his work with deconstructionism, but after his death discovered to have written for a collaborative newspaper during WWII. Later she interviews one of the biggest facist(and well, only one still living) of French History, Maurice Bardèche, brother in law of the convicted and executed collaborator Robert Brasillach. I mean really, even though he was a devastating man, a negationist, an anti-Semitic, and ruthless, how amazing it is to have been the first to interview him and reveal him to the world? Not only that, but to be Jewish, fluent in French, educated--a complete contradiction to the inferiority of Jews that Nazi Germany collaborators and negationist proclaimed to be true. That's amazing, in my opinion. It's permenately etching oneself into the history books, permenately making oneself an authority on French fascism.
So, back to the slow life. Yes, I remember. I wake up, go to work, do school work, read, paint, study french. Although, at least I can catch up on some good reading time, here's what I've got lined up: Death on the Installment Plan by Celine, Voyage au bout de la nuit by Celine, Zazie dans le Metro by Raymond Queneau.
I think I'll start a short story, just for kicks. I'll make it something of an assignment and base it off of historical facts--perhaps I'll dabble in fascism, nihilism, existenialism and WWI/II war crimes. That way, I'll have to do a lot of research and learn a great deal while I write. Oh, I'm excited now! I guess it's nice having so much free time.
The story begins to hold interest when the reader begins to follow a 15 year old girl who gets sent off to boarding school in Switzerland and from then on has a love affair with the French language and culture. She continues on to receive her PhD from Yale and studied under Paul De Man during this time, who was considered a literary genius for his work with deconstructionism, but after his death discovered to have written for a collaborative newspaper during WWII. Later she interviews one of the biggest facist(and well, only one still living) of French History, Maurice Bardèche, brother in law of the convicted and executed collaborator Robert Brasillach. I mean really, even though he was a devastating man, a negationist, an anti-Semitic, and ruthless, how amazing it is to have been the first to interview him and reveal him to the world? Not only that, but to be Jewish, fluent in French, educated--a complete contradiction to the inferiority of Jews that Nazi Germany collaborators and negationist proclaimed to be true. That's amazing, in my opinion. It's permenately etching oneself into the history books, permenately making oneself an authority on French fascism.
So, back to the slow life. Yes, I remember. I wake up, go to work, do school work, read, paint, study french. Although, at least I can catch up on some good reading time, here's what I've got lined up: Death on the Installment Plan by Celine, Voyage au bout de la nuit by Celine, Zazie dans le Metro by Raymond Queneau.
I think I'll start a short story, just for kicks. I'll make it something of an assignment and base it off of historical facts--perhaps I'll dabble in fascism, nihilism, existenialism and WWI/II war crimes. That way, I'll have to do a lot of research and learn a great deal while I write. Oh, I'm excited now! I guess it's nice having so much free time.