#Littré

[lounesdarbois]

Le charme de l'accent de nos grands-parents.

[francepittoresque]

2 juin 1881 : mort du lexicographe et philosophe Émile Littré ➽ http://bit.ly/Emile-Littre Homme de travail connu pour son « Dictionnaire de la langue française » et qui se délassait d’un labeur par un autre labeur plus rude, Émile Littré avait fini par connaître le champ entier de l’activité intellectuelle et par acquérir un savoir véritablement encyclopédique

[nicolae]

The philosophy of the 19th century: Systems period (1800-1850) (2)

Generally speaking, removing from previous doctrines everything which gives them their apocalyptic and visionary character, you obtain new doctrines which have a skeptical and discouraged aspect, or which, conversely, expect a lot from human forces and very little from natural necessity. The materialism of Marx is the Hegelian doctrine of the State, deprived of its religious meaning, like the…

[fredericbrumby]

Les couleurs de la ville.

Mur

Rue Littré II

[nietp]

[Flaubert voice] my little faggot friends

[mucillo]

Alba Carla Laurita de Céspedes y Bertini (Roma, 11 marzo 1911– Parigi, 14 novembre 1997) è stata una scrittrice, poetessa e partigiana italiana, autrice anche di testi per il cinema, il teatro, la radio e la televisione. "Clorinda" è stato il suo pseudonimo radiofonico e il suo nome di battaglia da partigiana.

“30 maggio 1968”, scritta in francese, è la poesia più rappresentativa di “Le ragazze di maggio”. Alba De Cespedes è a Parigi, nel Quartiere latino, nei giorni del maggio francese e segue e partecipa al movimento degli studenti cogliendone novità e spirito sovversivo.

......

Stasera, il nostro quartiere, sulla riva sinistra,

piange la perdita dei suoi sogni.Dietro le finestre senza luce

– orbite nere nelle facciate chiare – occhi vuoti

fissano le strade deserte.

Un’altra sera, l’ultima,

saremo tra noi: pazzi d’amore e di rivolta.

Questa riva sarà ancora nostra;

solo per noi, prigione, ghetto,

colonia di lebbrosi.

Rimarranno sulla loro.

Non oseranno attraversare

il confine della Senna.

Riconoscono il nostro diritto

a questa veglia funebre,

a questa libertà

sorvegliata – da lontano –

da un esercito che veglia

anche osservando

il nostro silenzio sprezzante,

inquietante.

Nel Quartiere Latino, gli studenti

sorvegliano il cortile

della Sorbona.

La piazza dell’Odéon

abbraccia

rotonda

questa bella notte di primavera.

Le parole dei graffiti

che adornano le facciate

circolano come un “testamento”

tra i tavolini dei caffè-tabacchi

sul Boulevard Saint-Germain.

Nelle nostre strade, colpevoli

di complicità,

i sampietrini divelti

sono stati frettolosamente sostituiti,

gravemente.

Sulle mani dei giovani,

sulle pietre del loro cammino

che domani rotoleranno,

dall’altra parte,

verso il rassicurante fine settimana.

Nelle loro soffitte

intorno alla Sorbona,

nelle stanze delle cameriere

tappezzate di manifesti

– lo sguardo fiero del Che,

ragazzi e ragazze, armati

di poesia e di rabbia,

fanno l’amore con piacere

disperato,

bagnati di lacrime.

Ragazzi con i capelli lunghi,

le ragazze con le gonne corte

sono i cittadini delle nostre strade

della riva sinistra.

L’odore acre dei loro corpi di scolari,

è l’aria stessa del nostro quartiere.

Ovunque nel Sixième

sono affissi volantini

sotto forma di poesie.

Domani mattina al mattino presto

saranno coperti di pubblicità

di lavatrici e frigoriferi.

Le rondini del Lussemburgo

gridano il loro addio.

Dalle rive del boulevard

un’ultima zaffata di gas;

ma non ne resterà nulla

quando arriveranno dall’altra sponda

per essere fotografati,

sugli scheletri delle auto bruciate.

O nostri figli di maggio,

eroi di notti crivellate di stelle

e percosse.

Ferro e acciaio si oppongono

alle rose dell’immaginazione.

Ai crocicchi, lungo i viali

occhi che trafiggono

sui tetti delle auto della polizia

cesti di insalata, ambulanze,

uomini vestiti, con il casco,

mascherati di nero, scudi neri;

l’intera panoplia sinistra

di repressione è pronta

contro una rivoluzione

che non avrà mai luogo.

I cavi telefonici

attraversano il cielo silenzioso:

Littré, Odéon, Médicis

non rispondono stasera.

Dietro le nostre finestre chiuse,

vicino a telefoni muti,

e transistor spenti,

guardiamo in silenzio

le nostre speranze deluse.

Ma i gesti dei nostri figli

di maggio

rimangono – indelebili – nell’aria

nel tempo, nello spazio

di questo quartiere,

sulla riva sinistra.

"30 maggio 1968."

[chic-a-gigot]

La Mode illustrée, no. 38, 18 septembre 1904, Paris. Toilette de ville. Modèle de Mlle Goéry, rue Littré, 15. Ville de Paris / Bibliothèque Forney

Description de la gravure coloriée:

Cette toilette, en drap léger violet évêque, est ornée de velours d'une nuance plus foncée, encadré d'application de guipure crème. La jupe froncée est cerclée d'une bande étroite de velours ornée d'applications de guipure.

Le corsage blousé, également froncé, est l'ait avec un grand empiècement en velours encadré de guipure; cet empiècement est prolongé en pointe devant, jusqu'à la ceinture en soie Liberty drapée. Les manches bouffantes sont retenues dans des hauts poignets en velours, garnis de guipure. On complète la toilette par un boa en zibeline.

Chapeau en feutre blanc garni d'un nœud en soie Liberty violet évêque et de deux plumes d'autruche nuancées du violet au blanc.

—

This ensemble, in light bishop purple cloth, is decorated with velvet of a darker shade, framed with cream guipure application. The gathered skirt is surrounded by a narrow band of velvet decorated with guipure applications.

The bloused bodice, also gathered, has a large velvet yoke framed with guipure; this yoke is extended in a point at the front, up to the draped Liberty silk belt. The puffed sleeves are held in high velvet cuffs, trimmed with guipure. We complete the outfit with a sable boa.

White felt hat trimmed with a purple liberty bishop silk bow and two ostrich feathers shaded from purple to white.

[linguisticparadox]

Okay wanna talk about this bit:

Specifically about the words Aronnax imagines Nemo addressing to him.

Here's the French:

So, literally translated, Aronnax is imagining Nemo saying "Come! come still! come always!" ("toujours" can also mean "still", I think this is another case of double-entendre). This struck me as Aronnax sort of fantasizing about the romantic notion of, like, "I will always follow you."

It's also, afaik, the only time either of them uses (or imagines the other using) the "tu" form (the "vous" form here would have been "venez" instead of "viens"). Let me explain real quick.

So, I'm taking this from a 19th century monolingual French dictionary by Émile Littré because I'm a pedant and a nerd:

"La seconde personne a deux pronoms pour le singulier, tu et vous. Tu s'emploie dans la familiarité entre camarades, amis, parents, mari et femme, etc."

In English:

"The second person [you] has two pronouns for the singular, tu and vous. Tu is used in the familiarity between comrades, friends, relatives, husband and wife, etc."

He doesn't similarly define "vous" but basically, it's more formal.

Anyway, the rest of the book, in Actual Real Speech, Nemo and Aronnax use "vous" for each other--which makes sense! In fact they are very formal in their speech in other ways, too, even after Aronnax has been there for a while. And in the Real World where they are simply two scientists who Respect Each Other Very Much, this is perfectly appropriate!

But when he imagines Nemo speaking to him, beckoning him to follow, Aronnax imagines him using the more familiar "tu."

I'll close with one more quote from that dictionary:

"M. de Bussy demande si l'on doit se tutoyer en amour ; et, après avoir dit que cela est indifférent, il finit par ces vers : Le vous me paraît plus galant ; Mais je trouve le toi plus tendre."

which is

"M. de Bussy asks if we should use tu in love; and, after having said that it makes no difference, he finishes with these lines: Vous to me seems more gallant; But I find [tu] more tender."

[gavroche-le-moineau]

A Rose in Misery

So, I don't know whether the lyricist for On My Own took inspiration from this chapter or not, but it sure seems like they might have. I decided to do a translation of the heartbreaking paragraph where Éponine describes the city at night, not as it looks while she's imagining Marius beside her, as in the musical, but as it looks when she hasn't eaten for days in the winter.

FRENCH “Des fois je m’en vais le soir. Des fois je ne rentre pas. Avant d’être ici, l’autre hiver, nous demeurions sous les arches des ponts. On se serrait pour ne pas geler. Ma petite sœur pleurait. L’eau, comme c’est triste ! Quand je pensais à me noyer, je disais : Non, c’est trop froid. Je vais toute seule quand je veux, je dors des fois dans les fossés. Savez-vous, la nuit, quand je marche sur le boulevard, je vois les arbres comme des fourches, je vois des maisons toutes noires grosses comme les tours de Notre-Dame, je me figure que les murs blancs sont la rivière, je me dis : Tiens, il y a de l’eau là ! Les étoiles sont comme des lampions d’illuminations¹, on dirait qu’elles fument et que le vent les éteint, je suis ahurie², comme si j’avais des chevaux qui me soufflent dans l’oreille ; quoique ce soit la nuit, j’entends des orgues de Barbarie³ et les mécaniques des filatures, est-ce que je sais, moi ? Je crois qu’on me jette des pierres, je me sauve sans savoir, tout tourne, tout tourne. Quand on n’a pas mangé, c’est très drôle.⁴”

TRANSLATION “Sometimes, I take off in the evening. Sometimes I don’t come back. Before we were here, last winter, we lived under the bridge arches. We clung together to keep from freezing. My little sister would cry. Water- how sad it is! When I would think of drowning myself I would say : No, it’s too cold. I go off on my own when I want, I sometimes sleep in ditches. You know, at night, when I walk along the boulevard, I see the trees like pitchforks, I see houses all black and big like the towers of Notre-Dame, I imagine that the white walls are the river, and I say to myself : Look, there’s water! The stars are like festival lanterns¹, they seem to smoke and the wind blows them out, I’m stupefied², as if I had horses breathing in my ear ; although it’s night, I hear barrel organs³ and the machinery of the spinning mills, but what do I know? I think stones are being thrown at me, I run away without even realizing, everything spins, everything spins. When you haven’t eaten, it’s all a little funny.⁴”

NOTES 1. I did way too much research into what exactly “lampions d’illuminations” would have referred to at the time. A “lampion” is a lantern, and while modern definitions often list “paper lantern,” I couldn’t find anything that corroborated that from the time period. Littré describes it as a “Small vessel made of clay, tin, or glass, into which one puts tallow or oil with a wick, and which is used for illuminations.” “Illuminations” in the plural (which is how it’s used in the text), refers to decorative festival lights.

Also, I found some references to “lampions d’illuminations” in a newspaper from 1851. The page is describing anniversary celebrations for February 24th, 1848 (the French Revolution of 1848), which I think is further evidence that Éponine is referring specifically to lanterns that would be used at a festival or celebration.

2. The word here is “ahuri(e)” which means both “stunned, dazed, astonished, flabbergasted” but also can be used to mean “idiot, numbskull” so I used “stupefied” because it also carries those two connotations within the word. The two English translations I have translate the idea as more “bewildered / afraid” which honestly seems more correct for the tone, but since I can’t really be sure of the exact sense Hugo was going for I went with a word that more literally fits with the French definition.

3. An “orgue de Barbarie” is known by a myriad of terms in English: barrel organ, roller organ, crank organ, hand organ, cylinder organ, street organ, take your pick!

4. A literal translation of this last sentence might be: “When you haven’t eaten, it’s very funny.” The word “drôle” in French carries the same connotations that the English word “funny” does, in that it can mean both hilarious (something that one would laugh about), and odd, strange, or weird. I’m fairly certain, as other translators seem to be, that Éponine means “odd” or “weird” here but I again decided to use the word in English that most closely mirrors all of the meanings in the French word. However, I changed up the words around it just a tad to try to get across more of that unsettling feeling I believe Hugo is going for here.

--------

This was a hard one to translate! By nature of the fact that Éponine is rambling and describing a somewhat hallucinatory experience, it's very hard to tell sometimes what certain words mean or refer to within the context.

Many aspects of this paragraph remind me strongly of imagery in the lyrics of On My Own:

Sometimes I walk alone at night When everybody else is sleeping ... In the rain the pavement shines like silver All the lights are misty in the river In the darkness, the trees are full of starlight ... The river's just a river ... The trees are bare

But oh boy is the book so much more depressing. Nothing is romanticized here. Her imaginings as she walks around the city at night are sometimes beautiful, sometimes terrifying, always unsettling. She's not daydreaming, she's hallucinating because she's starving, and freezing. What a heart breaking chapter!

[christian-dubuis-santini]

La psychanalyse est une clinique du discours et un Discours (dans sa stricte acception lacanienne) qu’est-ce que ça veut dire ? Une illustration:

L’hystérologie, ou hystéron-protéron, du grec husteron, «qui se trouve derrière», et proteron, «qui vient avant», est un terme linguistique désignant le renversement de l’ordre naturel (chronologique ou logique) de deux termes (mots ou propositions).

L’exemple classique vient de l’Enéide: «Laissez-nous mourir et nous précipiter au milieu des ennemis.»

Comme le fait remarquer Littré, on ne peut se précipiter après être mort.

De nos jours, les fournisseurs d’accès à internet emploient régulièrement l'hystérologie, en demandant aux clients qui n’arrivent pas à se connecter de télécharger sur internet le logiciel qui résoudra le problème.

«User d’une hystérologie, c’est en somme postuler quelque chose qui n’existe pas encore pour s’autoriser et engager une action.»

Le sujet contemporain, contraint dès le plus jeune âge au «Sois toi-même», est en proie à cette figure embarrassante: «Il postule quelque chose qui n’existe pas encore (lui-même) pour enclencher l’action au cours de laquelle il doit se produire comme sujet ! Or, comme cet appui est foncièrement bancal, voire inexistant, l’acte soit échoue en se différant sans cesse, soit s’accomplit, mais en plaçant le sujet dans la situation de se voir faire un tour auquel il ne peut croire. Le sujet se vit alors comme un imposteur.

" […] Là où le sujet hystérique s’aliénait à un Autre en ne cessant, bien sûr, de lui reprocher et de se reprocher la dépendance dans laquelle il s’était mis lui-même, le sujet hystérologique, privé de tout appui sur l’Autre, ne peut plus que s’égarer dans un emmêlement intérieur, se retrouvant autant moitié que double de lui-même."

Telle est la situation dans laquelle la pédagogie des sciences de l’éducation place l’enfant.

Soulignons le lien de l’hystérologie avec ce que Lacan appelle la «forclusion» de la figure paternelle, le défaut d’inscription, jusque dans l’inconscient, de la filiation, met le sujet en demeure de s’engendrer lui-même...

Mais pris qu'il est déjà dans le Discours Capitaliste, le sujet de la "libre entreprise" finit toujours par se produire lui-même …comme déchet !

L’idéologie que sous-tend le Discours Capitaliste enjoint le sujet à dire que les enfants ont une sexualité. Les enfants n’ont pas de sexualité, les enfants ont des pulsions, ces Triebe sont l’écho dans le corps du fait qu’il y a un dire, dire qui cherche son acheminement dans et par la parole…

Ce que nous apprend la psychanalyse, c’est la notion de "nachtrag", l’"après-coup" qui caractérise la logique de performativité rétroactive du signifiant en tant qu’elle manifeste le Réel de l’inconscient.

Tu crois que tu dis ce que tu veux, mais tu dis ce que veut ton Autre, et le plus souvent c’est ta "famille" ou ta communauté qui te parle et qui te dit, ou le surmoi social qui en est l’extension non questionnée ni identifiée…

Faire une analyse c’est se confronter à ce "ne rien vouloir en savoir".

[tournevole]

Être chatte. Se dit d’une femme caressante de certaines caresses alanguissantes ; lente de ses mouvements, d’une grâce nonchalante. Ce n’est pas la même chose qu’une femme amoureuse. Il y a des femmes amoureuses qui ne sont pas chattes. Il y a des femmes chattes qui n’ont que l’apparence de l’amour. Mais les deux peuvent coexister.

(Clair Tisseur, Le Littré de la Grand’Côte, 1903)

[lounesdarbois]

Ce style de mot dans le Littré...

[francepittoresque]

2 juin 1881 : mort du lexicographe et philosophe Émile Littré ➽ http://bit.ly/Emile-Littre Homme de travail connu pour son « Dictionnaire de la langue française » et qui se délassait d’un labeur par un autre labeur plus rude, Émile Littré avait fini par connaître le champ entier de l’activité intellectuelle et par acquérir un savoir véritablement encyclopédique

[fredericbrumby]

Les couleurs de la ville.

Mur

[lafcadiosadventures]

Madame Putiphar Readalong. Book Two, Chapter XV

Featuring this week:

The Portrait of a Nobleman as a Well Dressed Criminal Beyond Legal Punishment

further fleshing out of Fitz-Harris, an atypical court jester/manservant-as-comic-relief

Clarissa surprised by Lovelace, from a series of illustrations after Stothard for Richardson's Clarissa.

Last chapter closed with a brief line about Fitz-Harris’ having the act of talking as the focus of his “monomania”. This was a 19th century medical term (defined by the littré as a “madness or delirium concerning a single object”) (readers of Balzac will be familiar) Fitz-Harris being portrayed as an irrefreinable, almost ""pathological"" chatterbox, and the choice of the scientific term is interesting to me because:

1)It possibly ties Fitz-Harris with a previous famous working class “monomaniac of talking”, (although Diderot does not call him that iirc) of French Literature, one that Borel was familiar with: Diderot’s Jacques the Fatalist. In Jacques’s case, being a chatterbox is not a negative trait. (and Jacques, although occasionally morally ambiguous, is more of a positive character than Fitz-Harris) Although he’s not always control his loquacity, it reveals Jacques’ a narrative fecundity, how his brain engenders infinite stories. (The Master finds this trait both entertaining when he’s bored AND upsetting when he wants quiet, because he thinks of Jacques not as a whole person, but rather, an appliance: sometimes a radio, a bodyguard, a manservant) however, Diderot has the assertive, formidable Jacques apologize for his excessive chatter once or twice, illustrating how it is something he cannot always control, and can cause him discomfort.

2) Why use the word monomania? As we hear Fitz-Harris speak directly in chapter 15, we see his talk is peppered not only with jokes and word play, and puns, but also with scientific jargon (he knows some botany, he talks about naturists). He is a kind of shakesperean court jester to the marquis de Villepastour, (although he never abuses the man, he certainly speaks in a bolder manner than usual for a mere soldier talking to his aristocratic superior) but he’s up to the modern scientific lingo as well.

We have talked before how Borel mocks phrenology in the 1st chapter of this book, how he laughs at the archaeologists trying to study the Druidic vestiges through a far removed, theoretic approach while ignoring similar customs still in practice in neighbouring countries of shared Celtic origin... Borel seems to have many problems with the uses of science of his day. Fitz-Harris goes on about the naturalists, the classifying of plants, dissecting the marquis’ metaphor to render it meaningless. He uses scientific jargon to divert and distract, which, could be another jab at the role of science. Of course Fitz-Harris is half heartedly trying to divert the talk away from Debby, or pretending to want to do so, but nothing forced Borel to pick science as Harris’ special interest.

(We get our 1st mention of the titular Character, Madame Putiphar. Swans of the wrong color / court swans. I feel like cygnes de la cour is an allusion to something but I have no idea to what and I have a feeling I am missing the joke here?)(cam suggested the swans are pure while the court is corrupted but it seems that it’s not a preexisting clichéed phrase)

We finally meet Villepastour as well, whom Borel has been mentioning briefly in the last couple of Parisian chapters. He is a solidly built character character, completely nasty of course, but keeping it all behind a polite, refined façade. He is a poem on the trope of the depraved nobles of the 18th c (their credo extensively portrayed by sade, laclos, etc). Keeping a polished appearance is of utmost importance, while still indulging their worst impulses and getting away with it.

So, when Fitz-Harris complains to his superior (alla Jacques the fatalist complaining to his master that he is more than just a "Jacques". Fitz-Harris is possibly a perversion of Figaro as well, 18th c french lit seems to feature some amount of servants suddenly asking to be treated as humans) that it's HIM who is being disrespected -a bold claim from a pleb to a noble- because after all, Villepastour is treating him, Fitz-Harris, like a lowly pimp, he is completely correct. However, Fitz-Harris is very enthusiastic in earning his superiors approval and ruining Patrick, and depriving him of whatever advantages he has that Harris doesn’t enjoy (a wife, the admiration of Villepastour)

A bit on Villepastour’s admiration. Again, didn’t Almaviva admire Figaro? As a servant, he did! But he also believed servants are his appliances and playthings, so he sees no contradiction in taking Figaro’s wife-to-be’s virginity, benefiting from his droit du signeur. The same happens with Villepastour, he respects Patrick’s integrity, he understands he is a capable and honorable professional soldier, but the breach separating nobles from plebs is too vast, he knows Patrick is his subordinate, his instrument, and he can take his wife for fun if he wants to because these people are either his playthings or his tools.

Villepastour is also completely aware that what he is doing is wrong and plays holier-than-thou with Harris, accusing him of betraying his brother, his beloved Pylades, his friend in a foreign land, Patrick Fitz-Whyte. And this is of course, completely true as well, as per the narrator filling us in on how jealous and envious he is, how ready he is to badmouth others -AND himself, which is interesting, possibly adding to the jester aspect-. He certainly did try and make Villepastour lose his admiration for Fitz-Whyte, all while wearing the mask of friendship for his fellow compatriot.

After the dialogue we get Villepastours’ proper introduction by the narrator (remember how Borel used to introduce his characters -escept perhaps Fitz-Harris- letting us hear them speak before, and giving us “objective” biographies after the reader had had a chance to make up their mind about their personality via dialogue)

We are told he was born during Philippe d’Orleans Regency, a period thought of in the 1840’s as one of sexual freedom, and or “depravity” (“(...)tu es très Régence mon vieux ! Voilà ce que c’est que d’être trop bel homme !” says Vautrin to his henchman Paccard, nicknamed fameux lapin, possibly implying he is fond of having sex, and lots of it. Earlier, in Splendeurs as well we get:“elle était franche dans sa dépravation, elle avouait son culte pour les mœurs de la Régence.” regency -> possibly romantic shorthand for a period of -ugh how to word this. Aristocratic Excesses and Debauchery)

So of course there has to be a sexual scandal in Villepastour’s Regency Origin Story. He is rumoured to be the fruit of incest, so his blood is thought of as being extremely purified and refined (these gossips had possibly not heard of Habsburg lips?) He was backed and protected by a shadowy hand of possibly royal origin. He owes this protector being a colonel at age 25, we are told. (again, there’s no illusion of a meritocracy in the ancien régime Paris of Madame Putiphar)

Villepastour is also a hunter, but a gentleman hunter. That is to say, he pursues sex at all cost, but has some restraint and decorum his Regency predecessors didn’t. What does this decorum entail? We will soon see. He also stuck to traditional definitions of Right and Wrong, of Justice and Injustice “I don’t dare say (he stuck to) feelings (of right and wrong/justice injustice)”, the narrator says. That is so good, once again, it’s all about seeming, rather than being moral. He sticks to the correct forms that make himself look good to others.

These concepts were inculcated by his preceptor, a man from the old court of Louis XIV, the “grand règne”, -XIV’s government usually seen as the pinnacle of french monarchy- but they only managed to give Villepastour a patina of morality, making of him nothing more than “some kind of hypocrite” a false, ridiculous and perfumed biped form of Dupaty’s Voyage en Italie or The Letters to Emilie on Mythology by Dumoustier. (My copy's translator informs on the footnotes both books are rather sappy, sentimental literature from the 18th c)

So, the narrator sums up, Villepastour is completely satisfied with Harris’ debriefing, he merely pretends to be cross and appalled at his dishonour because he does not want to show gratitude to a man incapable of showing restraint (again, it’s all in the form, acting proper, having manners while pursuing sinister purposes)

That very Sunday, armed with Fitz-Harris' intel, Villepastours gets ready to accost Debby at mass. He wears springtime green, simbolizing his amorous hopes (like the green knight of Youth did in the poem/prologue)(the association of green with desire as seen in the expression vert-gallant, Richelieu’s fabled green velvet seduction outfit, the song Greensleeves and surely more, seems to be lost nowadays)

So he wears green, he douses himself in perfume, he wears All of the Lace, to seduce Debby. And forth he goes, completely ignoring the fact that a) Debby is not into him b) she is seriously religious and actually at church to pray, c)is incredibly uncomfortable because she doesn’t want to bring attention to herself by loudly rejecting him -which sadly shows that Debby is not completely devoid of the bad aspects of feminine gender role conditioning-

The man is disgusting and relentless, touching her, stealing her glove, whispering flirty phrases in latin -because he is ~classy~—interestingly, women were not usually taught latin and it was used to be able to get away with rude/sexual expressions in front of supposedly unsuspecting women—the latin here however gets translated we don’t know if by villepastour or by the narrator-, into her ear, and Debby endures all of this rather than make herself the focus of attention by standing/changing places/leaving mass early. She is incredibly uncomfortable, but she doesn’t show it. She looks like a statue. Cold and un-responsive. But once she’s outside the church she dares talk back, and asks him to leave her alone. He tries to guilt trip her instead, asking for mercy, as such passion inspired by her excessive beauty can only be cured by being sated, etc etc. Debby asks of him merely to stop dishonouring her, she is in danger of having her reputation ruined. And for a man as concerned with appearances as Villepastour, invoking HONOUR works like a spell. Yes, he claims to care for her honour -to him that means, her keeping an appearance of respectability- so he lets her go, but. Of course he follows her discretely to check her address. Once he confirms where she lives, he strolls away, with a content, almost playful air.

[redlabopedagogique]

#La Petite école : correspondance

un retour sur le mot "Propice". 

Le littré dit : qui donne faveur, de qui notre sort dépend

mais en même temps c'est plus léger et moins systématique, qui rend favorable 

on parle de "vent propice"

Prend l'occasion pendant qu'elle est propice. Kairos en grec

A la propice, saisir 

Il y a ce dessin de Mantegna, occasio e poenitentia.

Et le texte de Pascal Quignard Sur  l'image qui manque à nos jours 

Où il parle du templum 

Le cadre imaginaire que dessinait les augures romains dans le ciel afin de lire les signes propices 

Propitium : aller en volant 

le vol est d'un augure heureux 

le templum comme espace propice 

l'augure attendait que les oiseaux traversent ce cadre imaginaire pour lire les signes favorables ou défavorables 

Quignard dit : " Auspicia se décompose en aves et spicio. Mot à mot oiseaux - regarder. Ces visions des oiseaux en train de voler se disent en latin inaugurations. In-augur-ationes.  vos  belles inaugurations de jeudi soir. 

l'augure à l'aide du baton sacré - lituus - découpe dans le ciel un rectangle - templum dans lequel il examine le vol, l'allure, la direction des oiseaux, nuées, orages, mouvement de l'air, éclairs, n'importe quel signe qui vient de surgir". 

Templum, rituel, gestes qui font apparaître, rendent visible et accueillent en même temps, rend palpable, tentative - tentacule (tâtonner) 

Sas et seuil aussi, mu, ému, peaux

Je pense à votre hibou, à la panthère de Sylvain Tesson, aux yeux noirs de Khalil, à la pédagogie comme mantique, comme tour et détour de magie, tact, tour de mains, touché et être touché, jeux de ficelles, de bois et de terre

A l'image de Mantegna, à l'occasion qu'il faut saisir - parfois par les cheveux - et en même temps à cette délicatesse - douceur

Au mot dispositif qui serpente tout au long du texte, 

Disposer des objets, rendre disponible, disposition - scène, être disposé à, être attentif, attentionné et attention, être disponible à ce qui traverse le cadre - templum, prendre soin de ce qui nous traverse, et nous déborde en ignorant ce qui va survenir 

Et " à Zacharia qui rigole et se remet à la tâche ", 

Amitiés,

S.