#and in melmoth furieux theres also a character called françois villon so i need to get into HIM first

[rearranging-deck-chairs]

this compounds (in probably a kind of 'you and your bars in the stratosphere smh' kinda way tbh but whatever) when youre reading a book from 150 years ago

i read melmoth the wanderer. irish gothic novel from 1820. i read the french translation from 1821. it's about a guy who sold his soul to the devil to...be immortal? not entirely sure if that was the point of the deal tbh he didnt seem happy with it and i never quite figured out what he actually wanted to get out of the deal, the immortality was more of a punishment it seemed

anyway, the guy is immortal. theres a portrait of him from 1646 and he (indirectly)(so, so indirectly)(god why are 19th century novels like this the suspension of disbelief necessary to keep believing in the framing of 'guy telling a story' (guy telling the story of another guy whose story he heard) (guy telling about a guy who heard a story that he heard from another guy he met) (etcetera) was really just a bit too much for me) (anyway) relates his wanderings. so theres these stories a little bit from between mid 17th century to early 19th and we're speaking to an 1820 audience right? the difference between 1640s and 1820s is close enough to the difference between 1820s and 2020s that it was a really interesting stacking of cultural impressions

like at one point the narrator was talking about the 17th century and he was like "people back then couldnt travel as fast as we do now" !!!! that was so exciting to me. looking at the depiction of the 17th century by a 19th century guy with 21st century eyes

it was complicated even more bc the author of this book was irish right (he was like oscar wilde's great uncle or something like that) (this book was super popular) (lots of like references in other stuff) (like the portrait) but most of the story is told by a spanish monk who wrecked his ship on the irish coast so a lot of the story takes place in spain. so hes not just writing about a different time but a different country too. and sometimes you can hear that when it's clunky, same as nowadays, like when they say things like "the way spanish summer nights are" or stuff like that. but most of it will be way more subtle and obviously has completely gone over my head, seeing as i, stewart lee voice, dont know anything about early 19th century irish gothic literature or 17th century spain, OR the kind of perspective that an early 19th century french translator would bring to that story and the influences that would bring PLUS the fact that im not fluent in french and cant tell the difference between 19th century french and modern french (im learning words that the dictionary calls vieilli and vx side by side with modern slang, and honestly side by side with 19th century slang, which is, again, super fun, but not very good for my cultural-temporal intuitions probably) (like when i read 19th century french i keep being struck with how not-old-fashioned it sounds compared to 19th century english or dutch. but i think thats just me. i have no sense for what words we dont use anymore. and the imparfait of the subjunctive doesnt have any oldfashioned ring to me (honestly i like it)) what was i talking about. oh yeah) so i dont really have the ability to differentiate the perspectives here entirely, theres too much all mixed together, but i still get glimpses and it's, master voice: very very interesting :)

the thing im enjoying most about learning a new language is learning new cultural context. i never noticed learning this with english probably bc youre already one foot in american pov before you even speak the language what with all the popular media coming from there, but with french i have to dig this knowledge out with my bare hands and it's really fun

like, when i read in a book that the english people at the english train station our english protagonist who just came home after 15 years exile in france is arriving at "were going about their business with their english sense of timing and rhythm", what am i supposed to understand by that? is that like a swiss clock sort of thing (another cultural reference you now realise you have learnt to understand the right way at some point even without knowing anything necessarily about swiss clocks) or more of a doctor who kind of sense of timing? what is the french cultural idea of the british and their sense of punctuality? i dont know yet! i feel like a child!