samedi 30 juin 2012

Le naufragé, de T.Bernhard

Le titre du livre Der Untergeher écrit en 1983 par Thomas Bernhard a été traduit en français par Le naufragé et en anglais, The Loser. Je crois que la traduction de ce titre en anglais est tout à fait inconvenant, presque scandaleux et tendrait à éloigner davantage cette langue des canons de la Littérature, comme j'ai pu le penser un temps. Le livre est un monologue intérieur d'une centaine de pages que je m'étais procuré car il semblait centrer sur la personnalité du pianiste Glenn Gould. Je pensais naïvement y trouver l'équivalent du joueur d'échec, de Zweig transposé dans l'univers du célèbre pianiste. A sa lecture, je dirais que nous suivons l'ombre raté de ce pianiste virtuose, celui qui a été brisé par le génie de Glenn Gould, Wertheimer. Dans le livre français, il est nommé le sombreur. C'est un mot qui lui colle assez bien, bien qu'il semble incorrect, inélégant à l'oreille, à coup sûr, le mot allemand est mieux inspiré. C'est le désavantage de la traduction. J'ai essayé de trouver quelque chose de satisfaisant pour Untergeher, unter, sous et gehen, aller, j'ai à l'esprit l"idée d'aller en dessous, aller en deçà, puis à la page 162, nous avons la notion de cul-de-sac, d'impasse, j'ai alors développé l'idée - probablement incorrect- de celui qui va dans les impasses, les mauvais chemins. Je n'invente pas grand chose : et je me dis qu'il avait toujours été le sombreur dont Glenn Gould avait parlé, un cul-de-sac, voilà ce que Wertheimer avait été, me dis-je, sorti d'un cul-de-sac, il est entré encore et toujours dans un autre cul-de-sac. Wertheimer est la part maudite d'un Glenn Gould qui n'aurait pas été cet artiste si accompli en tout point, génie, perfection, célébrité, intégrité artistique, Wertheimer est un artiste, quoiqu'extrêmement brillant qui n'a jamais atteint le sommet de son art. Il y a un film qui s'appelait Der Untergang, qu'on a traduit la chute. Il est paradoxal qu'on a choisi un beau titre en français, Le naufragé et qu'on passe son temps dans le livre à employer un autre mot sombreur qui n'est pas usité.

Mais la catastrophe, pour Werheimer, s'est déjà manifestée au moment où Glenn a dit à Wertheimer qu'il était le sombreur ; ce que Wertheimer avait toujours su avait été formulé par Glenn Gould, soudainement et sans prévention, comme je dois le dire, à sa manière bien canadienne-américaine ; Glenn a porté un coup fatal à Wertheimer avec son sombreur, pensai-je, non pas parce que Wertheimer a entendu pour la première fois ce concept, mais parce que Wertheimer, sans connaître ce mot de sombreur, était depuis longtemps familiarisé avec le concept de sombreur et que Glenn Gould a formulé le mot sombreur à un moment décisif, pensai-je. Nous disons un mot et nous anéantissons un homme, sans que cet homme anéanti par nous n'aperçoive, au moment où l'anéantissons d'un mot, qu'il a reçu un coup fatal, pensai-je. (p.170)

C'est un très bon livre dont je recommande la lecture d'une seule traite, si vous pouvez en être capable.

jeudi 28 juin 2012

There is a light going on


To my reader -to whom it is useless to send emails because he can read all my thoughts on him in this blog- a local information that could have some interest for him : here

mercredi 27 juin 2012

En écoute libre

One of the most cultural webradio, Canalacademie, an expression of the different academies in France (Paris) publishes a weekly letter. If you like French and erudition, I recommend you this week .

Eugène Delacroix  au-delà de l’oeuvre, l’homme des malentendus.
Life of a famous French painter, world-known thanks to La liberté guidant le peuple

Les pratiques religieuses dans le monde chinois contemporain, par Vincent Goossaert, directeur de recherches au CNRS
What are the chinese beliefs ?

Jean-Luc Marion : espace public ou sphère privée, quelle place pour la laïcité ?
The French Philosopher Jean-Luc Marion talks about secularism in France in a time of communautarism.

La France, un pays sous influence ? 
Although French people deny it, lobby and sphere influence have also an real existence in their country.

Jean-Marie Lustiger par Henri Tincq cardinal et juif à la fois
A former cardinal who was jew too faced problems with his first community.

I have learnt that a pianist, Brigitte Engerer has died this week. Not long ago, I listened a podcast where she played some Chopin's pieces . She was to be here in Brussels this week-end. Sad news.


mardi 26 juin 2012

About a hint

Someone hinted in a voicemail that every post in this sparkling blog could be tailored specially for him. That's untrue, mean, even quite offensive for my millions of readers.

Ps: May I call you back on Friday evening?

For whom it is forbidden to attend to the talk, do not worry, this blog will provide you with some new posts during the next days. In particuliar, a saga around a French wedding (amazing!), some excerpts from my new reading, my global comprehension of the labour market and some tips to be a better person etc, etc, etc....
Keep you posted.

mercredi 20 juin 2012

He invite all to come unto him

Our friend, a Spanish choir singer, invites all of us who are around Strasburg this week-end to a delighting choir event. He and his big choir act usually in Brussels, but growing success opens European doors. It is one of his many talents that I discovered by chance. 
I have two friends who are choir singers. Ten years ago, I never thought that I could ever be related to a choir (not belonging to, be the Music saved). It is a peculiar world that could have interest for sociological studies.

lundi 18 juin 2012

She reads his diary

I borrowed a book in the library. It was Portret van een jongeman by Coetzee. I am really keen on reading this author once again. I read the very first page in Dutch, I understood. So I brought home and  read twenty pages with pain and dictionary. The boy brings back his girlfriend at home and she decides to stay days. He writes what he feels in his diary and she reads it. She gets angry. Can she be?

dimanche 17 juin 2012

Eating in Brussels

Two Sundays ago, over two thousand locals followed the call to hold a peaceful picnic in the middle of Anspachstreet. A philosopher and his followers (some of whom were Elle, E. and I) organised the lively event to protest the ubiquity of King Car in the Capital. It was peaceful, children friendly, with lots of flemish people. We were close to the new Bo-bo Flemish corner, indeed. A great success without any discussion, so that, every Sundays during the summer, a picnic will take place during two hours. I like the idea that no car could run downtown and people could live in the street. I totally agree with the motto : You are not stuck in the traffic, because you are the traffic.

some pictures

Will the holidaymakers keep fighting this summer instead of taking the plane and burning in the sun? To be continued....

samedi 16 juin 2012

Old-fashioned

I try to imagine in fifty years what we will say about that : 
"Your grand-father reported on his blog that your grand-mother was chatting on skype with her parents, when I watched a Youtube video on her Smartphone".
Good Times.

I am not on board

For many raisons, I am not following the on-going European Football Championship. For those who know me, it is quiet unusual. I have always watched all games I could and I remember a such event was a big buzz for me and my brothers. It could be the best moments we have shared ever. So, why? First of all, to be honest, I am simply fed up with football, I played almost three times per week, I made statistics in order to bet in various championships and I watched video streaming of football matches each week-ends. I am a top level athlete on couch and I whistled the end of the season. Secondly, I have loads of things to do : a language to learn, two blogs to feed, a lovely child to occupy, nine books pilled up in my shelf and lots of skills to acquire to have a chance to get a small place on the labour market. Also, I have few time to chill with such intense and fun event, and, in addition to, I don't desserve any quiet holidays. At last, I am pretty jalous (but positively jalous, jalousy without rancor) of friends, young and wild, who could pay Euro2012 trips as something I was not able to afford during my jeunesse dorée, I am not in the mood to celebrate anything.

jeudi 14 juin 2012

Pieces of advices for ears

If you are a long-standing reader, you may not be interested by the following, but for stalkers.
 Some podcasts I am glad to subscribe :
-In Our Time, about history of ideas, History, Important persons
- Premier League, Episodes, About the ongoing Football English Championship
-Un jour dans l'histoire, a French magazine about history with academics
-Les nouveaux chemins de la connaissance, France culture, mostly philosophical subjects, but clear
- Midi Pile, a Belgian broadcast in the French classical radio, explaining some masterpiece

If you have pieces of advice about podcasts I miss, do not hesitate to let me know.

mercredi 13 juin 2012

An intern sends an Email and does many more

In a day talking with L'Accompagnateur, he made me notice something deeply true and spicy, -as usual. He was in charge of recruitment and building the youngest and the finest teams for his assignment. He spent days reading resumees. It was the time when young people joined job market and these were the people who had lived the very first step of the Internet and the Email service*. It was really fun and they couldn't imagine it would interfere with their distant professional life. That's why they were available with  an email address they had created when they were roughly childs. They kept the address, so L'Accompagnateur was in view of poupoune87@hotmail.com, foufoulekillermaster@caramail.com, etc.... Our wanna-be Managers have learnt meanwhile and they don't make this mistake any more. However, a young is still a young and they could commit some unwelcome mistakes. Nowadays, you might check some convenient information in a public Facebook page. It could happen I have a look to know  who I will meet. Some let them know by their Linkedin pages. That could be impressive and more formal than Facebook. I would like to reassure the Youth. Even if they make bunch of spelling mistakes and are regardless about their Google's identity, I hear more and more that interns are still better and better, by far. Some friends are really impressed by their skills.

*I read that AOL wanted to make an sent email must be paid for (OMG)

mardi 12 juin 2012

Today Now

It might inspire El Mundo Today. Pretty fun. bad it doesn't exist in France.

 The  5-Year Old Screenwriter of Fast Five


Others cool stuff:
Save Money By Taking a Vacation entirely in Your Mind
New Anti-Smoking Ads Warn Teens It's Gay To Smoke

lundi 11 juin 2012

Napoleon wrote

When I was woken by the clockradio, the voice was telling that Napoleon wrote every morning texts in English in order to improve his English writing skills. It was so similar to what I live that I was thinking I dreamt. On every anecdote in relation to Napoleon, each French can find something he could make feel close to him. In case it was not a dream.

Law Competiton explained at the youngest age

I mentioned few weeks ago my new interest for children program. A morning I watched with my son a Noddy's sequence which had a subtle hidden message that could interest my wife and all the lawyer of the world. Indeed, in this new and astonishing story, the Bad  organised a free taxi service in order to prevent Noddy from practising his activities and when he would have to stop, they can put the price up. A typical case in competition law. Proof.

A friend of us has a very successful blog and talks about our discovery. He adds also that his blog is children-friendly, because Competiton Law is also chilling for kids. My son is an example, as a photography shows it. His name is mentionned as well and it is his first Google's track in his life. What a destiny! But the show must go on. Indeed in his twitter's account, the CNCompetencia advertises the blog page.

E. is the young and innocent face of the Law competition.  Should we be proud of that?

samedi 9 juin 2012

Non-official reviews

I have seen three movies that I borrowed from the flemish library and all of three let me down. A tout Seigneur, tout honneur, a Hitchcock's one, Vertigo. I am a great fanatic of the English man. But, in this case, it was boring, unsurprising and not so great than I expected. In a sense, Clouzot in Les diaboliques overcame the Hitchock's work. He didn't cast the spell any more. Pundits might jump out of their chair reading that, but I assume. After that, I was disapointed with La Zona, a mexican movie. I am interessed in environment we create in order to evolve within our world (cf Peter Sloderdijk's Trilogy). However, the movie asserts that Richs are very bad person and Poors victims. Something I am not sure, though. One interesting moment is when the richs get more and more violent, it describes a momentum of fascist's moment, based upon a fake feeling of fear. All apologies for my mexican readers but your accent is pretty funny. Finally, I saw L'ivresse du pouvoir, I was looking forward seeing a Chabrol's movie. I feel close to his personnality. He is capable to show the meanness of a person, only by a single sentence said by him and show tragedy with detachment. Unfortunately, it is dumpy as a telefilm. Isabelle Huppert is outstanding.

Sent from Minitel 3615 code Wordreference because my Ipad is frozen

jeudi 7 juin 2012

Ray Bradbury

Je salue la mémoire de Ray Bradbury, mort avant-hier. Il est l'auteur de Fahrenheit 451. Je ne peux pas dire que je sois un grand connaisseur de son œuvre. J'ai seulement vu à deux reprises l'adaptation de François Truffaut avec un même plaisir. Cependant, les pompiers pyromanes qui brûlent des livres et les marginaux qui en apprennent un par cœur sont des figures littéraires qui mériteraient de rester dans la culture (grand C, petit c, culture populaire), tel que la madeleine de Proust, Gavroche, Œdipe, etc...

mercredi 6 juin 2012

Une nouvelle tour de Babel

L'économiste belge Bruno Colmant a publié une tribune sur la fin de l'Euro. C'est très intéressant et je vous en recommande chaudement la lecture. Qu'en ai-je retenu de mon côté, et qui vaut la peine d'être ici mentionné?
La situation est intenable et les mouvements sur les marchés ne sont qu'une anticipation des événements à venir. La zone Euro va se disloquer en deux parties. La génération qui préside à ses destinées a été trop lâche politiquement et naïve économiquement. Au lieu de créer une zone monétaire dynamique, on a, en voulant croire qu'endettement égale capital, gonfler les Etats-Providence dans le cadre corseté d'une ZEM. La comparaison avec le mythe de la tour de Babel fait beaucoup réfléchir.
Mon point de vue sur la situation en Espagne est qu'on assiste à la fin d'un effet d'aubaine dont les espagnols ont profité grâce à des taux d'intérêts très bas (fixé à la solvabilité de l'Allemagne) ne correspondant en rien à son potentiel économique. Ce qui est impressionnant, c'est que la croissance s'est arrêté net, dès que les robinets ne sont éteints. Il n'y a aucun relais de croissance, comme si l'Espagne n'avait pas, tel un enfant, anticipé le moment où elle devrait seule, marcher sur ses deux jambes. On assiste donc à une fuite de capitaux et des cerveaux, toutes les raisons sont là d'être indignés. 

Sont-ce là le prix que nous ferra payer la main invisible de tant d'insouciance démiurgique?

mardi 5 juin 2012

Bye Bye Libye

All my apologies for continuing in English, but my international audience should discover an authentical French Hero, a mix of Tintin, Sartre, Georges Clooney, Yves Saint-Laurent, Tocqueville, Bernard Lavilliers, Jean Moulin, Hemingway, Rambo and so much more : BHL. At last, a film directed by him, around himself is now on the screen. It is the narrative of his action to free Libya. Bernard-Henry Lévy is a multimillionaire who writes some books. It has a great network, so that everybody has to say positive review about them, even though nobody seriously discuss his work. He spends a lot of time on television, That's right, he can come when he wants.
The trailer of his movie : Watch it!

samedi 2 juin 2012

Cycling in Brussels

Watching a nice documentary over the difficulties to cycle in Brussels, there comes to my mind lots of souvenirs and good feelings I have had thanks to cycling. I love cycling and I am a big adept of Villo!, our private and cheap service of shared-bicycle. Contrary to assertions in the movie, I don't think it is really dangerous and impossible. You have to be slow, careful and respecteful. I don't want to expand our rights, because we surely become so rude and disrepecteful than drivers. Bicycle is very popular in Flanders and that can be explained by structure of the small town and tight paved streets. For a big city like Brussels, it is new to cover such long ways.

This is the link : Watch it !

To be continued....