Tuesday, March 24, 2009

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Happiness in the crime according to France 2.

~ Windmills.

Not long ago I read The diabolical . Behind this rather catchy title, a collection of stories signed Barbey d'Aurevilly. The announcement relatively catchy France 2, which proposed an adaptation of happiness in the crime, has naturally stirred my curiosity and I am a week ago, sitting quietly in front of my TV to see what it was.
quickly recall the overall plot of this story. A doctor arrives in a small town dying, a bastion of aristocrats with an uncertain future. Only activity of the city: an armory where officiates a strange teacher. Hauteclaire (not Claire) Stassin, lovely young woman and impassive, teaches fencing before disappearing mysteriously. We learn eventually qu'éprise Savigny, she was hired as a maid in his household, under the nose of his wife. The couple manages to kill the countess before living perfect happiness, in spite of their crime ...


Prior to rebel (but it will come), I would say a few words about the concept of adapting a literary work: quickly expose my point of view of history to base my critique. I do not belong to those who howl at the slightest cut or any change cinema (or television) and book are two different mediums and it is quite normal to make some changes in use so as not to be found with infinite films. That is not the problem. However, I consider (and we may be able to challenge me on this point) that when a film like this from a literary work, there must be a little bit true to the About the Author in mind that he wanted to infuse his work. It is a matter of intellectual honesty: that those who wish to learn a script and changing the meaning indicate that their implementation is "freely adapted" or "inspired." I do not demand much in the end. What was not my surprise when I saw a program claiming to be serious, entitled "Fiction nineteenth century "And therefore making clear reference to the sources of stories, this Happiness in the crime of that way ...

Presented as sulfur and provocative, this TV movie seems paradoxically much less scandalous than the original, reinforcing the public in his opinions, making a new "Evil" is a far different, intended to amuse the public. Among the factors that have prevented me to enjoy this film, yet elegantly done, here:
- The whole atmosphere of the new based on the impassive Hauteclaire. Weapon Master, the young woman hides her face constantly, whether behind a fencing mask or a veil. Impossible for the reader '(see his face, much less its expressions. The film about a young woman presenting him surprisingly close to the men, teaching fencing in the open. And it will be anything but impassive as it treats the viewer a little smile every second. yet very important dimension in the news item that Barbey insists that more heavily, impassive, the inaccessibility of the character are completely overshadowed. Hauteclaire was a sphinx and a devilish. As the relationship between the woman and Savigny, the choice of writer seems problematic. Where there was a real sexual indeterminacy (" Strange! In bringing this beautiful couple, it was the woman who had muscle, and the man who had the nerve! ) film shows a passive man, guided by a woman dangerous and harmful. It is rather curious that, given a new (and book) from which the moral condemnation is absent, showing a couple evil, we take great care to show us who they are condemned and seems the most monstrous.

Finally, the adaptation of Happiness in the crime seems wise. This involves reinforcing the public's expectations: it thus makes a stylish movie in costumes, it exacerbates the character of the doctor, free-thinker and confident in scientific developments. Instead, it will erase anything that could interfere, even if he very much present in the new home: sadism, murder premeditated and carried out long-term sexual indeterminacy, lack of morality. Barbey classic rendering, Barbey adapted to bourgeois taste. In this sense, Hauteclaire was a sphinx, a diabolic . Claire is more than a femme fatale. Damage.



Image: Félicien Rops-Happiness in Crime

Monday, March 2, 2009

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photographs in a novel? " Debate around Bruges la Morte.

Get an idea of the novel: Amours and landscapes reflect

Rodenbach use with Bruges-la-Morte (1892) an unusual process and that interfere much. The question arises, in effect: can we legitimately illustrate a literary work with the photos? Would this not threaten the establishment, restrict the imagination of the reader? Many at the time, think.


  • photography as an enemy of the dream .
be noted first that the problem only photographic illustration, drawing with a long history of law cited in works of literature. But a new process brings new questions. Occurs when a distinction between traditional illustration, which is an art, photography and illustration, designed as a pure reproduction of reality. Can be attributed the distinction to which Baudelaire, in a polemical article written at the Salon of 1859 ( The modern public and photography ) between the respective fields that must occupy photography and pictorial art. Thus he writes, between two invective:

"If allowed to photography to supplement art in some of its functions, it will soon have supplanted or corrupted entirely, thanks to 'natural alliance that found in the stupidity of the multitude. It must therefore return to his real duty, which is to be the servant Science and Arts , but the very humble servant, as the printing and shorthand which have neither created nor supplemented literature . it enriches the album quickly and makes the traveler in his eyes that lacks the precision to his memory, she decorates the library of the naturalist, exaggerates the microscopic animals, even some information strengthens the hypothesis of astronomer, it is finally the secretary and the guard who noted in his profession needs an absolute factual accuracy, so far nothing better. [...] But if it is allowed to encroach on the domain of the impalpable and the imaginary, upon anything that is only because man adds to his soul, then woe to us! " (emphasis added)

This is good for him to distinguish between" art " and" industry. "According to Baudelaire, the photograph does is not art because it applies only to the strict reproduction of reality, and if it becomes as popular is because of a perversion of taste. No progress in the arts should therefore fall within this new technique and being constantly improved. This view, thrust in 1859, has continued to find echoes in the late nineteenth century and continue to walk among the opponents of the photograph.



  • But then ... What relationship between book and photograph?
everyone will not agree with the ideas of Baudelaire. And flourish in the 1880s, several publications that combine text with images. One well-known examples being the Five Ladies of the Kasbah Pierre Loti, illustrated by Gervais Courtelle " in collotype from photographs taken direct to Algiers. " However, while this kind of process is more than a grunt, the authors do not seem in any way consider the purely aesthetic possibilities of photography. And if the practice is becoming more and more, photography fails to win the good graces of literary circles, often despised, regarded as belonging to popular taste or simple example of tourist guide. One example is the reaction of John Reibrach's investigation Mercure de France (1) " Is this novel? The question then does not matter: the design will always pretty good for public taste. "

But when it comes to literary, protests mount. Include three opponents marked the addition of photographs to enhance a literary text. There again Ralph, English critic . According to him, "At the call of novel illustrated by the photograph, only the bad writer will respond. " There are still Zola " does not believe in the right job or the effective result of this process. It will fall immediately in the nude. "In the same vein, Octave Uzanne wrote:" The illustration will struggle against his enemy hidden the photography, and imaging and direct from nature, using chemical processes. We will attempt a big effort to acclimate in the modern book the exact determination of people and things, but without success, hopefully. "
The favorable responses are more interesting: very few of them show full confidence in the photographic art and nearly all emit many nuances and objections. The photograph in a novel or why not, but what models to choose, how give an air of reality to scenes put, if one intends to represent the characters? Why not, but only in the case of travelogues written or realistic. Why not, but what it will pose technical problems! Multiple questions are raised no one can give a satisfactory answer. Finally, although many authors claim to support the emergence of photographs in the text, most of the judging process according to various criteria (relevance of the illustration, type of work, audience). The authors also include refractory to any type of image ... I can not as such fail to mention the famous Mallarme: "I am for - no illustrations, all evoked a book to happen in the reader's mind: but if you replace the photograph, that n ' are you entitled to cinematography, which will replace the course, images and texts, maint volume, preferably. " By letting you ponder the respective places that we give to the film and literature today.


  • Bruges-la-Morte and his silences.
In this context, the approach of Rodenbach has something innovative. In a book addressed to an educated public ( Bruges-la-Morte is a symbolist novel), he put the number of shots which he justifies the presence in a Warning (2) . What reactions, faced with this audacious attempt? Symptomatically, a lot of silence: many critics do not mention any illustrations, however difficult that pass unnoticed (two to three photographs per chapter). Others, like Charles Merki, openly criticize the process, seen as a "rescue a little childish . He wrote in the Mercure de France " what shocks me definitely in this book comes from the illustration, and the faux prints Bruges [...] seem rather grow apart, they give a good printing dead city, but that stands next to our mind, runs parallel to the text, adds nothing, remains different. "

Hard to understand, mixing realistic photographs and poetic text, the work of Rodenbach will repeatedly amputated his set of photographs. Even in modern editions, we hesitate to withdraw or text images, or to amputate or eliminate the Warning which emphasizes their importance. One of the benefits of the work is yet to have inaugurated the genre of narrative-picture, where text and Inserts weave new networks of meaning and enrich the interpretation. Allusions, and even negative criticism silences about the specificity of the work reflect a discomfort with this new medium of photography, which will Yet a growing role in our daily lives.

And in your eyes, photography (and its suite of new mediums) she is still a threat to art?


Nibelheim.

~ * ~

(Information collected in the critical apparatus of Bruges-la-Morte
Editing Jean-Pierre Bertrand and Daniel Grojnowski, GF.)

Notes:

1. In January 1898, the Mercure de France conducts an investigation, calling different artists to comment on the photographic illustration for novels.
2. Reminder of Warning: " It is important, since these sets of Bruges together with adventures, reproduced here as [...] so that those who read us are also affected by the presence and influence City, feel the contagion of the best waters nearby, in turn feel the shadow of the towers lying on the text. "

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Voltaire: Micromegas, philosophical history. II

. .
II. Critical considerations.




For years people believed that Micromegas, published in 1752, was written between Zadig and Candide , but the work of Ira Wade revealed earlier version of the text under the title of Baron Travel Gangan, which probably dates to the years 1738-1739, as indicated by the events mentioned in the plot of the story. Voltaire called the first state a "philosophical nonsense " we should read for a relaxing " work serious "(1). Substituting the Baron Gangan, whose name shall rather Rabelaisian farce, the character of Micromegas, Voltaire seems to accentuate the philosophical dimension of the story, by pressing a relativist view of man and the universe. The story does not cease to be as much a fantasy, according to Jean Goulemot, "mixes [...] scientific references, allusions to current events, memories of fantastic tales from Swift or Cyrano de Bergerac, references to scientific theories and doctrines and metaphysical elements farce "(2).

story short, Micromegas is built around a repetition of the sequence / Travel conversation. However, a sequence to another, changing perspective: Micromegas and the Saturnian not a riddle for each other, we, readers who are surprised by their extravagant properties; when second meeting, however, humans are a mystery for travelers Voltaire into a vast stage our own strangeness and invites us to philosophize about our condition.

The tale mixes two genres in vogue at the time: the tale of an imaginary journey, in the style of Gulliver's Travels of Swift (3), with which affiliation seems obvious (travelers exploring unknown worlds), but also the journey of a stranger among us, like the Persian Letters Montesquieu of (foreign eyes popping our absurdities and inconsistencies). If it inspires, it's part parody, most often by rewriting: Micromegas is banned for the same reasons as the hero of Montesquieu, travel to the stars using methods similar those of Dyrcona of Cyrano, the language of the Saturnian cartoon style precious Fontenelle, etc.. Rewriting, but also reversing an agreement: whereas traditionally travelers discover a utopian world that is imposed on them, here are travelers who needed a world described as "ridiculous ," "irregular " " poorly constructed" ...


addition to its parodic, Micromegas also provides a "state of knowledge and readings Voltaire "(4).

Scientific Knowledge first: the 1730s to Voltaire are those of the scientific readings, enthusiasm for the theories of Newton and testing experiments. All this is put to use: Micromegas is presented as an experimenter, observer, physicist, etc.. ; Rigor led him to challenge the findings of its hasty and peremptory saturnine companion, to invent new instruments of observation and communication, and his questions reveal his desire to further science and philosophy (inseparable in the quest Voltaire wisdom). Moreover, it is by the scientific knowledge that humans are able to travel and establish a conversation deemed "interesting ": "Science appears both as a universal language and as the most obvious sign of the greatness of the human mind "(5).

Philosophical reflections then: the curiosity of Micromegas allows the identification of essential features of the human: the ability to think, can reach a certain level of knowledge in the sciences, but also influences of blind passions, which, poorly tamed, can induce fanaticism, intolerance, quest for power over others ... In the field of knowledge, also mixed results: the White Paper Micromegas marks the impossibility of seeing "the tip things." Relative magnitude of human knowledge: the lesson of relativism applies to the whole book: relative size of seas and mountains, which, when we pass to another order of magnitude are no longer as ponds and sand, it is invited to moderation, highlighting the absurdity of a sense of superiority which, however, we do not déprend so easily. This game with dizzying proportions, the observation of human limitations could be put at the service of a sense of anxiety about the mysterious, endlessly, as is the case with Pascal : Voltaire rejects this view, and before Nietzsche, but after Rabelais , opposes him know fun and laughter for saving lives. Man is limited? He recognizes, accepts and laugh: Voltaire is perhaps not a great philosopher, his wisdom is not flawless, but this proposal is probably the most interesting article. .. to me at least.

Antisthenes Ocyrhoé .

Notes :
  1. See correspondence Voltaire - Frederick II of June 1739.
  2. Jean Goulemot, preface to the edition Livre de Poche - Libretti of Micromegas, p.11.
  3. See my article on Swift: Here
  4. Jean Goulemot, op.cit. p.18.
  5. Idem, p. 20-21.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

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Voltaire: Micromegas, philosophical history. I

.
I - Detailed summary.


From the title, Voltaire gives us the name of its main character: Micromegas, oxymoron formed from Greek micron (small) and mega (large) announces the name of one of the main themes of this "philosophical history" relativism.

Chapter I. We learn that this character is from the distant star Sirius, which has " twenty-one million six hundred thousand times the circumference of our little earth ," he went on a trip on the latter, he is young, as " eight miles high ( is about 32,000 meters ) and it expresses " great wit." It's that spirit that will banish from the court for " eight hundred years" by the religious leader of his country ( the "mufti " ), which saw heresy in a work of Micromegas where it addressed the "substantial form " of " chips Sirius" and " snails " typical passage of irony anticlerical Voltaire , who benefits, in passing, to scratch Blaise Pascal . Not affected by this stigma, Micromegas decides to engage in interstellar travel " to complete the form mind and heart . With its immense size and its broad knowledge of physics, taking advantage of comets and solar energy ( already! ), it moves by jumping from planet to planet "like a bird aerobatics from branch to branch . At the end of his wanderings, he arrived at Saturn, expressed surprise at the smallness of the inhabitants of this planet " is little more than nine hundred times more [big] the earth," that term includes of mind they can " not be ridiculous [s] " and became friends with the secretary of the Academy of Saturates, caricature of the scientist and philosopher Fontenelle .

Chapter II. The narrator recounts a conversation in which both characters are questioning and teach each other knowledge and abilities of their species. Voltaire, again, use fully the mechanism of the exaggeration and the reader learns that the Saturnian own 72 sense, live fifteen thousand years, three hundred known properties of matter, some thirty substances and that the light of the Sun contains seven colors, but all that pales in comparison to the inhabitants of Sirius, which have thousand meanings, live " seven hundred times longer ", etc.., Micromegas and claims to have met " beings much more perfect "Him on these trips. The point of this conversation is twofold implication Voltaire mocks anthropocentrism and invites man to be more modest, at the same time, he questions the universe and the nature of thinking beings: despite their more or less meaning and knowledge, people encountered by Micromegas have at least one thing in common: they all complain of the limits of their capacity, the brevity of their existence, " we always complain little. It has to be a universal law of nature "says Micromegas Voltaire also benefits the conversation to make a profession of faith Deist, being referred to " Creator" and intelligence " views, as evidenced by the perfection of Nature" I admire in all its wisdom, I see differences everywhere, but everywhere proportions. Your world is small, so are your people, you have some feelings, your material has some properties: this is the work of providence "said the sage to his companion giant Saturn. Following this dialogue, the two friends decide to undertake together a " little philosophical journey. "

Chapter III. The narrator recounts their journey from Saturn to Earth. Departure time results in a brief parody of contention in love, in the genre of romance lover, between Saturn and his lover, outraged to learn that he leaves " to go travel with a giant from another world "but, the narrator informs us, consoled himself quickly" with a minor master of the country . E obviously. The quarrel and tears past, travelers set off, stop One year on Jupiter, draw a work "which would now in print without the inquisitors gentlemen, spend a moment on Mars, then join the Earth by an aurora July 5, 1737. The narrator, a critic of anthropocentrism requires, does not fail to note that the Earth " had pity on people who came from Jupiter .

Chapter IV. The two companions quickly perform around the Earth ( in 36 hours), the largest ocean not representing for them that " a small pond." They perceive no first life form, the Saturnian deduces that the planet is not populated, the giant criticizes its lack of rigor " you do not see with your little eyes out [...] I see very distinctly; you conclude from this that these stars exist not? . This remark allows Voltaire a review of the testimony of the senses as a criterion of truth, it also marks the starting point of a quarrel between two companions. Quarrel practice since it provides an additional opportunity to devalue our planet, "this globe it is so poorly constructed, if it is illegal and a form that seems so ridiculous! "According to the Saturnian, but mainly provides the necessary event to the rest of the story: in a fit of anger, Micromegas lost several large diamonds, and by picking them up, they noticed his friend Saturn are very good microscopes to scan the Earth's surface. These tools enable adventurers to identify " something imperceptible stir midwater " it is a whale. This encourages them to continue their investigation, and locate " something bigger " means a ship, one of the expedition led by physicist and philosopher Pierre Louis Maupertuis, who, in 1736-1737, went to the North Pole to check on the validity of certain assumptions about the shape of the Newtonian world. The narrator closed the chapter by saying: "I'll tell ingenuously as the thing passed without anything to mine, which is no small effort for a historian. "remark makes her smile when you know the Century of Louis the Great , historical work of Voltaire the seventeenth century, proceeds from the eulogy.




Chapter V. Micromegas gently manipulates the ship, he takes for an animal on board, the men panicked and left the building. The two giants can not be seen because of their small size, hence a digression Voltaire on the smallness of man and the relativity of his actions: although this may be significant for some, one would think be like Micromegas " these battles we have won two villages that had to make ? Incidentally, without departing from its subject, Voltaire ironically on Frederick " I have no doubt that if any captain of grenadiers great ever reads this book, it does up two big feet at least the cup of his troop, but I warn that it will be beautiful, and he and his family will never be as infinitely small . Mariners finally press in a " alpenstock " in the index of Micromegas: it tickles him and allowed him to discover the existence of men. This discovery is a source of great joy for the two companions, and the chapter ends with a new pic of irony the narrator against the Saturn- Fontenelle, who, always too quick to judge, pass " of excess confidence to an excess of credulity .

Chapter VI. travelers observe men as they can not hear, the Saturn inferred too hastily once again, that men do not have the power of speech; Micromegas it supports the contrary includes the Saturnian Finally, the lesson: " I dare not believe or deny [...] I have no opinion. We must try to examine these insects, so we will post . Micromegas makes a device to listen to men: they speak! Very quickly, the two travelers gain understanding and mastery of French. They are fascinated that " mites [speak] pretty good sense of ": they want to contact. Micromegas makes another tool to mitigate his voice because he fears " his voice of thunder [...] n'assourdît moths without being heard " and addressed to men, surprised and unable to " guess where [these words] went . The dwarf (the Saturnian, called and because of the size difference between him and his companion) explained to them who they are and where they come from, then ask them pell-mell all sorts of questions about their condition, their souls, whales ... One man, a physicist and mathematician, succeeded in measuring the dwarf ... and Micromegas, which amazes them. Voltaire the opportunity to slip into the mouth of the giant, one who feels his tirade Deism " O God, who gave intelligence to substances which appear so contemptible the infinitesimal cost you as little as infinitely large .

Chapter VII. Micromegas believes men perfectly happy as they show great spirit and consist of little matter. Philosophers deny, one of them spoke and argued by referring to the wars and massacres perpetrated by men since time immemorial until the present; Micromegas ask him the cause; " It is only whether [a mud pile as big as your heel] belong to a certain man called Sultan or another called [...] Caesar. Neither one has ever seen or will never see the little patch of land in question, and almost none of these animals who slay each other has never seen the animal for which they slay. "Micromegas and disillusioned indignant, philosopher persists and signs on " these barbarians who settled [...] [...] ordered the massacre of a million men, and then make solemnly thank God. . The interstellar traveler then looks more specifically to the philosophers, who seem to be " the small number of Wise ": he asks questions of astronomy and physics, he and Dwarf surprised at the relevance of their answers, he questions them on matters of metaphysics; " philosophers talked all at once [...] but were different opinions " and Voltaire irony of the Aristotelian , Cartesian, Malebranche and Leibnitz, summarizing their doctrines complex formulas incoherent and grotesque; the next supporter Locke thinker whose Voltaire appreciates the ideas: his agent says that he has " never thought that at [his] senses , that thought may be a attribute of matter, and concludes that " affirms nothing but" [be] happy to believe that there are more things possible we think "Obviously, this is the one that seems the wisest of the giants. At that time, a theologian takes over the floor, claims to have the truth, affirms that the universe was created by God for Rights and, to prove this, invoking the authority of the Sum of Thomas Aquinas . Laughter of the giants. They resumed, and Micromegas, although " sorry in my heart to see that the infinitely small would have an almost infinitely great pride ," promised the men a book of philosophy " strong writing menu "in which" they would see the end of things . It gives them the book and then share. When opened, it " saw nothing that any white book "Sign of the impossibility of any absolute knowledge" Ah! I would actually doubted. , "cried the secretary of the Academy of Sciences.

Ocyrhoé Antisthenes.