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Paris Peasant
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Nathanimal
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Jun 22, 2021 09:33AM
On July 1, join us for a dérive through the City of Light, led by the illustrious surrealist, Louis Aragon.
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Quite spontaneously, she even mentions the surrealists and Louis Aragon's Paysan de Paris, which she has been unable to finish, the variations on the word Pessimism having thrown her off.
Awesome. Can't wait to find out what variations on Pessimism entails.
How many are reading the Taylor translation? Is anyone reading the Brown translation? Just preparing myself for the upcoming discussion.
I'm Team Taylor. 30 pages in—this going to be good.
BTW i'm out of town this weekend, but taking PP with me. Just didn't want you to feel ditched in case this turns out to be the Klowey Nathanimal Hour.
My 1971 translation is by "Jonathan Cape Ltd." Is that even a human?Anyway, I'll give it a try.
Nathanimal wrote: "BTW i'm out of town this weekend, but taking PP with me. Just didn't want you to feel ditched in case this turns out to be the Klowey Nathanimal Hour."Im on month 15 of long-haul COVID and have brain fog and fatigue so I will be reading it for all of July, along with Nadja, at my current rate. I'm also trying to reread the Brown translation. Would like to get the original French too and compare.
Ed wrote: "My 1971 translation is by "Jonathan Cape Ltd." Is that even a human?Anyway, I'll give it a try."
Taylor did that one.
Mod
Anyway, I'll give it a try."
That'll be a British publisher.
I'm an idiot. The title page clearly states the translator was Simon Watson Taylor. I was looking at the copyright page.I've read his translation of one of the Ubu Plays and it was good, although the typos in the kindle edition make it almost unreadable.
He has also translated "The Empire Builders" by Boris Vian. I read that in French and it was interesting.
Today I read a copy of Growing up with anarchists, surrealists and pataphysicians by Simon Watson Taylor. It is available on-line here as a sort of obituary:http://christiebooks.com/PDFs/simons_...
I think that, like him, I prefer 'Pataphysics over Surrealism, and I live by the 'Pataphysical calendar, where July 13 (my birthday) always falls in-between Sunday and Monday.
Mod
Yup, me too, reinforced by my recent reading of André Breton.
Ed wrote: "My 1971 translation is by "Jonathan Cape Ltd." Is that even a human?"I would be careful as I have it on good authority that Jonathan Cape Ltd. is a subsidiary of the BD Hausmann Building Society, which has engaged in a covert anti-surrealist disinformation campaign by producing a counterfeit translation of this book that differs from the original on several key points.
Klowey wrote: "Im on month 15 of long-haul COVID and have brain fog and fatigue. . . "I'm very sorry to hear that, Klowey. Happy that you're still in some condition to chat about PP and I hope you feel better!
Nathanimal wrote: "... Jonathan Cape Ltd. is a subsidiary of the BD Hausmann Buildi..."Hausmann is the big villain here. Knocking down old Paris to make something shiny and new. But, I quite like what he created. Lots or areas in central Paris look the same, but it is a nice look.
Some of those old arcades do still exist. And they are lovely, too.
I can't help thinking of how SF has been changed. I arrived in mid 90's. There were still plenty of interesting little art and music venues, but they were already starting to disappear. What has replaced them isn't very interesting to me.
Anyway, not sure how I feel about the book yet. The style varies, with some parts in very straightforward prose and some parts very florid. I don't like the florid bits.
When I started the preface . . . Every idea, these days, seems to have passed its critical phase. It is a generally accepted fact that . . . [blink blink] . . . every thought is inevitably the function of some previous error . . . [rubbing my eyes] . . . this awareness has simply led them to argue about dialectical means . . . [yawn].
. . . I worried what I'd gotten myself into. I've read my share of surrealist critical essays that made my eyes glaze over.
But then the essay is interrupted:
I had just reached this point in my thoughts when, without any warning, spring entered the world.
In the following passages I could feel spring entering my thoughts, too, as Aragon turned from cogitation to the senses, from the this-follows-that of the mind to the wandering, image-hungry eye. Surrealism is, to me, so much about the infusion of novelty, what Aragon calls towards the beginning of this book 'the unwonted,' which brings with it a new and glorious mental weather. I'm likely not the only one here who languished during the pandemic, but then came that wonderful day when I could travel beyond the boundary of my highly circumscribed life to see new and unexpected things. This gave me a whole new outlook, which lasted for days.
This is a little unexpected; I'm definitely a creature of habit. I'm wondering, how do you guys experience this dynamic between the wonted and the unwonted. Where do you experience your novelty? Could you find in the street, hiding in plain view, as Aragon does?
Ed wrote: "I can't help thinking of how SF has been changed. I arrived in mid 90's. There were still plenty of interesting little art and music venues, but they were already starting to disappear. What has replaced them isn't very interesting to me."Hard agree. I miss the little used bookshops and the small music venues. I miss cafés that were cool to go to because of their reading series or open mics and not because of their 8-dollar toast.
Ed wrote: "Hausmann is the big villain here. Knocking down old Paris to make something shiny and new. But, I quite like what he created. Lots or areas in central Paris look the same, but it is a nice look."This part reminded me of Jane Jacobs who also had it out for city planning. Surrealism is definitely on the side allowing the city to create its own surprising conjunctions and centers of activity. Hausmann, I think, can be understood here as a metaphor for (and expression of) the kind of rutted bourgeois conventionality that they were revolting against.
I've only spent a couple hours in Paris (because of a missed connection). I feel there's a ton I'm going to miss about this book. I'm sure Hausmann's projects are fantasias compared to the strip-mall-o-topia that covers most of North America.
Nathanimal wrote: "...how do you guys experience this dynamic between the wonted and the unwonted. Where do you experience your novelty? Could you find in the street, hiding in plain view, as Aragon does?..."Basically, most places I go, I either walk or bike. I don't carry a 'smart' phone. I pay attention to what is around me. Plus, Berkeley is full of interesting things to see. During the early days of the pandemic, I did more walking. I discovered a pluot tree near me on the sidewalk (nearly ripe again now!), a neighbor growing bees, and another neighbor with three ducks in their front yard (now six). The ducks are cute, but I recently saw a rat sharing their food, and now I think they are less desirable as neighbors.
I said a little more in this review of "How to read nature".
Ed wrote: "Nathanimal wrote: "...how do you guys experience this dynamic between the wonted and the unwonted. Where do you experience your novelty? Could you find in the street, hiding in plain view, as Arago..."Wow, who'd have thought. Three of us living in Berkeley (though Steve is in North Oakland now. What are the chances. I think Nathanimal lives in SF. Ed, did you and Nathanimal know each other before joining this group?
I have never met Nathanimal. I have met Bill (also in this group) 25 years ago in a different town.
Klowey wrote: "Wow, who'd have thought. Three of us living in Berkeley (though Steve is in North Oakland now. What are the chances."Seriously. I was thinking we're pretty close to being able to have this irrealist discussion IRL. Hey! IRLism.
Nathanimal wrote: "Klowey wrote: "Wow, who'd have thought. Three of us living in Berkeley (though Steve is in North Oakland now. What are the chances."Seriously. I was thinking we're pretty close to being able to h..."
:-)
And we can bring up Zoom then for the others!
Ed wrote: "Today I read a copy of Growing up with anarchists, surrealists and pataphysicians by Simon Watson Taylor. It is available on-line here as a sort of obituary."Thanks for sharing this, Ed. I'm not super familiar with pataphysics, but it does sound interesting. A friend I'm doing a longterm collaboration with has suggested our project may be pataphysics so I've actually been keeping my distance. (I know that sounds weird.) I do hope to dig into it one day, though.
Ed wrote: "Anyway, not sure how I feel about the book yet. The style varies, with some parts in very straightforward prose and some parts very florid. I don't like the florid bits."
I'm okay with the florid bits, but like them best when I can tie what he's talking about back to the real world.
Still, I could read sentences like:
I am the bottle-imp of my senses and chance.
and
I fondle my delirium like a pretty pony.
all day.
Probably my favorite part of the book, though, has been his little tour of the Surrealist headquarters, the Certa. I know what it is to have affection for a place like that and when someone shares theirs its like a look into their soul.
And thank you for divulging your walking/biking habit. I enjoy walking, too, and will often carry a notebook with me to make sure nothing slips past me. On a walk this week I saw: a house that appeared to have been painted by children, and a tree with two arms that when the wind blew looked like it was conducting music. I also learned on a cork-board at the park that an earwigs pinchers are called 'cerci,' which reminded me of Circe whose clutches Odysseus had a hard time escaping.
That "How to Read Nature" book looks good. I feel like reading in general teaches one how to see the world in novel and poetic ways.
Klowey wrote: ":-)And we can bring up Zoom then for the others!."
Those poor devils consigned to the Zoom Brady Bunch screen.
Mod
I think that's the only option for me in such a scenario. Travelling 5,350 miles for a discussion would be both irreal and surreal. It might happen in my dreams, though.
Nathanimal wrote: "... I'm not super familiar with pataphysics, ..."There is no better day than today to start learning, for today is the only non-imaginary Hunyadi of the year in the pataphysical calendar -- the only calendar to guarantee 13 Friday the 13ths in every year!
https://www.patakosmos.com/pataphysic...
Today is Hunyadi, 29th day of the month of Gidouille, year 148, NOM D'UBU, fête suprême seconde.
The band Idiot Flesh used to perform in some of those little SF places that have been taken over by techie workplaces and condos. They would have all sorts of things going on before the show or during intermission, including pataphysical lectures, which is where I probably first learned the term. The music was pretty rough, but the shows were great. They would sometimes play from inside inflatable costumes, and once had Eric McFadden playing his guitar while suspended upside-down from a rope. Fun times!
Just one more note before I get back to the topic at hand.... You may know that the OULIPO group stands for "Workshop of potential literature." What many forget is that it is "Workshop of potential literature of the college of pataphysics." So, if you've read Perec or Calvino's OULIPO works, then you've read some pataphysics.
And today's your birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ED!I actually didn't know the connection between OULIPO and Pataphysics. Awesome! I'd been getting pataphysical and not even knowing it.
Idiot Flesh rings a bell, but before my time. Unfortunately I came to the SF scene a bit late, just as Noise Pop was taking off. (Those first Oranger shows OMG.) A while ago I was working with a friend on a potential film about V Vale (of Search & Destroy and RE/Search) and got caught up on a lot of SF's punk legacy. I mourned being born too late.
Nathanimal wrote: "... I enjoy walking, too, and will often carry a notebook with me to make sure nothing slips past me ..."Berkeley is a great spot for unexpected discoveries. Like the weird medallions that someone put on the sidewalks around town. This one is near me:
(More of them here. I've personally visited at least 5 of these.)
Here is a picture of a car in my neighborhood:
Go to berkeleyside.com and search for 'quirky', though it is more fun to find such things by chance.
At a school around the corner from me is a tree that has grown through a chain-link fence. The fence is now at least 3 inches deep, but the bark continues to grow in the pattern of the wires.
Nathanimal wrote: "...Idiot Flesh rings a bell, but before my time. ..."They mutated into "Sleepytime Gorilla Museum" which still performs and can be found on U tube.
I think that Idiot Flesh can also be seen/heard in the film Oakland Underground, though I've only seen clips.
My next post will actually be about this book we're reading!
Mod
The Oulipo's founder, the inestimable Raymond Queneau, was a member of la Collège de Pataphysique and the workshop was initially a subcommittee of the latter institution. It soon became very much its own man/woman.
I'm not sure how this post flaneured into a San Francisco Bay Area indie music nostalgia trip. But while we're in that neighborhood:https://denniscooperblog.com/bill-hsu...
Bill wrote: "I'm not sure how this post flaneured into a San Francisco Bay Area indie music nostalgia trip. But while we're in that neighborhood:https://denniscooperblog.com/bill-hsu......"
Wow, thank you for this, Bill. I swear I've heard everyone of these bands shaking down the walls of the various SF rehearsal space complexes I rented from over the years.
Bill wrote: "I'm not sure how this post flaneured into a San Francisco Bay Area indie music nostalgia trip. ..."I believe the term you are looking for is "flânulated".
That was some interesting band info. I've never been much into punk, though it can be fun at times.
I've finished the section called "Paris Peasant". My book contains two other things, but I may skip them for now.
It was not at all what I expected! It is described on the cover as "one of the central works of Surrealism." Yet there is nothing in it that I would identify as "surreal". Louis Aragon and Simon Watson Taylor are, of course, better placed to know that this is, in fact, "Surrealism". It just doesn't match what I expected: drream-like logic and unexpected juxtapositions.
Still, I enjoyed it to a point. I find Paris interesting, and watching the disappearance of some old institutions is interesting as well.
Ed wrote: "It was not at all what I expected! It is described on the cover as "one of the central works of Surrealism." Yet there is nothing in it that I would identify as "surreal""I saw surrealism in the weirding of the scenery, the deeper, more poetic reality that kept churning up the cityscape. It was a force that could turn a shopgirl into a mermaid or a make a statue speak and sometimes this poetic reality carried Aragon away into reveries that I couldn't quite follow. I enjoyed least the moments when the narrative completely detached from the city (though Aragon rains fantastic phrases, no matter what he's talking about). I think this coming detached is what Aragon means by 'vertigo' but it's a feeling that doesn't transmit well. It's a feeling one probably has to discover for oneself by opening oneself up to that deeper poetic reality.
Often this book seemed like a manifesto in images. Particularly potent for me was the image of the arcade as an aquarium, dimly lit, full of transient characters swimming through the murk, where everything is slippery and liquid and mutable. Those are the kinds of places, and the state of mind, that the Surrealists are interested in. It's this contingent, mutable state that makes the unwonted possible, I think.
But my favorite moment in the book is still the little tour of the Certa. I'd suffer a green drink just to sit with Aragon and his friends for a night.
Nathanimal wrote: "how do you guys experience this dynamic between the wonted and the unwonted. Where do you experience your novelty? ..."There's an app for that. Several actually. I don't use them, but maybe you'd find it fun.
This book directly inspired The Arcades Project. There seems to me to be a lot of similarity with Psychogeography, though I read somewhere that practitioners of that don't consider Aragon part of that at all.
Anyway, this page on Psychogeography lists several smart-phone apps that you can use to help inspire you as you Flânulate or go on a Dérive around town ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychog...
One of the things I do is take random rides downhill on my bike. There are only a few routes for me to take uphill that aren't too steep for my exercise. But I often randomly take different paths downhill and explore what I find. Sometimes I also take an urban hike, not necessarily with any planned destination.
Ed wrote: "Nathanimal wrote: "how do you guys experience this dynamic between the wonted and the unwonted. Where do you experience your novelty? ..."There's an app for that. Several actually. I don't use th..."
I had not heard of Psychogeography. Thanks for the link. I love the way it ties together the ideas of many movements across the century.
Has anyone noticed the book Paul is currently reading:
Off the Map: Lost Spaces, Invisible Cities, Forgotten Islands, Feral Places and What They Tell Us About the World
Mod
Nathanimal wrote: "... Can't wait to find out what variations on Pessimism entails."The result was underwhelming. Apparently the letters were painted on the pleats of an accordion, so some letters would disappear while it was played. Not sure whether it was a real accordion, or he was just imagining one.
Klowey wrote: "Has anyone noticed the book Paul is currently reading ..."I read an interesting book covering micronations a few years back. Some of the stories are pretty wild. Paul's book contains other things as well, and looks interesting, but if micronations interest you, I recommend This Land is My Land: A Graphic History of Big Dreams, Micronations, and Other Self-Made States.
Ed wrote: "Klowey wrote: "Has anyone noticed the book Paul is currently reading ..."I read an interesting book covering micronations a few years back. Some of the stories are pretty wild. Paul's book contai..."
That's wild!
One of the things I'm interested in is Involuntary Landscapes or Parks. I used to like the wild urban plants and the way things just grew by natural chance. I was an Art History major and am into science so maybe that's why the Involuntary Parks fascinate me. I'm wondering how much of Paul's current book mentions them.
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Involunta...
Apparently Bruce Sterling coined the term:
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Bruce_Ste...
Paul wrote: "Yup, it's psychogeography, Klowey, and pretty irreal..."Been wondering whether to put it on my to-read list. Ok, you convinced me.
Mod
Been wondering whether to put it on my to-read list. Ok, you convinced me."
And, yes, there's some of the involuntary parkland stuff going on there, Klowey. Calvino's Marcovaldo finds himself exiled from the countryside in an industrial city and sees the resistance of nature all around him (another great read!).
Hotel Irrealismo
Books mentioned in this topic
This Land is My Land: A Graphic History of Big Dreams, Micronations, and Other Self-Made States (other topics)The Arcades Project (other topics)
Growing up with anarchists, surrealists and pataphysicians (other topics)
The Ubu Plays: Ubu Rex / Ubu Cuckolded / Ubu Enchained (other topics)
Authors mentioned in this topic
Simon Watson Taylor (other topics)Simon Watson Taylor (other topics)
Boris Vian (other topics)
