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I am sorry to hear that work is preventing you from enjoying the more clement weather. Thanks a lot for asking, I am doing well, I am a bit more productive these days, and I look forward going to a few concerts in the coming weeks.


I must confess that I had never heard about him either. Isn't Ezra Pound supposed to be the best poet of the century? (Amongst those who use English as their main language of course, for I believe that it is futile to compare the poetry of two different languages; and translating poetry is a crime—though I am grateful that some damned souls tried to translate Onegin!)


I do not use AC either and wonder how people can appreciate a season where you cannot even sleep properly. This is the first time that I hear about the limbo month, is it a general phenomenon? For me, February of last year was perhaps one of the most fruitful months of my career.


Thank you for sharing this excerpt of A Writer's Diary, I had not yet reached this year. Would you recommend some books of Griboyedov (I must confess that I had never heard about him)? I tried to find equivalent of lovely mudak in French literature, and could not come up with any.


I did not even know about this series, but thank you for sparing me the trouble of watching it. I must say that I am not very surprised to hear about the sexual tone that they have given to the story, but hearing about the incest part is bewildering... Pierre should not be too handsome, lest he become objectively better than all other male protagonists.

Yes, I would never read any translated book in another language, and although I read it when I was 15, the writing was good enough for me to finish reading the book (which is a feat according to some), and some scenes left a lasting impression on me (I can think about his masterly description of the Battle of Borodino or the descent of Pierre in the frightening world of freemasonry). There are probably better translations, and I had only read the standard paperback by Gallimard.


Book lovers would really use anything for a bookmark! My current favourite one is a long, rectangular-shaped one that features the sign indicating the direction to the Piazza San Marco that I got in a second-hand book store in the city whose stones were described by the English writer who had the most lasting influence on Proust (I will give his name at the end of my message, although it might be too obvious to you). How do you feel about this "loss" of ability? Indifference or annoyance?


Thank you very much! I am currently reading a book on the topic (the author claims that he was depressed for 15 years, no wonder he died prematurely), and I can only imagine what it could have been for you, but it is great to hear that you manage to overcome it. May I ask you if a decisive element helped you to get better?

I will tell you my impressions when I finish watching it.


Thank you much for sharing those pieces of art! I really liked the first series, whose first painting reminded of Strindberg's The Town, that you probably already know about (yes, he is the author of Inferno).


I thought that it was a chimera!... But my first impression was that he was a boy indeed.

It is a pity that you could not go to the exhibition. I find it refreshing to see some contemporary painters who still do "retinal" art. Is the first painting supposed to represent Mt. Fuji? The second one seems to picture a tengu. Coincidentally, I went to the art exhibition of the French writer I mentioned previously (he is also a painter), but his art is probably too violent and controversial for MAL, so if you do not mind, I will refrain from sharing here the paintings that I liked best.

No worries, I would never get upset about this kind of joke. I will reply to your long message later today.

What kind of fate would you wish for me?

He looks a bit like Joyce, is it a real news headline, or a parodic one?

Although Spring is not very far behind this season, I think that I prefer Autumn over it since it feels like a liberation from the Summer curse (while Winter is a very enjoyable season for me).


Yes, I have read it in a beautiful translation in verses (belle infidèle) close to a decade ago, and also reread it (in a worse translation, I think that the one was had been written during the 19th century) at the beginning of the pandemic. However, I must confess that I have a terrible memory of names in general (there are a few exceptions though: Proust chose so well the names of his characters that he made it really easy for the readers to remember about them, even when it comes to side characters (e.g. Madame Poussin or Madame Putbus) that will only be mentioned once or twice! Tolstoy (and Dostoesvky!) had this talent too, and Pierre Bezukhov was my favourite male character in War and Peace), and would have to read it again to answer you accurately. However, I remember that Onegin's Stendhalian character is the one that had left the biggest impression on me.


I do not remember if his cat (or rather the one of his wife Hélène) was male or female, but I liked how accurate your three-adjective-description à la Saint-Simon was!


Thank you very much!


It is incredible that you have kept it to this day! Since I have not learnt the Cyrillic alphabet, it is really hard to understand what you are asked to do; I can only extrapolate that you need to find the location of point D that must satisfy some geometric conditions. Then I tried to borrow the book I had mentioned in a previous message, but contrary to what was indicated on the library website, I could not find it anywhere! French mathematician (and former Trotskyist militant) Laurent Schwartz had famously told in his biography that the first time he was invited to England to give a talk, he did not know a word of the language, but that he had managed to give a flawless talk after learning only a hundred words of technical vocabulary! Apparently, an English colleague—who was a poor speaker—was livid when he heard about it, but I still think that Schwartz knew some basics to make proper sentences... Coming back to your question, without those 100 words and learning the alphabet, it would be nigh-on impossible to understand this geometry test.


Indeed, this quote almost made him appear as a nostalgic of some idealised idea of old Russia. Thank you for the precisions.
You are right, a lot of artists are not very good at putting words on their work, but the critiques are typically much worse in this task!


You are welcome! Her French was more or less okay until the "Oui Oui Baguette" that would never be a part of a correct sentence...


You are very welcome, and thank you very much (the anime art was really cute, between Natsume Yuujinchou and Mouryou no Hako)! My productivity was fine today for once, although I had not rested as much as I would have wanted to this week-end.
Thanks for the recommendation, I had in fact started to watch it last year when I was really depressed, and it had surprisingly helped me to get better, but I had not finished watching it after the time skip. I should do it now, since I feel that I have taken enough distance from the unpleasant episodes of last year not to associate this anime with them.

I'll answer your question if you answer mine!

What's the purpose of this alt? Forum comments?

Your joy about the coming of Spring reminded me of this observation from Morand: Spring carries a significantly more positive meaning than the French [i]printemps[i] which is not typically associated with this sudden burst of life (perhaps due to our more favourable climate). As a consequence, even if you can rightfully translate Spring as printemps, something will be lost and this is probably one of the reasons why translating poetry is an impossible task!

I am not well versed into English poetry, and I could not guess what poet was behind those verses; did you write them yourself?


Not my favourite picture of Bébert indeed! There are so many amusing passages featuring Bébert in the final trilogy; the cat also needed to have a passport to cross a war-torn Germany, and Lucette and Ferdinand were always afraid that he would be killed by some soldier, or that he would get lost. In one memorable episode, Lucette went to look for him in the middle of the night with an enormous torch, which was obviously forbidden (due to the blackout) and created a major turmoil in the town where she was staying. There is often hyperbole in stories Céline tells, but they are usually based on events that did happen to him. This picture might be one of the best double portrait of a writer with a cat (for a portrait of a cat with a writer, nothing can beat this picture of Paul Morand).


The boring answer is French, but when it comes to mathematics, I can switch from French to English without suffering from a loss of performance (perhaps because mathematical thinking is mostly non-verbal). I am also getting better at conversing in Japanese, and refuse to use the "etto" most learns of this language fancy. So the most accurate answer would be any of those three languages, with a preference for the non-English ones. I like German, but I have never learnt it in a German-speaking environment, which made it difficult to improve in communication. Thank you very much for the kind offer! Sadly, it might take a few years before I start learning this language, and I guess that you will not be around any more when that happens. I think that I will not start a new language before I get to a conversational level in Chinese or plan to visit the country, which seems rather compromised these days. Another good excuse to start Russian would be to find an (mathematics) article that was not translated (those are pretty common) that I would really need for my work. People pretend that you can read mathematics in any language with minimal training, but I wonder if it is really true for such complicated languages...


Do you dislike Solzhenitsyn from a literary viewpoint? The movie is perhaps the only one that shows how a writer at work looks like, and it is a good watch just for that. Thank you for the precision, the "e" would be "mute" in French, so no emphasis would actually be made in practice.

Thank you very much for your thorough explanations about Platonov's literature! It sounds like an odd mix between Joyce and Céline, with a twist. The French translations that I could read looked like "standard" French, and it seems that the English translations were more true to the original (but one must recognise that you cannot make "wrong" sentences in French and get away with it; for example, the only French translation of Finnegans Wake is pure gibberish—the translator transformed a text full of meaning into something unintelligible...).


I am glad to hear that you have found a good translation. The beginning might bore you a little, but assuming that long sentences were cut (as in the English translations), the style might not be as difficult as in French. Please let me know about your impressions when you have started or finished the book!


Thanks a lot for the correction, it seems that I used the qualificative "Art Nouveau" too liberally. When I first heard about it in English, I was confused because it is also known as Modern Style in France! The influence from Hokusai and his followers is perceptible in his art (I said that before seeing the wave in the second link!). Looking at his declarations, would you classify him as Slavophile? I was unaware that Diaghilev was of the leader of an art movement; in France, I think that the ballets russes created such a strong burst of interest that writers describing their introduction in Paris typically fail to give broader context to this event.


This is a great way to describe this portrait, that I would similarly deem mesmerising (to the point where I looked up her biography and saw that she had a rather Austenesque mariage with a man who harassed her for a year until she gave up; and as you can see in the portrait, she had a fragile health). I would also like to see it again, but I could not find an occasion to go back to Edinburgh in the last years. I hope that you manage to travel there in the near future, there are a few gems in this museum.


Thanks again! This is really interesting, and this idea of sending an offensive bouquet to your ennemies sounds very literary—so literary that I would be surprised if it had never happened in real life! I had never heard about this saying, and although I read French literature of the last five centuries, I cannot recall coming across this expression a single time. It might have been popular in the past, but I would not be able to say when, and you would definitely raise eyebrows if you used it today.

You are very welcome, I am glad to hear that those rather awkwardly taken pictures could uplift your spirits a little. I am still not very well versed into flowers, so I would not be able to know for sure their type. I hope that you have a nice week-end; this conversation has been truly interesting and pleasant for me so far.

I also prefer him as a pseudo-jazzman since he is quite shallow in the end. Like Cioran, his nihilism does not sound genuine; he is no "demon"!


I must confess that although I like cats, I did not know about the Norwegian forest cats! They look so cute and fluffy... How about a Tsushima cat? Or the Iriomote cat?

I would also be fine to turn into a "boring" European cat à la Bébert (Céline's famous cat who even has an entire book dedicated to him!). This kind of orange cat always seems quite mischievous, so it would work well with your fascination with vampires.


I am still a beginner in Chinese though (~A2). At school (and university), I have studied Spanish during a decade, and I am quite rusty now, but I can still read the newspaper without too many problems. And I have also studied German for five years, and reached a level around ~B1-2, but I really need to improve in this language... Thank you very much! Your English—and knowledge of contemporary English literature—is so good that I thought that you were a native speaker, but your first language is actually the last one I want to study some day! (Seven is a good number, isn't it?) I remember reading that Gauss (should I write Gauß to emphasise the fact that I have studied German?...) wanted to see how intellectually fit he still was when he turned 60. He proceeded to learn Russian, and according to a mathematician who visited him a few years later, he was fluent in that language! I could not find back the book where I had read this anecdote, but an article in German and another one in Russian actually say that he started learning Russian at 62. In fact, he says that he started to study it in Spring 1839, and since he was born on the 30th of April, he may have been only 61 then. Either way, isn't it wonderful that he could reach this level of proficiency at such an "old" age? I hope that I can start well before this age...

By the way, have you watched the The Dialogues with Solzhenitsyn by Alexander Sokurov (I always find the English transliterations of Russian names impossible to remember; isn't the French one "Soljenitsyne" more phonetically accurate by the way?)? I really liked the movie, but I am asking since Solzhenitsyn made an interesting point about Platonov's literature that stands out by its "syntax." Although it was not apparent in the translations that I have read of him, do you have an idea what he meant? You can simply reply that I need to study the language to understand it!


Almost, but I have never read this depressed man who writes novels like lines of code (and is sadly well too famous);


I like this mindset, and even after spending so much time reading Proust, one is never really certain to have recovered from acute snobberium syndrome. I also use my commuting time to read the books that I "have to" read, but are not exactly masterpieces.


You are welcome! If you plan to read it in English, I think that the Penguin translation The Way by Swann's is the best one (the translation of the title is indeed more accurate, so it shows a lot of care from the translator).


You are right, perhaps I have spoken too lightly about concrete (which is not a feat), and I have visited once the first church made of concrete—surprisingly, the atmosphere was not much different from the one of a standard church.

My point was simply to say that his writing was quite poor anyway.


Thank you for sharing the entire painting! It somehow reminds me of the sensibility of a Théodore Chassériau when he painted his two sisters (beware, the colours of most photos of this painting that you can find on the internet are wrong). I felt that the painting was Shakespearean, but instead of asking you directly, I stupidly looked for the image online... And the "funny" part is that instead of keeping my original question, I "betrayed" myself by asking directly about Cordelia! I really like this character by the way, she might be the most graceful and lovable heroine of the Bard.

I did not know about the first two painters, is Bilibin a prominent figure of art nouveau? I also like a lot Gustave Doré, his engravings are heavenly; once, I spent about a half hour to look at all his illustrations from the Bible in a second-hand library, but I did not buy the book since it was in German! Velázquez (I almost wanted to kneel when I saw his Christ in Madrid...), John Singer Sargent (I was in awe in front of Lady Agnew of Lochnaw when I discovered the painting at the Scottish National Gallery), Kandinsky (that I prefer over Escher), Ivan Aivazovsky, and more boringly, Rembrandt, and Monet (most impressionists, in fact)—from whom my grandfather, who turned to visual arts when he retired, took a lot of inspiration.


That is so lovely of you, thank you very much for the little friendship bouquet! I would be well unable to assemble bouquets on a computer, but I like to take pictures of nature when I go running outside; once, I have discovered a flowery cemetery lost in the middle of a forest. Reading the wonderful nature descriptions of Paul Morand, I have realised that I was unable to name most flowers and birds, and I plan to fix that some day—although it will likely take much more than a day. But your knowledge is next level if you even know about the meaning of flowers! Does it differ from country to country by the way? I think that it does, and it would be interesting to make a chart of meanings by country for a single flower. How it changed over the years would be something else worth investigating.

No worries, I hope that you are doing better now. I am feeling almost back to normal, thank you very much for asking!


It turns out that my theory was incorrect. Thank you for the recommendation. I liked "Margaret."

Amongst classics, I wonder if there are good examples (outside of Flaubert of course) of truly nihilist books. Flaubert almost becomes comical by his obsession with painting mediocre characters, for exceptions do exist (and make the salt of existence). Oddly enough, this obsession made him deviate from the "realist" ideal he may have aimed for.

I am sorry for the obscure Joycean reference, I was not trying to be cryptic.


Maybe they do, and even if I would normally expect that my enthusiasm for a given topic does not scare people off, it is indeed possible that it may intimate some people. Now I feel even less willing to bring the conversation to topics of interest. No, you made a good point, but let me point out that if I ever met someone so sensitive, I would be really surprised if they did not like literature!


There are no good answers to this question anyway, so one is forced to try to be witty. Actually, I would even like to twist the question in a seemingly more favourable way: "Would you still love me if I turned into an adorable cat?" Well, I would certainly stop loving the said person as one loves a human being... Even if you assumed that the cat was able to speak, it would simply become creepy.


I like this perspective on vampires, far from the modern idealisation of those "monsters."


Thank you for your answer, I think that I would controversially put The Adolescent higher on my list of preferences.


As my username and my literary taste indicate, I am indeed a Frenchman... I read exactly one living (French) writer, but he is rather obscure and controversial—though he is the only one who deserves the name of a writer today. Do you have any "guilty pleasures" when it comes to literature by the way? Is it correct to assume that English is your first language? Then I think that I would go for Swann's Way, although given your taste, I feel that you might prefer Céline's Journey to the End of the Night over it. Either you, can cannot go wrong with those two books, and I hope that you do not regret the investment!

I did buy the novels in Japanese, but the poor writing had really put my off. Let me try to translate the incipit:

"Now it's Summer. That is what she was thinking. In a room of inexpressive concrete [have you ever heard about expressive concrete?...], the presence of seasons could not be felt. In the building, there was not a single window where one could see the outside world. It wasn't cold or hot."

I call that the degree zero of literary writing, and even with a language such as Japanese that I am far from mastering completely, I cannot get interested enough to keep reading it.

I think that he is somewhat relatable by his disdain for academic trivialities (silly meetings and general close-mindedness) and his love for unorthodox research methods that I see as an transliteration for the author's own frustrated search for freedom (which eventually made him relinquish his academic position to become a novelist, as you probably already know it). I am sorry that I cannot answer your question on Magata Shiki. Is the painting that you used as avatar supposed to represent Cordelia? I think that she is one of the best female characters of the Bard. Currently, I am finishing Le Feu, a novel of Barbusse on WWI (I would highly recommend it), and I am re-reading the two books that I have just recommended above. Otherwise, I am reading Stendhal's Mémoires d'un touriste (very chatty and not his best book), and as I said in a previous message, semi-scholarly work on Joyce (I really like the critical work of Anthony Burgess). Last, but not least, I have restarted re-reading The Idiot due to this conversation—I read all novels of Dostoevsky about 10 years ago, but I had never reread them; finally, I got an excuse to read them again! Anything interesting that you are currently reading?

Yes of course, I would be interested to see your reply, it was an interesting conversation. I simply find the idea of trying to be understood by "people" in general futile; you will be quickly judged and put in a box, and there is little you can do about it.

Thank you very much for your kind wishes. I do not think that it is very serious and the medicines have alleviated the symptoms a lot (not giving more details for they would be either morbid or uninteresting).


I do. You can have a look (if I may say) at his Apocalypse de [Saint] Jean, I believe that it is his most famous work. If I do not feel comfortable enough to answer your question directly, I will say that one of the reasons why I generally prefer instrumental music over other kinds of music is that it nicely fills the near-complete emotional void of mathematical thinking but does not distract from it. Interesting choice, if we add the Offenbach piece that you mentioned a few days ago in the "unhinged" thread, it seems that you have a particular taste for "uplifting" music, is that right? I must say that it is quite pleasant to see someone who does not revel in depressing music.

When I first read the novel (about a decade ago), I had very little knowledge about Christianity, and had not even read the Bible, so I did not specifically identify myself to the Christ or to a martyr (to make things worse though, the character I could identify the most with in The Brothers Karamazov was not one else than Alexei...). The way he was perceived by others did remind me of myself (that he was usually the subject of the joke, and well, the ambivalence of the meaning of "idiot" has really changed how I perceive my actions and the ones of others), and if I do not pretend like Stephen—to whom I may also identify, which is a new worrying sign of hubris—that I am the equal of some great men of the past, my then-naïveté and tendency to let people abuse of my goodwill only reinforced this impression. If I were to reread it today, I am not sure if the identification would be so obvious, for I have become considerably more careful about trusting people, and even more careful about what I disclose about my work—or myself. I seldom have the opportunity to converse with topics of true interest in real life, so my attitude would only rarely match Rogozhin's. The usual experience is that I feel no interest in the eyes of my interlocutors when the subject comes to literature (say), and I quickly try to change of topics only to go back to my previous mutism—but at least the atmosphere is less oppressive now.


Truly great quotes, thank you for sharing them. They coincidentally reinforce my earlier "uplifting theory"—that you need not infer or confirm. Depressing books can be uplifting too, but I have grown weary of unimaginative naturalist novels that are not even saved by great style (like L'Assommoir of Zola).

I did not know about this meme, and I feel that there are no good answers, but let me try to write something anyway. "At least the worm would not ask stupid questions."

I have only read the most famous novel of Stoker. What is your favourite novel of his? I must say that I have not read Chekhov as much as I should have otherwise, but the French translations that I read were the most recent ones and perhaps not the best. Can you also give me your two or three favourite novels of Dostoevsky? Almost, but poets were missing: Boileau, Baudelaire and Rimbaud are my top three (boring choice, I know), and when it comes to novelists, I would only keep Dazai and replace the two other Japanese writers (that I do like, especially Souseki, but not as much as the two gentlemen who will elegantly close this sentence) by Stendhal and Céline. Finally, the list would not be complete without the aphorist Chamfort (his maxims were only partially translated into English under the misleading title A Cynic's Breviary, for he was anything but a cynic).

I am sorry for the late reply, I was sick (and I have still not recovered actually, but feel good enough to devote some time to writing).


Unfortunately, I don't. I think that understanding lyrics is the most difficult thing in basically any language, and Chinese is likely no exception.


I would not say so, although I have listened with keen interest to a lot of music genres—like musique concrète (Pierre Henry's Apocalypse, etc), or classical composers who are still alive that I went to see in person (it felt like music for musicologists...), but I cannot help from thinking that the people who delved into this kind of music were facing a wall and failed to overcome it. I mostly listen to symphonic music, classical music in general, and some jazz too (I mainly stick to pre-1970 classics). I also like the Japanese band toe, even if their last creations seem rather lacklustre to me. How did you learn about Lexie Liu? Are you following a lot of new artists?

Thanks for sharing the new song! It was cute indeed.

The Idiot! It may not be the most popular choice (and if Crime and Punishment is a masterpiece that is supposed—and manages—to make the reader feel uneasy, I believe that it may not be the most representative work of Dostoevsky), but I could easily relate to Prince Myshkin (I hope that it does not sound pretentious...), and the book as a whole had the most lasting influence on me. His Writer's Diary is great too, and The Christ's Christmas Tree might be one of his best short stories. When it comes to novellas, The Gambler and The Eternal Husband are those that easily come to my mind: the way the first one was told made it clear that Dostoevsky had been the prey of the gambling's passion, and I like the second for taking a more comedic approach to the Bovary-like story (and quoting it at a university exam entrance impressed the examiner, so there is that too!). What do you like most about Dostoevsky?

I have only read a few "raunchy" letters, but I have coincidentally ordered his correspondence a few weeks ago. It comes from Canada or the United States, so I might have to wait another week or two before I get to finally read it. Did you get the chance to read his full correspondence? Please share a few memorable lines if you can! (Those that do not infringe on MAL rules of course...) Currently, I am reading exegesis works on Finnegans Wake so that I finally get to read the book systematically, something I have meant to do for a few years now.

Looking at your page, it is not hard to assume that you like Kafka. Who are your other favourite writers?

Thank you for the recommendation! I really liked "dance dance" (very catchy title) and "FORTUNA." Songs like "Gaia" and "i wanna tell u" were also quite enjoyable, though more conventional. Lexie Liu is an interesting artist that will probably keep growing in unexpected ways (I love her style too).

i like breaking dawn part one ! also sorry i just saw this today .. i love the whole series though

nice to know there's another twilight fan :).