Michel Pastoureau

L'humeur vagabonde (12/18)

Noir: Histoire d'une couleur

also in English:  Black: The History of a Color

"Black: is it a color or a non-color? An ambiguous color, color of contrasts, of morning and of celebrations, of poverty and of sumptuosity. Color of the devil and of witches, color of the humility of saints and of the poor's younger brothers. Color of filth and of writing, color of the rocker and of the elegant. Color of the night that evokes fear and intense vibration of light with Soulages. We can discuss black. But how do we describe it?"

During the Middle Ages, says Pastoureau, it wasn't uncommon for people to dress entirely in yellow, which is unthinkable today. It was from the Reformation and the Counter Reformation that we inherit the notion of "honest" colors and "dishonest" colors.  And red, green and yellow fall into the latter category, while black, grey and white are the honest ones.

Michel Pastoureau is a "marvelous repeat offender" and Black is the latest of his books about color.

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Claire Gallois

Du jour au lendemain (12/18)

"The imprint of broken things may be what we hide from ourselves and what keeps us going.

"Writer and woman, the narrator is accepted into the Académie française. Her acceptance speech is unusual. Insolent. Abrubt. Moving. Ferocious. With an unexpected conclusion. She reviews the episodes of a life, without false modesty, mocks the culture of appearances, confronts her own doubts and doesn't fail to hit her targets. 

"Claire Gallois' talent lies in the biting freedom with which she brings together the real and imaginary, the serious with the frivolous. A novel about time and vanity that begins with a joke and ends with a tear in the eye."

Du jour au lendemain for iTunes

Nicolas Grimaldi

Du jour au lendemain (12/4).

Proust et les horreurs de l'amour

"It seems to me that the most original experience of consciousness, or at least that of those who become philosophical, is disappointment. For, if things delighted us, fulfilled us, we would not question why they were this way and not another. We would find that things were fine as they were. (long silence) If we are disappointed, it is because we were expecting something. The problem then becomes how to know where that expectation comes from. A large part of my analysis ...  consists of understanding that expectation is consciousness itself.  ...this is in a way the key that I have tried to turn in the proustian lock. Because it seems to elucidate the entire enterprise and most of the experience that Proust relates."

Du jour au lendemain for iTunes