Kim, our friend from Peoria, joined the conference call late and apologized, as people sometimes do, profusely and at a length that rendered the apology more disruptive than the lateness.<\/p>\n
\u2018I had to wait for ages at the store,\u2019 Kim said, \u2018and with social distancing the line went round the corner, and some guy cut in ahead and there was shouting, and security were in the parking lot.\u2019<\/p>\n
I wondered about the detailed description \u2013 which came by way of excusing an interruption. I was at the same time intrigued by a captivating, if gratuitous, glimpse of American life.<\/p>\n
\u2018There was a shooting?\u2019 Dimitri asked.<\/p>\n
Either Dimitri believes that every altercation in front of a US supermarket ends with weapons drawn, or he had misheard \u2018shouting\u2019 for \u2018shooting\u2019 or \u2018lot\u2019 for \u2018shot\u2019.<\/p>\n
And then he added, \u2018Can\u2019t you people settle anything peacefully?\u2019<\/p>\n
When Dimitri and Kim first met last year \u2013 at a seminar in Brussels organized by one of those Francophone organizations mandated to spread bonne volont\u00e9<\/em> around the globe \u2013 they hit it off. They share an enthusiasm for the Belgian Symbolists and dragged us all to a boite<\/em> behind Lemonnier to drink absinthe.<\/p>\n So, I gathered that Dimitri\u2019s question was intended to amuse rather than offend.<\/p>\n \u2018The pot calling the kettle black,\u2019 Marianne said, taking offence, apparently, in case Kim chose not to.<\/p>\n Marianne and Dimitri do not get along (she was not one of the party at the Brussels boite<\/em>).<\/p>\n \u2018Shall we move on?\u2019 Patrice asked.<\/p>\n \u2018I meant only that some parts of Europe rival the United States in the matter of trigger-happy citizens,\u2019 Marianne said, not moving on.<\/p>\n Dimitri was \u2013 I am almost certain \u2013 being ironic, but Marianne is an earnest sort. She would, I fear, be comfortable with irony only if it were a symposium topic \u2013 Irony and the Ramifications of the Patriarchy<\/em>, perhaps.<\/p>\n \u2018There wasn\u2019t any shooting,\u2019 Kim explained.<\/p>\n \u2018Excellent!\u2019 I said, as though expressing collective and very heartfelt relief. \u2018You hadn\u2019t missed much. We are about to review Jasmin\u2019s poem.\u2019<\/p>\n Written by one of Dimitri\u2019s most promising students, the poem, slated for pages 16 and 17 of the latest issue, contains the slightest hint of what may or may not be chauvinism.<\/p>\n \u2018I\u2019m agnostic on the stereotyping,\u2019 Kim said, displaying a commendable capacity to get to the point that had, I felt, been absent earlier.<\/p>\n \u2018What is your objection, Albus?\u2019 Dimitri asked, in the manner of a professor challenging a slightly irritating tutorial student \u2013 affable but ready to pounce.<\/p>\n \u2018Perhaps Patrice . . .\u2019 I replied with that species of awkward prevarication for which the adjective pusillanimous was invented. Patrice was the one who first raised the chauvinism issue, so it seemed to me appropriate that he should make the case.<\/p>\n \u2018My objection, Dimitri, is that the poem paints a picture of one particular group as though every member of that group were the same.\u2019 Patrice said.<\/p>\n \u2018Like assuming all French people are fond of smelly cheese?\u2019 Dimitri chuckled.<\/p>\n The conference lit up \u2013 electrified by a ray of indignation from Marianne.<\/p>\n \u2018But why wouldn\u2019t we allow this to be said?\u2019 Dimitri continued quickly.<\/p>\n A lesser literary pugilist might have carried on punching, but Dimitri knew better. The silence that filled the ether seemed somehow to make his argument for him.<\/p>\n \u2018We are committed to . . . an elevated view of human nature,\u2019 Patrice remarked at last.<\/p>\n \u2018We could be sued!\u2019\u00a0 Kim said \u2013 making a characteristically north American reference to litigation that rather supported at least one stereotype.<\/p>\n Then Marianne surprised me.<\/p>\n \u2018Dimitri is right,\u2019 she said. \u2018The poem is effective. It expresses an authentic voice of anguish, even if it does so with a sometimes broad brush.\u2019<\/p>\n Another silence, until broken by Dimitri\u2019s voice: \u2018That is very gracious. Thank you, Marianne.\u2019<\/p>\n \u2018Albus, you have the deciding vote,\u2019 Patrice said.<\/p>\n Damn!<\/em> My natural habitat is very much on the nearest serviceable fence.<\/p>\n \u2018Well,\u2019 I began, \u2018I have been torn . . . Jasmin\u2019s work certainly . . .\u2019 I struggled for words.<\/p>\n Marianne was more direct. \u2018She has put her finger on the pulse of the patriarchy!\u2019 The alliteration was intentional, no doubt; but the pronoun was misplaced.<\/p>\n \u2018That is true,\u2019 Kim said, about the patriarchy, apparently, rather than the pronoun.<\/p>\n I waited for Dimitri to clarify. But again he was silent.<\/p>\n \u2018Let\u2019s publish the piece then,\u2019 I said.<\/p>\n What is the point of poetry if it doesn\u2019t undermine assumptions from time to time?<\/p>\n In due course Marianne will grasp that Jasmin is a boy. Perhaps Dimitri will enlighten her.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Kim, our friend from Peoria, joined the conference call late and apologized, as people sometimes do, profusely and at a length that rendered the apology more disruptive than the lateness. \u2018I had to wait for ages at the store,\u2019 Kim said, \u2018and with social distancing the line went round the corner, and some guy cut […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=350"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":351,"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350\/revisions\/351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}