{"id":408,"date":"2020-08-10T09:56:40","date_gmt":"2020-08-10T07:56:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/?p=408"},"modified":"2020-08-10T09:56:40","modified_gmt":"2020-08-10T07:56:40","slug":"rappelle-toi-barbara","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/?p=408","title":{"rendered":"Rappelle-toi Barbara"},"content":{"rendered":"

Albus McInerney edits a literary magazine.<\/em><\/p>\n

We were considering whether to publish an article on the politics of Jacques Prevert. However, in the week that marked the 75th<\/sup> anniversaries of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I found myself wondering about the relevance or the power of poetry.<\/p>\n

Marianne had questioned the academic rigour of the piece under discussion. \u2018It lacks the fresh perspective that would make it more appealing,\u2019 she said. \u2018The author has read the poems but she hasn\u2019t lived <\/em>them.\u2019<\/p>\n

Which I felt was setting the bar for literary criticism rather high. Not the fault of the bright young graduate student who submitted the article that she was born long after the global conflict that shaped Prevert\u2019s politics.<\/p>\n

Dimitri, who has<\/em> lived through some dramatic social and historical happenings, expressed the view that \u2018an academic approach, fresh or otherwise, will miss the target.\u2019 Dimitri has mastered the art of the effective Zoom entrance. Faces peered at screens a fraction more closely ahead of his next sentence. \u2018The nature of Prevert\u2019s poetry \u2013 like all great art \u2013 defies analysis.\u2019<\/p>\n

Which I felt was unhelpful, since literary analysis is what we do for a living.<\/p>\n

Still, Dimitri\u2019s whole persona somehow lets him get away with picaresque nuggets of nihilism \u2013 he would have been at home on the Left Bank circa 1957: a lifetime of smoking and drinking (and a moustache in the tradition of Emiliano Zapata) has left him with a wizened appearance of Bohemian proportions.<\/p>\n

Patrice \u2013 undoubtedly the most academic of the academics on the editorial board and a man more comfortable with suit and tie than jeans and denim waistcoat \u2013 insisted that Prevert can only be understood in the context of his times. \u2018The era \u2013 from the Depression to the Sixties \u2013 is crucial,\u2019 he said. \u2018When you grasp the context, the universality can be glimpsed underneath.\u2019<\/p>\n

Marianne had already expressed a robust scepticism about Prevert\u2019s indulgence of ideological fashion. She replied to Patrice by arguing, rather stridently, that, \u2018This saddles the work to a historical tradition that is obsolete.\u2019<\/p>\n

It has become Marianne\u2019s practice to sneak into the opposite corner when Patrice enters the ring.<\/p>\n

\u2018If I may?\u2019 Kim said.<\/p>\n

When Kim is going to put a spanner in the works, she enters the fray by asking permission to enter the fray.<\/p>\n

\u2018Of course, you may,\u2019 Dimitri said.<\/p>\n

\u2018It isn\u2019t binary,\u2019 Kim said. \u2018The artist doesn\u2019t have to be consistent.\u2019<\/p>\n

She quoted Whitman: Do I contradict myself? \/ Very well then I contradict myself, \/ (I am large, I contain multitudes.)<\/em><\/p>\n

I felt we were veering off topic (which Whitman would have liked).<\/p>\n

\u2018The article focuses on one poem,\u2019 I said, referring to Alicante<\/em>, a staple of elementary French classes, \u2018and it\u2019s a poem that doesn\u2019t make a political point, so . . . no real need to accommodate contradiction.\u2019<\/p>\n

Alicante<\/em> begins with the famously limpid lines, Une orange sur la table<\/em> \/ Ta robe sur le tapis<\/em> \/ Et toi dans mon lit<\/em>. A succinct and elegiac evocation of human intimacy.<\/p>\n

\u2018But look at the date!\u2019 Dimitri said, as though none of us had looked at the date. \u2018It was written in the midst of conflict!\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Indeed!\u2019 Marianne warmed to her theme. \u2018It can be understood as a protest against the return of the old regime after the trauma of the conflict.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Really?\u2019 I thought.<\/p>\n

But before I could articulate this thought, Kim said, \u2018There has been an explosion!\u2019<\/p>\n

There was a flurry of split screens and eyes darting over headlines. I switched to my news platform and saw the mushroom cloud over Beirut.<\/p>\n

I was reminded, in these moments, of another poem by Prevert \u2013 after the corruption and physical devastation of Occupation and Resistance \u2013 two lovers on the Rue de Siam, rain falling on the port. The poet asks what happened to them in the catastrophe that engulfed their world.<\/p>\n

Barbara<\/em> ends with a bleak acknowledgement of violence and the failings of humanity, but it also contains an affirmation of beauty and the survival of what is good:<\/p>\n

Rappelle-toi Barbara\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Remember, Barbara,<\/em><\/p>\n

N’oublie pas\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Do not forget<\/em><\/p>\n

Cette pluie sage et heureuse\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The wise and joyful rain falling<\/em><\/p>\n

Sur ton visage heureux\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 On your happy face<\/em><\/p>\n

Sur cette ville heureuse\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 On that happy town<\/em><\/p>\n

Cette pluie sur la mer\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rain falling on the sea<\/em><\/p>\n

Patrice was right about the universality that may be glimpsed beneath. It\u2019s important to remember such things, especially in times like these.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Albus McInerney edits a literary magazine. We were considering whether to publish an article on the politics of Jacques Prevert. However, in the week that marked the 75th anniversaries of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I found myself wondering about the relevance or the power of poetry. Marianne had questioned the academic rigour of the piece under […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":374,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[71,68,67,69,70],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/cropped-banner-K1-1.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408"}],"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=408"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":413,"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408\/revisions\/413"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}