Typhoon

10,000 are reported dead in the Philippines after typhoon Haiyan hit the country. The tragic irony is that climate change - yes, climate change is to blame - has almost disappeared from world political discussions. As John Vidal wrote in The Guardian on Friday 8 Nov.: "From being top of the global political agenda just four years ago, climate change is now barely mentioned by the political elites in London or Washington, Tokyo or Paris. Australia is not even sending a junior minister to Warsaw [the next conference on climate]. The host, Poland, will be using the meeting to celebrate its coal industry." In the long term, this means great economic, social and environmental turmoil everywhere, including in Europe, as politicians should constantly be reminded of.

On the literary side, here is a short passage from Joseph Conrad's Typhoon, one of his best novels:
"Observing the steady fall of the barometer, Captain MacWhirr thought, "There's some dirty weather knocking about." This is precisely what he thought. He had had an experience of moderately dirty weather—the term dirty as applied to the weather implying only moderate discomfort to the seaman. Had he been informed by an indisputable authority that the end of the world was to be finally accomplished by a catastrophic disturbance of the atmosphere, he would have assimilated the information under the simple idea of dirty weather, and no other, because he had no experience of cataclysms, and belief does not necessarily imply comprehension. The wisdom of his county had pronounced by means of an Act of Parliament that before he could be considered as fit to take charge of a ship he should be able to answer certain simple questions on the subject of circular storms such as hurricanes, cyclones, typhoons; and apparently he had answered them, since he was now in command of the Nan-Shan in the China seas during the season of typhoons. But if he had answered he remembered nothing of it. He was, however, conscious of being made uncomfortable by the clammy heat. He came out on the bridge, and found no relief to this oppression. The air seemed thick. He gasped like a fish, and began to believe himself greatly out of sort."

Syrian Fiction and Music

Hello everyone,
Back to blogging after a loooooong summer pause.
Syria seems to be on everybody's minds at the moment, and we all ask ourselves whether we should support some form of military action. I do, for the simple reason that at this stage I can't think of any other form of action, and because to me the use of chemical weapons against civilians is a red line. If it is not, what the hell is? But I'd like to offer a different perspective on Syria today, and recommend Sarmada, a novel by Fadi Azzam, a journalist now in exile in Dubai. The truth is I haven't read it, so I can't say much about it, except that the New Yorker found it very good. You'll find the review on their website. I also recommend the Syrian music band Tanjaret Daghet, whose name means "pressure cooker," because as lead vocalist and guitar player Khaled Omran says, "if you don’t let the steam come out, there will be an explosion." Plenty of videos on Youtube.

PRISM and total surveillance

GCHQ

PRISM, the United States’ global electronic surveillance programme, has hit the headlines since Edward Snowden’s revelations. In the British press, the activities of the GCHQ have been much commented on, and from what I have read I understand that as I have been exchanging quite a few emails with UK correspondents over the past few years, both professional and personal, they have all been stored or scanned or analysed or whatever “they” do with them. 

I see at least four possible reactions to this. 1°) Outrage—breach of privacy! If our own governments don’t trust us why should we trust them? Democracy is under threat. 2°) Irony—oh God, I hope they won’t pass on my notes to some rival academic who could publish an article on the yellow stockings motif in early Victorian fiction before me! 3°) Condonation—seriously, how do you expect security services to prevent terror attacks against us? 4°) Literary history—have authors discussed such issues in novels?

 There is, of course, George Orwell’s 1984, with its anticipation of the State’s total surveillance machine. On a smaller scale, Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon has long been used as a metaphor for surveillance systems (Foucault, Zuboff) and many see the Internet as a form of modern Panopticon. In The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, “the omnipresence of Eyes, Angels, Guardians, and Aunts—all agents of state sponsored repression—evoke an atmosphere of constant surveillance and social control in which biblical mandate, fascist tactics, and technology are all merged” (http://www.enotes.com). And in Philip K. Dick’s A Scanner Darkly, “the little people are trapped in a total surveillance state where hologram cameras are routinely used, every pay phone is tapped, supersonic tight beams are used for police assassinations, and the closest friends inform on each other” (Darko Suvin, New Boundaries in Political Science Fiction). Some of you may have seen Richard Linklater’s 2006 film adaptation, with Keanu Reeves as Arctor/Fred.

Think of more dystopian/utopian fiction on total surveillance? Please leave a comment!

L'anglais à l'Université

La dernière polémique en date concerne un article de la récente loi sur l’enseignement supérieur autorisant les cursus en anglais dans nos Universités. D’aucuns y voient la fin du français, voire de la France. Jacques Attali, qui jadis prôna la mesure dans son rapport sur les clés de la croissance, tonne contre : c’est qu’il veut se faire élire à l’Académie française. Il y a je crois chez les opposants au projet (qui au passage ne concernerait que 1% des cursus universitaires, et qui pour les grandes écoles entérinerait une réalité de fait – mais chut !), il y a chez les opposants donc, beaucoup de nostalgie du temps où le français était la langue des élites. Or, si l’on veut que la langue française retrouve son influence de jadis, il faudrait redonner à la France sa suprématie politique, militaire et économique sur l’Europe et sur le monde. Une langue et une culture influentes, ce sont d’abord, toujours, et tout à la fois, une armée plus puissante que celle des autres, une démographie plus dynamique que celle des autres, des entreprises conquérantes, des scientifiques et des ingénieurs innovants, et des moyens financiers et matériels colossaux mis à leur service. Comment croyez-vous que le grec, puis le latin, puis le français, sont devenus en leurs temps les langues véhiculaires des esprits cultivés en Europe ? Les autres peuples étaient-ils composés d’idiots qui n’avaient rien à dire ? Non : mais leurs armées furent défaites par Alexandre, par César, par Louis XIV. Les auteurs de polars américains, connus partout dans le monde, sont-ils meilleurs que les Français, qui ont, n’est-ce pas, un tout petit peu plus de mal à s’imposer hors hexagone ? Non : mais les Etats-Unis ont dix porte-avions en activité, et la France un seul. Et une économie (encore) dominante. Et Google, et Facebook, et YouTube. L’exemple du français devrait d’ailleurs rassurer les passéistes : les autres langues n’ont pas disparu entre le XVII^e et le XX^e siècles parce que les érudits et les diplomates conversaient en français. Pourquoi le français, relégué au rang de langue locale, disparaîtrait-il ? Il est d’ailleurs en expansion constante : contrairement à une idée reçue, le nombre de francophones ne cesse de croître partout dans le monde, ainsi que le nombre de non francophones qui apprennent le français. Evidemment, leur nombre croît mon vite que celui des non anglophones qui apprennent l’anglais, mais la langue de Tatiana de Rosnay (auteur français le plus lu en Europe et aux Etats-Unis ces deux dernières années) a encore de beaux jours devant elle, à condition que les pays francophones ne ratent pas le train de la mondialisation et refusent de se mettre à l’anglais. C’est paradoxal, mais pas contradictoire. Car les étudiants en chimie ou en astrophysique chinois, indiens, allemands, brésiliens que l’on espère attirer par cette mesure apprendront aussi le français une fois chez nous, et seront des ambassadeurs de la culture française une fois rentrés chez eux, pour peu qu’ils aient été bien accueillis. Quant aux chercheurs français, le recours à l'anglais s'impose pour eux, qu'on le veuille ou non. Il faut leur donner les moyens de se faire entendre dans le concert anglophone du savoir. Un érudit du Moyen-Age parlait latin, d'où qu'il soit. Aujourd'hui il parle anglais. Certes, à l'époque le latin n'était plus la langue maternelle de personne, contrairement à l'anglais aujourd'hui, ce qui place les autres en situation de handicap au départ. Mais peut-être aussi en situation d'avantage, tant il est vrai que parler plusieurs langues est un atout, et tant il est vrai que les populations anglophones dans leur ensemble, qui s'en mordront les doigts un jour, négligent les langues vivantes.

Les crieurs publics

Un peu partout en France, les crieurs publics font leur retour. On peut en entendre, entre autres, à Mayenne (en Mayenne), à Mirande (dans le Gers), à Auvers-sur-Oise (Val d'Oise) ou encore à Lyon et dans le Lauragais. On croyait le métier à jamais disparu : sa réapparition coïncide avec l'avènement de l'hyper-connexion de chacun aux réseaux d'information mondiaux. Les sociologues nous expliqueront ce paradoxe ; fidèle à l'idée première de ce blog (expliquer l'actualité par la littérature), je me contenterai de rappeler ici l'influence capitale du roman de Fred Vargas, Pars vite et reviens tard (2001), dans ce phénomène. D'autres crieurs publics habitent la fiction : c'est par exemple le métier de Lazarillo de Tormès, héros éponyme du premier roman picaresque de l'histoire littéraire européenne (1554).  La littérature africaine leur fait une part plus belle encore ; on citera Faralako (1958), d'Emile Cissé, et Ce sera à l'ombre des cocotiers (1987) d'Ansoumane Doré.

Of Bees and Men

Version française en-dessous

Bees are back! But for how long? Their impending extermination could lead to some major environmental disaster, if nothing is done in time. Here is a good article on the subject: http://www.salon.com/2013/03/21/without_honeybees_we_may_cease_to_be/ On the philosophical and literary sides, two books I recommend are Bernard Mandeville's The Fable of the Bees (does what Mandeville wrote about 18th century England apply to today's Cyprus?), and The Secret Life of Bees, the 2002 best-seller by Sue Monk Kidd.

Voici le printemps, et les abeilles vont faire leur grand retour dans nos jardins. C'est l'occasion de rappeler tout ce que nous leur devons, et que les menaces qui pèsent sur elles menacent l'ensemble des écosystèmes. Sur le plan philosophique et littéraire, on conseillera de relire la célèbre "parabole des abeilles et des frelons" de Saint-Simon (toujours d'actualité ?), et Le Testament des abeilles de Natacha Calestrémé (2012), un polar scientifique avec comme toile de fond le mystère de la surmortalité des abeilles.

Friends or foes? Qatar, Saudi Arabia and radical Islam

French troops have been fighting Islamic fundamentalists in Mali for more than a week now, and will probably be doing so for many months – with the help, let us hope, of African and European armies. The irony of the situation is that Salafism has been financed and exported to the region (and elsewhere) by countries like Qatar and Saudi Arabia, officially considered partner countries to whom we sell weapons, buy oil, and who invest massively in Europe: iconic places and institutions like Paris-Saint-Germain Football Club, Harrod’s and the Shard (Europe’s highest building) in London, and the Italian fashion house Valentino are owned by Qatari investors. We should obviously feel worried about Qatar pouring cash–and ideology?–into France’s disadvantaged suburbs. It is time we mustered political will and diplomatic ingenuity to clarify our relationship with Gulf States. Let me take the opportunity to remind readers that Saudi novelist Turki al-Hamad was arrested in his country one month ago for his tweets on religion and politics.

 Further reading:

‘How Saudi petrodollars fuel rise of Salafism’

‘How Qatar bought Britain’

‘“Extremism” on the Rise in Zanzibar–Thanks to Saudi Money and Islamic Charities’

Depardieu becomes a Russian citizen

Henry James

Gérard Depardieu

 Will Gérard Depardieu become Belgian or Russian? Vladimir Putin signed the citizen grant yesterday. The actor said he would turn over his French passport and social security card if he had to pay 75% of his incomes over 1m euros in tax. Please note: the bill says ‘75% of incomes over 1m euros,’ not ‘75% of incomes’ as even serious newspapers sometimes write. Which means the mega-rich will still be super-rich after paying the new tax, thank you very much. David Cameron was one of the first to be ironic about it, when he talked about rolling out the red carpet for wealthy French people – to which Michel Sapin, the French Employment minister, replied that he’d be curious to see what it is like to roll out a carpet over the sea. But forget about Depardieu, Putin, and all the squabbling between European conservatives and social democrats (the latter are always right, aren’t they?) Here are famous authors who changed countries and sometimes languages and nationalities. Please continue the list!

Henry James: became a British citizen and lost his American citizenship in 1915 in protest against the United States’ reluctance to join the war. Follow this link to read the 1915 report from the Guardian's archive.

Joseph Conrad: born a Russian citizen. Excerpt from Wikipedia article: ‘On 2 July 1886 he applied for British nationality, which was granted on 19 August 1886. However, having become a subject of Queen Victoria, Conrad had not ceased to be a subject of Tsar Alexander III. To achieve the latter, he had to make many visits to the Russian Embassy in London and politely reiterate his request. He would later recall the Embassy's home at Belgrave Square in his novel The Secret Agent. Finally, on 2 April 1889, the Russian Ministry of Home Affairs released "the son of a Polish man of letters, captain of the British merchant marine" from the status of Russian subject.'

Vladimir Nabokov: born Russian. His first nine novels were in Russian. His family left Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution. Became a US citizen in 1945.

Milan Kundera: left his native Czech Republic, then under Communist rule, in 1975. Settled in France and became a French citizen in 1981.

Maurice G. Dantec: France’s world famous (and politically controversial) sci-fi writer has been living in Quebec since 1998 and became a Canadian citizen.

Marie NDiaye: in 2009 the celebrated author of Three Strong Women (Trois Femmes Puissantes) explained that she had left France for Berlin with her partner and their children in 2007 largely because of Nicolas Sarkozy’s election.

Jonathan Littell: the first American to be awarded the Prix Goncourt was granted French citizenship in 2007.