Travelogue

Afterword (by Georges Mathieu)

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If the “misfortunes of France are exemplary”, it will take us thirty years to recover from the last: that of the laxity of the right combined with the sectarianism of the left. For nearly half a century, we have been subjected to the terrorism of an intelligentsia plagued successively by Marxism, Leninism, Maoism, socialism, social democracy, without forgetting corrupt capitalism, to which has been added since the artistic terrorism which has placed subversion, provocation and derision at the heart of its credo in an attempt to crush values ​​based on beauty. As long as there is not a total reversal of the purposes of our activities, as long as our rulers persist in considering economic expansion as a supreme objective instead of granting the primordial concern of their concerns to the aesthetic dimension in our lifetimes, there will be no true civilization.

Afterword:

This afterword by my dear friend Georges Mathieu (1921-2012) to his book, Le massacre de lasensibilite , published by Odilon Média in 1996, keeps coming up…

Antigone, rebellious and intimate (3/7. Destiny)

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3rd part: destiny

The man comes down from the tree. Man, like the tree, is defined both by its roots and by its fruits. Man, like the tree, depends on external and internal elements to reach maturity. Man resembles this trunk sculpted by hardship, leaning on its roots and bearing more or less beautiful, more or less good fruit… The resemblances between the plant world and man are endless. From the water that nourishes the roots, to the sun watering the fruits, to the oxygen exuded by the leaves, all this life that rushes in and circulates reminds us in an irremissible way of the human condition. The tree is a metaphor for the family. From the seedling to the fruits and leaves, a metaphor for the history of man and the family develops. Which evil fairies presided over the birth of the Labdacides family from which Antigone descends? Any fine conscience these days would see it as a calamity and a pathological explanation for Antigone's decisions. How does this little Antigone become this heroic fruit by being born on a trunk so full of stigmata and bruises? Destiny blows and guides this family in an uninterrupted and obtuse way and, suddenly, Antigone frees herself from this straitjacket, frees her whole family from this straitjacket, she undoes the straitjacket, and completes the dismissal of destiny. What a miracle! From a distance, clinging to their branch, two leaves always seem identical, yet you just have to approach to see how much they differ. Continue reading “Antigone, rebellious and intimate (3/7. Destiny)” →

Antigone, rebellious and intimate (2/7. The funeral)

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Part 2: The funeral

“ My dear Ismene. I come this morning to tell you that I took care of everything. I took the same undertakers for our two brothers. I couldn't choose and since our brothers didn't leave any last wishes, I took matters into my own hands to get it sorted out as soon as possible. I still ordered embalming so that they are presentable. If you want to go see them, they'll be ready around 3 p.m. You do not have to. Well, if you can take ten minutes, that might be fine. It may be better to keep an image of them happy, children for example. I took the same urn model for both. A priest will come to the funeral home and give a short speech before the cremation. I ordered him to come to the funeral home. You see, I took care of everything. Eteocles will be buried in the cemetery which is located about thirty minutes from Thebes by taking the national. For Polynice, it is more complicated with the law of our uncle, Creon. I decided to scatter his ashes on the battlefield as the king does not want him buried. Makes sense, right? Tell me what you think, I'm not stopped on this point. This portrait of Antigone living in the 21st century delivering the remains of her brothers to the funeral director summarizes the rite of funerals today. The family has since the Industrial Revolution been rendered unproductive. Funerals are no longer part of the family tradition. The modern world is reassured by using the formula make sense , as the translation of the Anglo-Saxon expression is heard today, and as it is so comforting to repeat it to oneself without it really having any… sense, because what what are these mini-senses found on the ground almost by chance, what are these skin-deep that invite themselves in almost without our being there for nothing, if not the residues of a past sense, a common sense, a good sense sculpted by the centuries? Through the destruction of the family, transmission between generations is lacking, the meaning of our actions is lost, so we have to invent meaning, create meaning, we have to give ourselves the illusion of still living, of not not have totally given up. Deceit is backed up by ignorance, and on this point too, trickery is not new. The meaning given by death within the family, this meaning almost completely forgotten nowadays, is recalled by Antigone in Sophocles' play where she stands as a guardian of the values ​​that liberate, because they protect man from death. 'animal. Antigone reaffirms what man can and cannot; it takes hold of a force destined to protect us from our will to power and to teach us the time of responsibility; a time nowadays entrusted to specialists replacing the family, the people who compose it and the tenuous links woven between them over time.

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News from Louis-René des Forêts

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On this rainy Sunday, rereading the notes taken on the sidelines of the wonderful Ostinato , this nugget in the middle of nuggets:

Let's not veil our figures with our hands. There is no longer a place to venerate, no act of glory or intelligence to absolve a world seduced by the force spreading its defilement everywhere, and which will have curtly raised its ruins as one refuses the fault with the cunning smile of business. .

News from Hyppolite Taine

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He is a pedant, the pedant is the hollow and inflated mind which, because it is full of words, believes itself to be full of ideas, enjoys its sentences and deceives itself in order to dictate to others. He is a hypocrite who thinks he is sincere, a Cain who takes himself for Abel.

 

In this shrunken brain, given over to abstraction, and accustomed to herding men into two categories under opposite labels, whoever is not with him in the right compartment is against him in the wrong one, and in the wrong compartment between the rebels of all flags and rogues of all will, intelligence is natural. […] Every aristocrat is corrupt and every corrupt man is an aristocrat.

 

The left which is born with the Revolution displays a totalitarianism which, if it is sometimes hidden, is not less always present; it rests on the hatred of what does not think like it.

Hyppolite Taine in his Origins of Contemporary France described Robespierre in this way. But if instead of Robespierre, we put Hollande, Valls, or even worse Taubira, this portrait would fit them like a glove. Especially since pedant is masculine and feminine, he thus places everyone on an equal footing, this notion so dear to these… pedantic.

Antigone, rebellious and intimate (1/7. The family)

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1st part: the family

From the first reading of Antigone, an ambiguity settles in the mind of the reader. Does Antigone embody action or reaction? What moves Antigone? The reaction never exists by itself whereas the action needs no one, it legitimizes itself in the act. Action always inaugurates something. Contrary to what is often said or believed, Antigone does not wait for Creon to be Antigone. Like Electra for revenge, Nausicaa for hospitality, Penelope for fidelity, Antigone embodies duty. It is action, because it serves: it is accomplished in duty. It is accomplished in servitude (are we pretending to forget that servitude means “to be a slave”?). Contrary to what is often said or believed, Antigone is never an individual. She never stands alone. If the law of Creon pushes it to action, and if this one can seem a reaction, it is only on the surface, by simple chronology.

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The meeting of Péguy and Lonsdale – Between heaven and earth

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Between heaven and earth

It's a little marvel to which Michael Lonsdale invites us with the show Entre Ciel et Terre . A delight. Such nuggets always deserve to be given space. You have to make room in the tumult, in the oppressed heart, in the life that you dream of and forget to live. Live every moment, live in the consciousness of life. It's so hard. It is also the first step on the hushed path of love.

Pierre Fesquet, who shares the poster with Michael Lonsdale, created a poetic montage from the book Between Heaven and Earth , the book that Michael Lonsdale dedicated to Charles Péguy. Lonsdale has an activity as a writer, a cantor of beauty, as important as his activity as an actor. Lonsdale thrives on the word of God. We can say of him that he carries out an artistic apostolate and there is something rare enough in the contemporary world of culture for it to be noted… and encouraged and praised.

By listening to the beautiful voice of Michael Lonsdale, but also by observing Pierre Fesquet who mixes with the reading, increases it with his enthusiasm, his generosity and above all, above all, his ingenuity, the show gives the possibility of entering in the world of Péguy.
But I could say otherwise. I could say that by letting oneself be penetrated by the metaphysics of Michael Lonsdale, the bewitchment of the language of Péguy torments us. By letting ourselves be surprised by the way Pierre Fesquet has of embracing us, of forcing us to wrestle with the text and its permanent surprise, we appropriate every word of Péguy, but perhaps more importantly, we feel the wind blowing in our ears, woodchips falling on the ground, bullets whistling nearby, Hope taking our hands and the Virgin Mary encouraging us to docility. Grace is there just waiting for our conversion, and this show participates in it in a beautiful way. It's at the Théâtre de Poche. And this is not unusual. In this very small room, we are at our ease to receive a divine message.

Extension from March 29 to April 19. Please note that this extension is at 7 p.m. and not 9 p.m. as the first presentation of this poetic show.

Théâtre de Poche – Montparnasse
75 bd du Montparnasse, 75006 Paris
Reservations: 01 45 44 50 21
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The Poche bar offers light meals and its selection of wines before and after each show.

Charlie's Fate

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“The enemy limits you therefore gives you your form and founds you”. This sentence from Saint-Exupéry expresses quite well our condition at the end of this first week of the year 2015. The enemy forces me to evolve according to his codes, within a space that he has circumscribed. First I am a prisoner. He chooses the terrain and compels me to remain confined there. Of the two immutable human givens, space and time, he takes space away from me. Taking space away from time is a bit like taking Laurel away from Hardy. The other unit lives on, but is disfigured. She lost the balance offered by the otherness of her spouse. Time is not the same depending on the space in which it evolves. Geography accomplishes destiny with a measure as precise as the hourglass. Continue reading “Charlie’s Destiny” →