Paris in Juli (4)

Painting of the month (2)

I found this painting really accidentaly, during reading the book A History of the World in 10½ Chapters by Julian Barnes. The 5. chapter is about this artwork. Somehow, it's wonderful on its extraordinary way:

Theodore Géricault (1791-1824): The Raft of the Medusa

"The Raft of the Medusa (French: Le Radeau de la Méduse) is an oil painting
of 1818–1819 by the French Romantic painter and lithographer Théodore Géricault
(1791–1824). Completed when the artist was just 27, the work has become an icon
of French Romanticism. At 491 cm × 716 cm (193.3 in × 282.3 in),[1] it is an
over-life-size painting that depicts a moment from the aftermath of the wreck of
the French naval frigate Méduse, which ran aground off the coast of today's
Mauritania on July 5, 1816. At least 147 people were set adrift on a hurriedly
constructed raft; all but 15 died in the 13 days before their rescue, and those
who survived endured starvation, dehydration, cannibalism and madness. The event
became an international scandal, in part because its cause was widely attributed
to the incompetence of the French captain acting under the authority of the
recently restored French monarchy."

(qoute:wikipedia.com)

Paris in Juli challenge is hosted by http://bookbath.blogspot.com/ and http://thyme-for-tea.blogspot.com/

The Sunday Salon: Books of Proust-style

Paris in July (3)

Could you imagine the situation, you're reading, and reading, you're recognizing the words, the sentences, but not what is the book about. Boring text? Even not, just too lyrical or too abstract.

Some years ago I really enjoyed the books by Jean Paul Sartre or Albert Camus. I adored the philosophy of the existentialism. Even some of my essays are written in the sense of existentialism, but nowadays I don't think more it's my style.

Why am I talking about this philosophy and why do I write in the title Books of Proust-style? Especially, because they are two different things.

Due to the books I was reading recently.

First of all, the book by Maurice Blanchot Celui qui ne m'accompagnait pas. It reminds me of the famous Proust-novel In Search of Lost Time. People don't like it mostly, they think it's boring, too long, and even what is the aim of this book, but there are periods in my life again and again, when this work suits exactly my current mood.

But what's with the book of Blanchot? It wasn't interesting. Or I wasn't in the suitable mood. It was like the Proust-book, or even like The Death of Virgil by Herman Broch (an Austrian writer), especially the chapter of the last night, when Virgil is alone. A long, long, long monologue, the author is talking to his protagonist, if I interpret correctly. Well it's very abstract, too, too, too abstract, there is too many philosophy and hardly any storytelling. And I'm quite far away from this kind of books since a while. Nowadays I need more storytelling, and less philosophy in a novel. (Well, is this text by Blanchot a novel or not? It's a good theoretical question!)

The other book is, which I just finished Fever (La Fievre) by J. M. G. Le Clezio. This book contents 3 short stories. The first two like a Camus -story, the 3. like a Proust -text (again). His book remind me rather Le Clezio's work Terra Amata, which was my first book by him, than the most recently read one, Ritournelle de la Faim. Terra Amata and Fever are somehow too bizarre to me, but the other one I liked.

So, this is my TSS-post for this weekend. Oh, yes, and I've finished the book The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, and I still didn't write a review about Faust by Robert Nye for The Books to Read before I die 2010 Challenge Maybe next week(s)....?

Paris in Juli (2)

Paintings of the month (1)

Jean-Honore Fragonard (1732-1806): Te Swing

From the article of the wikipedia:

"The painting depicts a young man hidden in the bushes, watching a woman on a
swing, being pushed by her husband. Her husband is hidden in the shadow, as he
is unaware of the affair. (The Baron had requested a portrait of his mistress
seated on a swing being pushed by a bishop, which Fragonard later replaced with
a smiling husband.) As the lady goes high on the swing, she lets him take a
furtive peep under her dress."

Well, this is one of my favorite French paintings. Wonderful colors and a bit piquancy. There were some periods in my life, I was a huge fan of rococo. Uh, and yes, this painting is'nt that inocent, what you might think at the first look, remember, there were time, when women didn't wear underwear!

Paris in Juli challenge is hosted by http://bookbath.blogspot.com/ and http://thyme-for-tea.blogspot.com/

The Sunday Salon: Paris in July(1)

Hello dear Saloners,

and the participants of the Paris in July challenge too.

I'm currently sitting on the train waiting to start a journey, no, not to Paris, just to my hometown. So, there is a lot of time to write about... about books, reading and of course Paris, and this challenge.

So, July means for me first of all watching Tour de France since more than a decade. It started rally accidentally. It was July (of course, :-D) it was summer, and my father, who suffered of a serious illness (he had problems with his heart), was all day long just sitting in the living room and watching TV. one day, he said: "hey, children, just take a look at this wonderful landscape during the Tour de France. Well, my brother and my took really a look at the TV, and we were watching our first TDF stage. Accidentally it was the stage, when Marco Pantani won in Alpe d'Huez, a really legendary day. So, it wasn't really hard to fall in love with this sport event.

But a bit about books. So, as expected, in this months I try to write about some French books. My last review (cca a month ago) was of a novel by Le Clezio, now I just started a short novel by Mauriche Blanchot. He was first of all a literary theorist, and even this is why I'm curios what kind of stories (or better to say what kind of texts he wrote)? It's quite interesting to me, because I realized recently, that I'm also rather a theorist than an author who writes novels or short stories. So, let's see, what will be my impressions about Blanchot's work.

The French title of the book is: Celui qui ne m'accompagnait pas

So, I hope, I'll post on this blog soon again.

Happy Reading!