During the months I lived in Paris, back in the mid-late ‘60s,
among of the cultural oddities that struck me were signs on the gates of a couple of the most prestigious museums,
denying entry to women (and à l’époque, it would only have been
women; back then, people seemed to
know what sex they were) tricked out in stiletto heels. The floors were of rare and
expensive wood, and would otherwise be permanently damaged. It was impressive that these palaces
of high art could be so bold as to do that, since a stiletto-heeled woman is likely to be both self-involved
and on a short fuse; the
confrontations cannot have been pleasant.
~
In the top of today’s Paris news, was an incident at the
opera, in which a rich couple visiting from the Gulf, seated in the costly
first row, was perceived to be wearing, not only the traditional Islamic gown
and head-covering (which are legal in France) but a veil (which, by recent law,
is not). During the first
act, a number of performers noticed this, and complained to their manager, the
chorus even going so far as to refuse to sing in Act II, unless the law was
enforced. To the
surprise and (in some quarters) delight of many Frenchmen, this was actually
done: the offender was given
the alternative of obeying local law or departing; she chose to depart.
All this caused an uproar, which reached all the way to the
Minister of Culture, who issued new guidelines.
*
Travaillant au noir,
le détective se
trouve aux prises
avec le Saint-Esprit
*
Mais… Plus ça change,
plus c’est la même chose (as someone once said -- I forget).
Just now, re-reading Proust, (A l’ombre des jeunes filles
en fleurs, 1919), I happened upon this passage,
as Marcel, long having dreamt
of attending a performance of La Berma, now at last it on the threshold of
doing so, as he stares at l’affiche
outside the theatre:
je ne fis qu’un bond jusqu’à la maison,
cinglé que j’étais par ces mots magiques
qui avaient remplacé dans ma pensée
“paleur janséniste”
et
“mythe solaire” :
“Les dames ne seront
pas reçues à l’orchestre en chapeau;
les portes seront fermées à deux
heures …”
[NDLR: “Found
poetry”, c’est le pendant linguistique de l” objet trouvé”.
Pour d’autres exemples -- en anglais, en français, et en
allemand -- cliquez ici.]
Pour nos essais
en langue
la plus châtiée qui
soit,
checkez-out …..
. 
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