Boris Vian, citations aléatoires (random citations)

Le plus clair de mon temps, je le passe à l’obscurcir. (I spend my clearest time blurring it away.)

J’ai le fâcheux travers de ne me satisfaire que de l’ultime. Aussi comprendrez-vous que je sois toujours mécontent. (I have the annoying characteristic of being satisfied only by the ultimate. You must understand how discontended I always am.)

Personellement dans mes classements, j’ai toujours un tiroir étiqueté “choses inclassables ailleurs”. Tiroir qui est extrêmement commode. Il y a beaucoup de choses dedans et c’est souvent parmi les choses les plus amusantes, justement parce que ce sont les choses exceptionnelles et, comme tout bon pataphysicien, ce qui m’intrésse c’est l’exception, le cas général pouvant être considéré comme une exception non exceptionnelle et par conséquent sans aucun intérêt. (In my categorization of things, I always have one drawer labeled “other inclassifiable things”. That drawer is very convenient. There are many things in that drawer, and they are often some of the most amusing things, exactly because they are exceptional things, and like any good pataphysician, what interests me is the exception, the general case being and unexceptional exception and therefore without any interest.)

Il est beaucoup moins indécent de coucher ensemble que de se regarder dans les yeux. (It is much less indecent to sleep together that to look each other in the eyes.)

Pour qu’il y ait passion, c’est-à-dire réaction explosive, il faut que l’union soit brutale, que l’un des corps soit très avide de ce dont il est privé et que l’autre possède en très grande quantité. (For there to be passion, that is to say explosive reaction, the union has to be brutal, that one of the bodies is very keen on that which is private and the other possesses is great quantities.)

Chez une femme, la beauté est signe de modestie. (In a woman, beauty is a sign of modesty.)

Pourquoi les chanteuses jolies sont-elles toujours mariées au saxo-ténor de l’orchestre? Et est-ce pour ca que tout le monde joue du saxo-ténor? (Why are the pretty singers always married with the sax-tenor of the orchestra? And is this the reason why everyone plays the sax-tenor?)

Les femmes compliquent la vie des hommes pour obliger ceux-ci à la simplifier et entretenir en eux la flamme créatrice. (Women complicate the lives of men in order to have them simplify it, and to maintain in themselves the creative flame.)

Quant à être galant… si on admet l’égalité de l’homme et de la femme, la politesse suffit et l’on n’a pas de raison de traiter une femme plus politement qu’un homme. (As of being gentlemanly… if we admit to equality of man and woman, politeness is enough and we have no reason to treat a woman more politely than a man.)

Ce qui compte, ce n’est pas le bonheur de tout le monde, c’est le bonheur de chacun. (What counts is not the happiness of everyone, it is be happiness of each one.)

On se rappelle beucoup mieux les bons moments; alors, à quoi servent les mauvais? (One recalls much better the good moments; so what are the bad ones for?)

On passe sa vie à romancer les motifs et à simplifier les faits. (One passes one’s life romanticizing the motives and simplifying the facts.)

Noam Chomsky quotes

These are quotes from the book “Imperial Ambitions”, first published in 2005.

…

You aren’t supposed to learn that dedicated, committed effort can bring about significant changes of consciousness and understanding. That’s a very dangerous idea, and therefore it’s been wiped out of history.

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In a 1919 essay called “The Sociology of Imperialisms,” the Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter wrote:

There was no corner of the world where some interest was not alleged to be in danger or under actual attack. If the interests were not Roman, they were of Rome’s allies; and if Rome had no allies, then allies would be invented. When it was utterly impossible to contrive such an interest-why, then it was the national honor that was insulted. The fight was always invested with an aura of legality. Rome was always being attacked by evil-minded neighbors, always fighting for breathing space. The whole world was pervaded by a host of enemies, and it was manifestly Rome’s duty to guard against their indubitably aggressive designs.

(Interesting that Schumpeter is quoted here… He is supposedly the father of entrepreneurship studies, and of the idea of creative destruction. -blog author-)

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(question to Chomsky) The Italian socialist Antonio Gramsci wrote, “A main obstacle to change is the reproduction by the dominated forces of elements of the hegemonic ideology. It is an important and urgent task to develop alternative interpretations of reality.” How does someone develop “alternative interpretations of reality”?

I deeply respect Gramsci, but I think it’s possible to paraphrase that comment – namely, just tell the truth. Instead of repeating ideological fanaticism, dismantle it, try to find out the truth, and tell the truth. It’s something any one of us can do. Remember, intellectuals internalize the conception that they have to make things seem complicated. Otherwise what are they around for? It’s worth asking yourself what’s really so complicated? Gramsci is a very admirable person, but take that statement and try to translate it into simple English. How complicated is it to understand the truth or to know how to act?

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Social Security is based on a principle that is considered subversive and that has to be driven out of people’s heads: the principle that you care about other people… There is huge pressure to turn people into pathological monsters who care only about themselves, who don’t have anything to do with anyone else, and who therefore can be very easily ruled and controlled. That’s what lies behind the attack on Social Security. And it reflects a deep imperative that runs through the whole doctrinal system.…

They have to make sure that the people they are ruling do not understand that they actually have the power. That is the fundamental principle of government.

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At some point, people recognize what the structure of power and domination is and commit to doing something about it. That’s the way every change in history has taken place. How that happens, I can’t say. But we all have the power to do it.

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Guilt can be a way of preventing action. You comfort yourself by saying, “Look how noble I am. I confessed that I did something wrong, and now I’m free.”

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We’re being oppressed. And in fact that’s a strain that goes right through U.S. history. There’s a book by Bruce Franklin, a literary theorist, that traces this strain through American popular literature, going back to the colonists. We are always just on the verge of extinction. We’re being attacked by demonic enemies who are just about to overwhelm us, and then, at the last minute some superhero or amazing weapon appears and we’re able to save ourselves.

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That is a constant refrain of imperialism. You have your jackboot on someone’s neck and they’re about to destroy you. The same is true with any form of oppression. And it’s psychologically understandable. If you’re crushing and destroying someone, you have to have a reason for it, and it can’t be, I’m a murderous monster. It has to be self-defense. I’m protecting myself against them. Look what they’re doing to me. Oppression gets psychologically inverted: the oppressor is the victim who is defending himself.

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Many of the basic institutions of our society are totally illegitimate. Do corporations have to be controlled by management and owners and dedicated to the welfare of stockholders instead of being controlled by the people who work in them and dedicated to the community and the workers? It’s not a law of nature.

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Some media mentioned in the book:

Alternative Radio www.alternativeradio.org

The Boston Globe www.boston.com

Financial Times www.ft.com

Harvard International Review http://hir.harvard.edu/

The New York Times www.nytimes.com

Kafka quotes translated more

Found this: www.kafka.org for “publishing online all Kafka texts in German, according to the manuscripts.” Pretty cool, considering that K. wanted all his papers burnt unread. Talk about copyright there  :D

Maurice Blanchot has written some interesting stuff on Kafka. I believe it was in the book L’Entretien infini. Working on that one now…

Some favorite K. quotes…

Es ist hier die Redensart, vielleicht kennst du sie: “Amtliche Entscheidungen sind scheu wie junge Mädchen”. “Das ist eine gute Beobachtung”, sagte K., er nahm es noch ernster als Olga, “eine gute Beobachtung, die Entscheidungen mögen noch andere Eigenschaften mit Mädchen gemeinsam haben.” – “Vielleicht”, sagte Olga. “Ich weiß freilich nicht, wie du es meinst. Vielleicht meinst du es gar lobend.” (Das Schloss)

We have a saying which suits this situation, maybe you know it: “Administrative decisions are shy like young maidens”. “That’s a good observation”, said K. who took it even more seriously than Olga, “a good observation, and the decisions may well have even more qualities in common with young maidens.” “Maybe”, said Olga. “Although I am not sure how you mean it. Maybe you mean it even as a compliment.” (The Castle)

Es ist als hätte der behördliche Apparat die Spannung, die jahrelange Aufreizung durch die gleiche vielleicht an sich geringfügige Angelegenheit nicht mehr ertragen und aus sich selbst heraus ohne Mithilfe der Beamten die Entscheidung getroffen. (Das Schloss)

It was as if the small question, quite unimportant in itself, had totally worn out the patience of the administrative organization over the years, and the organization had reached a decision all by itself without any participation by the officials. (The Castle)

On shame and guilt:

Und was taten wir unterdessen? Das Schlimmste was wir hätten tun können, etwas wofür wir gerechter hätten verachtet werden dürfen, als wofür es wirklich geschah – wir verrieten Amalia, wir rissen uns los von ihrem schweigenden Befehl, wir konnten nicht mehr so weiter leben, ganz ohne Hoffnung konnten wir nicht leben und wir begannen, jeder auf seine Art, das Schloß zu bitten oder zu bestürmen, es möge uns verzeihn. Wir wußten zwar, daß wir nicht imstande waren etwas gutzumachen, wir wußten auch, daß die einzige hoffnungsvolle Verbindung, die wir mit dem Schlosse hatten, die Sortinis, des unserem Vater geneigten Beamten, eben durch die Ereignisse uns unzugänglich geworden war, trotzdem machten wir uns an die Arbeit.

And what did we do in this situation? Wir did the worst thing we could have done, and it would have been more justified to despise us for this rather what we actually were despised for – we abandoned Amalia, we tore ourselves away from her silent command, we could no longer live that way – without hope – and we all started to beg in our various ways for the Castle to forgive us. But we knew that we could not achieve anything, and we knew also that our only promising contact with the Castle, the officials Sortini who were positively inclined towards our father, were now unreachable due to what had happened. But we still made the effort.

Der Vater begann, es begannen die sinnlosen Bittwege zum Vorsteher, zu den Sekretären, den Advokaten, den Schreibern, meistens wurde er nicht empfangen und wenn er durch List oder Zufall doch empfangen wurde, – wie jubelten wir bei solcher Nachricht und rieben uns die Hände – wurde er äußerst schnell abgewiesen und nie wieder empfangen. Es war auch allzu leicht ihm zu antworten, das Schloß hat es immer so leicht. Was wollte er denn? Was war ihm geschehn? Wofür wollte er eine Verzeihung? Wann und von wem war denn im Schloß auch nur ein Finger gegen ihn gerührt worden? …er beklage sich ja nicht wegen der Verarmung, alles, was er hier verloren habe, wolle er leicht wieder einholen, das alles sei nebensächlich, wenn ihm nur verziehen würde.

Father started the futile begging rounds with representatives, secretaries, lawyers, scribes; for the most part they did not receive him, and when he sometimes got an audience by chance or negligence – how we celebrated such news and rubbed our hands – he was promptly dismissed and never received again. It was also easy to answer him, the Castle has it always easy. What did he want? What had happened to him? What did he want forgiveness of?  When and by whom from the Castle had he been harmed in any way? …he was not complaining about the poverty, all that he had lost he could easily gain again and that was beside the point; all he wanted was to be forgiven.

Aber was solle ihm denn verziehen werden? antwortete man ihm, eine Anzeige sei bisher nicht eingelaufen, wenigstens stehe sie noch nicht in den Protokollen, zumindest nicht in den der advokatorischen Öffentlichkeit zugänglichen Protokollen, infolgedessen sei auch, soweit es sich feststellen lasse, weder etwas gegen ihn unternommen worden, noch sei etwas im Zuge. Könne er vielleicht eine amtliche Verfügung nennen, die gegen ihn erlassen worden sei? Das konnte der Vater nicht. Oder habe ein Eingriff eines amtlichen Organes stattgefunden? Davon wußte der Vater nicht. Nun also wenn er nichts wisse und wenn nichts geschehen sei, was wolle er denn? Was könne ihm verziehen werden? (Das Schloss)

But what could be forgiven to him? it was said to him. No official notice had been given, or at least such a notice had not been recorded in the official protocols, at least not in the protocols accessible by the lawyers, and therefore it could be concluded that no examination or trial against him had been conducted nor was in process. Could he perhaps name some official action that had been taken against him? No, father could not. Or had some office taken measures concerning him? Father did not know of any. Well, if he knew of none and nothing had happened, what did he want? What could be forgiven to him?

Now having finished “Das Schloss”, I had an idea that a lot of the book’s themes could be connected to chapter 22. Lots of stuff happens there that sort of tie up loose ends in the narrative and give the reader a climax that then tapers off towards the end of the book. At least this was my experience. It would be interesting to start reading the whole thing at chapter 22 then just proceed to the previous chapters one by one… Thus unraveling the book from the wrong end. One more question remains of course: what did Gerstäcker’s mother say?