tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post3345134373515564455..comments2024-03-27T16:48:21.039-05:00Comments on Wuthering <br>Expectations: The birds, the birds, sir! - visiting the Camargue and other marshes with Henri BoscoAmateur Reader (Tom)http://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-90416983759414394732020-04-28T23:34:59.538-05:002020-04-28T23:34:59.538-05:00Exactement!Exactement!Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-17966345010655839542020-04-16T14:13:56.947-05:002020-04-16T14:13:56.947-05:00I loved Aigues-Mortes! What a spectacular, singula...I loved Aigues-Mortes! What a spectacular, singular, special “city.”Bellezza https://www.blogger.com/profile/18073864187188953633noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-86361594324089567332020-04-16T09:03:56.984-05:002020-04-16T09:03:56.984-05:00How fortuitous. How much of good tourism is planni...How fortuitous. How much of good tourism is planning, and how much is stumbling?<br /><br />The protagonist in <i>Malicroix</i> is stuck on an island in the (main) Rhone, so I doubt he ever gets to Aigues-Mortes, but maybe some other character will tell me about it.<br /><br />It is kind of funny. <i>Malicroix</i> is a deeply regionally "placed" novel where the character barely moves.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-89083832435927218862020-04-15T23:47:16.966-05:002020-04-15T23:47:16.966-05:00It's clear I'm going to regret not scoring...It's clear I'm going to regret not scoring a copy of Malicroix for the readalong, though I would have read it in English. One of these days.<br /><br />I'll also second (or third) recommendations to visit the Camargue. We did have a car. Without planning it we stumbled into a fete votive in Aigues-Mortes: they rode the white horses around town & had bullfights (more like bulldances--no bulls were killed) just outside the walls. reesehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15818057262934008241noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-65496811338945290532020-04-15T16:52:46.122-05:002020-04-15T16:52:46.122-05:00I have been wondering about that name. It is pret...I have been wondering about that name. It is pretty openly symbolic.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-38307967860727997612020-04-15T16:36:34.562-05:002020-04-15T16:36:34.562-05:00It took me much longer to read this than the numbe...It took me much longer to read this than the number of pages would have indicated; I felt I dwelt on the island with Martial, and I wasn’t in a hurry to leave it. (Although I do not fear water, nor rivers, as he did. Far more alarming to me would have been the lack of books.) I would love to discuss the ending with you when you get there. It was obscure, I thought, and gave an interesting meaning to Malicroix: bad faith.Bellezza https://www.blogger.com/profile/18073864187188953633noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-22789486911197591562020-04-15T09:23:10.024-05:002020-04-15T09:23:10.024-05:00I've seen photos of Camargue horses on the fer...I've seen photos of Camargue horses on the ferry - what a sight. I'll note that the signature bull dishes like the <i>gardiane de taureau</i> are available in restaurants in Arles, for people too afraid of the malaria and magical white bull-gods to venture into the marsh itself.<br /><br />Bosco was not quite in the mainstream of French literature, as a gather it, more of a mystic and Romantic, reaching back to the 19th century. He is possibly most known as a children's author, with <i>L'Enfant et la rivière</i> and the one about the girl and her donkey (they make a cameo appearance in <i>L'enfant</i>.<br /><br />Emma, we finally conceded, when we were in Montpellier last summer, that the Camargue requires a car. Someday we will have to rent a car.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-42032170306567825322020-04-15T08:57:13.519-05:002020-04-15T08:57:13.519-05:00I've read L'enfant et la rivière as a chil...I've read L'enfant et la rivière as a child but not this one.<br /><br />I should visit Camargue too. Emmahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09716351799835873036noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-48924440885019584352020-04-15T06:14:52.879-05:002020-04-15T06:14:52.879-05:00Oh thank you very much for bringing this author to...Oh thank you very much for bringing this author to my attention, I've never heard of him before though I'm French !<br />I think I will start with "L'Enfant et la Rivière", then maybe "Malicroix" eventually.Kimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03601338941517473531noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-32329822753507759432020-04-14T23:40:28.351-05:002020-04-14T23:40:28.351-05:00I'm halfway through the French - no puppets so...I'm halfway through the French - no puppets so far, but some delicious surprises - but I don't think I'll be finished with the book for a while, nor am I feeling any desire to be. <br /><br />I really hope you get to the Camargue on your next trip. Compared to anywhere else on France's Mediterranean coast it feels intensely exotic, and one of the only places I've been in Europe where I've felt anything akin to a sense of the "wild west." Even though it's right between Montpellier and Marseille, it feels cut off, <i>insolite</i>. That's helped along by the exotic aspects of the place milked by Bosco in <i>Malicroix</i>. Les Saintes Maries de la Mer looks like a North African town might have drifted over and washed up on the shore, an impression ratcheted up by the flocks of flamingoes. It's a big <i>gitan</i> gathering spot. Horses are everywhere, not just the white ones, but all kinds being ridden upon the long white beaches (the 1953 Lamorisse film version of "Crin Blanc" offers some striking images of the place). I recall taking a charming ferry that only had room for two or three cars in addition to our own, plus one horse. It traversed a width of river about the size of the ferry, the cars and the horse placed end to end. And those black bulls you mention contributed to some truly memorable main courses during our stay...seraillonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17654593356535433945noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-68647874220527390152020-04-14T16:50:36.339-05:002020-04-14T16:50:36.339-05:00A number of curious paths in the Camargue region a...A number of curious paths in the Camargue region are pursued in the <a href="http://languagehat.com/daube/" rel="nofollow">comments on languagehat's "Daube" post</a>.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.com