[<<] May 2005 blog (2) [>>]
Blog archive: here.
"Method of this work:
literary montage.
I have nothing to say only to show."
(Passagenwerk (1927 - 1940) - Walter Benjamin)
2006, Mar 06; 12:20 ::: Status: archived
2005, May 04; 21:20 ::: Anna Thomson
Anna Thomson, photocredit unidentified
image sourced here.
2005, May 04; 19:43 ::: All I Need Is Love (1988) - Klaus Kinski
All I Need Is Love (1988) - Klaus Kinski [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
From Publishers Weekly
This impressionistic autobiography by an actor probably best known in the U.S. as the father of movie actress Nastassja Kinski provides an in-depth look into the psyche of a performing artist. Born into grinding poverty in Poland, Kinski was forced into the WW II German army at 16 and taken a prisoner ofwar. Later, he more or less drifted into acting. But at this point in the tale the emphasis changes to the author's search for love, which more cynical readers may see as a search for sex. Kinski evidently never met a woman he didn't want to take to bed and it seems that no woman ever had any objections. His quest for love was twice rewarded, but in both cases his loves ended sadly. This is a memorable, powerful memoir. --Amazon.comEnglische Übersetzung von Kinskis Autobiographie "Ich bin so wild nach deinem Erdbeermund", wobei 150 Seiten der deutschen Originalversion gestrichen wurden und das Buch ohne seine Zustimmung in den Druck ging.
Kinski Uncut: The Autobiography of Klaus Kinski (1997) Klaus Kinski [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
From Publishers Weekly
Few celebrity memoirs are remotely as raw, pornographic and confessional as this notorious self-portrait by German actor Kinski (1926-1991), today best known for his brooding, expressionistic performances in Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo and Aguirre: The Wrath of God. When Random House, fearing legal problems, withdrew publication in 1989 of an earlier version of this book, All I Need Is Love, Kinski's memoir became an underground classic. This new and, according to Viking, unabridged translation shows little patience for documentary minutiae. So manic, hallucinatory and self-obsessed is Kinski's account of his rise from a dire childhood in the slums of Berlin to international stardom that it yields a far clearer picture of his seething inner life and incorrigible womanizing than of his film career. In an angry, raving, sometimes barely coherent present-tense narrative, Kinski describes being drafted into the Nazi army at 16; suffering in an English POW camp; gaining prominence in the fringe theater of a war-ravaged Germany. He goes on to cover his star turns in a slew of second-tier genre pictures shot in Italy and France as he contemptuously turned down directors like Fellini and Kurosawa, who wouldn't pay his escalating salary. He then discusses his roles in the Herzog films, plagued by production problems in the depths of the Amazon jungle. Kinski's take on Herzog drips bile and exudes dementia ("he doesn't have the foggiest inkling of how to make movies. Every scene, every angle, every shot is determined by me"). Throughout the memoir, however, acting is mere background to a lifelong sexual odyssey, including dozens of encounters explicitly rendered here?with young actresses, hookers, chambermaids and, in two memorable scenes, Alberto Moravia's wife and Idi Amin's daughter. In this raging memoir, the devil isn't just in the details: he's everywhere. --via Amazon.comsee also: Klaus Kinski
2005, May 04; 18:48 ::: "L'enfer, c'est les autres"During the 1940s and 1950s Sartre's ideas remained much in vogue, and existentialism became a favoured philosophy of the beatnik generation. Sartre's views were counterposed to those of Albert Camus in the popular imagination. In 1948, the Vatican placed his complete works on the Index of prohibited books. Most of his plays are richly symbolic and serve as a means of conveying his philosophy. The best-known, Huis-clos (No Exit), contains the famous line: "L'enfer, c'est les autres", usually translated as "Hell, is the others" (as in Other people). --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Paul_Sartre#Sartre_and_literature [May 2005]
see also: Sartre - hell - the other
2005, May 04; 17:57 ::: Family valuesFamily values is a term referring to a set of social norms for defining a family, its acceptable structure, and the proper roles of its members. Most often, the term connotes a conservative ideology that supports sexual morality and gender roles, and that opposes homosexual relationships, same-sex marriage, and abortion. The term may also refer to the promotion of censorship involving many forms of nudity, profanity, sexuality, and violence in the media which might be viewed by children.
While the term family values is used most often by the Christian right, there has been a recent effort to appropriate (or reappropriate) the word by commentators on the political left, who favor what they believe is a more inclusive historical definition of family values, which includes values in support of the family as a household unit of any kind. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_values [May 2005]
Nuclear family
A nuclear family is a household consisting of two married, heterosexual parents and their legal children (siblings), as distinct from the extended family. Whilst the family is a near-universal cultural phenomenon, nuclear families do not form the family unit in every society. Nuclear families are typical in societies where people must be relatively mobile -- such as hunter-gatherers and industrial societies. Although, as time progresses, the ideal family image is slowly shifting from the aforementioned to something like that of an amiably divorced couple with joint custody of their children. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_family [May 2005]
2005, May 04; 17:20 ::: Stefania Sandrelli, March 1964
Stefania Sandrelli, March 1964
image source here.
2005, May 04; 17:20 ::: Baby Doll (1956) - Elia Kazan
Carroll Baker in
Baby Doll (1956) - Elia Kazan [amazon.com]
image sourced here.Baby Doll is a 1956 film which tells the story of a childlike bride-to-be engaged to a Southern cotton gin owner, who becomes the pawn in a battle between her fiance and his enemy. It stars Karl Malden, Carroll Baker, Eli Wallach and Mildred Dunnock.
The movie was written by Tennessee Williams and directed by Elia Kazan.
It was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Carroll Baker), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Mildred Dunnock), Best Cinematography, Black-and-White and Best Writing, Best Screenplay - Adapted. While the costume design was not nominated, the film is credited with both the name and originating the popularity of the babydoll nightgown, which derives from the costume worn by Baker's character.
The Catholic Legion of Decency succeeded in having the film withdrawn from release in most U.S. theaters because of their objections over its sexual themes. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_Doll [May 2005]
2005, May 04; 11:48 ::: Great man theoryThe Great man theory is a theory held by some that aims to explain history by the impact of "Great men", ie: highly influential individuals, either from personal charisma, genius intellects, or great political impact.
For example, a scholarly follower of the Great Man theory would be likely to study the Second World War by focusing on the big personalities of the conflict, ie: Winston Churchill, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, etc.
It is often linked to 19th century philosopher and historian Thomas Carlyle, who commented that "The history of the world is but the biography of great men." This theory is usually contrasted with a theory that talks about events occurring in the fullness of time, or when an overwhelming wave of smaller events cause certain developments to occur.
Today the great man theory is out of favour. Most historians today believe that economic, societal, and technological factors are far more important to history than the decisions made by any individual.
This has spread to other fields such a literary criticism where the New Historicism of Stephen Greenblatt argues that societies create works of art, not just authors.
When this theory is applied to film theory, this theory tends to explain film history and the evolution of film almost exclusively in terms of "Great Men", with some notable directors. It however, neglects the efforts of crews, assistants and outside constraints. It could be described as the film history equivalent to the star system or the auteur theory. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_man_theory [May 2005]
see also: greatness
2005, May 04; 11:16 ::: Jeanne Moreau
Jeanne Moreau in
Diary of a Chambermaid/Journal D'Une Femme de Chambre - (1965) - Luis Buñuel [Amazon.com]
image sourced here.Jeanne Moreau (born January 23, 1928) is a French actress. She was born in Paris, France. By her twenties, Moreau was already one of France's leading stage actresses. Thanks largely to the recognition given her by Louis Malle, she became a leading film actress during the 1950s. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanne_Moreau [May 2005]
see also: Luis Buñuel
2005, May 03; 23:58 ::: Gratuitous
A girl about to be killed in a horror movie after her gratuitous shower scene.
see also: gratuitous
2005, May 03; 23:51 ::: Stéphane Audran
Stéphane Audran, Jacqueline Sassard in Les Biches
image sourced here.
Stéphane Audran in
The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie (1972) - Luis Buñuel [Amazon.com]Stéphane Audran
Stéphane Audran (b. 1932) is a French actress, known for her performances in Oscar winning movies like The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) and Babette's Feast (1987) and in critically acclaimed movies like The Big Red One (1980) and Violette Nozière (1978).Audran was born Collette Suzanne Dacheville in Versailles, Yvelines, France, on November 2, 1932. She married French director and screenwriter Claude Chabrol in 1964, after a short marriage to the French actor Jean-Louis Trintignant. Audran's first role was in Chabrol's acclaimed film Les Cousins (1959). She has since then appeared in most of Chabrol's films. Some of the more noteworthy Chabrol films she appeared in are La Femme Infidèle (1968), Les Biches (1968) as a rich lesbian who becomes involved in a ménage à trois (she first gained notice in this), Le Boucher (1970) as a school teacher who falls in love with a murdering butcher, Juste Avant La Nuit (1971), and Violette Nozière (1978).
She has also appeared in the movies of Eric Rohmer (Signe du Lion), Jean Delannoy (La Peau de Torpedo), Gabriel Axel (Babette's Feast, as the mysterious cook, Babette), Bertrand Tavernier (Coup de Torchon, as the wife of the cop turned serial killer, Lucien Cordier) and Samuel Fuller (The Big Red One). The most celebrated of her non-Chabrol films was Luis Buñuel's Oscar-winning The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) as Alice Senechal. Active in English-language productions, Audran has appeared in American bombs like The Black Bird (1975), and in TV movies like Brideshead Revisited (1982), Mistral's Daughter (1984) and The Sun Also Rises (1984).
Audran won a France's César Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her performance in Violette Nozière and British Film Academy award for Just Before Nightfall (1975). She divorced Chabrol in 1980. They had one child, named Thomas Chabrol, while together. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephane_Audran [May 2005]
inspired by Cult Movies Stars (1991) - Danny Peary [Amazon.com]
see also: Claude Chabrol
2005, May 03; 23:34 ::: Printed music historyThough the history of the printed word is relatively commonly known, the history of printed music is less known. Of course, there are parallels that are shared by both printed text and music, there are also additional complexities that accompany the publication of music that make for a challenge in the printing industry that text printing does not present.
Consider this; to print text (only), the producer must be prepared to have "type" set for 26 letters of the alphabet (with caps), numbers, italics and numerous punctuators. At best somewhere around 100 - 200 characters to be used. Of course, that excludes various type faces which are optional. The printing of music uses more complex symbols and many more of them. In the 19th century, the printer V.J. Figgins of London had already catalogued 460 separate symbols and elements, most of which are variable. The variability comes with, for example the length of a "hairpin" a trill or other performance and technique symbols. Just like text, different type faces and sizes can create an incredibly complex inventory of symbols to be used. Of course, this all pales in comparison to the printing symbols required for some Asian languages, but that is another story best left to someone in Asia to tell.
It is not our intent here to tell the entire story of music publishing, that would probably take an entire book, or more. Rather, we want to provide you with an overview of the significant developments that culminated in the incredibly rich and clear covers and scores of American popular music during its golden years from around 1890 - 1920. --http://parlorsongs.com/insearch/printing/printing.asp [Apr 2005]
see also: popular music - printing
2005, May 03; 23:14 ::: Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) - Jack Arnold
Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) - Jack Arnold
image sourced here.
2005, May 03; 22:55 ::: Lorna Gray
Lorna Gray, photo unidentified
image sourced here.
2005, May 03; 20:55 ::: Serial heroine
Kay Aldridge in The Perils of Nyoka? (1942)
image sourced here.The serial heroine is one of the many attractions accounting for the popularity of the genre. Menaced by impending doom, or threatened with torture, she is an essential ornament of the serial, and yet, care was taken to make sure she was not too ornamental. Beginning in 1934, the Motion Picture Producers Association began fully enforcing their production code through the Hays Office.
The code's strictures naturally covered the sensitive issues of torture and bondage. Women could be shown after they had been tied up, but it was forbidden to actually show them being tied up. Usually, a cut was made just as the woman was about to be bound, and we would see the smile on a henchman's face as he or another villain cruelly tied knots around their lovely victim. The heroine's attire could not be shown in any disarray so as to expose any cleavage or undergarments.
However, young boys often got a glimpse at a shapely female leg, especially in jungle serials where the heroine wore a skimpy costume. Serial fans still recall with delight the charms of a Linda Stirling or a Cleo Moore, struggling in vain against the tight ropes confining their lovely figures. --http://www.classicimages.com/1999/march99/serialheroines.html [May 2005]
inspired by Cult Movies Stars (1991) - Danny Peary [Amazon.com]
2005, May 03; 20:55 ::: OtherThe other or constitutive other is a key concept in psychology and philosophy where it is often considered to be what defines or even constitutes the self (see self (psychology), self (philosophy), and self-concept) and other phenomena and cultural units: "What appear to be cultural units--human beings, words, meanings, ideas, philosophical systems, social organizations--are maintained in their apparent unity only through an active process of exclusion, opposition, and hierarchization. Other phenomena or units must be represented as foreign or 'other' through representing a hierarchical dualism in which the unit is 'privileged' or favored, and the other is devalued in some way." (Cahoone 1996). Emmanuel Levinas, on the other hand, saw apprehension of the other as the basis for ethics, and as a limit on ontology.
The poet Arthur Rimbaud may be the earliest to express this idea: "Je est un autre" [I is other]. Friedrich Nietzsche, in The Gay Science phrased it thus: "You are always a different person." Ferdinand de Saussure described language as, in Calvin Thomas' words, a "differential system without positive terms". Jacques Lacan argued that ego-formation occurs through mirror-stage misrecognition, and his theories where applied to politics by Althusser. Also see Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Julia Kristeva, and Judith Butler. (Thomas 2000)
According to Warner (1990) "the modern system of sex and gender would not be possible without a disposition to interpret the difference between genders as the difference between self and Other...having a sexual object of the opposite gender is taken to be the normal and paradigmatic form of an interest in the Other or, more generally, others." Thus according to Warner, Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis hold the heterosexist view that if one is attracted to people of the same gender as one's self one fails to distinguish self and other, identification and desire, and is "regressive" or an "arrested" function. He further argues that heteronormativity covers its own narcissist investments by projecting or displacing them on queerness. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Other [May 2005]
2005, May 03; 20:55 ::: Laura Antonelli
Laura Antonelli in L'Innocente (1976) - Luchino Visconti
image sourced here.
Laura Antonelli in Malizia (1973) - Salvatore Samperi
Laura Antonelli, nome d'arte di Laura Antonaz (Pola, 28 novembre 1941) è un'attrice cinematografica e televisiva italiana. --http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Antonelli [May 2005]
inspired by Cult Movies Stars (1991) - Danny Peary [Amazon.com]
see also Luchino Visconti
2005, May 03; 20:55 ::: Acquanetta
Acquanetta in a publicity shot
Acquanetta (July 17, 1921 - August 16, 2004) was a movie actress best known for her exotic beauty; she was nicknamed "The Venezuelan Volcano".
The actress was born Burnu Acquanetta in Cheyenne, Wyoming and raised in Norristown, Pennsylvania after she was given up by her parents. Burnu means "burning fire, deep water."
Starting out as a New York model, Acquanetta eventually acted in mostly B-movies, including Tarzan and the Leopard Woman, Arabian Nights, Captive Wild Woman and The Sword of Monte Cristo.
In later life, she maintained visibility and a measure of local celebrity in the Phoenix, Arizona area as the wife of a local car dealer.
She succumbed to complications of Alzheimer's disease shortly after 4 a.m. on August 16, 2004 at Hawthorn Court in Ahwatukee, Arizona. She was 83. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acquanetta [May 2005]
inspired by Cult Movies Stars (1991) - Danny Peary [Amazon.com]
2005, May 03; 20:13 ::: Catherine Deneuve
Catherine Deneuve (1983) - Helmut Newton
sourced here.Catherine is lying against a wall, she wears a red top and a chequed skirt, red with dark (black?) criss-crossing stripes. She has gold bracelets on.
The arm of a man with a grey chequed suit and a shirt with red diagonal crisscrossing stripes on white field, and a gold chain around the wrist is about to point the gun at her (Portraits, Cover & 47) (Helmut Newton: SFHPW 47) (Nouvel Observateur 1983) (Helmut Newton:Work p160) --http://uk.geocities.com/the_helmut_newton_report/catherinedeneuve.html [May 2005]
"It is impossible to deny the impact [Helmut Newton] has made, on fashion photography in particular," noted England's The Independent in 2001,
"To radical feminists, Newton is the antichrist. This is the man who photographed a woman on all fours with a saddle on her back, and another sitting on her underwear or an unmade bed, with a gun in her mouth ... Newton's vision is fuelled by sex, status, power and, above all, voyeurism ... Small wonder, then, that much of the photographer's most successful imagery has become far more famous than the garments he has chosen to photograph ... Newton's influence is everywhere ... In the Sixties and Seventies, Newton's decadent vision may have been labelled 'porno chic,' but today the rest of the world has finally caught up with him and it's just plain chic. There is barely a stylist, photographer or designer working in fashion today who can fail to acknowledge Newton as an influence ... Helmut Newton was born to middle-class Jewish parrents in Weimar Berlin in 1920, and the decadent spirit of that place at that time is imprinted on his work ... Accusations of misogyny are still constantly made against Newton's work." [FRNKEL, S., 5-9-01]Catherine Deneuve (born October 22, 1943) is a French actress, born in Paris, France.
Born Catherine Dorléac to the actor Maurice Teynac (né Dorléac) and his wife Renée Deneuve, she made her movie debut in the 1956 film "Les Collegiennes," when she was still a teenager (her elder sister, Françoise Dorléac, 1942-1967, was a popular actress before dying in a car crash). Her breakthroughs came with the musical film Parapluies de Cherbourg (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg) (Jacques Demy, 1964), the late Surrealist masterpiece Belle de Jour (Luis Buñuel, 1967), and the Franco-English production Repulsion (Roman Polanski, 1965).
She won the Cesar Award for Best Actress in 1981 for her performance in Le Dernier métro. She won the Cesar Award for Best Actress a second time for her starring role in the 1992 film, Indochine and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for the same performance.
is a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador and is the mother of two children: Christian Vadim (born 1963), by her relationship with the director Roger Vadim, and Chiara Mastroianni (born 1972), by her four-year relationship with Marcello Mastroianni. She has been married once, from 1965 to 1972, to the British photographer David Bailey. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_Deneuve [May 2005]
2005, May 03; 13:43 ::: Rock Bottom (1974) - Robert Wyatt
Rock Bottom (1974) - Robert Wyatt [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
on June 1st, 1973, during a drunken party, Wyatt fell from a third floor window. He was subsequently paralysed from the waist down.
The injury led Wyatt to abandon the Matching Mole project, and his drumming. He promptly embarked on a solo-career, and with a collective of session musicians (including the poet Ivor Cutler, Mike Oldfield and Henry Cow guitarist Fred Frith), he released his acclaimed solo-album Rock Bottom. Later that same year he put out a single, a cover version of "I'm a Believer", which hit number 29 in the UK chart.There were strong arguments with the producer of Top of the Pops, for his performance of I'm a believer, on the grounds that his wheelchair-bound appearance 'was not suitable for Family Viewing', the producer wanting Wyatt to appear on a normal chair. Wyatt won the day and 'lost his rag but not the wheel chair', but gave a performance that could be described as disgruntled. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Wyatt [May 2005]
see also: Robert Wyatt
2005, May 03; 14:39 ::: Swinging London
Time magazine April 15, 1966, "London: The Swinging City" issue.
(boutiques, King's Road, miniskirts, the Robert Fraser gallery, etc.) + map of 'The Scene', showing locations of boutiques, nightclubs, and galleries; b/w photos incl. Julie Christie, Jean Shrimpton with Terence Stamp, and Cathy McGowan
Blow-Up (1966) - Michelangelo Antonioni [Amazon.com]
Swinging London is a catchall term applied to a variety of dynamic cultural trends in Britain (centred in London, as the primate city) in the 1960s. Much of the phenomenon was youth oriented and emphased the new and modern, and amounted to a cultural revolution in Britain. It was a period of optimism as well as hedonism, as was the sixties in much of the Western world.
It notably includes the famous popular music of the period, when Britain dominated the internatonal industry, but also fashion, photography, film, and the arts (pop art, etc.). Its most prominent symbols were perhaps the Beatles and mod fashions such as the miniskirt.
One of the catalysts was the recovery of the British economy and consumerism from the post World War II period of austerity and rationing which lasted through much of the 1950's.
The 1966 film Blow-Up, by Michelangelo Antonioni, illustrates the flavour of the period.--http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swinging_London [May 2005]
2005, May 03; 13:30 ::: Biba: The Biba Experience (2004) - Alwyn W. Turner
Biba: The Biba Experience (2004) - Alwyn W. Turner [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
see also: Barbara Hulanicki
2005, May 03; 12:56 ::: Mick Jagger
Performance - William Hughes, from the screenplay by Donald Cammell
image sourced here.
2005, May 03; 12:56 ::: Hollywood Babylon II
Hollywood Babylon II
image sourced here.
2005, May 03; 12:48 ::: Emma Peel
Ms Diana Rigg as Emma Peel
image sourced here.
2005, May 03; 12:33 ::: Rolling Stones in drag
Brian Jones, Bill Wyman, Mick Jagger, Charlie Watts, Keith Richards
Rolling Stones in drag (cover of "Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadows?", photo by Jerry Schatzberg)
image sourced here.
2005, May 03; 12:33 ::: The Undergrowth of Literature (1967) - Gillian Freeman
The Undergrowth of Literature (1967) - Gillian Freeman
Panther, London, 1969
(originally published by Thomas Nelson, 1967)
image sourced here.But the book for which Gillian Freeman will best be remembered was of a much more spicy and sensational nature. In 1967 she caused a minor commotion with the publication of 'The Undergrowth of Literature', a study of the contemporary publications that dealt with dominant and submissive relationships, and with the publications devoted to material fetishes, such as leather or rubber.
It was published by Thomas Nelson & Sons, and was reviewed in the 'Times Literary Supplement', 'London Magazine', and the 'Financial Times', so it was a mainstream publication available at any bookshop. The introduction was by Dr. David Stafford-Clark, a high profile psychiatrist of the time.
However, while many works of art begin as 'underground' or 'fringe' productions and then enter the mainstream, 'The Undergrowth of Literature' has moved in precisely the opposite direction. It has been out of print now for more than thirty years, and second hand copies have gained a kind of mystical 'underground' aura which the original hardbound book never possessed.
Hence Gillian Freeman could be summarised as a female writer with interests in the cinema, a love of British culture, including popular culture such as 'schooldays' novels, and an interest in the world of petticoat discipline and related subjects, which led to the writing of what is now regarded as one of the definitive 'classics' in this domain. I never met her, but I have always thought that we had a lot in common. --http://www.petticoated.com/undergrowthoflit.htm [May 2005]
2005, May 03; 12:19 ::: Black Skin, White Masks (1967) - Frantz Fanon
Black Skin, White Masks (1967) - Frantz Fanon [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Frantz Fanon on the Language of the Colonized
I ascribe a basic importance to the phenomenon of language. That is why I find it necessary to begin with this subject, which should provide us with one of the elements in the colored man's comprehension of the dimension of the other.
The black man has two dimensions. One with his fellows, the other with the white man. A Negro behaves differently with a white man and with another Negro. That this self-division is a direct result of colonialist subjugation is beyond question...No one would dream of doubting that its major artery is fed from the heart of those various theories that have tried to prove that the Negro is a stage in the slow evolution of monkey into man....
...To speak means to be in a position to use a certain syntax, to grasp the morphology of this or that language, but it means above all to assume a culture, to support the weight of civilization. Since the situation is not one-way only, the statement of it should reflect the fact....
...The problem that we confront in this chapter is this: The Negro of the Antilles will be proportionately whiter--that is, he will come closer to being a real human being--in direct ration to his mastery of the French language...A man who has a language consequently possesses the world expressed and implied by that language.
Every colonized people--in other words, every people in whose soul an inferiority complex has been created by the death and burial of its local cultural originality--finds itself face to face with the language of the civilizing nation; that is, with the culture of the mother country. The colonized is elevated above his jungle status in proportion to his adoption of the mother country's cultural standards.
[from Chapter One: "The Negro and Language"]
2005, May 03; 11:42 ::: Nord Express
Timetable "'Nord-Express' - Calais - Bruxelles - Pullman - Express," 1927. By A.M. Cassandre.
image sourced here.
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