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Aflaneur is a stroller, a loiterer, someone who ambles through city streets in search of adventure and fulfillment. Edmund White, who lived in Paris for sixteen years, wanders through the streets and avenues and along the quays, into parts of Paris virtually unknown to visitors and indeed to many Parisians. In the hands of the learned White, a walk through Paris is both a tour of its lush, sometimes prurient history, and an evocation of the city's spirit. The Flaneur leads us to bookshops and boutiques, monuments and palaces, giving us a glimpse the inner human drama. Along the way we learn everything from the latest debates among French lawmakers to the juicy details of Colette's life.… (altro)
The American writer Edmund White (b. 1940) stayed in Paris from 1983 to 1998, long enough to get to know the Parisian 'morals and customs' well. His approach is original: that of the 'flaneur', a thoroughly French concept that can be interpreted as 'walking around without a goal'. White mentions Walter Benjamin, among others, who rightly points out that the flaneur is more concerned with the experience than with gaining knowledge. Contrary to this, however, White still overwhelms us in this little book with a plethora of tidbits. He introduces us to the enormous diversity that Paris has to offer and scans all possible known Latin Americans, Arabs and especially black Americans who have ever stayed in the City of Light. Beautiful portraits of French natives such as Colette and Baudelaire are also on offer. Anyone who expects this book to be a real city guide, with tips and walking routes, is going to be disappointed; that would also go against the principles of the ‘flaneur’. One exception, though: White does elaborate on the gay scene and the rendezvous and 'cruise' places (and it strikes me once again that gay authors barely pay attention to gender colleagues like, for instance, the lesbian community). In a way this booklet also is an introduction to France in general. White offers interesting reflections on how the French treat minorities in general. He points out that while there is a high degree of tolerance in France, in all aspects (although this surely has been declining in recent years), rabid French republicanism tends to bulldoze all minority groups. A justified remark, that exposes both the strength and the weakness of French culture! ( )
A flâneur is always open to diversion. He lives in the knowledge that the direct line between A B is seldom the most interesting. In this book, White, the compleat flâneur, shares his discovery of a city that offers rich rewards for any who practice the art. Along the way, White explores not only geographical spots (many off the beaten path) but also people who live on the margin—Jews, blacks, gays, Arabs and even members of the competing sects of royalists and monarchists. This urbane book was the perfect companion on my way to revisit Paris for the first time in over thirty years. ( )
I had not realized that this was part of a series: The Writer and the City, "...an occasional series in which some of the finest writers of our time reveal the secrets of the city they know best." On my semi-infinite to-read pile now.
I bought this because of the title, I love the idea of being a flaneur and histories of shopping and department stores often refer to Balzac's works about wandering around Paris. Also because the cove is absolutely beautiful. It wasn't as poetic or geographical as I expected, but it was still very interesting. White muses on Parisian literary figures, the black, Jewish and gay stories of Paris, and royalists/monarchists, not physically wandering but pottering about in the city's history, I guess. I'd recommend it to anyone visiting Paris as a different way of seeing the city (with a few alternative locations to head for). ( )
White wonders as he wanders the streets of Paris - educating us and acquainting us with historical background of his favorite city. He explores many of the unique museums and recounts some interesting historical moments that have shaped the city. ( )
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If I were to say, as I believe, that kindliness is the distinguishing characteristic of Parisians, I am afraid I should offend them. "I don't want to be kind!" -- Stendhal, Love.
"I've been thinking, I should have come back to Canada with you as another distressed Canadian." "But you wouldn't. You were in love with Paris. You thought it was the Great Good Place. Well, it's not. You were in love with a dream." I see he was right. It was a dream of excellence and beauty, one that does not exist anywhere in real life. Montparnasse and its people came very close to it. But no city or society in the world, even the Paris of those days, can realize the elusive dream I had. -- John Glassco, "Memoirs of Montparnasse"
Having lived in Paris unfits you for living anywhere, including Paris. -- John Ashbery (quoted in "The Last Avant-Garde" by David Lehman)
Dedica
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'To Marilyn Schaefer, my favourite flaneur'
Incipit
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Paris is a big city, in the sense that London and New York are big cities and that Rome is a village, Los Angeles a collection of villages, and Zurich a backwater.
Citazioni
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La Défense went directly from being futuristic to being passé without ever seeming like a normal feature of the present.
Honestly, instead of 'like a normal feature of the present' I almost wrote 'without ever being inscribed within the interior of the present'. That's how much I've been submerged in contemporary French nonfiction. I frequently have to stop and ask myself how a human being might put the same idea. (p.2)
Oh, it's all there – except a truly refined and elegant Italian meal (the French think all the Italians eat is pizza). The other thing that is missing is a decent public library system. There's no library that has open stacks for browsers – that paradise of intellectual serendipity. (p.15)
I had to explain to [a young French couple] that American-style feminism had retrained men not to ogle women – but that, more significantly, Americans consider the sidewalk an anonymous backstage space, whereas for the French it is the stage itself. An American office worker on her way to work will not worry about her appearance; she'll change out of her gym shoes into her heels only when she enters her office, whereas a French woman will feel that the instant she hits the street she's onstage. Clothes, hair and make-up must be impeccable. (p.44-45)
I asked a French couple who recently visited me in New York for their first impressions after just twenty-four hours in America. The wife said, 'In New York you can tell by people's body language that no one cares what other people think of them, whereas in Paris everyone is judging everyone and the only people who have this American-style insouciance are the insane. (p.45)
A secret memo from General Pershing to his French counterparts forbade fraternization between black Americans and white French soldier; the two nations were expressly forbidden even to shake hands across racial lines. Apparently, back in the States, Southern racists were particularly worried that contact with the French would give 'their' Negroes 'uppity' ideas.
Their fears were justified. Although many French peasants were frightened by their appearance and their reputation as savages, the American blacks' dignity and politeness instantly reassured them. Soon the success of black American soldiers with French women infuriated the white Americans, and white racist antagonism against their own countrymen puzzled the French.
Ultime parole
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...a place where biracial children are kidnapped and the boulevards are given over to fires and rioting crowds.
Aflaneur is a stroller, a loiterer, someone who ambles through city streets in search of adventure and fulfillment. Edmund White, who lived in Paris for sixteen years, wanders through the streets and avenues and along the quays, into parts of Paris virtually unknown to visitors and indeed to many Parisians. In the hands of the learned White, a walk through Paris is both a tour of its lush, sometimes prurient history, and an evocation of the city's spirit. The Flaneur leads us to bookshops and boutiques, monuments and palaces, giving us a glimpse the inner human drama. Along the way we learn everything from the latest debates among French lawmakers to the juicy details of Colette's life.
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(3.63)
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Anyone who expects this book to be a real city guide, with tips and walking routes, is going to be disappointed; that would also go against the principles of the ‘flaneur’. One exception, though: White does elaborate on the gay scene and the rendezvous and 'cruise' places (and it strikes me once again that gay authors barely pay attention to gender colleagues like, for instance, the lesbian community). In a way this booklet also is an introduction to France in general. White offers interesting reflections on how the French treat minorities in general. He points out that while there is a high degree of tolerance in France, in all aspects (although this surely has been declining in recent years), rabid French republicanism tends to bulldoze all minority groups. A justified remark, that exposes both the strength and the weakness of French culture! (