August 07, 2005
List of Scenes in the Farm...
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Driving on French roads
The xenophobia of the French
The autoroute spectacle
France and world economy
Le péage [toll]
Starting the tale
Possible titles for the tale
Nostalgia
Bigleux the dog
The old farmer
Shepherding the cows
Story of the man who could fly
Bigleux and story-telling
Definition of nostalgia
New York Times article and the French
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Back to the beginning of the trip at Charles de
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Setting out on the quest for the farm
The French resistance during the war
Cousin Boris and his brother Robert
Death of cousin Robert
Reasons for not joining Le Maquis
Breakfast on the farm
Soup & wine
Faire chabrot
Making wine and other consequences
End of faire chabrot
Reflections on the time of war on the farm
Visit to the kids in Montrouge
Reflections on fatalism
About Steve [E’s oldest son]
Reflections on America the land of
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Reading from Amer Eldorado in Cannes [flash
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The minor poet’s remark
Steve at Berkeley
Lunch on the road
The menu for lunch
Digression on crème caramel
Le vin de Cahors
The scenery on the road
Lamartine [lines from a poem]
Back on the road
Le Moulin de St. Avid
The owners of Le Moulin de St. Avid
Dinner at the moulin
Françoise [little daughter of the owner of the
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Flash-back to arrival at the moulin
Remembrance of the cherry trees at the
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Paul Valéry [lines of a poem]
Next morning at the moulin
Consulting the map of the region
Monsieur Lauzy [the old farmer]
The farmers sent to Germany
The 13 year old boy on the farm
Learning the laws of death and fornication
The old farmer fucking a cow
Among the beast [a poem]
A glimpse of life on the farm
The funny side of death
The headless chicken
Dialogue with E about the old Lauzy
Setting out for Montflanquin in search of the
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Montflanquin [Medieval citadel]
The Church of Montflanquin and the Black
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Liberté Égalité Propriété
Uncle Maurice in Montflanquin
Arrival of the boy in Montflanquin in 1942
Paraphrase of poetry lines from W.B. Yeats
The three blonde Montflanquinoises at the
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Dialogue with the three blonde ladies about
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Aunt Nénette
The Dunkirk debacle
Maurice & Nénette settle in Montflanquin
Reference to Aunt Rachel’s Fur
The boy jumps off the train
The ditch
And I Followed my Shadow
The unconcerned farmer in the field
En route to Montflanquin
Arrival in Montflanquin
Confrontation with the boy’s aunts & uncles
Back with the three blondes in the Montflanquin Town Hall
Searching for the Lauzy farm
On the road to Villeneuve-sur-Lot in search of the
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Dialogue with E about the hard work the boy
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Sudden remembrance of the name of the
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Josette
Dialogue with E about reality & fiction
Looking for the road to Le Moulin de la Carrière
The Concordat Church
The Cemetery of Concordat
The priest of the Concordat and his books
Going to church on Sunday with the farmers
Fantomas
Back to the priest of Concordat and Sunday
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The collaborator priest of the Montflanquin
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The Montflanquin Priest’s sermons
Les topinambours
The Germans and potatoes
Anti-Semitic sermon of the priest of
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Josette’s knees
A portrait of Josette
Wondering if Josette and the boy did it
Description of the farm house
The folding cot in a corner of the kitchen
The rats in the attic
Desiring Josette
Admission of having touched Josette’s ass
Flash Back to Josette and the mailman
Josette’s bloomers
Back to what Josette and mailman are doing
Reflections about what the boy witnessed
Flash forward to the evening when boy touches
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A dumb request
First nocturnal visitation under the boy’s blanket
Les chiottes [out house]
Josette’s chatte [cunt]
The evening sessions in the boy’s bed
Courbet’s famous Origin of the World
Return of Josette’s husband from Germany
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Josette is pregnant
The accouchement of Josette
The redheaded baby
The primitiveness of life on the farm
The well
Cows giving birth to a calf in the barn
The blow job
A Day of Rare Intensity [poem]
Going to Montflanquin on Sundays
Reasons for avoiding aunts & uncles
Uncle Léon & Aunt Marie
Cousin Marco
Grand-Mother of boy
The fat farm woman and her two chickens
Dialogue of Léon and fat farm woman
A Day of Rare Intensity [poem]
Going to Montflanquin on Sundays
Reasons for avoiding aunts & uncles
Uncle Léon & Aunt Marie
Cousin Marco
Grand-Mother of boy
The fat farm woman and her two chickens
Dialogue of Léon and fat farm woman
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The exchange of the boy for the two
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On the way to the first farm [1942]
Les sabots [the clogs]
The dung-cart
The rat inside the clog
The suffering of the boy’s hands
Death & fornication
Fear & insults
Manure
Reflections on the importance of shit for nature
Dialogue with E about manure and the two chickens
Clarification [the fat woman was not Josette]
Working on the first farm
The second farm by the river
Allusion to natation
The horses
Back on the Lauzy farm [flash back]
More about going to Montflanquin on Sundays
The abandoned cemetery on the short-cut to
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The sayings of the old man
The old man and farting
Dialogue with E about the eventual writing of
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The double journey [on the road and on the
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Dialogue with E about memory and imagination
The risk of self-reflexiveness
The quarry and the fork in the road
The farm by the river
The grandson of the old Bucharel [owner of the farm
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Dialogue with the grandson of Bucharel about
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The grandsons of the Lauzy family
Looking around the Bucharel farm by the river
La vieille charrue [the old plow]
The avatars of plowing the fields
The bees attack the boy
The old Lauzy flogs the boy
Josette’s ointment against bee stings
Josette applies the ointment on the boy’s body
Taking photos of the the Bucharel farm
Back on the road to the quarry
Oh manure
Juliette the mare on the farm
Reflections on the horse as a noble animal
Dialogue with E about horses
Francis Ponge and the horse [poetry]
The pleasure of going to town with the horse
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Riding the horse and the cows in the meadow
Visit to the grandson of old Lauzy in the house
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The phone call from Paris about reparations
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The orphans of the Holocaust
Madame Culsec
Dialogue with E about Hercules and Federkid
The risk of laughterature
Dialogue with the grandson of Lauzy and his
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The other grandson of old Lauzy
Back on the road to Villeneuve in search of the
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Reflections on Josette’s brutality and
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Killing a pig
Pain & dirt on the farm
Dialogue with E about the necessity of finding
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Cutting trees with an axe
Cleaning the cows in the morning
Milking the cows in the morning
Shoveling the manure in the morning
The toothbrush
Existential reflections of the boy on the farm
Remembrance of the boy’s father
Montrouge and Montflanquin juxtaposition
The hands of the boy’s father’s
Ramona [about the boy’s father]
The shame of dirty hands
The castle on the hill above the farm
The weekly basket of food for the castle
Marguerite the lady of the castle
Marguerite and the boy
The rain storm
Inside the castle
Drying the boy
La Cuvette [a poem]
Objection to poetry
Les sous of the Lady of the Castle
The box of sous hidden in the barn
Dialogue with E about the veracity of the tale
Nature and its indifference towards mankind
The boy’s indifference towards nature
The scar on the knee
Charlot the bull
Les Orgueuils de Charlot
The storm
The bees and les pruneaux d’Agen
The velocity of sorrow
The oxen
The clouds
The river
The dying cherry trees
The smells of the farm
The croaking of the frogs
Waiting for a sign from God
Oh never to have been
There is the farm
The abandoned castle
The smell of death
On to Cannes
Dialogue with E about the disappointment of
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List of Things That Can Be Useful to a Poet*
Things that are not far from here
Things that can be spoken clearly
Thing lost in the Sahara Desert
Things that don’t mean a damn thing
Things that are more exquisite than others
Things that look honest beyond any doubt
Things that are on a pedestal
Things that give you hope
Things that are better than they look
Things that look like they have come to an end
Things that are buried underground
Things that should be plucked today
Things that are unbelievable
Things that are in surplus in the universe
Things whose majesty is sublime
Things that ought to make you cry
Things that are useless
Things whose loneliness is scary
Things that look like flowers but are not
Things full of holes
Things without detours
Things that make you fall asleep
Things that refuse to be apprehended
Things that pretend to be things
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* CONCERNING THE POEM EVERYONE HAS WRITTEN: Everyone has written a poem at one time or another but nobody knows why still everybody has written at least one poem during one's lifetime and so on and so on blah blah blah... [not to be continued]
Things that can be spoken clearly
Thing lost in the Sahara Desert
Things that don’t mean a damn thing
Things that are more exquisite than others
Things that look honest beyond any doubt
Things that are on a pedestal
Things that give you hope
Things that are better than they look
Things that look like they have come to an end
Things that are buried underground
Things that should be plucked today
Things that are unbelievable
Things that are in surplus in the universe
Things whose majesty is sublime
Things that ought to make you cry
Things that are useless
Things whose loneliness is scary
Things that look like flowers but are not
Things full of holes
Things without detours
Things that make you fall asleep
Things that refuse to be apprehended
Things that pretend to be things
___
* CONCERNING THE POEM EVERYONE HAS WRITTEN: Everyone has written a poem at one time or another but nobody knows why still everybody has written at least one poem during one's lifetime and so on and so on blah blah blah... [not to be continued]