Category: Arts

French author Edouard Louis: Why Macron will lead voters to the far right 

The young literary star defied French elites and social taboos with his best-selling autobiographical novels that portray poverty made invisible in his country. He talks to DW about fiction and a forgotten underclass.

DW: Just like your first novel, “The End of Eddy,” your latest work is also strictly autobiographical. Why?

Edouard Louis: The world is currently saturated with fiction; it’s already structured by lies and fabrications. One of the reasons why people like Chelsea Manning and Julian Assange are persecuted is because they have showed us that governments are lying to us.When the French government claims that we can’t welcome migrants, it’s a lie. Why don’t they just say, “We don’t want to welcome migrants,” instead? That would be the truth…”

ReadFull Story at: French author Edouard Louis: Why Macron will lead voters to the far right | Books | DW | 11.10.2017

What’s on in October

Montmartre vendange, Paris, October 11-15
As reported in July’s Connexion, Paris has a thriving vineyard scene and the annual harvest (vendange) is celebrated in style at the most famous of these among the historic streets of hilltop Montmartre. Expect wine-themed parades and exhibitions as well as concerts and plenty of tasting opportunities. On the Sunday afternoon at 17:00 on Square Louise-Michel there will be a glamorous street disco, called Le Bal Dalida, to mark the 30th anniversary of the death of the celebrated chanteuse.

Read about all the wonderful October events at: What’s on in October

The Stubborn Genius of Auguste Rodin

The hundredth anniversary of the death of Auguste Rodin prompts “Rodin at the Met,” a show of the Metropolitan Museum’s considerable holdings in works by the artist. But no occasion is really needed. Rodin is always with us, the greatest sculptor of the nearly four centuries since Gian Lorenzo Bernini perfected and exalted the Baroque. Matter made flesh and returned to matter, with clay cast in bronze: Rodin. (There are carvings in the show, too, but made by assistants whom he directed. He couldn’t feel stone.) You know he’s great even when you’re not in a mood for him [ . . . ]

Read Full Story: The Stubborn Genius of Auguste Rodin | The New Yorker

All the Poets (Musicians on Writing): Patti Smith

AFTER DECADES as a major force in punk rock — dating back to her shows at CBGB’s and her 1975 LP Horses — Patti Smith has earned a considerable reputation as a literary figure as well. She has introduced books of poems by Blake and Rimbaud, published several volumes of her own verse and song lyrics, and won the National Book Award for Just Kids, her 2010 memoir about her crucial early years with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe.

Smith’s new book is Devotion, a slim volume that is — at once — an ode to her favorite French writers, a short story or fable about a mysterious young ice skater, and a meditation on the creative process. (It is based on a speech Smith gave at Yale and is part of Yale University Press’s Why I Write series.)

Read full interview: All the Poets (Musicians on Writing): Patti Smith – Los Angeles Review of Books