Madeleine de Proust

Sometimes you come across something (an object, a smell, a word, a landscape,...) which gives you an instant flashback and brings you distant (or not so distant) memories. In French there is an expression for this: a madeleine de Proust, taken from the life of the writer, when he was soaking some cake (madeleine is a sort of cake) in tea and was suddenly overcome by several episodes from his childhood.

I had a madeleine de Proust the other day when I was browsing some pictures I took not that many years ago and found this particular one with a cat lying on books and feeding its kittens. As soon as I saw the picture I clearly remembered the neighbourhood in Istanbul, the café where I had eaten just before and a person who asked me on the street if I was Iranian...

And I remembered how I just stayed there, staring at two of the best things in life: cats and books.

Illicit ocean friendships

SpongeBob and Patrick Star are two friends who live in the ocean, more precisely in the underwater city of Bikini Bottom, where they live plenty of adventures with their fellow sea creatures, like Eugene Krabs or Squidward Tentacles.

So what's wrong with that? Well, according to the Family Under the Protection of the Holy Virgin (sic), an Ukrainian group who lobbies for the protection of public morality, SpongeBob and his starfish friend are much more than friends… in fact, the Catholic group is convinced that they are a gay couple and thus damaging to children. They advocate that the cartoons should be banished from national TV because they are part of - no less - "'a large-scale experiment on Ukrainian children to create criminals and perverts", namely by "promoting homosexuality".

Even though Stephen Hillenburg, the creator of the animated series, has stated that his characters are asexual and that sexual preference was never considered during the creation of the series, this didn't convince the public morality protectors, who want SpongeBob and Patrick Star out of the screens.

I'd rather let my child watch all the SpongeBob episodes he wanted than spend 3 minutes alone with a member of the Family Under the Protection of the Holy Virgin.

Baudelaire

Mais les vrais voyageurs sont ceux-là seuls qui partent
Pour partir; coeurs légers, semblables aux ballons,
De leur fatalité jamais ils ne s'écartent,
Et sans savoir pourquoi, disent toujours: Allons!

Charles Baudelaire, Les Fleurs du mal

Couleur de peau: miel

After the Korean war and before Korea became a rich country, around 200000 Korean children left their homeland to be adopted throughout the world.

One of those children was Jung. He was adopted by a Belgian couple who already had 4 children (and also adopted a Korean girl after him).

In this wonderful animated movie Jung poetically describes his life of an ethnic Korean Belgian, the quest for identity, racism, maladjustment, the need to know one's origins, the difficulties faced when that is not possible, the feelings of abandonment and loss, and finally, forgiveness.

This beautiful autobiography shows once again that human skin can be of many colours, but our feelings and needs are universal. 

http://www.couleurdepeaumiel-lefilm.com/be#

From Paris to Hiroshima by bike

Raphaël Beaugrand got on his bike and went from Paris to Hiroshima. On his way he stopped in Srebrenica, Moldavia, Georgia, Xinjiang... and other places marked by conflict. His webdocumentary can be watched on http://telechargement.rfi.fr.edgesuite.net/WebDocu/paroles_de_conflits/index.html

Elias Canetti

Quando si viaggia si prende tutto come viene, lo sdegno rimane a casa. Si osserva, si ascolta, ci si entusiasma per le cose più atroci solo perchè sono nuove. I buoni viaggiatori sono gente senza cuore.

Elias Canetti, Le voci di Marrakech

African proverb

Those who visit others should open their eyes, not their mouths.

Isadora Duncan meets Victor Seroff

"He's a genius," said Isadora when Seroff finished playing. "Doesn't anybody know he's a genius? I have a nose for genius." She turned to her hostess. "Is he your lover?" she asked.
"Why no, Miss Duncan, he is my guest."
"He must be somebody's lover?" Isadora said, looking around the room. "Well, if he is nobody's lover, then I will take him for myself. I always take genius for myself. Genius needs me."

Peter Kurth,  Isadora: a sensational life (Abacus ed., 2001)



Isadora Duncan on the Lido, Venice, in 1903 ©R. Duncan

An earth without maps

We die containing a richness of lovers and tribes, tastes we have swallowed, bodies we have plunged into and swum up as if rivers of wisdom, characters we have climbed into as if trees, fears we have hidden in as if caves. I wish for all this to be marked on my body when I am dead. I believe in such cartography - to be marked by nature, not just to label ourselves on a map like the names of rich men and women on buildings. We are communal histories, communal books. We are not owned or monogamous in our taste or experience. All I desired was to walk upon such an earth that had no maps. 

Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient

Quino