“Nobody’s sold since we opened up, must be near four years now? Has happened doh dat somebody was wantin’ to sublet. Every once in a while, folks wants to get away fer a bit.”
Terry turned back to the books Élizabeth had ordered:
“I read dis one here de udder day. Liked it fine. Ordered a few extra copies an’ sold two already. It’s a whole lot easier to sell a book you’ve read dan one you ’aven’t. Although der’s books I’ve read I can’t go recommendin’. Dose times I just keeps me trap shut. I’m not obliged to say I didn’t care fer it, eh?
Élizabeth had not expected her opinion to be solicited.
“No, I don’t see why you would.”
“Dat’s what I tot meself.”
Terry placed the books and the receipt in a bag, and handed it to the customer:
“Tanks, Élizabeth. You have a nice day, now.”
Terry always remembered the names of customers who ordered books, probably because he had to write them down. But Élizabeth was surprised to hear her name, pleasantly surprised.
“Thank you.”
366.49.1
Élizabeth II
Looking more closely at the titles listed in La Bibliothèque idéale that begin with the letter c, we discover that the most often used words are those that refer to literary genres of one sort or another. For example, approximately 20 titles begin respectively with the word conte (tale) or correspondence. Six to nine each begin with confessions, chant (song), cahier (notebook) and chronique (chronicle). Hence, the role of c as an agent of transmission of the French language cannot be ignored, particularly as regards the written language.
367.48.2
Inferences
“Makin’ it up? An’ why pray tell would she be makin’ it up? De Rolling Stones did give der concert on de same hill dat de pope held mass, now didn’t dey? Mick Jagger an’ de pope, fer chris’ sake! Who’d make up a ting like dat? OK, Salmon Rushdie, maybe. But dat’s about it.”
. . .
. . .
“Is dat yer own personal sympathy fer de devil moment, den?
368.6.12
The Babar
Lacan boldy created equations, formulas, graphs, along with topological and mathematical models to explain psychoanalytical research and knowledge. His celebrated Borromean Knot — a term he borrowed from the Italian Borromeo family, whose crest consists of three intertwined rings — refers to the Real, the Symbolic and the Imaginary, intertwined such that if any one of the rings is cut, the other two are freed. Another Lacanian figure, the symptom — he adopts the ancient spelling of the word, sinthome, which implies “saint homme” or ‘saintly man’ — is represented by a fourth ring, which links the other three.
369.34.10
Lacan
When Carmen picked up the kids that day, the film director broke off her conversation with the cameraman to come over and greet Carmen personally.
“Your boy muy intelligence.”
Carmen understood the Spanish word and accepted the compliment on behalf of her son and herself.
“The petite also very cute.”
Carmen accepted the compliment for her daughter, and for herself, and for Terry as well after all, but she was wondering exactly from what camera angle the director had been eyeing Étienne and Marianne that day.
“So we’ll see you all tomorrow then?” the director said in English.
Carmen couldn’t think why — though she tried not to be annoyed by it — the director would address them in English.
370.26.2
The Movie
Numerals, it should be noted in passing, are characters that represent numbers. There are therefore very few numerals, but numbers are varied and infinite.
371.97.10
Numerals and Numbers
The mood was upbeat on the drive home.
“An’ were you dressed up like that all day long, Étienne?”
Carmen eyed her little Zorro in the rear-view mirror.
“Not de whole day.”
When Carmen tried to adjust the mirror to admire Marianne’s curls, which the assistant on the set had embellished with tiny coloured pearls, the metal joint squealed and the rear-view mirror came crashing down onto the dash, which the children greeted with gales of laughter.
372.26.3
The Movie
Freud could not imagine carrying out his psychoanalytical work without smoking a cigar. Also, during the last 15 years of his life, he suffered from cancer of the jaw. When it became clear that the pain would not end, he succumbed to an overdose of morphine administered at his request by a friend, according to an agreement they had struck years earlier. The week before, feeble and confined to his bed, Freud read a last book, Balzac’s The Magic Skin. Sigmund Freud died on September 23, 1939, in London where, at his friends and relatives insistence, he had taken refuge from Hitler’s regime. He had been born of Jewish parents in Freiberg on May 6, 1856.
373.39.11
Freud Circuitously
At the supper table, Étienne hazarded a question:
“Dad, ’r we poor?”
Terry felt suddenly flushed. Was the boy’s question somehow related to their conversation the day before about his participation in the movie and the money it would earn them?
“Naw, wot makes you tink dat?”
With his fingers, Étienne placed a slice of carrot on the bed of mashed potatoes he had created on his fork.
“On account of our car’s so old.”
Phew! Terry’s cheerful mood returned.
“Lots o’ folks have got an old car, doesn’t necessarily mean dey’s poor. You’ve only got to tink of Uncle Alcide.”
Seeing that Étienne wasn’t convinced, he added:
“Dat’s just normal: we buys a car, we runs it ’till it’s old, and den we buys a new one.”
Étienne rejoiced at the thought that one day they’d get a brand new car, but Terry wasn’t done yet.
“Well now, don’t go tinkin’ we’s about to buy a brand-new one. We could just as well go an’ buy a car wot’s only half new.”
This clarification did not dampen Étienne’s enthusiasm; he proceded to decorate another forkful of mashed potatoes, this time with five peas arranged in a quincunx. As he savoured this mouthful, Étienne’s spirit drifted in a new direction.
“Could we go to de circus some time, Dad?”
Terry and Carmen glanced at each other. Étienne had used the English words circus and Dad!
“Where dey gots dem bumper cars dat crash all together an’ swings dat turn super fast?”
Terry barely recognized his son in this travesty of language and bravado, but he restrained himself, and played the innocent:
“An’ how is it yer callin’ me Dad in English all of a sudden?”
Étienne shrugged:
“Lots of folks says dat . . .”
374.26.4
The Movie
According to Lacan, the idea of the father is a metaphor in the crucible of which incubates the desire of the mother. His “Name-of-the-Father” has become one of the fundamental concepts of psychoanalysis. In a late seminar, he stated, “les Non-dupes errent” by which he meant that, because we are all erring subjects of language, one must (strive to) to become the dupe of a discourse in order to avoid psychosis.
375.34.9
Lacan
Without realizing it, Étienne had blown on the smoldering embers.
“When comes to the point that Étienne can see the difference . . .”
. . .
“Anyway, far as I’m concerned, it’s decided. No use in waiting ‘til she falls to pieces.”
Carmen wasn’t wrong. Terry could see the day when they would have to buy a new
car, but he’d hoped they could wait a year or two.
“I tinks we might find a pretty good used one. Eh? No need fer it to be spankin’ brand new?”
“Only you never know what yer in fer with a used one, do you. We could land up with a shocking heap of misery.”
Terry had expected Carmen to feel that way. He gathered up all the patience and tenderness of which he was capable:
“I’m tinkin’ we can find a good used one. Der’s folks dat knows cars, dey can tell how hard or not a car’s been run.”
Carmen did not want to be stubborn. The week had begun smoothly and she wanted things to keep on that way. Better to choose one’s battles. On the other hand, Terry was far from certain he could absolutely prove his claim.
“Anyway, let’s be tinkin’ on it. ’Tain’t sometin’ we gotta decide tonight, now is it?
“I can think on it, sure, but I’d be mighty surprised if I change me mind . . .”
376.27.1
New Car
In her novel 1953: Chronicle of a Birth Foretold, the Acadian author France Daigle makes no mention of the first printing that year of the French translation of Kafka’s Letter to His Father. It was published in the April, May, and June issues of the Nouvelle Revue française (NRF), whose first issue had appeared only several months earlier in January 1953. All indications are that Franz’s letter to Hermann Kafka was never delivered to its intended reader.
377.45.4
Useless Details
“Hihihi . . . !”
Marianne was laughing because Terry had just told Étienne he had two left feet.
“You finds dat funny, do you, two left feet?”
Marianne burst into another crescendo of laughter. Étienne, who smiled to see his sister so gleeful, jumped in:
“Two left feet, ten toes of mincemeat, one big head of concrete . . .”
“Hihihi . . . !”
“Alright den, dat’s enough. Toto Sombrero’s not gonna wait all day fer de likes of tree turtles like us, now is ee.”
“Marianne Turtle, Étienne Turtle, Terry Turtle, Grandad Turtle, Granny Girdle . . .”
“Hihihi . . . !”
378.133.2
The Future
There is no apparent link between the numerals 1,728 (123) and 2,401 (492), other than that the former represents the structure of a novel and the second the structure of La Bibliothèque idéale.
379.21.3
More or Less Useful Details
“Do dese ’ere bottles cost a whole lot of money?”
Terry posed the question while pretending to look for a shirt in the closet, trying for a look of cool detachment. He certainly did not want to look like he was checking on how Carmen spent her money.
“A lot o’ money? Ha! More like an arm an’ a leg!”
“Is dat more’n payin’ troo de nose?”
“More, maybe.”
Carmen’s answer reassured Terry, because it opened the door to conciliation rather than confrontation.
“Well den, dat is expensive fer sure. I suppose a body could take it up as a hobby, like . . .”
Carmen found the idea comical, she’d never thought of her facial and skin care as a hobby. Terry explained himself:
“Dat’s de way of hobbies, doh, isn’t it? Makes you feel good, gives yer brain a bit of a rest, and always ends up costing a whole lot more’n you tot ’twould. Wedder it’s golf, electric trains, paintin’, bird watchin’, even sewin’, I figures . . .”
Carmen, for her part, saw it more as a necessity. But she had no intention of making a big deal out of it.
“I suppose you could look at it like that, if it helps to swallow de cost.”
380.107.1
Necessities
Acadians still use the verbs sourdre, ressoudre, and ersoudre rather than the more standard modern French jaillir, or surgir de meaning “to come up” or “arise from,” for example, someone coming up out of nowhere. Citing the French novelist François Mauriac, the Grand Robert dictionary includes sourdre used in this way. As for ressoudre, though it is unacknowledged by the Robert, Acadian author and winner of the Goncourt literary prize, Antonine Maillet, taking its pronunciation into account, has spelled it ersoudre. All these usages might ultimately produce an Acadian version of Lacanian concepts in the following variations: for Lacan’s “erring-in-discourse,” “ersoud-la-parole” instead of “errent-sous-la-parole”, while “the non-duped-err-in discourse” becomes “des non-dupes-ersoud-la-parole” instead of “des non-dupes-errent-sous-la-parole,” and finally “des Noms-du-Père sourd la parole” for “from the Names-of-the-Father discourse arises.”
381.58.2
Extensions
Back home with the children at the end of the day, Carmen found a note from Terry reminding her that he was having supper at his parents’ that evening.
“I’m hungry . . .”
Once again, Étienne’s appetite was reassuring to Carmen. She was still fearful that he might get his back up and refuse once and for all to go on with the film.
“Where’s Dad, Mum?”
“He’s havin’ supper in Dieppe, with Granny and Grandad.”
Étienne looked disappointed not to be having supper in Dieppe, too.
“We’ll go anudder time. It’s good for Terry to be eatin’ on his own with his mum and dad sometimes, just like you two’re eatin’ on our own with yer mum.”
The prospect of “eating on their own with their mum” did not seem to be cause for great celebration to the children, but Carmen wasn’t the sort to let that bother her.
382.26.5
The Movie
383.56.1
Pilgrimages
In the alphabetical listing of streets in L’Indispensable map of Paris, rue Sébastien-Bottin falls under b for Bottin. This short street in the seventh arrondissement, is an extension of what becomes the rue de Beaune south of rue de l’Université, then changes to rue de Montalembert, and merges with the rue du Bac. On a very ordinary plaque on the varnished wooden door of number 5, the letters nrf are engraved in Rondes Italic.
“Sure, but how’s a body to know if de real is de real fer real, an’ not nuttin’ more dan de imaginary or de symbolic?”
384.92.3
Questions without Answers
In North America, thériaque is a candy usually sold in the form of long red twists. The black version in the form of pipes and cigars is disappearing. Other varieties in different shapes, colours and flavours come and go on the market.
385.7.4
Useful Details
Carmen couldn’t sleep, thinking about the morrow:
“I’m thinkin’ ’twasn’t such a bright idea sendin’ the wee ones to make that film. You should’ve heard Étienne after supper. Tossin’ English all over the place. Candy over here an’ puddles over there, and dey put cement in it, and that was awesome, and now the boy wants a skateboard fer his birt’day.”
Terry, too, was beginning to worry about his son’s language:
“I knows it.”
“The whole thing’s discouraging.”
“Well, jus’ tell yerself der’s naught but two days to go . . .”
“Luh! ’Tis only gettin’ started! Folks say, once they set foot inside the schoolhouse, you can ferget it, it’s over!”
Terry thought Carmen was being overly defeatist.
“Don’t go takin’ it so hard, girl. Is it yer period yer expectin’ sometime soon?
386.26.6
The Movie
And finally, where the perfection of 73 meets the plenitude of 123:
7 × 7 × 7
=
12 × 12 ×
12
343
=
1,728
3 × 4 × 3
=
1 × 7 × 2 × 8
(3 × 4) × 3
=
(1 × 7) × 2 × 8
12 × 3
=
{(7) × 2} × 8
(1 × 2) × 3
=
14 × 8
2 × 3
=
(1 × 4) × 8
6
=
4 × 8
6
=
32
6
=
(3 × 2)
6
=
6
387.72.12
Equations
“So I’m wonderin’ did ee stab ’im fer real.”
. . .
“Lucky ting me own dad was a great guy. Only me mudder had a notion to kill ’im a couple o’ times.”
“An’ why’s dat?”
“She tot ee was flirtin’.”
“An was ee? Flirtin’, I mean.”
“Yaa. Turns out me mudder was right.”
. . .
“I guess ee wasn’t nice fer nuttin’.”
388.25.5
Murder
Marianne isn’t quite two years old. She was born May-one-two, as she puts it. She enjoys being Étienne’s little sister, and he takes his role of big brother seriously, making sure she doesn’t hurt herself, and teaching her to play.
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