This entire article can be summarized with one of the most basic axioms of political science: “the candidate closest to the center wins.”
Macron won because he siphoned off a portion of the Right (I’m so sick of the term Far-Right) and the Left (how come it’s never called Far-Left?) to add to his pool of rather politically-disengaged, go-along-get-along, don’t-make-me-think-too-much voters that occupy the center in every republic on Earth.
Thanks, that’s very much appreciated. I’ve spent a couple of weekends in Ivry with friends who live there. The local tabac really does have St Just’s name over the door.
Cryptique! I lived in Paris for a short period about ten years ago, and have sort of kept up my subfluent and now rather rusty French. A few years ago I wrote the sonnet below, which is an extended metaphor for my mounting ennui as I approached the end of a project to write 155 sonnets (i.e. one more than Shakespeare). It’s been published twice, in the French Literary Review and in The Hypertexts.
……….
From the Sonnets, Mostly Bristolian, by Richard Craven Sonnet 141
Après avoir ces cent quarante écrits,
je suis épuisé et me considère
une langue craquée léchante, dedans, un puits
empli d’une boue visqueuse, d’une croûte grossière.
Il en reste quinze encore, coincés, cachés:
des crapauds rotants que les murs moussus
font résonner. Enfin, bloquée, fâchée,
la langue, toute sèche et vulgaire devenue,
va bifurquer, et désormais siffler.
Chaque midi, pour un instant, le soleil
éclaire cette vie grimpante – viens regarder!
Voilà en bas, frétillante et vermeille,
la langue, les crapauds fugitifs, la chasse
avant que l’ombre couvre la disgrâce.
Last edited 1 year ago by Drahcir Nevarc
Dustin Needle
1 year ago
Imagine no EU John. It’s easy if you try.
FABRE Julien
1 year ago
France isn’t a querulous country. To think that wanting a counter-power to Macron is not a revolt.It is a salutary democratic act. But it seems that John Lichfield’s glasses do not allow to observe this.
This entire article can be summarized with one of the most basic axioms of political science: “the candidate closest to the center wins.”
Macron won because he siphoned off a portion of the Right (I’m so sick of the term Far-Right) and the Left (how come it’s never called Far-Left?) to add to his pool of rather politically-disengaged, go-along-get-along, don’t-make-me-think-too-much voters that occupy the center in every republic on Earth.
“(I’m so sick of the term Far-Right) and the Left (how come it’s never called Far-Left?)”
Well said.
The ‘pool of rather politically disengaged’ favour Macron’s Far Centre. A single Left/Right political axis is increasingly insufficient.
From the Odes, Epigrams, & Further Sonnets, by Richard Craven:-
XXIV
Sonnet Concerning a Banlieue
Ivry-sur-Seine is difficult to love.
The revolution’s curdled here; St Just
has loaned his name to the tabac. Above,
the chimneys belch their Promethean dust
into the cold hard blank November sky.
The matchstick men from Mali and Algiers
trudge past the concrete cake mix, and the pie
of unfinished apartment blocks. No tears
were shed for beauty, no Lautréamont
has milked this abscess for its clotted crème.
La France Soumise spunked dry for Mélenchon’s
bijou apartment in the 10ième:
Versailles’ most elegantly velvet fist
replaced the Marquis with a communist.
What a wonderful evocation, thank you.
Thanks, that’s very much appreciated. I’ve spent a couple of weekends in Ivry with friends who live there. The local tabac really does have St Just’s name over the door.
I can almost smell the absinthe and Disque Bleu!
I trust you won’t mind my asking if you’re of the French persuasion yourself?
Almost, but not quite, even after three score years and ten.
Cryptique! I lived in Paris for a short period about ten years ago, and have sort of kept up my subfluent and now rather rusty French. A few years ago I wrote the sonnet below, which is an extended metaphor for my mounting ennui as I approached the end of a project to write 155 sonnets (i.e. one more than Shakespeare). It’s been published twice, in the French Literary Review and in The Hypertexts.
……….
From the Sonnets, Mostly Bristolian, by Richard Craven
Sonnet 141
Après avoir ces cent quarante écrits,
je suis épuisé et me considère
une langue craquée léchante, dedans, un puits
empli d’une boue visqueuse, d’une croûte grossière.
Il en reste quinze encore, coincés, cachés:
des crapauds rotants que les murs moussus
font résonner. Enfin, bloquée, fâchée,
la langue, toute sèche et vulgaire devenue,
va bifurquer, et désormais siffler.
Chaque midi, pour un instant, le soleil
éclaire cette vie grimpante – viens regarder!
Voilà en bas, frétillante et vermeille,
la langue, les crapauds fugitifs, la chasse
avant que l’ombre couvre la disgrâce.
Imagine no EU John. It’s easy if you try.
France isn’t a querulous country. To think that wanting a counter-power to Macron is not a revolt.It is a salutary democratic act. But it seems that John Lichfield’s glasses do not allow to observe this.