Don't you ever wonder what might be if you lived life free?
Don't you ever wonder what it's like to fly off the high dive?
Don't you think the dreams in you are meant to ever come true?
Don't you know that hopes are slaves 'till you free them and see them thru?
Can you find a little life in you and make your days and nights worth living?
I swear there's more for us to do; there's more for the taking and the giving
Want to build a kingdom of Heaven, so it's time to lay the foundation
Want to know my neighbors in the world and finally lay down idle speculation
This life of mine, this life of mine ain't the life I had in mind
But if I'm bold enough, wise enough, then I can make this life worthwhile
I can make this life worth a smile
Kareem Salama.
This Life of Mine
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
A word about the Jury
Whispered by the public prosecutor to Pappilon in court before the hearing.
"Prisoner at the bar, just you keep quiet, and above all don't you attempt to defend yourself. I'll send you down the drain, all right. And i trust you've no faith in the jury? Don't kid yourself. Those twelve men know nothing whatsoever about life. Look at them, lined up there opposite you. Twelve bastards brought up to Paris from some perishing village in the country: can you see them clearly? Small shopkeepers, pensioners, tradesmen. It's not worth describing them to you in detail. Surely you don't expect them to understand the life you lead in Montmartre or what it's like to be twenty-five? As far as they're concerned Pigalle and the Place Blanche are exactly the same as hell and all night-birds are natural enemies of society. They are all unspeakably proud of being jurymen at the Seine Assizes.
And what's more, I can tell you that they loathe their status - they loathe belonging to the pinched, dreary lower middle class. And now you make your appearance here, all young and handsome. Do you really suppose for a moment that I'm not going to make them see you as a night- prowling Montmatre Don Juan? That will put them dead against you right away. You're too well dressed: you ought to have come in something modest indeed. That was a huge tactical error of yours. Cant you see how jealous of your suit they are? They all buy their clothes off the peg - they've never even dreamt of having a suit made to measure by a tailor."
First Exercise Book, Down the Drain
The Assizes
Papillon by Henri Charriere
"Prisoner at the bar, just you keep quiet, and above all don't you attempt to defend yourself. I'll send you down the drain, all right. And i trust you've no faith in the jury? Don't kid yourself. Those twelve men know nothing whatsoever about life. Look at them, lined up there opposite you. Twelve bastards brought up to Paris from some perishing village in the country: can you see them clearly? Small shopkeepers, pensioners, tradesmen. It's not worth describing them to you in detail. Surely you don't expect them to understand the life you lead in Montmartre or what it's like to be twenty-five? As far as they're concerned Pigalle and the Place Blanche are exactly the same as hell and all night-birds are natural enemies of society. They are all unspeakably proud of being jurymen at the Seine Assizes.
And what's more, I can tell you that they loathe their status - they loathe belonging to the pinched, dreary lower middle class. And now you make your appearance here, all young and handsome. Do you really suppose for a moment that I'm not going to make them see you as a night- prowling Montmatre Don Juan? That will put them dead against you right away. You're too well dressed: you ought to have come in something modest indeed. That was a huge tactical error of yours. Cant you see how jealous of your suit they are? They all buy their clothes off the peg - they've never even dreamt of having a suit made to measure by a tailor."
First Exercise Book, Down the Drain
The Assizes
Papillon by Henri Charriere
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Papillon
I really enjoy reading fiction, i had assumed that non fiction was too close too reality and therefore boring, not able to hold my interest for long, focussing too much on inter-human relationships and menial day to day things...if i was going to invest time from my day to put into reading a book, i had always wanted it to exciting and daring; the opposite of how i see my own life, that way i could use it as a welcome escape to long boring weekends, between tedious chores.
Then some guy came along and requested that i read this specific book, an autobiography...damn i wasnt welcoming the task, and put it off for a few days before deciding to give it a chance...now im on page 45 out of 560, so thats almost 1/11 th...and so far im hooked, and i was impressed with the Translator's Introduction, a piece of which i will quote here;
"The new world in question is of course the underworld, seen from within and described with extraordinary natural talent by one who knows it through and through and who accepts it's values, which include among others courage, loyalty and fortitude. But this is the real underworld, as different from the underworld of fiction as the act of love is different from adolescent imaginings, a world the french have scarcely seen except here and there in the works of Jean Genet and Albertine Sarrazin, or the English before Defoe; and it's startling fierce uncompromising reality, savagely contemptuous of the Establishment, has shocked and distressed many a worthy bourgeois. Indeed we have a minister's word for it (a minister, no less) that the present hopeless moral decline of france is due to the wearing of miniskirts and to the reading of Papillon.
Nevertheless all properly equipped young women are still wearing miniskirts, in spite of the cold, and even greater numbers of Frenchmen with properly equipped minds are still reading Papillon, in spite of the uncomfortable feelings it must arouse form time to time. And this is one of the most striking things about the phenomenone Papillon: the book makes an immense appeal to the whole range of men of good will, from the Academie francaise to the cheerful young mason who is working on my house. "
Page 11, Translator's Introduction
Papillon by Henri Charriere
translated from French by Patrick O'Brian
Then some guy came along and requested that i read this specific book, an autobiography...damn i wasnt welcoming the task, and put it off for a few days before deciding to give it a chance...now im on page 45 out of 560, so thats almost 1/11 th...and so far im hooked, and i was impressed with the Translator's Introduction, a piece of which i will quote here;
"The new world in question is of course the underworld, seen from within and described with extraordinary natural talent by one who knows it through and through and who accepts it's values, which include among others courage, loyalty and fortitude. But this is the real underworld, as different from the underworld of fiction as the act of love is different from adolescent imaginings, a world the french have scarcely seen except here and there in the works of Jean Genet and Albertine Sarrazin, or the English before Defoe; and it's startling fierce uncompromising reality, savagely contemptuous of the Establishment, has shocked and distressed many a worthy bourgeois. Indeed we have a minister's word for it (a minister, no less) that the present hopeless moral decline of france is due to the wearing of miniskirts and to the reading of Papillon.
Nevertheless all properly equipped young women are still wearing miniskirts, in spite of the cold, and even greater numbers of Frenchmen with properly equipped minds are still reading Papillon, in spite of the uncomfortable feelings it must arouse form time to time. And this is one of the most striking things about the phenomenone Papillon: the book makes an immense appeal to the whole range of men of good will, from the Academie francaise to the cheerful young mason who is working on my house. "
Page 11, Translator's Introduction
Papillon by Henri Charriere
translated from French by Patrick O'Brian
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