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fitz-higgins · 2 years

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LGBT literature of the 1860s–1910s. Part 2

Ten more works! This time we have: a sci-fi novel by a transgender author, a major science study of homosexuality in the 19th century, Thomas Mann's homoerotic short story and more.

1. Two Loves, by Alfred Douglas (1894). This beautiful poem is a staple of gay culture, famous for its last line, the love that dare not speak its name, which became an euphemism for homosexuality and acted as code for homosexual men [see more about codes here]. [Read online]

2. Q. E. D., by Gertrude Stein (written in 1903, published in 1950). Based on Stein’s ill-fated relationship with May Bookstaver, this short story is about love between a young Adele and Helen. Interestingly, the story is the first novel that uses the word “queer” as a signifier of homosexual love. [Read online]

3. L'Immoraliste (The Immoralist), by André Gide André (1902). Another story of a married man who discovers that he is attracted to men, so much so that he virtually sacrifices her. Again, problematic, but offers an interesting insight as it is written by a homosexual (or bisexual) author who was familiar with gay community of France. [Read online in French or in English]

4. L’eredità di Saffo (Sappho’s Legacy), by Nada Peretti (1908). Out of scientific curiosity about lesbian relationships and after witnessing them in women’s boarding schools, Fede conducts a survey. The novel contains the results of this survey and also the letters from her friend Franz on this topic. The book is so explicit that Peretti was even tried for obscenity.

5. Fenny Skaller: Ein Leben der namenlosen Liebe (Fenny Skaller: A Life of the Nameless Love), by John Henry Mackay (1913). Another autobiographical novel that explores same-sex sexuality and the subject of “third sex” which was popular at that time. The protagonist, Fenny, discovers that he is not alone in his preferences through scientific studies. Curious, he studies sexology, but eventually comes to an identity that is resistant to theories of sexual intermediacy, mostly because of the way it describes homosexual people. Allow me an interesting quote: “He understood only so much: they had locked up his love in science’s wax-figure cabinet of monsters, of deformities and monstrosities of all kinds – there they had also classified him: among people with whom he had nothing in common, and could and would have nothing in common. But the love existed. It was there, and among those pages, filled with the confessions of the desperate, who did not understand themselves and who hoped for salvation from the doctor”. [Read online in English]

6. Beatrice the Sixteenth: Being the Personal Narrative of Mary Hatherley, M.B., Explorer and Geographer, by Irene Clyde (1909). Another Edwardian sci-fi (feminist utopia), written by a transgender author, no less! Mary Hatherley, an explorer, finds herself in a strange kingdom of Armeria where gender doesn’t seem to exists, and relationships are based on love and companionship, not sex.

7. The Claudine stories, by Colette (1900–1903: Claudine à l'école, Claudine à Paris, Claudine en ménage, Claudine s'en va). Semi-autobiographical story of Claudine and her journey from her school to the literary salons includes a lot of homoerotic motifs and describes Colette’s own experience in same-sex relationships. [Read all four novels in English or Claudine à l'école in French]

8. Tonio Kröger, by Thomas Mann (1903). A short story about a young man who is torn between his bourgeois and artistic heritage as well as between two sexualities as he falls in love both with a popular young man and with a young woman. [Read online in German or in English]

9. L’Affaire Oscar Wilde, by André Raffalovich (1895). Raffalovich was a poet, a critic of Oscar Wilde and for some time was considered the leading expert on homosexuality in France. In this essay he attacked Wilde, but not for homosexuality (he himself was a gay man, in relationship with John Gray) but for “encouraging vice in others”. Raffalovich did consider Wilde a criminal, but only because of the influence on “the vain youth”. [Read online in French, also available on Google Play]

10. Sexual Inversion (Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Vol. 2), by Havelock Ellis & John Addington Symonds (1900). Officially, this work’s author is only Ellis, because Symonds’ name was removed to avoid a scandal. He was a gay man and a very influental figure for homosexual men of the 19th century. This is the first English medical book about homosexuality. It explores same-sex relationships in different cultures and eras and classifies forms of “sexual inversion” in men and women. [Read online]

If you missed Part One, here it is! More to come. If you have suggestions feel free to submit them via comments, ask or DMs!

#lgbt literature #lgbt history #gay literature #lesbian literature #lesbian history #gay history #edwardian era #queer history #victorian literature #victorian era #blog: literature #blog: history

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misszura · 2 years

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👻💕📝

👻 do you believe in ghosts ?

Hard question. I mean, kinda yes, but not the movie type, to be honest i don't think, if they exists, they can change anything in the living world, like they're just watchers.

(Actually i have a friend who told me she can see and hear them, idk if it's true, but it helped her to mourn her father, so true or not it's cool for her)

💕 your two top fav fictional characters.

Ah! Really hard question.

Worst question, as if you asked me who his my favorite son/ daughter.

Question variable too, because if you asked me two years ago, i would have answered newt from the maze runner, or pitch black from rise of the guardians. Before I would have said blue from pokemon, or draco malfoy ? Oliver from "the counterfeiters" (a french novel by andré gides, if you want to read french littérature, it's a really good one, and it's really gay (surprising for a novel from that time)) ?

Today i will say Henry Bowers (if not I would feel like I betrayed him) and Nicholas Wilholm from the institute. (Stephen King knows my boys.)

Honorable mention for the rest of the Bowers gang because my boys are babies, i love them (ok, not Patrick, he isn't a baby, more like a brat, but huh, Stephen king knows my boys )

📝 fav quotes ?

Omg idk, so let's do a top !

The Canadian (Québec) version of Richie's "Rock Waaaar" the French (France) version says "baston de cailloux !" And the Canadian version is "baston de roooche" that made me laugh so much the first time I heard it, and now it's a running gag with my little brother.

Harry potter and the half blood prince's "There is no need to call me sir, professor."

Wentworth' "rejeton débile de mes reins féconds" I don't know the English version but "stupid offspring of my fertile kidneys" in It first book (when Richie want to see the movie)

Some poems (the lake last paragraph by Lamartine

"Ô temps ! suspends ton vol, et vous, heures propices !

Suspendez votre cours :

Laissez-nous savourer les rapides délices

Des plus beaux de nos jours !"

Because french poetry is cool.

I don't think I have more.

#zurask #fav quotes #fav character #ghosts #les faux monnayeurs #Henry Bowers #nicholas wilholm #Harry potter #richie tozier #Lamartine #le lac de Lamartine #newt #the maze runner #pokemon #blue

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talekeyebooks · 3 years

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The most inspiring literature quotes of all time

Get inspired by the world’s most recognized book quotes curated by the Talekey review team, – and make sure to read or re-read the books they come from.

There is some good in this world, and it’s worth fighting for.

– J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers

Well-behaved women seldom make history.

– Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History

It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.

– André Gide, Autumn Leaves

Who, being loved, is poor?

– Oscar Wilde, A Woman of No Importance

Every human life is worth the same, and worth saving.

– J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Get busy living, or get busy dying.

– Stephen King, Different Seasons

The goal isn’t to live forever, the goal is to create something that will.

– Chuck Palahniuk, Diary

Travel far enough, you meet yourself.

– David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas

None of us really changes over time. We only become more fully what we are.

– Anne Rice, The Vampire Lestat

Most people are nice when you finally see them.

– Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

Don’t panic.

– Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

All endings are also beginnings. We just don’t know it at the time.

– Mitch Albom, The Five People You Meet In Heaven

When someone leaves, it’s because someone else is about to arrive.

– Paulo Coelho, The Zahir

It’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.

– Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

For more of the classics, check out Talekey and subscribe today.

#books #ebooks #talekey review #talekey reviews

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loyalnprecious · 3 years

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@the-wip-project Day 29

First, thank you for pointing out ProWritingAid! I'm using it right now and the advice it gives is so much more consistent than Grammarly! The advice is really enlightening; I'm learning important things!

The question now:

What's a common theme in your writing?

There's no way to tackle that question other than directly: Family relationships are central to all my stories, and more specifically, how the individual can let their personality grow, express themselves and fulfil their goals or dreams in and out of the family circle.

One of my school years's reads (and study) had been "Nourritures Terrestres" by André Gide, from which the famous quote "Famille, je vous hais!" (Family, I hate you) comes from. I remember it had resonated powerfully inside me at the time, dealing with complicated relationships with my own family. The theme in the book advocated existentialist theories, advocating an individualistic stance, disobedience to educational principles, on the premise that a family was a closed-off space, where jealousy and pettiness festered, where sexism and other forms of moral violence thrived. The book dates back from 1897 and of course society was not what it was when I was a teen (Good Lord, thank you) but some representations were sadly still current (and still are, to be honest)

It turned out that it took nothing more to shed a different light on what was happening around me. And although I never took such a drastic decision as to disown my family, like Gide advised, I started thinking about what my place was, and what I wanted it to be. Ironically, I decided little about what happened thereafter; I more or less watched things happen with painful clarity, never knowing what to do with what was thrown at me. I'm a firm believer in communication; so nothing is more frustrating than when it doesn't work. Misunderstanding was ripe, division reigned, and living far away didn't help.

In hindsight, I still don't know what I could have done differently, and although I reached an even state of satisfaction in my personal life, my family is the shadow of what it used to be. I did reach that state where I can express myself freely and be at peace with whom I want to be. Outside of my family indeed; but it saddens me to no end.

So, yeah, no surprise my stories are mostly all about family misunderstandings, secrets, division and reconciliation, hurt and comfort.

#100daysofwriting #writblr #creative writing #writing practice

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just-a-caffeine-addict · 3 years

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Quotes Accrued in a Decade

“…as you well know, the source of the Nile remained invisible to those who lived next to it for a thousand years. Identifying it required a stranger. (A fresh pair of eyes may see what others miss)” –Sherlock Holmes (From The Perils of Sherlock Holmes: Short Stories)

“A couple of years before he died, I kissed my father goodbye. He said, ‘Son, you haven’t kissed me since you were a little boy.’ It went straight to my heart, and I kissed him whenever I saw him after that, and my sons and I always kiss whenever we meet.” –Terry Wogan

“A wise man makes his own decisions, an ignorant man follows the public opinion.” –Chinese Proverb

“All great truths begin as blasphemies.” –George Bernard Shaw

“An army of donkeys led by a lion is better than an army of lions led by a donkey.” –Genghis Khan

"An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it." –Mahatma Gandhi

“Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.” –Cesar A. Cruz

“As we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.” –Marianna Williamson

“Ask not what your country can do for you –ask what you can do for your country.” –John Kennedy

“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply give you courage.” –Lao Tzu

“Better the devil you know than the devil you don't know.” –English Proverb

“Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.” –George Bernard Shaw

“By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.” –Confucius

“Can you really have a bad experiment? I don’t know. But can you have a bad result? Yes.” — EvanAndKatelyn (From Can Resin Preserve a Pumpkin Carving?)

“canon is but the sandbox in which i strike lightning to form glass. trouble me no more with your quibblings and quorums, lest i grind you to dust beneath my heel and build stories from the remnants of your bones. Avast, foul fiend” —taako waititi (From Tumblr)

“Civil war? What does that mean? Is there any foreign war? Isn't every war fought between men, between brothers?” —Victor Hugo

“Cucullus non facit monachum (A cowl does not make a monk).” – Fool/Feste (From Twelfth Night)

“Demons run when a good man goes to war…” –River Song (From Doctor Who)

“Due to high cost of ammo, there will be NO WARNING SHOTS FIRED.” –Warning sign

“Every couple needs to argue now and then. Just to prove that the relationship is strong enough to survive. Long-term relationships, the ones that matter, are all about weathering the peaks and the valleys.” –Nicholas Sparks (From Safe Haven)

“Everyone gives the title of barbarism to everything that is not in use in his own country.” –Michel de Montaigne (From Of Cannibals)

“Families are the compass that guide us. They are the inspiration to reach great heights, and our comfort when we occasionally falter.” –Brad Henry

“Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Fools take a knife and stab people in the back. The wise take a knife, cut the cord, and set themselves free from the fools.” –Unknown

“Forget injuries, never forget kindnesses.” –Chinese Proverb

“Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.” –Thomas Edison

“Herr, wirf Hern vom Himmel -oder Steine, Hauptsache er trifft (Lord, throw some brains from the heavens -or stones, as long as he hits the mark)!” –German Proverb

“History is for human self-knowledge...the only clue to what man can do is what man has done. The value of history, then, is that it teaches us what man has done and thus what man is.” —R.G. Collingwood

“Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility.” –James Thurber

“I can pretend I’m a fish, but I shouldn’t try to breathe underwater.” –Unknown

“I have the patience of a saint. Saint Cunty McFuckOff.” –Words on a cup

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 1,000 ways that won’t work.” –Thomas Edison

“I made some good deals and I made some bad ones. I really went in the hole with this one.” –Quote on a grave

“I occasionally think, how quickly our differences worldwide would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world. And yet, I ask is not an alien force ALREADY among us?” –Ronald Reagan

“If I have seen further than others, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” –Isaac Newton

“If our impulses were confined to hunger, thirst, and desire, we might nearly be free; but now we are moved by every wind that blows, and a chance word or scene that that word may convey to us.” –Victor Frankenstein (From Frankenstein)

“If the world tells me I’m mad, whereas I know I’m not, which of us is right? Thus, being mad is what? Inventing a life one hasn’t lived or loving a woman met in another lifetime? Is it clinging to unsatisfied desires?..” Doriel (From A Mad Desire to Dance)

“If you’re afraid - don’t do it, - if you’re doing it - don’t be afraid!” –Genghis Khan

“If you’re going to be a writer, the first essential is just to write. Do not wait for an idea. Start writing something and the ideas will come. You have to turn the faucet on before the water starts to flow.” —Louis L’Amour

"If you're not asking the questions in a thoughtful way, you're not going to get any results that are useful or interesting." –Tony Wagner

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.” –John Quincy Adams

“I'm the one that's got to die when it's time for me to die, so let me live my life the way I want to.” –Jimi Hendrix (From Axis: Bold as Love)

"Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet has free access to the sum of all human knowledge." –Jimmy Wales (Founder of Wikipedia)

"In caucus terrae, luscus rex est (In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king)." –Latin Adage

“In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” –Abraham Lincoln

“In time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” –George Orwell

“It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.” –André Gide (From Autumn Leaves)

"It's not that I'm so smart. But I stay with the questions much longer." –Albert Einstein

“It’s true. I forget important things sometimes… Sometimes I do think I should give up-- just let the crown win and the world freeze, with me in it. Some days I can’t remember a single reason to keep fighting. Some… Some days I-- I can’t remember her. But giving up’s EASY. You know what’s hard? To BELIEVE in your own worth, to KNOW you’ve got something special in you even if nobody else can see it. Even when YOU can’t.” –Ice King |Simon Petrikov from Adventure Time

“Learn yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.” –Albert Einstein

“Learning to trust is one of life’s most difficult tasks.” –Isaac Watts

“Life is a dream for the wise, a game for the fool, a comedy for the rich, a tragedy for the poor.” –Sholom Aleichem

“Love is friendship that has caught fire. It is quiet understanding, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving. It is loyalty through good and bad times. It settles for less than perfection and makes allowances for human weaknesses.” –Ann Landers

“Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.” –James Baldwin

“Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose.” —“The Wonder Years”

“My family is my strength and my weakness.” –Aishwarya rai Bachchan

“Names are the sweetest and the most important sounds in any language.” –Dale Carnegie

“No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.” –Mary Wollstonecraft

"No mortal can keep a secret. If his lips are silent, he chatters with his fingertips." –Sigmund Freud

“No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.” –Lin Yutang

“NO TRESPASSING. Violators will be shot; Survivors will be shot again.” –Warning Sign

“Nobody knows you as well as our spouse. And that means no one will be quicker to recognize a change when you deliberately start sacrificing your wants and wishes to make sure his or her needs are met.” –Stephen Kendrick from The Love Dare

“Notice: Anyone found here at night will be found here in the morning.” –Warning Sign

“"One thing nature is very good at is creating incredibly complex microscopic structures. That's because nature's machines are the size of molecules, while our crude versions are the size of rooms." –Theodore Gray (from Molecules: The Elements and Architecture of Everything)

“Only the sufferers know how their bellies ache.“ –Burmese

“People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war, or before an election.” –Otto von Bismarck

“People think intimacy is about sex. But intimacy is about truth. When you realize you can tell someone your truth, when you can show yourself to them, when you stand in front of them bare and their response is ‘You’re safe with me’ - that’s intimacy.” –Taylor Jenkins Reid (From The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo)

“Play taps for my ass, cause it’s dead as hell.” –Unknown Quote

“Six of one, half a dozen of the other. (It doesn't matter which one we choose; Equally involved, equally responsible)”

“Sometimes people are beautiful. Not in looks. Not in what they say. Just in what they are.” –Markus Zusak (From I Am the Messenger)

“Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.” –Theodore Roosevelt

“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can” –Arthur Ashe

“Take nothing but pictures; Leave nothing but footprints; Kill nothing but time.” –Caver’s Creed

“Take with a pinch of salt (Don’t completely believe what’s told).”

“The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other’s life.” –Richard Bach

“The end of one thing is only the beginning of another.” –Unknown

“The family is a haven in a heartless world.” –Attributed to Christopher Lasch

“The helper seeks to help others because he knows what it is to be helpless.” –’ Zen’ Wander (From Wander Over Yonder)

"The million-dollar question: Why aren't we kinder? The second million-dollar question: How might we become more loving, more open, less selfish, more present, less

delusional?" –George Sanders

“The need for a body of common knowledge and common reference ...grows more necessary so that people of different origins and occupation may quickly find common ground and, as we say, speak a common language...it also ensures a kind of mutual confidence and good will. One is not addressing an alien, blank as a stone wall, but a responsive creature whose mind is filled with the same images, memories, and vocabulary as oneself.” —Jacques Barzun

“The ones that stay with you through everything - they're your true best friends. Don't let go of them.” –Marilyn Monroe

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself!” –Roosevelt

“The only time you should look in your neighbor's bowl is to make sure you have enough.” –Louie CK

“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.” –Albert Camus

“The sacrifice which causes sorrow to the doer of the sacrifice is no sacrifice. Real sacrifice lightens the mind of the doer and gives him a sense of peace and joy. The Buddha gave up the pleasures of life because they had become painful to him.” –Mahatma Gandhi

“The secret of a good memory is attention, and attention to a subject depends upon our interest in it. We rarely forget that which has made a deep impression on our minds.” —Tryon Edwards

“The secret to humor is surprise.” –Aristotle

“The surplus wealth of the few will become, in the best sense, the property of many, because administered for the common good.” –Andrew Carnegie

“The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.” –G.K. Chesterson

"The word 'why' not only taught me to ask, but also to think. And thinking has never hurt anyone. On the contrary, it does us all a world of good." –Anne Frank

“The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong in the broken places.” –Ernest Hemingway From A Farewell To Arms

“There is no satisfaction in vengeance unless the offender has time to realize who it is that strikes him, and why retribution had come upon him.” –Jefferson Hope From Sherlock’s Adventures

“There will be something you hate in every job. The trick is finding a job where you love the good parts enough to make up for the crappy parts.” –post

“There’s a name for you ladies, but it isn’t used in high society… outside of a kennel.” –Crystal (From The Women of 1939)

“Though we tremble before uncertain futures… may we dance in the face of our fears.” –Gloria Anzaldua

“To forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.” –Elie Wiesel (From Night)

“Un sot trouve toujours un plus sot qui l’admire (A fool always finds a fool to admire him).” – Sherlock Holmes (French translation)

“We’re taught Lord Acton’s axiom: all power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely[...] I believed that when we started these books, but I don’t believe it’s always true anymore. [...] What I believe is always true about power is that power always reveals. When you have enough power to do what you always wanted to do, then you see what the guy always wanted to do.” –Robert A. Caro

“We call that person who has lost his father, an orphan; and a widower that man who has lost his wife. But that man who has known the immense unhappiness of losing a friend, by what name do we call him? Here every language is silent and holds its peace in impotence.” –Joseph Roux

“What we have done to ourselves alone, dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal.” –Brother Albert Pike

“When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.” –Henry Ford

“When you wish upon a star, you’re a few million light years late. That star is dead. Just like your dreams.” –Unknown

“When you’re a brat, running fast is enough to make you popular. When you’re a middle-schooler, the guys who can fight will be popular, and after that it’s the guys with brains who can get the girls.” –Master of Protagonist (From The Fruit of Grisaia)

“Where we love is home –home where our feet may leave, but not our hearts.” –Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

“Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something.” –Plato

“You are the company you keep.” –Unknown

“You must be imaginative, strong-hearted. You must try things that may not work, and you must not let anyone define your limits because of where you come from. Your only limit is your soul" –Chef Gusteau (From Ratatouille)

“You walk around a drunk, you get a tired drunk. Splash ‘em with water, you get a wet drunk. Give ‘em a coffee, you’ve got a wide-awake drunk…” –Unknown

#quotes #sayings #everything associated honestly #some I need to review

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the-muses-are-herd · 4 years

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12?

12. Is there a quote from a piece of literature that holds great value to you? What is it and why is it important to you?

Several I think, heh.

But to choose one…

Here, one by André Gide, that I find important both in terms of “Why do I write what I write” and, sincerely in life overall:

“It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.”

You will find a lot of people online who will tell you that they, indeed, hate Gide or his writings. Which, really, only makes the quote all the more poignant.

#Mun #mephrum

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lassmedia · 4 years

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Short Inspirational Quotes from Books

A quote shorter than a tweet? It’s possible. Here are some of the best inspiratonal quotes ever, and boy are they short!

“Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.”

—The Minpins by Roald Dahl

“Be yourself and people will like you.”

—Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

“It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.”

—Autumn Leaves by André Gide

“Sometimes weak and wan, sometimes strong and full of light. The moon understands what it means to be human.”

—Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

“The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease forever to be able to do it.”

—Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

“Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.”

—Phrynette Married by Marthe Troly-Curtin

“When you can’t find someone to follow, you have to find a way to lead by example.”

—Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay

“She decided long ago that life was a long journey. She would be strong, and she would be weak, and both would be okay.”

—Furthermore by Tahereh Mafi

“One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes.”

—The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

“The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.”

—The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath

“Hoping for the best, prepared for the worst, and unsurprised by anything in between.”

—I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

“It is a curious thought, but it is only when you see people looking ridiculous that you realize just how much you love them.”

—An Autobiography by Agatha Christie

“And, now that you don’t have to be perfect you can be good.”

—East of Eden by John Steinbeck

“A friend may be waiting behind a stranger’s face.”

—Letter to My Daughter by Maya Angelou

“We all require devotion to something more than ourselves for our lives to be endurable.”

—Being Mortal by Atul Gawande

“There is never a time or place for true love. It happens accidentally, in a heartbeat, in a single flashing, throbbing moment.”

—The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen

“Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.”

—Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

“Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done.”

—Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson

“It was all very well to be ambitious, but ambition should not kill the nice qualities in you.”

—Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild

“Just because your version of normal isn’t the same as someone else’s version doesn’t mean that there’s anything wrong with you.

—The Terrible Thing That Happened to Barnaby Brocket by John Boyne

“You are your best thing.”

—Beloved by Toni Morrison

“There is some good in this world, and it’s worth fighting for.”

—The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien

“There is nothing sweeter in this sad world than the sound of someone you love calling your name.”

—The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo

“I don’t understand it any more than you do, but one thing I’ve learned is that you don’t have to understand things for them to be.”

—A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

“Isn’t it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?”

—Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

“It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.”

—The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

“‘What day is it?’, asked Winnie the Pooh.

‘It’s today,’ squeaked Piglet.

‘My favorite day,’ said Pooh.”

—The Adventures of Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne

“I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.”

—Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

“So many things are possible just as long as you don’t know they’re impossible.”

—The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

“Love doesn’t just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new.”

—The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin

For more of the classics, check out www.lassmedia.com today.

#quotes #motivate #inspiration #writing #success #motivation #inspire #ebooks #books

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fascinomae · 2 years

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André Gide On Writing

Authors’ reflections on writing from my curated collection of literary #quotes #inspiration #writing

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#Art #Inspiration #Quotes #Writing

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didierleclair · 4 years

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When the written word becomes black

WHEN THE WRITTEN WORD BECOMES BLACK

What does it mean to be French speaking and from African roots? How to attempt to explain why people of African background keep French as their principal way of expression?

The challenge lies on the contentious issue that exists between people of African origin and French language. This was the language of the slave owners and the colonizers. During the Age of Enlightenment, philosophers like Voltaire expressed their racist views about Black people freely. L'Essai sur les Mœurs et l'esprit des Nations by Voltaire (1756) is written proof of this fact. (I will keep all quotes in French.) His description of African physical features is degrading.

« Leurs yeux ronds, leur nez épaté, leurs lèvres toujours grosses, leurs oreilles différemment figurées, la laine de leur tête, la mesure même de leur intelligence, mettent entre eux et les autres espèces d'hommes des différences prodigieuses. Et ce qui démontre qu'ils ne doivent point cette différence à leur climat, c'est que des nègres et des négresses transportés dans les pays les plus froids y produisent toujours des animaux de leur espèce, et que les mulâtres ne sont qu'une race bâtarde d'un noir et d'une blanche, ou d'un blanc et d'une noire. »

Many versions of this book have been expurgated but Victor Hugo said, « Voltaire, disons-le avec joie et tristesse, c’est l’esprit français ».

Colonialism is also a contentious issue however the difference is that Africans were not unrooted from their continent. This is what you can read from André Gide and his book Voyage au Congo (1927) : « Près de moi, tandis que j’écris ces lignes, un gentil petit macaque qu’on est venu m’apporter ce matin, que l’aspect de mon visage blanc terrifie. Il bondit se réfugier dans les bras de n’importe quel indigène qui passe à sa portée. »

His zoological language to define Africans was normal for this Nobel Prize laureate in literature in 1947. André Gide adds : « Les nègres nus crient, rient et se querellent en montrant des dents de cannibales. » We are into cannibalism now according to him.

French literature is full of racist passages targeting Africans; yet, today, Africans and descendants of Africans are among the most outspoken artists defending French language, commonly known as la Francophonie.

The first reason is simple. Even if Frantz Fanon said that words coming from France would define Black people and take away their right to define themselves, Aimé Césaire decided to say that his black essence, his negritude will shape his way of writing French.

« ma négritude n’est ni une tour ni une cathédrale/elle plonge dans la chair rouge du sol/

elle plonge dans la chair ardente du ciel/elle troue l’accablement opaque de sa droite patience. »

André Breton, the surrealist poet, in his introduction to Césaire book of poetry (Cahier d’un retour au pays natal, 1939), will write : « Toutes [les] ombres grimaçantes se déchiraient (...), tous [les] mensonges, toutes les dérisions tombaient en loques : ainsi la voix de l'homme n'était en rien brisée, couverte, elle se redressait ici comme l'épi même de la lumière. Aimé Césaire, c'était le nom de celui qui parlait. »

André Breton admits that Césaire took French and used it as a weapon to tell his story, the story of Black people.

Aimé Césaire, Léopold Sédar Senghor and Léon Gontran Damas decided, at the beginning of the last century, to use French as a weapon against oppression in the literary movement called Negritude. After them, most writers of African origin used their path. They plunged their pen in a furious or rebellious ink to express themselves with no complex and no burden.

We, francophones of African background, have taken over the French language in a colossal battle against the former colonizer who refuses to admit that we modernized the French language, we impregnated French, filled her up with the venom of truth, truth about who we are, human beings like others.

When former French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, in July 2007, gave a 50 minutes speech in Dakar, Senegal, he spread lies and racist concepts about Africans and Black people in general. He said the Africans never completely entered in History and they are nostalgic of the past.

« L'homme africain n'est pas assez entré dans l'Histoire. […] Le problème de l'Afrique, c'est qu'elle vit trop le présent dans la nostalgie du paradis perdu de l'enfance. […] Dans cet imaginaire où tout recommence toujours, il n'y a de place ni pour l'aventure humaine ni pour l'idée de progrès ».

President Emmanuel Macron, in July 2018, at L’Alliance française in Lagos, Nigéria showed his contempt for Africans. According to him, 8 or 9 kids per woman will keep Africa in poverty.

« Quand vous êtes un pays pauvre, où vous laissez la démographie galopante, où vous avez 7, 8 enfants par femme, vous ne sortez jamais de la pauvreté. Même quand vous avez un taux de croissance de 5 à 6 % vous n'arrivez jamais à en sortir. »

All these misconception about Africans show France (and other dominant French speaking countries), their incapacity to accept an undeniable fact: Black people are autonomous, and masters of their socio-cultural destiny. The increase of the Francophone population in Africa is a threat to French speaking westerners or a blessing. It all depends on the place they get or the place they take within the francophone organization. Furthermore, stating that Africans have not completely entered History is ludicrous. Take the sculptures of Ousmane Sow shown all over the world, take the Hip Hop phenomenon; think of Usain Bolt, the fastest men on the planet. We have so much entered History that people copy us. What make the French speaking black person an indomitable presence, it’s the unshakable force that we share with other Black culture. It worries people like Nicolas Sarkozy or Emmanuel Macron.

Let’s talk about French speaking artists of African origin in Ontario. These people contribute a great deal to the French speaking culture in Ontario. In music, you can mention Yao, he is a specialist of slam, spoken word with music; there are others in poetry and fiction. This fact doesn’t take away what started with the counterculture movement and the music of CANO. The precursors like Robert Dickson and Jean-Marc Dalpé don’t have the same choice of words in their writing compared to the Africans. Works of writers of African origin in Ontario use a lexical that has the imprint of the slavery whip and the spit of colonizers. This imprint is unconscious, but it has the revolutionary reverberation of Césaire, Senghor et L.-G. Damas. This lexical creates novels like Bangkok Blues by Hédi Bouraoui, originally from Tunisia.

There is a way to notice the difference between French speaking writers from African culture and authors who ancestors came from Quebec. One must mention the Franco-Ontarian poet Patrice Desbiens who lives in Québec, now for many years. He became quickly the poet of the intellectual in Quebec and people forget that he is originally from Ontario. His best works has been done in Ontario and it is about the English-speaking oppression and the unease of his own identity (L’homme invisible/The invisible man, 1981).

This phenomenon of changing identity (or highjacked identity) can never happen to a Francophone of African origin in Canada. There is always, in Black culture, an historical and a contemporary unresolved issue. If it’s not about French presidents (and Canadian leaders) belittle people of Black culture, there are new urban issues like police violence and discrimination in the employment sector. Black authors dip their pen in these open wounds to come up with an uncompromised voice. There is no retreat towards Quebec: we have our backs against the wall.

The Francophone of African origin looks like this Black man waving a red rag in the painting of Théodore Géricault, The raft of the Medusa (1818-1819). He is on top of everybody, helped by others of course, but on top because his despair is the sum of many injustices and this raft painted by Géricault is the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Didier Leclair, writer

#writers #negritude #literature #littérature #aimecesaire #senghor

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