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BauDebord/03: Romance&Anarchie!


1. Prelude & Introduction

Herve Villechaise was a dwarf, born in Paris France in 1943, best known to the mass culture of a quarter century ago for apprising Ricardo Montbalan of the presence of incoming aircraft. Fantasy Island reflected only one facet of his talent, but his true claim to posterity was assured by his contribution to the obscure cult film Forbidden Zone (Richard Elfman, 1980), where his character imperiously declared that the French are: "Ze master-race, direct descendents of Godd!"

Among the various nationalities of the world the French race do not possess a sole monopoly on pretensions to divine will to power, but they do display a particular talent for expressing it to an absurd extreme. The concept of the French race as "direct descendents of God" was actually argued in seeming dead seriousness in The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail, a book so ripe in potential self-parody that Umberto Eco was compelled to use it as a model for his conspiracy-theory novel, Foucault's Pendulum.

In itself, arrogance tends to be repellent when not ridiculous, but I must confess to sensing a certain je-ne-cest-quoi in French arrogance, an ability to pull off the distain and haughteur with a unique flair, a sense of style and 'elan'. What there is to admire in the French way of doing things is a sense that in certain approaches to life they have their priorities straight in a way which is lacking in America. Primary is the emphasis that living well consists of the enjoyment of fine wine and good food first and foremost, in my opinion a reasonably healthy priority (but as General DeGaulle once commented: "How can you govern a country with 256 different kinds of cheese?"). Also, there is the emphasis that the cultivation of arts and culture are as vital to a nation's sovereignity as military defense. Finally, there is the existential acceptance of the imperfections of life, dismissed with a Gallic shrug, but concealing a constant smouldering readiness to explode into rebellion when one's so-called betters get a bit too uppity. The French are a civilized race who cannot resist a good riot every once in a while to keep things from getting too complacent.

The French influence also dominates academic cultural theory in the world as we know it today, although as a pre-disclaimer I could mention that this fact will probably have a minimum effect on my presentation tonight.

Disclaimer:

For the record I would like to remind the audience that the views expressed here tonight are my own, and do not in any way reflect the views of the Toronto School of Art. I could add that it is not my intention to offend anyone, although I will be describing individuals who often offended a great many people, sometimes unintentionally, and sometimes quite intentionally.

My second disclaimer is that I am not taking a systematic approach to the personalities we are discussing tonight. I could confess that I have not devoted years of my life to post-grad education in this subject, and as a result it is entirely possible that anyone in the audience who has enjoyed (or endured) academic training in this field would certainly possesses a much more comprehensive overall grasp of French literature than I do. Furthermore, I could also confess that my fluency in the French language itself is barely primative: "Comment-Ca-va?-Oui-ca-va-bien..."

So given the limitations in my expertise in tonight's topic, a question which might come to mind in the audience is: You are probably wondering why I have asked you all here tonight?

The answer is that I am approaching this subject from the viewpoint of an amateur. In English this word implies 'incompetent'; while in the original French it might translate as 'one motivated by love'; my personal interpretation of this word might encompass both meanings. Tonight my intention is to illuminate (or perhaps remind us of) certain aspects of French culture which I find personally interesting, which I would like to share. It is not my intention or within my ability to indoctrinate a new, original, over-riding theory or ideology relating to French culture. My interest focuses on the personality and psychology of certain artists involved. I guess you could say that this is a superficial approach, but perhaps when we examine the individual psyche in all its imperfections we might sometimes encounter the universal reflected.

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