{"id":5560,"date":"2014-05-01T23:26:03","date_gmt":"2014-05-02T03:26:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=5560"},"modified":"2018-08-24T15:53:13","modified_gmt":"2018-08-24T19:53:13","slug":"thursday-may-1-2014-rue-de-kergillac-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=5560","title":{"rendered":"Thursday, May 1, 2014 \u2014 Rue de Kergallic"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201c<\/span>Art is not free\u00addom from dis\u00adci\u00adpline, but Dis\u00adci\u00adplined Free\u00addom.<\/em>\u201d \u2014 Edward Catich<\/span><\/p>\n

\"14-05-01<\/span><\/a>I must tell you some\u00adthing of the peo\u00adple I\u2019m stay\u00ading with. Noth\u00ading I write could pos\u00adsi\u00adbly con\u00advey the plea\u00adsure I expe\u00adri\u00adenced in meet\u00ading them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Del\u00adphine Decloedt and Didi\u00ader Durassier live in a lit\u00adtle bun\u00adga\u00adlo in Saint Barth\u00e9le\u00admy, on the qui\u00adet lane that leads to l\u2019\u00e9tan <\/em>(the pond) de Ker\u00adgal\u00adlic<\/em>. The house, true to medieval tra\u00addi\u00adtion, com\u00adbines the func\u00adtions of home and ate\u00adlier, and opens onto a delight\u00adful\u00adly anar\u00adchic gar\u00adden. Their chil\u00addren are intel\u00adli\u00adgent, polite (well, lit\u00adtle Arthur can be stub\u00adborn, some\u00adtimes!) and tal\u00adent\u00aded. Didi\u00ader is well known in Bre\u00adton music cir\u00adcles as a per\u00adformer on bin\u00adiou<\/em>, veuse<\/em> and bom\u00adbarde<\/em>, as a mem\u00adber of the band Penn Kazh, and as Brittany\u2019s most accom\u00adplished crafts\u00adman-sculp\u00adtor of tra\u00addi\u00adtion\u00adal instru\u00adments. Del\u00adphine is a painter and cal\u00adlig\u00adra\u00adph\u00ader (Grand prix du pres\u00adtige Europ\u00e9en des Arts et Belles Let\u00adtres, Com\u00adman\u00addeur de l\u2019or\u00addre de l\u2019E\u00adtoile de l\u2019Eu\u00adrope<\/em>). When, I stepped into the house, M\u00e9lis\u00adsande was play\u00ading some Satie on the piano. She came across as qui\u00adet, but not timid. Liam already has the \u201ccool\u201d of French cin\u00ade\u00adma idols. Arthur is a rein\u00adcar\u00adna\u00adtion of Christo\u00adpher Robin.<\/span><\/p>\n

In this charm\u00ading set\u00adting, the fam\u00adi\u00adly pur\u00adsues numer\u00adous inter\u00adests. They are sci\u00adence fic\u00adtion fans, his\u00adtor\u00adi\u00adcal re-enac\u00adtors, ama\u00adteur astronomers, medieval\u00adists, nature lovers. They are not pas\u00adsive con\u00adsumers. Part of their liv\u00adings are made from orga\u00adniz\u00ading and man\u00adag\u00ading par\u00adtic\u00adi\u00adpa\u00adto\u00adry events that com\u00adbine schol\u00adar\u00adship, Bre\u00adton tra\u00addi\u00adtions, mod\u00adern pop cul\u00adture, and fun. They orga\u00adnize Quid\u00additch tournaments!<\/span><\/p>\n

The lit\u00adtle house is stuffed with books, musi\u00adcal instru\u00adments, and arti\u00adfacts. Over a late-night snack, Del\u00adphine brought out a series of lit\u00adtle trea\u00adsures for me to con\u00adtem\u00adplate, cul\u00admi\u00adnat\u00ading in a set of Byzan\u00adtine ear\u00adrings. We could not resist unsci\u00aden\u00adtif\u00adic spec\u00adu\u00adla\u00adtion \u2014 I was pre\u00adpared to swear that the Empress Theodo\u00adra tore them off in a rage at Belis\u00adar\u00adius. I was made a gift, to my aston\u00adish\u00adment, of an 1846 edi\u00adtion of Th. Her\u00adsart de La Villemarqu\u00e9\u2019s Barzaz-Breiz: chants pop\u00adu\u00adlaires de la Bre\u00adtagne<\/em>, which I pored over in the warm sun\u00adlight of the gar\u00adden. This book was instru\u00admen\u00adtal in the nine\u00adteenth-cen\u00adtu\u00adry roman\u00adtic revival of Bre\u00adton lan\u00adguage and music. I was pleased to see in the lyrics the asso\u00adnance and con\u00adso\u00adnance that give Bre\u00adton songs their vigour, and allow them to appeal even to those who can\u00adnot under\u00adstand the lan\u00adguage. I also noticed that there were a large num\u00adber of songs about the chouans<\/em>, the Roy\u00adal\u00adist rebels of Mayenne and Brit\u00adtany dur\u00ading the Rev\u00ado\u00adlu\u00adtion, described by Balzac in Les Chouans<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The book also embod\u00adies an unex\u00adpect\u00aded irony, for it indi\u00adrect\u00adly helped the process that replaced Bre\u00adton with French. This was cer\u00adtain\u00adly not the inten\u00adtion of the author, whose love of the Bre\u00adton lan\u00adguage was sin\u00adcere. How\u00adev\u00ader, he was a priest. The dri\u00adve for the reten\u00adtion of Bre\u00adton in the nine\u00adteenth cen\u00adtu\u00adry came large\u00adly from priests and local aris\u00adto\u00adcrats, a sit\u00adu\u00ada\u00adtion unlike that of oth\u00ader places where Celtic lan\u00adguages were retreat\u00ading. In Brit\u00adtany, the gen\u00adtry and the cler\u00adgy wished to see them\u00adselves well edu\u00adcat\u00aded in French, while the peas\u00adantry remained Bre\u00adton-speak\u00ading, and thus insu\u00adlat\u00aded from the two things they feared the most: demo\u00adc\u00adra\u00adt\u00adic ideas and sec\u00adu\u00adlar knowl\u00adedge. The Bre\u00adton peas\u00adantry were quite aware of this motive, and con\u00adclud\u00aded, log\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly, that learn\u00ading French was the key to upward mobil\u00adi\u00adty. By the ear\u00adly twen\u00adti\u00adeth cen\u00adtu\u00adry, Bre\u00adton peas\u00adants were has\u00adten\u00ading to learn French and dis\u00adcard\u00ading Bre\u00adton as \u201cla langue des cur\u00e9s<\/em>\u201d [the lan\u00adguage of the priests]. Today, the sit\u00adu\u00ada\u00adtion is not at all like Wales, where Welsh is still spo\u00adken in the streets of a large region, and one can walk into a book shop full of Welsh books. Despite a strong revival of inter\u00adest, and its use in pop\u00adu\u00adlar song, Bre\u00adton remains in quo\u00adtid\u00adi\u00adan use only among the very old.<\/span><\/p>\n

I have encoun\u00adtered, in my brief vis\u00adit, an unlike\u00adly high num\u00adber of speak\u00aders of the lan\u00adguage. M G\u00e9rard and Mme Mireille Le Gal\u00adlo, with whom I stayed the first two nights, speak it \u2014 G\u00e9rard does so flu\u00adent\u00adly. Mme Th\u00e9rese Le Cornec, the old\u00adest per\u00adson I met, spoke no French until grade school. So I encoun\u00adtered far more of the lan\u00adguage than a vis\u00adi\u00adtor to Brit\u00adtany should nor\u00admal\u00adly expect. To my delight, I got to spend some time with Gilles Pistien, a gen\u00aduine lin\u00adguis\u00adtic researcher, and we had a good dis\u00adcus\u00adsion over the lex\u00adi\u00adcal data\u00adbase in his lap\u00adtop. We dis\u00adcussed the geo\u00adgraph\u00adi\u00adcal dis\u00adtri\u00adb\u00adu\u00adtion of dialects, the pos\u00adsi\u00adbil\u00adi\u00adty of under\u00adly\u00ading Gaul\u00adish ele\u00adments, searched for the roots of Bre\u00adton names in Cana\u00adda, and so forth. It was one of many fine con\u00adver\u00adsa\u00adtions I expe\u00adri\u00adenced \u2014 the house on rue de Ker\u00adgal\u00adlic seems to have a con\u00adstant stream of vis\u00adi\u00adtors, each embued with some enthu\u00adsi\u00adasm, and I had dif\u00adfi\u00adcul\u00adty keep\u00ading track of who was who. Marc Heul\u00adlant, with whom I had sparred in good-natured dis\u00adagree\u00adment at the pub, showed up.<\/span><\/p>\n

I spent my child\u00adhood in what you might call a \u201cdis\u00adfunc\u00adtion\u00adal\u201d fam\u00adi\u00adly. Much of my cur\u00adrent pres\u00adence of mind was shaped by the lat\u00ader expe\u00adri\u00adence of meet\u00ading and know\u00ading a fine fam\u00adi\u00adly very much like this one in Brit\u00adtany. My long-time friends the Muhlberg\u00aders share almost exact\u00adly the same com\u00adbi\u00adna\u00adtion of inter\u00adests as I found here in Saint-Barth\u00e9le\u00admy, and they too seem to have a wise approach to life. The chil\u00addren I met in this Bre\u00adton fam\u00adi\u00adly are not spoiled and brat\u00adty, as you often find in Cana\u00addi\u00adan and Amer\u00adi\u00adcan fam\u00adi\u00adlies that have artis\u00adtic pre\u00adten\u00adtions. They are con\u00adfi\u00addent, well-man\u00adnered, kind, gen\u00adtle, thought\u00adful, and self-con\u00adtrolled. They dis\u00adplay all the signs of being raised in an atmos\u00adphere of love and rea\u00adson<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

In North Amer\u00adi\u00adca, life has long been dom\u00adi\u00adnat\u00aded by a bizarre dual\u00adism. Either one con\u00adforms to a rigid and puri\u00adtan\u00adi\u00adcal ortho\u00addoxy, or one goes berserk with a kind of \u201cfree\u00addom\u201d that amounts to noth\u00ading but chaos and irre\u00adspon\u00adsi\u00adbil\u00adi\u00adty. You see this por\u00adtrayed in clas\u00adsic Amer\u00adi\u00adcan fic\u00adtion. Huck\u00adle\u00adber\u00adry Finn must choose between being \u201cciv\u00adi\u00adlized\u201d (obe\u00addi\u00adent, sex\u00adless, cheer\u00adless\u00adly dis\u00adci\u00adplined) and being free (igno\u00adrant, unwashed, sav\u00adage, illit\u00ader\u00adate). Mark Twain spent his entire life brood\u00ading over this false dichoto\u00admy. When he vis\u00adit\u00aded France, where peo\u00adple seemed to drink, amuse them\u00adselves and \u201csin\u201d to an extreme unimag\u00adin\u00adable to an Amer\u00adi\u00adcan, and yet some\u00adhow man\u00adaged to be mod\u00adern, sophis\u00adti\u00adcat\u00aded and tech\u00adno\u00adlog\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly advanced, he was thor\u00adough\u00adly con\u00adfused. Not sur\u00adpris\u00ading\u00adly, the French nev\u00ader found Twain very fun\u00adny. His humor\u00adous lec\u00adtures went over well in Eng\u00adland and Ger\u00admany, but fell flat in France. No French\u00adman ever thought that a glass of wine with your din\u00adner would damn you to hell, and set you on the slip\u00adpery slope to sav\u00adagery, so jokes based on that assump\u00adtion meant noth\u00ading to them.<\/span><\/p>\n

The same dichoto\u00admy re-appeared in Cal\u00adi\u00adfor\u00adnia dur\u00ading the 1960s. At that time, if you were young, you were sup\u00adposed to choose between being a docile robot with a crew\u00adcut, or a hip\u00adpy liv\u00ading in squalor and con\u00adtract\u00ading hepati\u00adtis. Most young peo\u00adple mud\u00addled through some\u00adwhere in between, but they accept\u00aded the dichoto\u00admy as thor\u00adough\u00adly as Twain did a cen\u00adtu\u00adry before.<\/span><\/p>\n

This strange idea has shaped much of North Amer\u00adi\u00adcan soci\u00adety, and still per\u00advades it. You find it played out in a bizarre hatred, hor\u00adror, and obses\u00adsive fas\u00adci\u00adna\u00adtion with sex. There\u2019s a rea\u00adson why Neva\u00adda and Utah are next to each oth\u00ader. A sig\u00adna\u00adture Amer\u00adi\u00adcan char\u00adac\u00adter is the cor\u00adrupt and fanat\u00adi\u00adcal evan\u00adgel\u00adi\u00adcal preach\u00ader who grows rich rant\u00adi\u00adng about sin by day and spends it screw\u00ading whores by night. Under\u00adly\u00ading it is the belief that \u201cfree\u00addom\u201d is not a rea\u00adsoned, pro\u00adduc\u00adtive atti\u00adtude to life, but sim\u00adply ruinous self\u00adish\u00adness and irra\u00adtional\u00adi\u00adty. You see it in the Amer\u00adi\u00adcan \u201clib\u00ader\u00adtar\u00adi\u00adan\u201d move\u00adment that con\u00adceives of \u201clib\u00ader\u00adty\u201d as car\u00adry\u00ading a gun, hat\u00ading most every\u00adbody, aban\u00addon\u00ading nor\u00admal human respon\u00adsi\u00adbil\u00adi\u00adties to oth\u00aders, and behav\u00ading like an ass\u00adhole. Hard\u00adly any dif\u00adfer\u00adent from the cyn\u00adi\u00adcal old \u201chip\u00adpies\u201d I remem\u00adber from the 1970s whom you wouldn\u2019t trust with your back turned, or the \u201cpunks\u201d who com\u00adbined self-right\u00adeous\u00adness with doing noth\u00ading useful.<\/span><\/p>\n

This brings me to the quo\u00adta\u00adtion I placed at the begin\u00adning of this entry. Del\u00adphine is a renowned cal\u00adlig\u00adra\u00adph\u00ader, and she men\u00adtioned that she had done work based on the form of Latin script found on Trajan\u2019s Col\u00adumn. Now, I know only the basics of cal\u00adlig\u00adra\u00adphy, but a long time ago I worked as a Webb off\u00adset print\u00ader, in the days before com\u00adput\u00aders entered the game, and type for the mas\u00adters was set by a machine the size of a refrig\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtor that pro\u00adject\u00aded fonts through a sys\u00adtem of lens\u00ades. I knew that Edward Catich, the design\u00ader of the type\u00adface called Petrar\u00adch, had been the first per\u00adson to seri\u00adous\u00adly study the writ\u00ading on Trajan\u2019s col\u00adumn. Catich, like Del\u00adphine, was both a cal\u00adlig\u00adra\u00adph\u00ader and a musi\u00adcian. And after our con\u00adver\u00adsa\u00adtion, I remem\u00adbered that quo\u00adta\u00adtion of his, so appro\u00adpri\u00adate to this house\u00adhold that had wel\u00adcomed me, a total stranger, with such warm affection.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201c<\/span>Art is not free\u00addom from dis\u00adci\u00adpline, but Dis\u00adci\u00adplined Free\u00addom.\u201d \u2014 Edward Catich I must tell you some\u00adthing of the peo\u00adple I\u2019m stay\u00ading with. Noth\u00ading I write could pos\u00adsi\u00adbly con\u00advey the plea\u00adsure I expe\u00adri\u00adenced in meet\u00ading them. Del\u00adphine Decloedt and Didi\u00ader Durassier \u2026<\/p>\n

Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,940],"tags":[1453,1454,1117,1450,1449,1116,1457,1455,1452,1451,1456],"class_list":["post-5560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-blog","category-am-blog-2014","tag-barzaz-breiz","tag-breton-language","tag-breton-music","tag-britanny","tag-delphine-decloedtsaint-barthelemy","tag-didier-durassier","tag-edward-catich","tag-gilles-pistien","tag-hersart-de-la-villemarque","tag-kergallic","tag-saint-barthelemy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5560"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7478,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5560\/revisions\/7478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}