MAIS ABSOLUMENT! BY REVEALING THE CRUCIAL — AND SKIPPED
Most views of Paris contain major omissions. Revealing them leads to reinterpreting much of the French past, to seeing the city differently — and to awareness of distortions that in their broad strokes are universal.
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Showing those absences reveals a reality more complex than we think...
The Mariage of Saint Ursula by Cristovao de Figueiredo, toward 1525/ zoom (please scroll down).
Black musicians centuries before we expect them
...leads to deciphering unfamiliar mentalities...
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The Flight of Louis XVI, film for television by Viktor Lazarevski, 2013 |
Louis XVI tried to escape revolutionary Paris by fleeing to the border (in 1791). He was caught, and his betrayal of the Constitution that he had sworn to protect had as much impact as the fall of the Bastille. It contributed to the monarchy's demise.
Historians skip aspects of his flight that seem aberrant. But they show the king's intention to reclaim power through foreign invasion and civil war.
As well, in revealing a mindset of the Old Regime they show a mentality very different from our own.
...and highlights basics that are deliberately suppressed, such as:
- The Parisian insurrections of the 19th century, which contributed to shaping the modern world:
Many people think that these iconic figures are taking the Bastille (in 1789). In fact, the Revolution of 1830 inspired the work:
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Liberty Guides the People by Eugene Delacroix, 1830-1831 (cut to highlight the figures)
It finished what the French Revolution had begun — overthrowing the nobles to let capitalism take wing — but that tie is usually overlooked, as is the impact of capitalism itself.
- The military transformation of the 19th-century city, to make repressing insurrections easier.
Take the vast 19th-century space in front of Notre-Dame Cathedral that makes the giant church seem smaller and less imposing than when medieval houses huddled up to it. Built after the first conscious working-class revolt (in 1848), the empty expanse let troops assemble to repress future upheavals.
Nothing is said about it.
- Irrelevant data, major omissions and even disinformation characterizes much of what we are told. This sign, next to the Church of the Sacré-Cœur,* substitutes an implausible drama for the eruption of an insurrection and civil war (the Paris Commune of 1871).
*The church that towers over northern Paris.
Besides giving false information, meaningless data makes the sign unintelligible.
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These pages also highlight modern energies that are largely overlooked:
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| Paris Bossa Nova / François Bibonne |
Music in an 18th-century wine cellar, on the southeastern fringe
An artist's studio in Ménilmontant, far to the east
- Those peripheries are where important initiatives are launched, such as a center for world and urban music in supposedly frightening La Goutte d'Or and a ten-day festival of unstandardized arts in the overlooked 13th district.
- They are where immigrant energies flourish.
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The coiffures, mustaches and beards that young men have universally adopted began with the barbershop posters in Black neighborhoods (please click here). For street musicians, watch from a café terrace on rue Doudeauville in La Goutte d'Or on a Saturday afternoon... .
For the color that illuminates sober Parisian streets, visit Europe's largest "Chinatown."
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The giant billboards that hover of the city led to this blook (book/blog) because they epitomize the irrationality it contests. Smiling people follow an order for which no reason is given, or even told what product to buy. Purchasing the brand in itself will make them happy:
Ad over a central city crossroad in 2022
Authorities reinforce that mindset. One can expect it from privately owned mass media (many newspapers and tv stations), and organizations devoted to commerce (the Office of Tourism). But it is regrettable that publicly funded schoolbooks, museums, monument descriptions and historical street panels overlook the role of economic interests and social conflict.*
*Take the four rooms that the historical museum (the Musée Carnavalet) devotes to the French Revolution: they emphasize proclamations and portraits, leaving out the irreconcilable opposition between increasingly powerful capitalists and hereditary landowners (the nobles) and relegating the formidable and terrifying street fighters to a few images placed at the back of one of those rooms.
That absence has been most glaring of all. It has become more pronounced in the last generation,* as globalized capitalism blows off all that stands in its way:
* The emphasis now is on narration, biography and details, a change welcomed as a departure from ideology as if that were not ideological too. For example, emphasis on individuals rather than on multitudes reinforces the oligarchy — "Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon... all by himself?," Berthold Brecht said. Not to mention minimizing, or downright forgetting, insurrections.
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| Harald Wolff |
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I think one hour of economically-oriented history would vaccinate against much of what good people blindly follow — rejecting science, accepting imaginary bogeymen, forgetting "divide and conquer." The antidote is extremely simple: knowing that economic interests lie behind what's said.
That slant leads to throwing an unexpected light on Paris, France and change itself, and is the reason for this blook.
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Wrong information is like a wrong map, and following it leads to places where you don't want to go. This blook presents a different map that leads to a different place.
If you find it useful, please pass it on!
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I should introduce myself
I grew up in New Jersey, where my French maman ignored my saddle shoes and Seventeen and detested Elvis. She raised me as if I were French — the ways of Middlesex County and Paris were so different! Dealing with two truths encouraged reflection.
My junior year was in Paris. I loved its past, which I saw as a series of exploits by individuals in largely political contexts. But a young man I met at the Sorbonne thought differently: to make sense, he insisted, events, attitudes, beliefs had to be placed in their underlying economic contexts, with the practical interests they reinforced or challenged. “And that,” he said, "comes from Karl Marx."
My fascination for Paris lasted longer than our marriage and I have lived in this magnificent city ever since.
My father was a professor and I expected to become one (B.A. Vassar, Masters Harvard, Ph.D. Columbia, all in history). But teaching in a French university then was impossible without a French degree. So I became a tour guide, and this blook is the result.
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A memory
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| Harald Wolff |
"Eisenhower is an old trousers of a general." "No!!!"
Toward 1955, a French aunt, Magda Trocmé,
whom my dad called "Hurricane Magda"...
came to visit us in New Jersey while on a speaking tour. She and her husband, André Trocmé, were well-known for their anti-Nazi pacifism and after the war were critical of President Eisenhower's Cold War policies. My father, a stoical New Englander, would leave after dinner, leaving Maman and Aunt Magda to "discuss."
I would listen from the top of the stairs and remember their enthusiasm for exchanging ideas, without expecting to persuade. (But the discussion may have nuanced their extremely vehement points of view.)
There's a space for comments at the end of each page,
and I'd like to know what you think.
Political critiques are welcome.
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Thanks...
Especially to Henry Aubin and Carolyn Ristau for their invaluable critiques, to Claude Abron for years of picture-taking and to Harald Wolff for his drawings
For other direct help...
- With their photographs: Baroness Danuté, Béatrice Genaudeau, Joëlle Finkpon, Bill Knight, Alain Leiblanc, Cyprian Leym, Camille Mazoyer, Carlton Perrett, Elisabeth Rawson, Ramsay Casadesus Rawson, Carolyn Ristau, Jeannine Sike-Ngangue, Félix Sinpraseuth, Pamela Spurdon, Monique Wells, Jeanne Wikler and Irina Zwergler.
- For factual information: on military history, Marc Ambroise-Rendu; for introducing the "Coulée verte," Paule Girardeau; on Parisian neighborhoods, sites and history, Pascal Payen-Appenzeller; for obscure but important details on monuments, Philippe Schmitt-Kummerlee.
- For computer help, Tony Khosravi, Dong Truong Dang and Ramsay Casadesus Rawson
To those whose pictures come from the Internet...
Photos: Pierre Benite, Luc Boegly, Sigismond Cassidanius, Mathew Fraser, Corey Frye, Juan Francisco Gonzalez, Philippe Guignard, Laurent Grandguillot, Ronald Halbe-Yatzer, Jebulon, Daniel Jolivet, Pavel Krok, Laurence Krongelb, Daniel Lainé, Stephane Lagoutte, Thibault Le Hégarat, Brian Lin, Bernard Matussière, Baudouin Mouanda, Richard Nahem, François de Nodrest, Andrea Notte, Paris Zigzag, Hanna Romeo, Tangopaso, Alexander Sarlay, Ralf Treinen, Gary Walsh, Jan Wenner and Zig Zagueur.
Drawings: Victor Locuratolo and Alex Varenne.
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Details
- "Zoom" under pictures means that they have been taken from the web. Clicking leads to enlargements and to official data. When the Internet gives no further information, I say so.
- Modern images are credited to the artist or photographer. Photos without a credit are mine.
- For historical information I cite the source, and give page numbers for information that you might want to check.
- Ads, shop windows, street art, haircuts, exhibits etc. change. I give photos' dates when relevant.
- These pages began in 2012 and keep evolving.
As an American
I sometimes compare France and the U.S.,
but this blook is meant for all.
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