Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

PÈRE MARIE-BERNARD F.J. – LA DANSE MACABRE DE LA CHAISE-DIEU DANS SON CONTEXTE ARTISTIQUE ET RELIGIEUX – ASSOCIATION LA CASADÉENNE – 1993

Ce livre est fondamental, mais seulement comme une porte entrouverte vers une dimension supérieure d’analyse. Le livre accepte la date de la fresque couramment posée dans les années 1980-1990 et affirme donc que sa réalisation a du avoir lieu en 1470. Depuis ce temps-là le travail de Patrick Rossi publié en 2006 jette le doute. Patrick Rossi s’appuyant essentiellement sur l’examen minutieux des vêtements et accessoires la date à 1425. Ce qui la rendrait contemporaine avec celle qui est considérée comme la première, celle du Cimetière des Innocents à Paris (qu’on ne peut plus examiner puisqu’elle a été emportée dans une vague de démolitions urbaines il y a déjà très longtemps. Mais la question est ouverte car Patrick Rossi avance aussi des analyses surprenantes sur la vielle à roue du ménestrel qu’il affirme avoir été trafiquée dans une période plus récente et pense qu’il s’agit d’un luth ou d’un instrument de ce genre. De la même façon il considère que les bésicles et le « boîtier » de ces bésicles du « moine avec ses travaux » (19^ème personnage de la Danse Macabre) sont eux aussi des rajouts récents qu’il considère comme étant des graffiti. Mais sans la moindre preuve réelle d’analyse scientifique (carbone par exemple) son argument que le trait est plus lourd et plus épais est un argument plutôt faible.

Sans vouloir trancher, peut-être que 1425 est un peu tôt, mais 1470 me semble définitivement plutôt tardif. A ce moment-là la guerre de cent ans est bien terminée et le roi de France bien installé et reconnu avec Agne IV de La Tour  (1425-1489), Baron d’Olliergues et Vicomte de Turenne, avec un important prieuré casadéen à Saint Gervais sous Meymont et une riche paroisse à La Chabasse, bien installé au sommet des forces armées royales. Olliergues est à moins d’une journée de cheval de l’Abbaye. La région est en pleine reconstruction et repeuplement après la Grande Peste pour l’essentiel terminée vers 1450 et même un peu plus tôt. Il est alors venu le temps de dépasser la noire période de la peste et de la guerre et de tirer la leçon fondamentale sans laquelle la vie n’est pas possible, à savoir que la vie est mortelle et que la mort est la fin naturelle de cette vie et que l’on ne doit pas redouter cette fin si elle vient par des voies naturelles. Les mourants de la peste bubonique avaient-ils le temps et l’énergie, auraient-ils pu avoir le temps et l’énergie, de réfléchir sur ce qui de toute façon était pour dans les heures qui suivaient ? Poser la question est y répondre. On ne saurait jamais réfléchir sur la mort si on n’a pas un possible recul vital devant elle, si on n’a pas un certain délai avant de mourir, si on n’a pas un espoir de vie ou de survie suffisante pour tenter d’amadouer la mort ? La résilience humaine est immense et on ne peut perdre l’espoir que le moment arrivé, atteint avec le dernier souffle qu’il faut bien pousser un jour.

Car, et c’est ce qui manque dans toutes les approches que je lis sur le sujet, autant on peut voir une mort sarcastique, caustique, ironique, voir pire dans cette fresque, autant la représentation que l’artiste en fait est une moquerie de cette mort prétentieuse et arrogante. C’est une assertion du droit à vivre, de la force vitale qui est en chaque homme, même moine de La Chaise Dieu. Cela n’efface pas ce que beaucoup d’auteurs oublient aussi et que cet auteur privilégie : la puissante présence de la mort dans le quotidien des gens à la fin du Moyen Âge marquée par la crise démographique à partir de la fin du 13^ème siècle, la peste noire en plein milieu du 14^ème siècle et qui va faire rage pendant cinquante à soixante-dix ans, sans être vraiment terminée 70 ans après son arrivée en 1348 à Marseille mais n’ayant plus qu’une virulence épisodique, et par la guerre de cent ans (1537-1453, couronnement de Charles VII en 1429, le début de la fin : vous savez, non ? Jeanne d’Arc.).

Il s’agit de bien comprendre que le projet du Père Marie-Bernard est important et qu’il faudrait plus d’un opuscule pour le couvrir. Quel est le contexte religieux de l’Europe, et de l’Auvergne, à partir du début de la crise démographique qui commence vers 1275 jusqu’à l’arrivée de l’imprimerie qui transforme la gestion culturelle, intellectuelle et administrative de l’état comme de l’église en 1450. Le Père Marie Bernard insiste sur tout ce qui concerne la mort et la vision de la mort, et même la domination de la mort, en ce temps-là. Il attribue cela à une vaste crise morale, politique, théologique même, religieuse définitivement. Il insiste sur le grand schisme, mais ne dit pas que Clément VI, le pape qui a fait construire l’abbatiale de La Chaise Dieu actuelle, était pape avec le grand schisme qui ne pose un problème qu’après la construction. Il insiste sur le nominalisme d’Occam, une révolution intellectuelle puisque pour Occam l’intelligence n’est plus le moyen de rencontrer Dieu et sa vérité dans la foi mais le moyen de raisonner et donc de chercher la vérité dans ce raisonnement. La foi se trouve remplacée par le pouvoir conceptualisateur de l’homme. C’est l’annonce évidente de la Renaissance. Il n’est plus important de savoir que le soleil tourne autour de la terre comme le dit le dogme mais de savoir par expérience ce qu’il en est vraiment, j’entends en vérité. Cela alors ne donne pas à la mort un quelconque pouvoir comme le dit le Père Marie-Bernard, mais au contraire donne à l’homme le pouvoir de faire face à la mort.

L’insistance sur les Quattuor Novissima, les quatre fins dernières, la mort, le jugement, la gloire éternelle (le ciel comme l’appelle le Père Marie-Bernard) et l’enfer, est importante mais il faut jamais enfermer l’homme dans un tel dogme. C’est certes la mort qui domine comme objectif ou fin ultime de la vie mais cela pose le jugement, donc ce que l’on a fait pendant la vie, de bien ou de mal, puis la possibilité d’atteindre la gloire éternelle, donc le paradis, ou le châtiment donc l’enfer. Mais le Père Marie-Bernard critique que cette approche médiévale est une réduction car il manque la différence entre le jugement particulier juste après la mort qui envoie les pécheurs graves en enfers, les saints ou les personnes pures et bonnes au paradis, et surtout les entre deux au purgatoire, dimension absente de cette pensée médiévale, mais plus encore car il manque la résurrection des corps et le Jugement Dernier après la seconde venue du Christ (et le Père Marie-Bernard jamais ne prononce le mot d’Apocalypse). Il eût été plus convaincant s’il avait cité la fresque du Jugement Dernier de l’église Saint Austremoine d’Issoire qui est de la période 1450-1470 et qui ne pose que les damnés et les élus, ce qui est normal puisque c’est le Jugement Dernier. Mais Huon d’Auvergne (1341 (manuscrit de Berlin); 1441 (manuscrit de Turin)) fait allusion au Purgatoire où Roland, le neveu de Charlemagne, dans ses voyages post mortem retrouve sa grand-mère Berthe et cela se relie avec la légende de Charlemagne et de son inceste dont Roland serait né. Le purgatoire n’est pas nié, loin de là, mais la Danse Macabre n’est pas une façon de se soumettre à la mort, ce qui exigerait qu’on parle de l’après mais c’est une façon d’humaniser la mort qui n’est qu’un voyou qui bouscule et brutalise les gens. Et la mettre en scène comme cela c’est se moquer d’elle et ne pas parler de l’au-delà c’est lui dire que l’on serait bien sot de se soumettre à sa violence.

Certes la mort de fait pas de différence entre les états des gens, certes beaucoup résistent et certains se soumettent, mais réagissez donc braves gens et tancez cette mort qui n’est qu’une mauvaise passe dans la vie.

Il y a certes un culte du macabre qui se développe à partir de la crise démographique, à partir de la construction des Ponts du Diable au 13^ème siècle (deuxième moitié), et dans la suite de la croisade des Albigeois et de l’Inquisition, vaste tentative de l’église, ou plutôt des hiérarques de l’église de sauver leurs positions privilégiées alors que la disette puis la famine vont s’installer car la population a grandi plus vite que les ressources agricoles. C’est ce contexte social et économique qui manque à ce livre et le seul contexte religieux réduit le débat à une sorte de prêche inhumain puisqu’il s’agit simplement de prêcher la soumission à la mort, à Dieu qui punit les hommes par la mort parce qu’un homme et une femme ont du mangé un fruit défendu pour pouvoir enfin procréer et développer l’espèce humaine. Cachez ce sein que je ne saurais voir, mais si on ne voit pas ce sein-là on risque fort de ne jamais donner naissance à Abel, Caïn ou Seth. Il est vrai que vu le destin des deux premiers Adam et Eve auraient mieux fait de ne pas manger ce fruit. Et dire que cette fresque commence avec Adam et Eve puis le prédicateur qui donne le sens, le seul sens que l’on doit voir dans ces images ! Mais comme il n’y a pas les mots on peut penser ce que l’on veut, et en ce temps-là, même lointain, je suis sûr qu’il y avait plus d’un moine, plus d’un homme, plus d’une femme, et même plus d’un enfant qui savait aussi que la vie vaut d’être vécue et qu’après la mort tout n’est qu’incertain, et je crois que la façon dont cette mort est tancée y compris par le bébé dans ses langes il y a anguille sous roche, vous savez ce serpent aquatique, mais est-ce un serpent ? Cela y ressemble beaucoup, mais cela n’en est probablement pas un.

Tout cela sent le coup fourré, et même la langue fourrée, comme un fourré ardent, ou est-ce un buisson, on n’empêchera jamais les hommes de se fourrer martel en tête et de fourrer leur nid avec le duvet de quelque oiseau ou oiselle. Aussi noire que puisse être la réalité d’une période qui voit la population baisser de 50% en une trentaine d’années et donc la mortalité toucher 75% de la population, il reste un peu de lumière dans ces âmes pour après la tempête ou le plus fort de la tempête se gausser et faire gorge chaude de cette mort qui veut tout briser sur son passage, bien qu’il soit difficile de lui faire rendre gorge une fois qu’elle a mordu sa proie ou que sa proie a mordu à son hameçon.

Il y a me semble-t-il dans toutes les approches de cette danse macabre un manque évident : c’est une œuvre d’art, une œuvre de l’esprit, et donc on ne peut ni la réduire à un discours théologique de maître de la Sorbonne, ni à une analyse historique froide comme un vent du nord. Il y a une dimension personnelle, une imagination sinon un imaginaire qui aimerait bien pendre haut et court cette mort indécente, mais faute de grives on mange des merles, alors on se contentera de montrer son arrogance et de lui rire au nez. Si je meurs je t’échappe, grande bêtasse ! Et même si je n’emporterai pas ma vielle a roue au paradis, ou en enfer, ou au purgatoire, j’emporterai quand même ma musique dans ma tête, commele sesclaves             africains ont emmené leur musique polyrythmique dans leurs têtes et ont inventé le jazz en chantant pour régler leur travail dans le schamps de coton pour eviter de recevoir trtop de coups de fouets et peut-être viovre jusqu’à 25 ou 30 ans. Quelle petite cervelle atrophiée que tu es, pauvre mort mesquine.

Ils vont me dire que je ne vois que ce que je veux bien voir. Mais les deux, vous et moi, ne faisons-nous pas la paire ? Bien sûr que si comme le sud n’existe que si on n’a pas perdu le nord.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

PETER JAMES – DEAD MAN’S GRIP – 2011

Do not believe the subtitle of the cover: “One mistake, Two murders, No remorse.” This is a promotional caption that has little to do with the real novel. I was actually expecting “Three culprits.” But the author avoided this easy Christian simple trinity. Though he could have gone a lot further since there are at the very least four dead bodies, a real crucifixion, in fact even five, a diabolical pentacle, and one skeleton in the cupboard, closet or whatever old tunnel or WC.

But the book is absolutely excellent because it is true to the very last detail. The language, the procedure, the institutional working, even the human reactions of the cops mostly are absolutely perfect. They are not believable, they are just what they have to be to be true to the core of any criminal investigation. That’s the pleasure of this book. That makes it just thrilling, not because of the gross elements that are mentioned but never described, but because of the accurate events, their description, and their processing. And this pile of small elements geared into some kind of malicious network if not plainly fishing net that catches us and will never let us go, is the very charm, hypnotic fascination the book evokes in us, brings up to life, casts upon us without any possible escape.

The chapters are so small that they are not chapters any more but successive short sequences ready for the TV or cinema adaptation we all expect soon, especially those among us who have visited at a moment in our life or in a previous life this phenomenal city-harbor-beach of Brighton, halfway between Folkestone-Dover and Portsmouth-Southampton. And what’s more with a US extension through the very first victim of a dumb road accident that definitely would not have occurred if a dumb driver – who is accidentally a woman but could be a man – who was too impregnated with alcohol to drive since she had a diabolical and satanic hangover, had not recklessly cut in front of a lorry, after her passing it at probably excessive speed, causing the lorry that was ahead of her to then run after her with a very close and dangerous tail-chase engagement, eventually jumping a traffic light, hitting the first victim that caused the drama and running away like a guilty fox, his tail well squeezed between his thighs.

And that dangerous cutting in front of a vehicle to turn left or right, who cares, was the second in a row. She is entirely responsible for the accident, even if she did not touch the victim on his bike. And she is, what’s more, outrageously remorseless, unconcerned, free of any guilt and even provocative towards the parents of the victim. The fact that it brought the New York mafia into a simple traffic accident is only the magnification of her obvious and criminal responsibility.

The book is concentrating on stopping the hit man in his attempt richly paid by the New York Mafia to kill in atrocious suffering all those who were involved in the crash, no matter whether they were responsible or not, responsible by negligence and selfishness or responsible by real circumstantial but deadly developments. The author is malicious about this vengeful spree of murders, though the author does not describe the particularly gross elements of the various assassinations. I must admit the details are very creative. We are dealing with a criminal artist or an artistic criminal.

The only victim that is worth saving is a young teenager who is in no way involved in the road accident. He is only a circumstantial element in the project to kill the hungover careless and selfish woman who is his mother because that would make her suffer. The novel saves him and unluckily saves his mother too though she is the real culprit who will not be prosecuted for the death of the first victim, the road accident’s victim. In other words the book is quite ethical as for the police when they save the life of an innocent young teenager. But it is totally immoral since the main culprit in the initial road accident goes through the whole episode with hardly a slap on the hand for driving in a drunken state, under the influence as they say to hide the reality of the crime. And all the other actors on the English side as well as on the American side, two against two, two on both sides, are brutally killed or die brutally  as a consequence of that woman’s carelessness and umbilical egotism.

But after all, who cares since the victims are first the son of a Mafia family; second a criminal who had not gone back to his prison as he should have after his day of work (AWOL if I can say so); third a Scottish truck-driver; fourth the daughter of the Godfather of the New York Mafia; and fifth the son of the same. The only two English people involved in that killing spree are English, one guilty up to the gills with drunkenness and driving under the influence and the other totally innocent, but they are English, aren’t they.

But yet a good thriller that is not fantasizing about police work. The author actually explains that he used the advice and counseling of several cops or ex-cops on both the English and the American sides.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

HENRY FREEMAN – VIKINGS – 2016

I still wonder if Harald Hadrada is Hadrada or Harada but that’s just a little pebble in my shoe.

The history of the Vikings is Fascinating in many ways. Fascinating because they are, which is not said, Germanic and as such part of the vast Germanic migration into Europe and it has to be clearly positioned between the Slavic migration and the Celtic migration respectively east and west. It would be good to remember that all these are part of the same Indo-European migration from the Middle East through the Caucasus and then into the vast steppes and plains of central Europe.. It would also be good to remind us of the fact that another branch of this Indo-European migration came through Anatolia to Greece and then to Italy and will give after the Roman Empire the various romance languages. It would also have been a good thing to remind us of the survival of pre-Ice-Age Turkic languages of Europe in the shape of Basque, Sami, the language of Lapplanders, and Finnish. Finland is essential in the history of the Baltic Sea.

If we assume we all know this heritage or history and that the basic Scandinavian mythology, Odin, Thor and Ragnarok, is in fact a Germanic Mythology vastly shared with the other German people and was Richard Wagner’s basic inspiration, we can neglect recalling it to mind, though recollecting such facts should be basic. In the same way the sagas are often common and the German Siegfried has a Scandinavian version with Sigurd. This Germanic nature of the Scandinavian people or even peoples is central in the whole history of Europe and it probably explains why the Scandinavians never tried to raid or conquer German territory. They looked east into Slavic territory and they look west into Celtic and Frankish territory which must have appeared at the time as some continuation of the Roman Empire in western Europe and the Gaulish Celtic previous phase.

The presentation dividing the whole history in three phases: raiding, conquering and settling down is interesting. In Western Europe we hardly mention them apart from their famous raids accompanied by looting, burning and killing all that could have any value or any life. With maybe one element that could be added clearly: they actually got some prisoners that they enslaved in their own communities. These slaves were the substitute workers necessary to replace the warriors who went on missions. These slaves are just servants that have no civil rights and it would have been interesting to insist on the direct government they had, each community convening their male members into some kind of general assembly that decided of all common issues. They invented direct democracy (though some might see it as a pre-Roman-Empire survival that also existed among Celtic people and was killed along with the egg the Roman legions crushed) and what will become parliament in England a few centuries later.

The conquering phase presented as an exploring venture is very interesting and it reveals the change in Scandinavian societies and ideologies and it should have been twinned with the religious evolution. They replaced raiding with trading. It is commerce that saves them from being eventually destroyed, the way they were in England in the 11^th century, a destruction that led to the full dissolving of Anglo-Saxon culture under the domination of Norman culture. And yet this Scandinavian influence remained in England and it will lead to Runnymede and the Magna Carta and with Parliament being re-invented later on. This Anglo-Saxon influence and behind it the direct influence of Danish and Scandinavian cultures and languages is the substratum of English today and makes English a Germanic language. This linguistic descent should have been emphasized and the famous Tristan and Yseult will be translated into German but also into Norse and Icelandic in the 12^th century. The connection worked both ways from Celtic Welsh oral tradition to other Celtic areas (Cornwall, Ireland, Brittany) into English, or rather Middle English at the time, and further on into German and Scandinavian traditions.

The book justly insists on the conquest of Iceland, Greenland and the discovery of Newfoundland and Canada, or Northern America. It mentions the fact they will have to eventually leave Greenland under the pressure of local Inuit or Eskimo people and the fact that they did not settle in America because of the strong hostility from the local Native Americans. This is based on sagas and old tales but such documents are essential in a mostly oral society since it was the only way for people to know their history and destiny: to listen to the sagas told by the saga-tellers/poets/minstrels who had learned them by heart from having heard them themselves. No books in those days, only memory. And these sagas were told very often to some accompanying music that could be some string instrument like the lute, or some pipes, or later on the organistrum evolving into the hurdy-gurdy (and later on in Sweden the nyckelharpa), and we probably should speak of the bagpipe too (Scandinavia or Swedish Sackpipa and Finnish Sakkipilli). Beowulf, the Anglo-Saxon poem or shouldn’t we say saga, is a perfect example since it states the use of music to tell the story.

The book is very interesting on the Scandinavian or Viking penetration of Ukraine (more than Russia) even if the Rus Brothers brought the root of Russian into that territory. Kiev was the cultural epicenter in Slavic lands just as much as it became the religious center of Slavic Orthodox Christianity. It is this religious link that should be seen as first finding some echo in the Christianized Vikings and at the same time lead them to the ambition of going further and reaching out to Byzantium. Interestingly the military move was defeated and they immediately replaced it with a commercial link. Note this was easy since the commercial link between Scandinavia and Byzantium already existed through the commercial network developed by the Hanseatic League. Actually it would be interesting to connect the commercial dimension that developed at the end of the first millennium and the beginning of the second to the progressive Christianization of the Vikings themselves. We could and probably should also connect this Christianization with the important Peace of God movement that developed in Feudal Europe starting in the 10^th century and enabling the development of trade fairs and markets with special protection to merchants all over feudal Europe: merchants could move freely in Europe with their merchandise and be protected along the way and at the various fairs provided they paid special fees. Bartholomew Fair in London for instance developed a special court for the duration of the fair.

I will not conclude like the book does with Christianization. It is this necessary evolution that explains the slow shifting from a warlike stance to a commercial stance and that commercial stance requires peace. Then the Nobel Peace Prize is the direct continuation of this evolution. But this heritage can be slightly contradictory. Scandinavia was the first European region to instate eugenic laws just after the first world war (Swedish State Institute for Race Biology in 1922 after the Swedish Society for Eugenics founded in 1909) and also the last one to get rid of them long after the second world war (The various eugenic laws lapsed only in 1976). Norway seen as a haven of peace is not always true. Norway tried to help in Sri Lanka when the Tamil Tigers were dominant in nearly half the country Thanks to their using terrorism and the ceasefire the Norwegians instated there was only the smokescreen used by the Tamil Tigers to build up their military power and to go on with their terrorist activities (assassination of the Minister of Foreign Affairs in July 2005, and/because he was a Tamil, hence  a traitor to his “people” according to the narrow nationalistic approach of the LTTE).

The book opens up our horizon on Scandinavia and should enable us to widen our approach and to see the great influence Scandinavia (including Finland though their language and culture is Turkic, hence agglutinative) had in Europe when it accepted to become Christian and to integrate European procedures.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

EDITA A. PETRICK – RIBBONS OF DEATH – 2015

Forget about romance. It is not romantic at all, at least in my understanding of the word. But it is a good thriller or suspense novel. Yet that is not the main interest from my point of view. The thriller is well structured and constructed but we know the end even before we start reading: it will have a happy ending. We know that because the characters pretend to be human and even humane from the very start. The point of view is not that of the terrorists, since we are dealing with that kind of suspense, not that of the victims but that of the law-enforcers and there can only be one ending that can mean their victory: a good and happy ending. Then you read to discover the details.

In that light the ending is far from being what it could and should have been. The terrorist’s (only one) last target could not be a random target and it should have been a big convention with thousands of people inside a closed arena. Then it could have been interesting to run after the terrorist in order to stop the massacre. The author chose a weaker ending. That’s a shame because terrorists never choose a random target. They plan and they look for causing the highest damage possible measured in human lives.

But the main interest is the mythological content. It is based on a myth that is asserted as universal of the existence of Peacetakers, as opposed to peacemakers. One child now and then in a Blue Moon is born with the power of casting anger and criminal impulses around him (he is a boy, I mean a male and the terrorist side is entirely dominated by men and only men, which is a false cliché) when he is activated by some talisman. In other words he is an anti-Superman. Like Superman he just dons an amulet around his neck and his criminal and lethal power radiates around him making people become just impulsively, compulsively and obsessively criminal and lethal. The myth used in the book is attributed to the Egyptians, meaning it is the Egyptian version that is considered. Note the Peacetaker becomes totally unconscious of what he is doing or causing when he is carrying the talisman.

This young man is here used by a terrorist of international stature in order to bring into the USA some deadly events that will kill thousands of people. But the author tries to escape the anti-Islam attitude that this Middle Eastern original location (actually Cairo) could bring to our minds by making this criminal and terrorist individual be a Lebanese man of a Christian religion, true enough a rather marginal Christian affiliation. At the same time the Peacetaker born in 2007 or so is the son of American missionaries working for the Red Cross in Sudan and these parents die of cholera. The Red Cross then is used as the covering up tool by this terrorist. It is the American passport of the uncle of the child, who was on the mission along with the parents and the child who was born in Sudan that is used by the terrorist to bring the Peacetaker and his controller into the US.

A little of Ancient Egyptian lore and folklore in the shape of mythology, some references to Isis, Osiris and Horus, plus Tet, the evil fourth character in the story horrific story of the dismembering of Osiris, actually not even alluded to, to provide some colorful environment and you have a wrapping that is attractive to an audience of sweet and sour thrillers. But do not think it is like Anne Rice and her use of very old Egyptian mythological folklore or very old Hebraic mostly apocryphal stories and tales. You will not get into the mind of the possessed, of the Peacetaker or his master, nor into the depth of the mythological characters and their terrifying violence and suffering. You remain within a soft terror suspense story with some Egyptian references. What some people reproach Anne Rice with, her extreme erudite knowledge of the supernatural stories she is founding her novels on, so elaborate and learned that the readers may get some headache at times, and not a mild headache mind you, rather a migraine, is in no way present here. The Egyptian references then are nothing but an environmental ambiance coloring.

The final end has to be discovered by the readers and all the twisting moments of the plot have to be explored by the audience, but it is altogether rather simple and conveying good intentions and proper humane feelings and human emotions. Even the criminals, the terrorists or anything you want to call them, are not depicted in any deep black, somber and monstrous colors. You will not be horrified nor terrified nor even grossed out, to use Stephen King’s classification. But you will read the story as what it pretends to be: suspense and you will have to suspend your disbelief quite a few times. But that’s the style of such stories.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

ALAN RICKMAN – DIGOURNEY WEAVER – CARRIE ANNE MOSS – SNOWCAKE – 2006

This is a film that will not age, at least not really. It is the second film on the subject of autism that has the status of a classic. The first one was Dustin Hoffman’s Rain Man. This one centers on the same problem, autism, but for a woman, which is a minority case for this disease. The situation is slightly more complicated because it starts with the daughter of this autistic mother and we will only learn later in the film, close to the end, from her own parents themselves that at the time no one understood what actually happened though her father believes she must have been forced, which is in no way certain though, because the idea of an “experiment” might be just right. The man must then have taken advantage of the curiosity and of the experiment.

The beginning of the film is dramatic because of a road accident in which a truck rams into a car and kills the daughter of Linda, the autistic mother, hitchhiking to visit her mother. Then the driver of the car goes to Linda’s to try to explain her what happened and we discover in a few days spent there till the day after the funeral what kind of a life this autistic person is having in her community. And that’s where we are surprised. She has a job in a supermarket in phase with her handicap: she puts merchandise on the racks, items that have to be set in rows and well aligned. Nothing difficult but something she can do without any problem.

She is a very solitary person, meaning that she often closes herself onto herself and lives in her own world. She does not reject the outside world. She just retires inside her own mental world. In this Wawa town the neighbors know about her and they all take care of her, look after her, without ever invading her “privacy.” She accepts that help though she would never solicit it, though she does for the garbage from the driver of the car in which her daughter was killed and she has invited to stay in her home for a few days. She does not always thank people for that help, though she does in her own way. It is true some people do not understand that and try to invade that personal field and bring her back into some “normal” behavior. But these are very fast put back in their places and told not to meddle.

In a way, when everything is organized very clearly she can cope with life that becomes a routine and she can even cope with things that come unwanted and unannounced and that she integrates in her routine. That’s the real interest of this film. To explore Linda’s  personal mental world, which we will never be able to know for sure since she does not explain and express that inner world, but we can explore it through what she does, her reactions, her actions, her own ways to cope with a situation that is maybe beyond her own comprehension, at least a comprehension of our type. The situation is serious since it is the death and funeral of her own daughter. She has a room entirely dedicated to her and she reacts in such a way that we know she knows it is important but she cannot mourn or grieve the way we do. She will just start dancing on a music her daughter liked and the film maker makes us understand at this moment she dances with her own daughter though she only dances with herself in our own eyes.

Is it truly what happens? We cannot know.

The only important thing is that autistic people must not be institutionalized but must be provided with living conditions that enable them to have an active, and even productive, life adapted to their own means, their own interests, their own capabilities. Of course it is the capabilities they can invest in our social and economic life, but that enables them to have the time and the autonomy necessary to live their mental life in some kind of freedom under the loving and attentive care of people around who are there to help, not to command, govern or control.

One thing is missing in the film. Linda has a full calendar for the month of April with her schedule properly written day after day. We assume she can read but it is not said that she must have a social worker who helps her write down the schedule of the month. The film though assumes she can read and maybe write, but there is no visual indication that she can actually do it: she does not write and she does not read in the film. The film is already old and today we have discovered that computers can help tremendously because autistic people might be limited in oral and written communication, but they can be trained into computer literacy and that enables them to communicate a lot better, even to express their feelings and their experience, though we are not advanced enough to be able to say if it is true for all autistic people, though we can say that the earlier the better and in the US they diagnose the disease as soon as 6 months and start acting on it as soon as they have such a diagnosis.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

TRIPPING ENDLESSLY

ALL ALONG THE DOWNFALL

Jacques COULARDEAU

Illustrations

Annunzio COULARDEAU

CONTENTS

Saint Austremonius   p. 5

Psychophagus   p. 7

Sun Sand and Strife   p. 9

Casus Belli at the Casa Dei   p. 11

Haunted   p. 30

Memory Blocks   p. 45

One Happy Morning   p. 56

Perth Wolfenstein   p. 67

Birds of a Feather   p. 100

Fearless John’s Prayer to the Black Virgin

Of La Chaise-Dieu Abbey church   p. 114

All these poems and stories are dedicated to Lucretia who helped crossing the long depression between the mountain of hostile war and the mountain of reconstruction.

Some people, some events played an enormous role in those years, The University of Perpignan in their Mende unit; the Festival of La Chaise-Dieu and sacred music, music, and music again; Michel Thénot of Central Parc with whom I visited dozens of Romanesque churches running after Black Virgins; in Sri Lanka Sujeewa and Sudarshani and the confrontation with elephants; and then Paris with several life-ghosts who made me recapture life: many were named Arthur but some stand out, Ivan, Paula and Animata. Special mention to Christian Gauchet, Ghalib Hakkak and Père Emmanuel Gobilliard.

They are too numerous to be named all. They are legions and that’s how we survive on this earth, satiated with love, friendship and mental and spiritual experience.

© Jacques COULARDEAU  & Annunzio COULARDEAU

KINDLE DIRECT PUBLISHING, September 26, 2012

Amazon.com/.co.uk/.fr/.de/.it/.es/ etc.

ASIN: B009GIANZE

$5.35 on Amazon.com  --  €4,12 on Amazon.fr

Jacques COULARDEAU

HENRY FREEMAN – BRITISH HISTORY IN 50 EVENTS – 2015

This is an interesting panorama. It quotes some cultural and scientific events as historical, which is important and absolutely right. William Shakespeare and his “Histories” reflected the taste of the English for history and also influenced them with a global vision that refused the notion of King by divine right of any sort. In the same way his vision of religion is quite different from any fundamentalism like the one that will prevail under Cromwell (though also under James I before Cromwell). Isaac Newton and his revolutionary invention of physics with his theory of universal gravitation. Edward Jenner and his invention of the first vaccine. Charles Darwin and his discovery of natural selection and evolution of the species through mutations and reproduction. Finally George Orwell and his ill-fated and yet visionary science fiction book 1984. That is history too and the motor of history in the mind of people is cultural.

It would have been interesting to say that the British Isles were populated before the Ice Age and before the Indo-European Celts. What we call Old Europeans who represent 75% of our DNA were all of Turkic origin and spoke agglutinative languages. New Europeans only arrived after, and at times long after, the Ice Age from the Middle East but they only represent 25% of our DNA though they represent today probably 95% of our languages (Hungarian, Finnish, Lap language, a few languages in the Caucasus, plus Basque language are all agglutinative, without counting the languages of immigrants. That would have enabled him to speak of the Picts in Scotland and of the fact that Stonehenge is on the same pattern as Gobekli Tepe in Turkey dating back to 9,500 BCE. By same pattern we mean the circular structure, the erected stones, and probably similar cosmic orientation. This Gobekli Tepe settlement is  what we consider the very first construction showing the new division of labor coming with the invention of agriculture and herding in the Middle East and that was part of the indo-European culture that was to conquer Europe via Greece and via the Caucasus and the northern European steppes and plains. (http://www.gcisd-k12.org/cms/lib/TX01000829/Centricity/Domain/829/3.1.pdf, accessed April 17, 2016, among others)

As for the “written history” of the Celts. It must be clearly said the Celts had a writing system, the Ogham alphabet (http://omniglot.com/writing/ogham.htm, accessed April 17, 2016), but they wrote on non-durable media (bark essentially). As for these Celts you must also take the Cornish into account, but more than all others the Irish who apparently imposed some kind of dependence on the British Celts. This is clearly reflected in the Welsh Triads and in the Cornish tradition of Tristan and Yseult. They also had relations with continental Bretons and Gauls.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (890-1150) should have been connected to the other great Anglo-Saxon work of poetry, Beowulf. The mention of Middle English is correct if it is seen as early Middle English and this development requires the presence of French in England since English is a Creole Germanic language, with Anglo-Saxon underlying syntax (and part of lexicon) and French overlying lexicon and cultural references.

The Domesday Book is essential because it was the way William I imposed his control on the country. He instated a Norman nobility here and there, where he could and with the men he had, and he recognized, though at a second rank, the local Anglo-Saxon Barons. He organized this census to know the country and it is important because then we know England was a fully feudal country and most human beings who were tilling the earth were serfs and part of the chattel of the estates. This classification will still be used when the Tudors come to power.

And this explains the Magna Carta. Only the Pope had authority over a feudal king, and only in his being a king or not, not in his policies. But no one under the king could dictate any decision of his since the King was king by divine appointment. His policies were thus divinely inspired. The king could only “grant” anything to anyone and the Magna Carta is such a grant from the king. It was possible because in Runnymede the Norman nobility, the Anglo-Saxon barons and the Church came together and asked the king to please grant them a few things. It was a second time such a gfrant from the king was performed (Charter of Liberties, Henry I, 1100) but the first time a strong pressure was exerted onto the king. He granted them several things and the first human rights: widows and orphans got their rights (freedom, independence and property) recognized and protected. Before a widow was left without any resources and an orphan was the property of anyone who wanted to take him, including being cast down into the feudal class of serfs. The King was one of the looters of estates that fell in the hands of a widow or an orphan.

The concept of Parliament can be traced to Edward I and his Model Parliament in 1295, but it is the continuation of the feudal practice of the Estates General with the originality of the two  nobilities in England and with the simple fact that all humans who were part of chattel were not in anyway concerned: they were the unconsidered estate that will later be integrated in the third estate in the French tradition (French Revolution) but will be kept out of voting for a very long time in England, in fact up to 1918 as shown in the following timeline (http://www2.stevenson.ac.uk/comenius/articles/univsuff/uk_dg/suff_1a.htm, accessed April  17, 2016)

1265 : Parliament established. It contains 2 chambers. One is 'the Lords' - unelected aristocrats. The other is 'the Commons'. These Members of Parliament (MPs) are smaller landowners and are elected only by male landowners.

1642-60 : English Civil War. This is a war between the Parliament and the King for who has control of the state. King Charles I is executed and England is briefly a Republic. In 1660 the monarchy is returned, but it never regains its power. From now on, the Prime Minister, chosen by Parliament has the most influence.

1707 : Act of Union unites England/Wales and Scotland. The United Kingdom is now formed.

1819 : The Peterloo Massacre. A mass demonstration in favour of universal male suffrage is attacked by troops and 15 people are killed.

1832 : Great Reform Act. Before this time only landowners could vote for MPs to sit in the House of Commons. This meant 1 in 7 men could vote. (440,000 people) After 1832 the male urban middle classes gain the vote, and so the electorate increases to 1 in 5 men (650,000 people).

1867 : Second Reform Act. This extends the vote to the skilled urban male working class. The electorate increases to 1 in 3 men.

1884 : Third Reform Act. The vote is now given to working class men in the countryside. The electorate is now 2 out of 3 men.

1918 : Representation of the People Act. Almost all men over 21 years old, and women over 30 years old now have the vote.

1928 : Effectively all women and men over 21 now have the vote.

The One Hundred Years’ War, the Black Death and the War of Roses represent one hundred and fifty years of absolute instability and catastrophes in England though England escapes the Lutheran movement because England’s Reformation is quite different. But the arrival of the printing press is a challenge, considered as it was at the time, a mystery that needed initiation (in the meaning of some ritual and sacred initiation) for anyone to be able to work on it. It should have been insisted upon that the press arrived long before the Tudors;, yet it will only be managed by a guild for a long time and in 1557 Mary I will introduced what was called copyright by making the Stationers Company of London the beneficiaries of a Charter that enabled the Sovereign to ban some books, protestant books for Mary I, Catholic books for Elizabeth I. This copyright protected the books, the authors and the printers, provided they respected the censorship edicted by the sovereign and implemented by the Stationers Company. This censorship will remain till 1710 and the Statute of (Queen) Anne that established full freedom of the press and gave to the authors the full control and benefit of the copyright they became the sole legitimate holders.

I think it is important to retrace such facts because they show how England was at the forefront of a very long evolution towards individual civil and political freedoms.

The restoration is not emphasized enough and the Glorious Revolution comes a little like a twist in the fabric though it was an essential turn in history. An essential date is 1679, the Habeas Corpus Act before the Glorious Revolution that sees Parliament choosing the king and queen that were to sit on the throne, though Mary II was the daughter of the running away king James II and her husband, the prince of Orange, was her fist degree cousin. The blood line was respected but Parliament made the choice and thus imposed the Bill of Rights in 1889 that gave full freedom of speech to members of parliament, within parliament and within the standard electoral meetings that only concerned ONE man our of SEVEN men, hence 14% of the MALE ONLY population over 21 YEARS OF AGE, or so.

A last thing that should be emphasized is the very first industrial revolution. Many factories are still called mills because the first mechanical energy used to work weaving looms (Edmund Cartwright, 1785) was water via the old medieval mills. Instead of turning one stone, the mill water wheel turned an axle that activated via belts the loom itself thus multiplying the productivity of the overlooking person. The steam engine was only to come a few decades later (James watt, 1781). The invention of the mechanical loom will also come later (Jacquard, 1801) and the invention of the first steam engine running on metal rails is from George Stephenson, 1814. It is difficult not to mention these dates if we want to understand what happened in the 19th century which had been liberated by the English political and social evolution of the 18th century (the enclosure movement, the rural exodus and the development of cities and the first mills and factories using hydraulic energies along all canals and rivers and the invention of some kind of urban serfdom with workhouses.

For the modern times I would insist on a completely different dynamic coming to England and developing in England: the dynamic of the total freedom of circulation, distribution, broadcasting and reception of any information and cultural product via the internet, and the debate around the defense of intellectual property which was first ever defined by the House of Lords convening in judicial form to rule on the Donaldson vs Beckett case in 1774.

The main problem of England, or Great Britain or the United Kingdom is that they were at the avant-garde in the world for the questions that absolutely transformed the world and dominate today all discussions, debates and decisions. And to have been at the avant-garde for so long is not necessarily easy for the future. And an English Prime Minister can be tricked by a hefty present from his mother badly invested in a perverse American invention from President Theodor Roosevelt who invented with JP Morgan the first ever tax and financial haven 113 years ago, in 1903 when Panama was cut off from Colombia. We are always haunted by the past.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU