Last Wednesday, the Tishman Auditorium featured a roundtable discussion titled, “Walls and Bridges”—“curated by the [cultural institute] Villa Gillet and presented by the Conseil de la Création artistique.” The objective of this 10-day series was to, so to speak, “build a bridge” of cultural understanding between France and the United States (initiated by the French institution, I later heard). Their tagline was a quote taken from Isaac Newton, “We build too many walls and not enough bridges” (Newton’s fellow Englishmen, however, were conspicuously absent from this discussion).
This particular event, falling on day seven, was named “Catastrophe Practice”. Its panel was comprised of two French academics, philosopher Jean-Pierre Dupuy and geographer Michel Lussault. The participating Americans consisted of co-editor of n+1 magazine Marco Roth (reading a text prepared by philosopher John Lear, who was then currently stranded by a severe snow storm in Chicago), and graphic novelist and illustrator Josh Neufeld. Each panelist would present a presentation, to be followed by a discussion concerning, “the political, social, individual, and literary imagination of catastrophe.”
It is unclear whether the two French academics were expecting the, what was later deemed, “typically American” question told from a member of the mostly American audience, in a “typically American” fashion. The discussion came to an end after this audience member in question, an older woman (a life long New Yorker), stepped up to the microphone previously designated for the audience, and began a long account of personal reminisces. Marco Roth, also co-host of the event, attempted to interject after a few minutes had gone by without a question materializing (she was somewhere along recounting bible stories she had read as a child, and living in New York post September 11th), “I’m going to be cruel…I’m going to be cruel,” Roth protested intermittently, “but what’s your question?”
After a final summation of what she wished to propose (then ignoring Roth’s interruptions, or acknowledging them with a gesture equivalent to “hold on, my question is coming ”) she asked from the panel for an anecdote of their own, revealing their own personal experience (if applicable) with a catastrophe. Dupoy instantly replied, “I have had experiences with catastrophe, but I am not sharing them”. To which his fellow French colleague nodded in agreement.
I'm not so sure if I personally liked the tone but I think the story telling quality is spot on. If I recall correctly Batuman had a bit more humor about her writing with a straight forward approach. The story you chose to tell was accessible enough and reminded me of similar instances in my life.
ReplyDeleteMargie, this is great material and I'm impressed by how excellently you arrived at such a Batumanian event and recorded it in great detail. I think there is a lot of potential here and you certainly have the foundation for an excellent post. I think what I would have liked to see more of, as a reader, was sort of behind the scenes observations about more than simply this happened, then that happened. What was the crowd's reaction? How did the Frenchmen really feel? What was the dynamic like between the French and the Americans? I realize that is a tall order in such a short piece. One possible way to pursue that approach here would be to try to find something very unexpected or surprising at the event -- everything recorded here is kind of how I imagine these things to be. Part of what I love about Elif's book is that just when you think things are going in a certain direction she strikes off somewhere new and unexpected. One possible place to find one of those moments might have been found in the rambling account of the older woman at the microphone -- if we had her words as she said them, as a long, peculiar quote, they may have formed one of those odd, touching and surprising Batumanian moments. Hard to know since I wasn't there but just a hunch. But this is certainly the basis of a great post -- next time, give us some of this good, detailed blow by blow of the event and mingle in some of your unique observations or asides. Talese talks about the "fine art of hanging around," and observing -- I think you have that ability, now it's just a matter of picking the most interesting details to include. Good stuff.
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