Navarana and Peter Freuchen in Thule (1916-1917) – Photo: Arktisk Institut
The Danish explorer and ethnologist Peter Freuchen (1886–1957) is famous for exploring the Arctic, in particular with his colleague and friend Knud Rasmussen (1879–1933). He lived many years in North-West Greenland, trading with Inuits, befriending them and adopting their way of life. In 1911 he married an Inuit girl, Navarana. Being born around 1898, she was thus aged approximately 13 at their marriage, while he was 25-year-old. Most biographies avoid mentioning this detail, referring to her as an “Inuit woman”. But in his 1935 book Arctic Adventure: My Life in the Frozen North he first mentions her as a “little girl,” and just after their marriage as “my little wife,” and in the 1961 book Peter Freuchen’s Book of the Eskimos edited by his widow Dagmar, he refers to her as a “little girl, just reaching the marriageable age,” but he also mentions that “Eskimo girls marry so very young that a girl will often continue to play with the other children right up to the time of her first pregnancy.” CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
Minou Drouet et René Julliard (février 1956) – Le Figaro
Minou Drouet et René Julliard entretenaient une relation complexe mais asymétrique. Pour l’éditeur, Minou fut tout d’abord un écrivain à succès, même si tous deux se lièrent d’amitié et correspondirent. Mais pour la petite fille, Julliard fut d’abord un ami, qu’elle surnommait « ma Sonate », et comme avec ses autres amis, elle lui exprima tout son amour ; mais bientôt elle souhaita qu’il fût son père (elle vivait uniquement avec sa mère et sa grand-mère adoptives) : CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
Charles Edward Anderson Berry, better known as Chuck Berry, was a pioneer of American rock and roll. Born on October 18, 1926, he knew fame between 1955 and 1965, thanks to a musical style appealing to youth, with a dancing rhythm, easily sung melodies, guitar solos, showmanship and lyrics centred about the teenage world. He continued to play music until his death on March 18, 2017. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
Jagubal – girl with lorito, San Martin, Peru (2009) – from flickr, 22 January 2010
In the poem “The First Reformer” from Lava Lane, and Other Poems, Nathalia Crane told of a hummingbird who by his sweet words, kisses and caresses, persuades flowers not to be ashamed of their nudity. Now in the following poem from The Singing Crow and Other Poems, a young girl is taunted by an older girl “of the narrow shin” for openly indulging in the pleasures of love. But she finds a good advice from a philosopher parrot, a “painted Plato” who instructs her not to grieve because of the reproaches of narrow-minded people: “Love and the rites it sentries / Only the vexed condemn; / There are the lower branches— / There is the goblin stem.” CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
Odilon Redon – The birth of Venus (1912) – from WikiArt
In the post “Components of Love” I presented the three types of love and friendship according to the ancient Greeks:
Eros is sexual love, generally driven by beauty; it is discriminating and it can be versatile, blooming or withering fast.
Storge is natural love, as it exists between members of a family, or the love of parents for children; contrarily to Eros, it is unconditional and long-lasting, and it grows slowly.
Philia is friendship, generally within a group, mediated by activities shared in common; it includes also philanthropy and humanitarian work.
The ancient Greeks also used the word Agape for affection and tenderness, similar to Storge. Then in Christianity, this word evolved to mean a purely spiritual, selfless and undemanding love embracing all humanity; in fact, such an ideal love is extremely rare in real human beings. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
Musæum hermeticum, frontispice – provient de Wikimedia Commons
Redoutant la répression impitoyable de l’Inquisition, le poète cache ses pensées hérétiques sous des vers dédiés à une Dame. Une boîte verrouillée, dont la clé est cachée dans une autre boîte, pleine de souvenirs, profondément enfouie… CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
Odilon Redon – Helen’s Eyes (Eyes in the Trees) (1882), Saint Louis Art Museum – from The Athenaeum
A dreaming little girl wonders about the dreams of old people and old trees … They must be different from her own, she is so young. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
Saturno Buttò – Mixed technique on paper cm. 58×39 – from saturnobutto.com
Baudelaire publia en 1851 le court essai Du vin et du haschisch, comparés comme moyens de multiplication de l’individualité, qui étudie les effets des deux drogues sur la personnalité, le comportement et l’inspiration. Plusieurs éditions l’incluent dans Les Paradis artificiels, bien qu’il n’en fasse pas partie. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…