For Sure (26 page)

. . .

“You ask me, dat's a clear case of rapacious cultural appropriation.”

“Yes boy, dat's de truth!”

“What're you gonna do about it, den, take 'em to court?”

. . .

“You ask me, I tink
pudding
ought to be spelled
poudigne
.”

The University of Toronto hosts a program that continues and expands on McLuhan's heritage, a program directed for many years by Derrick de Kerckhove, author of
The Skin of Culture
.*
This unsettling work argues that human beings have become primitive again, that is they have become the primitives of a new global culture based less on rationalism, on the brain's logic — in other words, less based on the culture of writing as we know it. As a matter of fact, I have selected this book to complete the category Social Sciences of
La Bibliothèque idéale
.

“Did ee say rape or rapacious?”

“Rapacious. Rapacious cultural appropriation.”

“Awh, well, dat's alright den.”

. . .

“I doesn't like it when folks toss around de word
rape
loosely.”

“Awh.”

“Doesn't bodder you?”

(
Shrug
)

In certain regions of Acadia, when two brothers or sisters marry two brother or sisters of the other family, the children resulting from these unions are called
frérots
and
soeurettes
, something like wee brudder and wee sister.

Around midnight, folks were mostly dancing to DJ Bones' smooth mixing, having left off debating the ideas put forth by Hektor Haché-Haché himself when he followed Robert Melanson up to the mic to announce he had not said his last word.

“Thank you all, and don't stop reading my column, I still have a few harrows in me quaver.”

Conjugation of the verb to see in the past continuous tense of the indicative in Acadian:
je ouèyais, tu ouèyais, y ouèyait, a ouèyait, on ouèyait, vous ouèyiez, y ouèyiont
. Or
je wèyais, tu wèyais, y wèyait, a wèyait, on wèyait, vous wèyiez, y wèyiont
. Or
je oueillais, tu oueillais, y oueillait, a oueillait, on oueillait, vous oueilliez, y oueilliont
. Or
je woueillais, tu woueillais, y woueillait, a woueillait, on woueillait, vous woueilliez, y woueilliont
. Or
je weillais, tu weillais, y weillait, a weillait, on weillait, vous weilliez, y weilliont
. Or
je vouèyais, tu vouèyais, y vouèyait, a vouèyait, on vouèyait, vous vouèyiez, y vouèyiont
. How to do something similar in English? I were seein', you was seein', ee were seein', she were seein', we was seein', youse was seein', dey was seein'. Or I was after seein', you was after seein', ee was after seein', she was after seein', we was after seein', youse was after seein', dey was after seein'.

In Canada, there is no longer any interdiction against cousins marrying each other. The law only forbids men marrying their mothers, daughters, sisters, grandmothers or granddaughters, and women marrying their fathers, sons, brothers, grandfathers, or grandsons.

“Well, what about
je ouèyons
? Where might dat fit in, den?”

“
Je ouèyons
, dat'd replace
je ouas
. It's de verb
ouère
in de present tense. In English, you might say:
I's seein'
or
I's after seein'
.”

“Well, doesn't we say it just de same in de past tense?”

“Den you gotta add an
i
:
je ouèy-i-ons
. Like,
je le ouèyons asteure ben je le ouèyions pas ajeuve
.
11
I's seein' 'im now, but I wasn't after seein' 'im back den.”

“
Oueillons o-u-e-i-l-l
or
ouèyons o-u-e —
wid a grave accent —
y
?”

“Youse forgettin' de
w.
”

“Naw, dat's sometin' else entirely.”

“Well, youse can all say wot you will, you ask me it's terrible complicated. We'd be better off stickin' to just plain French.”

“Or
L'Anglais
. . .”

“You mean we wouldn't be learnin' no French at all?”

“If folks wants it dat way,
à cause pas
?”

“Saint-Simonaque!”

A writer, trained as a philosopher and professor of the history of medicine, Louise L. Lambrichs published an article entitled “L'aventure de la paternité (The Adventure of Paternity)” in another special issue of the
Nouvel Observateur
, this one on the subject of fatherhood. “Above all let us not forget that, whether we like it or not, for us the question of the roll of the father is inscribed in the context of a society marked by the Freudian revolution — one of Freud's major contributions having been to put the accent on the dysfunctions of the paternal role as the origin of neuroses.” Cited and translated without permission.

(Most astonishing is the fact that) Derrick de Kerckhove stayed for a week in Shippagan at the turn of the millennium, where he lectured a group of young Acadians and other francophones on the future impact of cutting-edge technologies. (His lectures were filmed and broadcast on a regional cable channel.)

“On de radio dis mornin', a fellow was sayin' dat de opposite of politics is fatalism.”

“Wah?”

. . .

“Dat's wonderful odd. I'd a tawt it'd be a miracle.”

. . .

“No?”

“Are ya sayin' dat a miracle's de opposite of politics?”

“?”

“Ya, dat makes sense, I suppose.”

“Den, a ting could be de opposite of more'n one udder ting? Like, fatalism could be de opposite of a miracle and also de opposite of politics?”

“Dat're already opposites of each udder
au depart
.

“Still, dat's sometin' weird, don't ya tink?”

“Der's a whole lot of tings dat'r weird.”

On the other hand, the only title in “La Bibliothèque idéale des sciences humaines” to be listed in more than one discipline is
La Société contre l'État
(Society Against the State)
by Pierre Clastres, who is deemed worthy of being read not only as anthropology, but also as political science. The book attempts to show that the State compels humans to abandon their leisure activities.

“De way I see's it, not only opposites attract. Constraints attract each udder as well.”

Identity amnesia is a relatively rare pathology, which occurs more frequently in men. It consists in forgetting all those references essential to an individual's ability to identify himself or to be identified. This particular form of amnesia is not accompanied by depersonalization: the individual maintains all his abilities, except that he experiences neither vertigo nor anxiety faced with this lack of any affiliation. Although the absence of anxiety is usually accompanied by an illness or disability, in some cases it takes other forms, in particular that of phobic neuroses (avoidance behaviour) or obsessional neuroses (the need to erase all traces of oneself). But identity amnesia is more a kind of moral exchange between an individual and his conscience than a disease per se.

It was one in the morning by the time the crowd at the Babar began to disperse. Josse, Lisa-M., and Carmen took a deep breath.

“Josse, girl, why don't ya stay wid us tonight? We can order a pizza and play some cards. It's been a terrible long time since we done dat.”

Lisa-M. chimed in:

“Why not sleep over at our place! Don't look like Pomme over der'll be goin' to bed tonight, or else, he'll be crashin' on de couch. If you don't mind sharin' me bed . . .”

Josse was tempted, especially since she was off for the next three days:

“Sure! Dat's a right proper idea. I was wonderin' how I's goin' to blow off dese next tree days!”

The three waitresses were re-energized somewhat by the idea of relaxing together after a long busy evening. Josse looked at her watch:

“Now, if dey could just take demselves off to de Triangle . . .”

Lisa-M. could not imagine working this late, night after night:

“Specially when der're just a couple o' dem left over der log-loaded . . .”

“Mostly we doesn't work dis late more'n twice in a week. Unless you trade shifts wid somebody. Some likes to work late on account of yer likely to get more tips.”

“I tot youse divides it all up equal.”

“Sure, but dose dat works right up to closin' gets a bonus on account of dey clean up after, and dat's only fair. Carmen figured it all out. You can tell she's good at it, on account of nobody's complainin'.”

Reread
The Skin of Culture
by de Kerckhove to see if it still holds water.

Carmen was surprised by Terry's enthusiasm over what the psychologist Myriam had said about paternity.

“Well, seems to me, you already do all dat . . .”

“You tink? Sometimes I tawt I was bein' maybe, like, too
picky
. . .”

“
Exigeant
?”

Terry had used the English word
picky.

“Dat's it.
Exigeant.
Wid Étienne especially. Maybe on account of ee's older. Or maybe on account of ee's a boy. Me boy.”

“Well sure, we want him to be learnin' . . .”

. . .

. . .

“Do you know 'er, Myriam?”

“I know who she is. She comes by from time to time.”

“She seems awful smart.”

“I tink she's goin' wid Rodge. I saw de two o' dem togedder a couple o' times.

“Dat's right, ee's de one dat introduced us. Only, ee never said she was 'is girl. An' it didn't feel dat way.”

“Awh, well, maybe not den.”

What of Hans, who got rid of almost all his material possessions and who's even considering getting rid of his identity papers? Is Hans in the initial stages of identity amnesia?

One of the Babar's last customers would have liked to prolong the evening:

“Aw, why not come along wid us? Me an' me chum 'ere 'ave bin lookin' a long time fer some nice girls like youse . . .”

Josse enjoyed teasing males suffering from withdrawal:

“Naw, we've an all-girls party tonight. Too bad.”

“An all-girls party? Where?”

“Well now, you're not tinkin' we'd go an' tell you dat, are you?

“Only, me pal here . . .”

The friend stepped forward and tugged on his pal's sleeve:

“Yer ex-pal if you keeps on like ya are. Come on wid ya. Dey got better tings to do dan listen to yer yammerin'.”

“Naw, but! Look at 'em, dey's right pretty all de same, are dey not?”

His friend agreed, but he was beginning to feel embarrassed:

“Come on, den, we're off.”

And with that, he draped his drunken friend's arm around his neck and dragged him toward the exit.

“You'll have to excuse 'im. Ee can be a real blabber tongue when ee's drinkin'.”

Josse sought to reassure him:

“No cause to worry on it. We seen worse!”

But, before she locked the door behind them, Josse couldn't resist extending a branch to the more sober of the two:

“Youse come back . . . some udder time, I mean.”

The young man turned back with a gentle smile.

“Fer sure.”

Obsessional neurosis and identity obsession have several points in common: in addition to a clear preference for the male psyche, they are both related to issues of morality, and are essentially a reaction to the symbolic of the father and filiation. Interesting fact, there is no trace of obsessional neurosis in texts preceding the advent of the Judeo-Christian religion, contrary to hysteria, for example, which was already well documented 2,000 years before Jesus Christ.

“Marianne, come 'ere, girl, and finish gettin' dressed!”

The little one was particularly mischievous that morning, and Terry did not have time to run after her.

“Marianne! I'm countin' to five . . .”

The children knew that their tricks were doomed once Terry began counting.

“One . . .”

It was early yet; Marianne knew there was still plenty of time.

“Two . . .”

Her room was within easy reach.

“Three . . .”