Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Picture books in France - SLPJ 2014



From vengeful rabbits to playing with guns, the picture books given to French children have a reputation for being uncompromisingly scary – further proof that the French do not coddle les enfants, even at story time.


















While it’s true that the French embrace topics and styles that more timid Anglophone picture book publishers would reject, right now, France is producing some of the finest books for children in the world. The best – and there are many too choose from – are visually sophisticated, quirky, funny and daring. And at the Salon du livre et de presse jeunesse in Montreuil, which I was fortunate to visit in November 2014, you can see it all. 

Timothee de Fombelle (seated, right)



















When it comes to promoting of books and reading there is nothing in Australia like the SLPJ. This bustling six-day program of book market, exhibitions, author appearances, signings, panels, debates, projections and more attracted 160,000 visitors, most of them children and teenagers. Celebrating its 30th year, the Salon brings plenty of attention to children’s book at exactly the right time of year and does so with a mighty bang - with 450 exhibitors.

Casterman, just one of 450 exhibitors. Publishers also retail from their displays.





















Every publisher worthy of their colophon exhibits here: the big like Flammarion, Gallimard and Casterman (publishers of Tintin); the edgy independents like Editions Thiery Magnier and Editions Fourmis Rouges; and icons like l‘ecoles les loisirs (celebrating 50 years in 2015) and Albin Michel Jeunesse. There are specialist art book publishers (yes, for children) and specialist human rights publishers (yes, also for children); and the national library promotes its programs for professionals. This is the epicenter of French book publishing for children and teenagers. (A full list of exhibitors here.)

Saturday crush for 'une dedicace'





















Authors appearing included Quentin Blake (also featured in large and beautiful exhibition), Meg Rosoff, Cathy Cassidy and local heroes including Pénélope Bagieu and Timothee de Fombelle, author of the brilliant Toby Alone. de Fombelle's new novel, Le livre de perle, won Best European YA novel in the Salon's awards. Hundreds of authors appear, and even more illustrators, since having your book ‘signed’ with original artwork, une dedicace is de rigueur.

But there is something just as important as the commercial and cultural side to the Salon, and which gives the event its soul: that is the connection to community. The strong relationship between the Salon du livre et de la presse jeunesse, the local government, the national government and the publishing industry that makes the event so successful. This is the second major French book festival I have attended, and Australian publishing could learn a lot from this kind of integrated planning and promotion that makes SLPJ so successful. It was also striking to see how warmly the publishing people I met embraced the Salon: they genuinely enjoyed being a part of it, meeting their customers and their colleagues. Thirty years on, this one has a lot energy and purpose.
Posters appear in all the Metro lines





















Montreuil is in the east of Paris and just beyond the peripherique, that sometimes real, sometimes imaginary line that marks the start of the banlieue, the suburbs. So imagine a book festival in Braybrook or Dandenong or Blacktown. The Seine-St Denis local government, which supports the SLJP, is among the most left-wing districts in Paris. It’s home to many thousands of Malian migrants (it’s sometimes called Little Bamako), with more than 100 languages spoken.

Outside SLPJ, Montreuil, in Seine St Denis




























“Montreuil is always a fight”, one foreign rights agent confided to me. What she meant is, that it is always a fight to get respect, to get the resources, to get the media coverage for this major celebration. In director Sylvie Vassolo, the Salon has a leader prepared to stand up for children’s books. Politics is in her blood and her training: prior to leading SLPJ, Sylvie Vassolo headed the national union of Communist students.

A selection of the books bought at SLPJ






















Children and teenagers arrive in school groups, or with childcare centres, after-school recreation and youth clubs, and with parents. Thousands of parents and children pay 6 euros (about $9) admission and receive a 4 euro book voucher (children are free). They can be seen exploring, reading, discussing, buying and delighting in the hundreds of stalls, events, exhibitions, book signings. Outside it might be chilly, but the scenes on the three floors of a scruffy convention centre are hectic.

Links:

At the time of this trip I was the Program Manager for the Melbourne Writers Festival 2011-2015. Travel to the Salon du livre et de la presse jeunesse was kindly supported by the Consulate-General of France, Sydney. Special thanks to Emmanuelle Denavit-Feller, and to staff of the publishing houses, all of whom made me welcome, answered my questions, shared their knowledge and passion, and put up with my ordinary French.
A version of this account first appeared on the Wheeler Centre Dailies


Monday, February 10, 2014

In search of a word

When this song popped out of my iPod last night, I was in the next room. Something about the tone of the music carried and made me hear for the first time.





Having never really understood the text, I went looking for a translation. A quick scan of the google pointed only to the French lyrics, which was handy but only took me so far as my French could flatteringly be described as beginner to immediate. There is sure to be an English version of two (million) out there, but translating and playing around did keep me from the TV and a documentary about an over-rated Australian pub band that somehow had a bunch of hits. It seems the title is something of a paradox, and resists literal translation. (The lyrics of Je t'aime moi non plus don't make much literal sense, but nobody complains about that.)

Fuir le bonheur de peur qu’il ne se sauve was written by Serge Gainsbourg and sung by Jane Birkin. The song was written in the wake of their break-up, a parting gift, and released in 1983.

Like its title, Fuir le bonheur de peur qu’il ne se sauve resists surrendering its passport to English pop. What is it? (Let's not call it a certain je ne sais quoi.) The bittersweet quality of the lyric is in the DNA of the song. The tension between the song and the singer is part of it: the lover telling the loved to flee, run away. An abject, adolescent response (a fear of intimacy?), might be all that such a stance could offer turns transcendent. If the song has a counterpart in English, then perhaps something like Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen might come closest. To my ears there is an intensity to the melody and the lyric that all Serge.

Catherine Deneuve read the text at Serge Gainsbourg's funeral. Serge Gainsbourg died in 1991.

There are numerous versions of Fuir le bonheur on YouTube, filmed over many years. In a late version, the television audience stands when Jane Birkin enters the studio, and again at the song's end. I saw Jane Birkin perform at the Recital Centre in 2012. She sang this song, accompanied by a Japanese quartet. Wonderful.

I have no doubt taken taken liberties with the translation. Apologies for the clunks. 

Fuir le bonheur de peur qu’il ne se sauve

Serge Gainsbourg

Flee happiness lest it should disappear
That the azure sky turn purple
To think or move on to other things,
Would be better.

Flee happiness lest it should disappear
And say there is an ‘over the rainbow’
Always higher than the sun above.

Glorious to believe in the heaven,
To believe in gods
Even when all seems terrible to us
And in our hearts are blood and fire.

Flee happiness lest it should disappear,
Like a little mouse in an alcove corner
Sense the tip of its pink tail
Its eyes ablaze.

Flee happiness lest it should disappear
And say there is an ‘over the rainbow’
Always higher than the sun above

Glorious to believe in the heaven,
To believe in gods
Even when all seems terrible to us
And in our hearts are blood and fire.

Flee from happiness lest it should disappear
To see, sometimes to wish, to be safe from crying
Who knows the depth of things is unhappy

To believe in heaven,
To believe in gods
Even when all seems terrible to us
And in our hearts are blood and fire.

Flee from happiness lest it should disappear
Tell me you love me, again, if you dare
I would like that you find other things,
Better things

Flee from happiness lest it should disappear
And say there is an ‘over the rainbow’
Always higher than the sky above

Glorious.

(translation, Mike Shuttleworth)



Fuir le bonheur de peur qu'il ne se sauve
(Words and music by Sere Gainsbourg)

Fuir le bonheur de peur qu'il ne se sauve
que le ciel azuré ne vire au mauve
penser ou passer à autre chose
vaudrait mieux
fuir le bonheur de peur qu'il ne se sauve
se dire qu'il y a over the rainbow
toujours plus haut le soleil above
radieux
croire aux cieux croire aux dieux
même quand tout nous semble odieux
que notre cœur est mis à sang et à feu

fuir le bonheur de peur qu'il ne se sauve
comme une petite souris dans un coin d'alcôve
apercevoir le bout de sa queue rose
ses yeux fiévreux
fuir le bonheur de peur qu'il ne se sauve
se dire qu'il y a over the rainbow
toujours plus haut le soleil above
radieux
croire aux cieux croire aux dieux
même quand tout nous semble odieux
que notre cœur est mis à sang et à feu

fuir le bonheur de peur qu'il ne se sauve
avoir parfois envie de crier sauve
qui peut savoir jusqu'au fond des choses
est malheureux
fuir le bonheur de peur qu'il ne se sauve
se dire qu'il y a over the rainbow
toujours plus haut le soleil above
radieux
croire aux cieux croire aux dieux
même quand tout nous semble odieux
que notre cœur est mis à sang et à feu

fuir le bonheur de peur qu'il ne se sauve
dis-moi que tu m'aimes encore si tu l'oses
j'aimerais que tu te trouves autre chose
de mieux
fuir le bonheur de peur qu'il ne se sauve
se dire qu'il y a over the rainbow
toujours plus haut le soleil above
radieux



Friday, February 1, 2013

Bedsit disco queen


Late in 2012 I was asked by the good people at Readings to review Bedsit Disco Queen, Tracey Thorn's memoir of a life in music. The brief was to review it 300 words. For What Swerves I have added some links to videos, interviews and websites. A wonderful book - buy it!



Bedsit Disco Queen
Tracey Thorn
Virago pbk $32.99

Picture this. You’ve just had your breakout album and the career trajectory looks set for the stratosphere. Out of the blue, the management of U2 wants you to support them on a stadium tour of the USA. Would you take it? Tracey Thorn, one half of Everything But the Girl, never wanted to be a pop star. Starting out in the immediate post-punk era when the destroying the joint was de rigeur, fame was not the point.

It is this moment of temptation that provides the pivot for Bedsit Disco Queen, Thorn’s skillful examination of her long career, the post-punk period, the pursuit of success, and what life feels like when success goes away. While Tracey Thorn doesn’t shake the cabinets like Adele, she remains one the finest voices British pop has produced in the past 50 years. And that voice has been there, like a fingerprint, since her first recordings with the Marine Girls, (sessions recorded in a garden shed), through six EBTG albums and the tracks with Massive Attack that reset her musical compass.

Bedsit Disco Queen coolly examines her inner-life, her ‘tomboy looks’, bouts of stage-fright, and her development as an artist. The memoir is also crammed with stories. Such as when Paul Weller rang the young Tracey and Ben to arrange to play at their gig at London’s ICA*. They were still at university in Hull and didn’t own a telephone. So they waited for Weller - who was then about as famous as he would ever get - to call them at a phone-box on the corner. Spinal Tap, Thorn contends only half-joking, is more a documentary than a comedy. Thorn holds steadfast to post-punk values of the personal-is-the political, yet stops short of being sentimental about it all. 




Readings do a great mail order: you can buy the book here.

Ian Wade at The Quietus has a wonderful interview with Tracey and Ben, to mark the reissue of the first four Everything But the Girl albums. Well worth reading.

Tracey Thorn's website.

Bedsit Disco Queen revisits key periods of her Thorn's life and career. Below is a selection of my favourite songs.

Plain Sailing appears on Tracey's solo album and The Marine Girl's Lazy Ways.



These Early Days from the Idlewild album: Tracey in fine voice, Ben in a shocking pullover that even he seems embarrassed to wear.




In soul queen mode: Love is Here Where I Live




Everything But the Girl could always swing a good cover version: Simon and Garfunkel's Only Living Boy in New York. Film clip directed by Hal Hartley.





With Massive Attack. 


Safe at home: the solo years.




Happy days!

*The miracle of the internet: scratchy recording of that very gig.