In April, we published a wonderfully long and in-depth interview with Dany Laferrière conducted in French by Salon .ll. editor Annie Heminway. We're reprinting this today to honour now "immortal" Dany Laferrière, who has just been admitted to the Académie française.
Here's the link to the interview.
It’s worth remembering that the word paradise traces its origins to the word pairidaeza, which in the ancient Iranian language Avestan, means a wall constructed to enclose cultivated grounds or a small grove of fruit trees. There is the wall again. As for Eden, that fabulous paradise lost, one need say no more.
Lost Gardens of Heligan, Cornwall
The carousel towards the latter end of the Brighton Pier, just before the roller coaster, is grotesquely beautiful, and enthrals the children and older bystanders for that reason. So vividly painted, the horses eerily distorted as they circle and bob, transfixed on a silvery pole to which half-terrified and half-delighted kids hang on and ride. Like all such carousels, this one unapologetically violates principles of aesthetic restraint, nightmarishly stunning as it spins to blaring music above the water.
There have been too many shows of impatience and anger, with each side blaming the other. With few exceptions, this has all been a question of words -- sharp words, throw-away words, unthinking words -- but they have succeeded in hardening attitudes and deepening divisions. Fine words are not all it takes to improve matters, but they can help a great deal in such a language-obsessed city as Montreal.
With the book industry undergoing a period of unprecedented change, Montreal writer Linda Leith today announces the creation of Linda Leith Publishing Inc., which will publish short works of narrative non-fiction both as electronic and as print books. Books will appear in English from Fall 2011 and in French from Spring 2012.
