{"id":82109,"date":"2015-01-28T18:55:28","date_gmt":"2015-01-28T23:55:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=82109"},"modified":"2016-01-28T14:13:01","modified_gmt":"2016-01-28T19:13:01","slug":"speaking-bluntly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/01\/28\/speaking-bluntly\/","title":{"rendered":"Speaking Bluntly"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"ColetteReveEgypte1907\"<\/a>

Colette in 1907.<\/p><\/div>\n

Two letters from Colette, who was born on this day in 1873, to her friend Marguerite Moreno.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Rozven, mid-September 1924<\/p>\n

\u2026 I should like to talk earnestly to you about your copy for Les Annales<\/em>. You still do not have quite the right touch. You lack the seeming carelessness which gives the \u201cdiary\u201d effect. For the most part you have approached your gentlemen as though they were so many subjects assigned in class \u2026 For one portrait which works\u2014Jarry\u2014there are two others\u2014Proust and Iturri, say\u2014who don\u2019t. They are just not sufficiently alive<\/em>!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I am speaking to you now just as bluntly as I would speak to myself \u2026 You, who are magic itself when it comes to oral storytelling, lose most of your effects when you come to write. You leave out the color. For instance, your Proust\u2014pages 3, 4, 5. If you were talking to me, this scene would be stunning. But in your written version what do I find? \u201cMadame A. had a critical mind and brought ruthless judgments to bear \u2026 a chorus of flatterers agreed \u2026 the conversation took a bitter turn \u2026 mocking exclamations, derisive remarks,\u201d etc. Do you realize that in all that not one word makes me see and hear <\/em>what you\u2019re talking about? If you were telling me this in person, you would paint old Madame A. and her husband, Papa Anatole France, and the whole company in fifteen lines. You would transform your \u201cuntethered mischiefmaking\u201d into a single line of dialogue<\/em>, of heard conversation, and it would all come alive. No mere narration, for God\u2019s sake! Concrete details and colors! And no need of summing up! I don\u2019t give a damn whether or not you ask Proust\u2019s pardon for having misunderstood him. Nor do I care whether or not Sardou was \u201cone of the kings of the contemporary stage\u201d! Do you see? And the same goes for Iturri. A \u201ccharming and delicate dinner party\u201d\u2014\u201ca conversation which wandered from one subject to another\u201d\u2014what are you showing me with phrases like these? But nothing! Paint me a d\u00e9cor, with real guests and the food they are eating! Otherwise, it\u2019s all dead! In spite of yourself, you\u2019re thinking of Madame Brisson. And I forbid you to do so! Liberate yourself! And try, oh my dear heart, do try to conceal from us the fact that you loathe writing. Try also to pardon me for throwing all this on paper so hastily. I must dash. Write me at Blvd. Suchet. I love you, I hug you, and I am determined that you shall write \u201cmarvelous\u201d things, do you hear? My paw to Pierre.<\/p>\n

Paris, June 14, 1926<\/p>\n

I\u2019m told you\u2019ve been working ten hours a day and I hope this isn\u2019t true. If it is, I cannot sympathize enough. Scratching paper is such a somber battle. There are no witnesses, no one else in your corner, no passion. And all the while, waiting outside, there are your blue springs, the very cries of your peacocks, and the fragrance of the air. It\u2019s very sad.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Translated from French by Robert Phelps, 1980.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Dan Piepenbring is the web editor of\u00a0<\/em>The Paris Review.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two letters from Colette, who was born on this day in 1873, to her friend Marguerite Moreno.   Rozven, mid-September 1924 \u2026 I should like to talk earnestly to you about your copy for Les Annales. You still do not have quite the right touch. You lack the seeming carelessness which gives the \u201cdiary\u201d effect. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[419],"tags":[9158,8198,5733,478,15273,15942,16804,75],"class_list":["post-82109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-culture","tag-birthdays","tag-colette","tag-correspondence-2","tag-criticism","tag-critiques","tag-french-literature","tag-robert-phelps","tag-writing"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSpeaking Bluntly by Dan Piepenbring<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"January 28, 2015 \u2013 Two letters from Colette, who was born on this day in 1873, to her friend Marguerite Moreno. Rozven, mid-September 1924\u2026 I should like to talk\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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