How the French become French
Consider their children’s books as noted in the Guardian.
The Weight of Disappointment. Yeah, tell them the truth about life as soon as they learn to read. Don’t coddle the little bastards.
The Revenge of the Rabbits. They boil Glenn Close! Aaaaaaaaa
The Visit from Death. Sounds cheerful. Hmm, isn’t ‘la petite mort’ (the little death) the metaphor for orgasm? No wonder the French act so jaded about sex!
The Alphabet of Anger. We could’ve used this as children. When we ran out of stuff to read in our parents’ house we had to settle for the Old Testament. Have you read the OT? Tons of gory violence and sex. Totally changes your world-view at age 8 and, ironically, inoculates you against the religious hooey you’re taught in school.
The Day Father Killed His Aged Aunt. They’re going to read L’Etranger in a couple of years anyway, might as well get them started.
If we’d read these French children’s books when we were kids we might have become a cool existentialist type smoking three Gauloises in each hand, wearing Vionnets from thrift shops and overthrowing everything. Instead we watched old Woody Allen movies on TV and became a neurotic urban Jew who wants to kill people spouting their putrid opinions in movie queues. (We have confirmation from neurotic New York Jews.)
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
June 4th, 2012 at 11:43
Aside from the very rare exceptions, those little darlings with the halo, you just can’t get any more spot on than “little bastards.”
I want to smell those books.
June 4th, 2012 at 11:50
Momelia, write a children’s book! We’d publish it. Make it horrible!
June 4th, 2012 at 12:19
Ay bigla ako nagka-idea, kuwento ko how the gay kids are made. It will have gutters, and rain water, and then projectile sperm, and then some algae.
Ano kaya magandang title? Haha!
June 4th, 2012 at 12:37
Bakla, Bakla, Paano Ka Ginawa?
Mag-usap tayo. Seryoso.
June 4th, 2012 at 13:01
Ang challenge dian … wala din. Naalala ko lang kasi ung pagkaka-kuwento ng frenship ko sa kung paano kami nabuo, at medio graphic siya. Gawin na lang magical! May enchantments keme! Haha!
Sige po Madame, chika nyo na lang kung ano eksena, muahness from Pasig Cirehhh! :)
June 4th, 2012 at 17:23
it says in the comments that some of the books shown are not by french authors, just written in french.
although, i once told somebody french that i love children’s books. he showed me one of his favorites called, “la faim des sept ours nains”, read it, and found it too frightening for kids.
i loved the smurfs, though, when i was a kid. it was a famous comic book here in france, though it was belgian in origin.
June 4th, 2012 at 22:30
Medyo tangential lang ito, but on the subject on how the French become French, the article below explains how France produces some of the world’s best mathematicians. (“Cartesian — meaning dispassionate, logical and unsentimental — is the adjective the French believe expresses their deepest selves.”)
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2104222-1,00.html
June 5th, 2012 at 00:09
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha