#muriel barbery

[viejaculturafrita]

En la seguridad de mi espíritu, no existe desafío que yo no sea capaz de afrontar. Indigente de nombre, posición y apariencia, soy en mi entendimiento una diosa invicta.

—Muriel Barbery, "La elegancia del erizo."

[ma-pi-ma]

Nessuno di noi aveva più fame,

ma è proprio questo il bello del

momento dei dolci: tutta la loro

raffinatezza si coglie solo quando

non li mangiamo per placare la fame,

solo quando l'orgia di dolcezza

zuccherina non soddisfa un bisogno

primario, ma ci ricopre il palato

di tutta la benevolenza del mondo.

Muriel Barbery, da Estasi culinarie

[fragilityisavirtue]

Aveva un’aria stanchissima, più stanca che triste; ho pensato: ‘è così che si esprime la sofferenza sui visi buoni. Non si manifesta, appare solo una grande stanchezza.’ Chissà se anch’io ho l’aria stanca.

L’ eleganza del riccio, Muriel Barbery.

[iibislintu]

Muriel Barbery, Siilin eleganssi (2010)

[cynthiabertelsen]

The Dying of the French Concierge

Last Days of an Iconic French Cultural Figure The Concierge (Photo by Robert Doisneau) This photo hangs on a wall in my kitchen. It sums up the stereotypical essence of traditional concierges of the past. I stayed once in a garret in Paris on the Île Saint-Louis for a month. Unlike the woman in Robert Doisneau’s iconic photo, the building’s concierge hid in her loge mostly, so I rarely saw…

[chavisory]

-An idea that I actually like is that actually, we are all living in an apocalypse. That most people actually survive an apocalypse. We don't think of ourselves as living in an apocalypse, but we are--the world the way it was has ended time after time after time, and never gone back to the way it was before.

But we're still here.

-I wonder if, in Barbery's conception, the loss of the Elfin war was actually what kicked our timeline into the chronology of WWI, WWII, and the Spanish Civil War with which we're all familiar. That if the Last Alliance had won in 1938, those events, both backwards and forwards, would've remained on the alternate timeline.

-I wonder whether the book was actually intended as a critique, not an affirmation, of the ideas of child saviors, or of prophecy, or that a single idea is what wins wars.

Because the Last Alliance had the ideals of art and music and beauty on their side, and...they lost. They had the children of Petrus's prophecy on their side, and they lost. Clara can open paths through time and space with music, and it wasn't enough.

And I remember at the time I first read it, even though I didn't like the last third of the book in a multiplicity of ways...appreciating that.

Because the truth is that sometimes the right side loses. And you hardly ever see that depicted in fantasy. But sometimes the team with good on its side fails. And we live in the aftermath of that, time after time after time.

[acostumbradoalfindelmundo]

No le agradezco al sol sino a la capa de ozono, por protegernos de ese asesino implacable, fuente de cáncer de piel que intenta cada día convertirnos en Marte. Por eso también disfruto los días grises, es otra capa de protección ante el genocida solar. Desprecio a quienes se quejan de esa capa de nubes, quienes argumentan que le quita color al mundo, que todo se vuelve tono mate, que desaparece el brillo y el contraste mientras intenta vencer y sobrevivir. Me recuerdan a cuando la humanidad creía que la aparición de un eclipse o un cometa era un mal presagio. Por eso también me gusta la lluvia, ahuyenta a los cobardes de las calles o los condena a sus vehículos protectores, micromundos rodantes aireacondicionantes, de ventanas altas, antilluvia de bolsillos llenos del plástico mágico que conjuran sus cuentas bancarias. Lluvia: Su enemiga. A veces incluso se cancelan los vuelos por su culpa. Pero también es la que alimenta su tan amado color, brillo y contraste, aunque no lo ven. Lloran los días grises por grises, no comprenden que ese gris es el principal alimento del color, ni siquiera cuando aparece el arcoíris. La lluvia es la tinta del paisaje. No se dan cuenta de que cuando finaliza la lluvia todo luce con un resplandor renovado, perfumado con geosmina. Es que ellos la última vez que intentaron renovarse y perfumarse fue en la cena que organizaron con ex amigos de la infancia o adolescencia, justo antes de que la tormenta rasgara el único rayo de sol del cual dependía su sonrisa. Se cancela. Arreglamos para otro día.

"...ocupados con las grandes cenas en las que se resumía su fantasía de pudientes..." (Muriel Barbery; La vida secreta de los elfos)

Acostumbradoalfindelmundolandia: linktr.ee/acostumbradoalfindelmundo

[stijlw]

currently reading in storms of steel by ernst jünger and l'élégance du hérisson by muriel barbery

[altri-menti]

Ecco cosa volevo dire con la parola gentilezza, questo modo di fare che dà all'altro la sensazione di esserci.

(Muriel Barbery, L'eleganza del riccio)

·٠•✿ ✍️

[ihaveonlymydreams]

"And then again she saw the garden of sand and stone, surrounded by walls of gold, and thought: The walls are nothing without the garden; our time on earth is nothing without the eternity of giving."

A Single Rose, by Muriel Barbery

[canesenzafissadimora]

[…] temiamo il domani solo perché non sappiamo costruire il presente, e quando non sappiamo costruire il presente ci illudiamo che saremo capaci di farlo domani, e rimaniamo fregati perché domani finisce sempre per diventare oggi, non so se ho reso l'idea.  

[brianafrance17]

"The body is no longer a prison, your spirit roams the clouds, you possess the power, happy days are in store, in this new birth."

Muriel Barbery, The Elegance of the Hedgehog (233)

[croutonbynight]

"I have finally concluded, maybe that's what life is about: a lot of despair, but also the odd moment where time is no longer the same. It's as if those strains of music created a sort of interlude in time, something suspended, an elsewhere that had come to us, an always within never. Yes, that's it, an always within never."

-Muriel Barbery, The Elegance of the Hedgehog

[iibislintu]

Muriel Barbery, Siilin eleganssi (2010)

[zaaflardaolurmus]

Babam her gün kendini böyle oluşturur. "Kendini oluşturur" diyorum, çünkü her seferinde yeni bir yapım olduğu kanısındayım, sanki geceleyin her şey küle dönmüş de sıfırdan başlamak gerekiyormuş gibi. Bizim evrenimizde insan yaşamı böyle yaşanıyor: Yetişkinlik kimliğini sürekli yeniden oluşturmak gerekir; insana umutsuzluk veren ve aynanın karşısına geçip inanmak zorunda kaldığı yalanlar anlatan, gayet kırılgan, bu eğri büğrü ve geçici toparlanmayı sürekli yeniden yaşamak gerekir.

[chavisory]

Truly I think what drives me most insane about this book is everything it could've been, and everything it almost was.