For Sure Read online

  =

  (3 + 4) + 3

  (4 + 9) × 7

  =

  (7) + 3

  (13) × 7

  =

  10

  (1 + 3) × 7

  =

  1 + 0

  4 × 7

  =

  1

  28

  =

  1

  2 + 8

  =

  1

  10

  =

  1

  1 + 0

  =

  1

  1

  =

  1

  273.72.6

  Equations

  “Not sure wot you mean. I doesn’t feel like I’m part of a minority. Well, sure, I knows we’s a minority an all, but troot is, I doesn’t ever tink about it.”

  The young woman named Gerry confirmed the visiting geographer’s impression.

  “But that’s marvellous! It proves that you’re an active minority, a minority that influences the majority!”

  Gerry and Bosse glanced at each other, considering the possibility. Seeing that they were not entirely convinced by his declaration, the geographer elaborated:

  “It’s quite possible that you’re not actually in a position to feel it. These are minute and subtle modifications that take root in the minds of the majority over time. Often, one requires hindsight to notice such things. Either that or a trained eye.”

  “Who’s up fer anudder beer over ’ere? Bosse! When did you get in?”

  “Last night.”

  “Nice! An fer how long is ya stayin den?”

  “Couple a weeks.”

  “Where are ya beddin’ down?”

  “Crashin’ at Gerry’s fer now. How bout you? Yer lookin’ not a bad bit nice . . .”

  The compliment pleased Lisa-M., who asked again if anyone wanted another drink.

  “I wouldn’t say no to another one of these.”

  Gerry took advantage of the Swiss showing the label on his bottle to Lisa-M. to make the introductions:

  “Didier, dis ere’s Lisa-M., musician, dancer an’ waitress.”

  And to Lisa-M.:

  “Didier’s got in ’is head to write sometin’ ’bout Moncton fer a magazine in Belgium.”

  “On account of de Petitcodiac river again?”

  “Naw, on account of we’re a minority.”

  274.54.10

  Forgotten/Recalled

  “Awh, dat’s true isn’t it. I never tinks about it.”

  Some books are written to be read, others only to have been written.

  275.12.11

  Structure

  Maybe she should have been a painter instead of a doctor? Not that she detests her profession. In the beginning she preferred the incurable cases.

  276.24.7

  Élizabeth

  To speak more proper French, when they want to say ‘what,’ some Acadians replace quoisse with quesse, which seems slightly more refined.

  277.33.1

  Chiac Lesson

  There followed the usual questions.

  “Are you baptised?”

  Étienne didn’t know.

  “You go to church on Sunday sometimes?”

  Étienne nodded, adding:

  “Wid Granny.”

  “And with Terry?”

  Étienne shook his head no.

  “And Carmen?”

  Étienne shook his head again, but then corrected himself.

  “We went to see de manger at Christmas.”

  “So, you know what the inside of a Church looks like . . .”

  This time, the boy nodded proudly.

  “And do you say your prayers at night before you go to bed?”

  Étienne hesitated. As far as knew, he did not pray, but maybe he prayed without knowing it. After all, there were so many things he didn’t know.

  “You’ve heard about Jesus?”

  The child nodded, but timidly.

  “Did your granny tell you about him?”

  Étienne nodded with more confidence this time, but Zablonski figured he had a clearer picture now.

  “Alright. Shall we get back to our colours?”

  278.14.11

  Zablonski

  All in all, the authors whose surnames begin with the letter b account for the largest number of works in La Bibliothèque idéale. These 190 authors, or 10 percent of the total number, wrote 253 books, or 11 percent of the recommended titles. A close second are the authors whose surnames begin with the letter m: there are 171 of these, and they account for 236 of the suggested books, i.e., 9 percent of the authors wrote 10 percent of the texts. Numbering 168, the authors whose surnames begin with s are almost as numerous as their m colleagues, but they have been more productive, accounting for 256 titles or 11 percent of the 2,401 books. Finally, coming in in fourth place are the authors whose surnames begin with c. One hundred and fifty-six of these wrote 211 works, a ratio of 8 percent of the authors for 9 percent of the total of works cited.

  279.46.5

  La Bibliothèque idéale

  “How ’bout dat udder one ’bout de mote in yer eye?”

  “You mean de fella dat sees de mote in anudder fella’s eye, but doesn’t see de log in ’is own?”

  “You mean dat log is blindin’ ’im?”

  280.100.7

  Proverbs

  Grouping the authors according to the first letter of their surnames, we see that all the groups were more or less equally productive. The a group, for example, which represents 5 percent of the authors in La Bibliothèque idéale, is responsible for 5 percent of the titles. Only two groups were significantly more prolific, the s group, by almost 2 percent, and the g group by slightly more than 1 percent. As for the rest, the e, i, j, l, o, r, t, u, w, and x groups were a little lazy, whereas the b, c, d, f, h, k, m, n, p, q, v, y, and z were relatively industrious.

  281.46.6

  La Bibliothèque idéale

  “Me, I likes de one bout bitin’ de hand dat feeds you.”

  “Yer NOT to bite it, you mean!”

  “I know. Only I likes de idea of bitin’ it.”

  282.100.12

  Proverbs

  By multiplying the digits in the presumed satanic number 666, we obtain the following result:

  666 = 666

  666 = 6 × 6 × 6

  666 = (6 × 6) × 6

  666 = (3 × 6) × 6

  666 = (18) × 6

  666= (1 × 8) × 6

  666 = 8 × 6

  666 = 48

  666 = 4 × 8

  666 = 32

  666 = 3 × 2

  666 = 6

  And we arrive at an identical result by applying the same operation to the number 1,728, which is supposed to symbolize plenitude:

  1,728 = 1,728

  1,728 = 1 × 7 × 2 × 8

  1,728 = (1 × 7) × 2 8

  1,728 = (7 × 2) × 8

  1,728 = (14) × 8

  1,728 = (1 × 4) × 8

  1,728 = 4 × 8

  1,728 = 32

  1,728 = 3 × 2

  1,728 = 6

  283.97.4

 
Numerals and Numbers

  What motivated Élizabeth to go from preferring cases that were incurable to those that are inexplicable? Is it the same inexplicability that sometimes leaves her speechless in front of the brush strokes, abrasions, cracks — and caresses, too — with which the artist responds to the canvas?

  284.24.8

  Élizabeth

  There is reason to believe that numbers, like letters, are primitive markings that have survived repression. Most likely, in their own way, they too silence, cover up, dissimulate the inadmissible. Nor need we examine them for long to understand that they too evoke more than merely quantitative realities.

  285.90.2

  Letters

  One thing led to another and the two Étiennes ended their afternoon together with each one creating a freehand drawing. Both drew a person. The boy recognized a few lines of the human body in Zablonski’s drawing but the whole thing seemed unfinished:

  “Is it de Cripple, den?”

  This made Le Grand Étienne laugh.

  “No, it’s Ludmilla in the bath.”

  Le Petit Étienne studied the drawing more closely, noting the effect of the yellow.

  “And yours?”

  “Dat’s Dad singin’.”

  The master studied the pupil’s work.

  “Yes, I see. It’s good. Very, very good.”

  286.14.12

  Zablonski

  Why this particular structure? Probably because human beings — and writers all the more so — require many thousand lines of flight.

  287.12.10

  Structure

  “Wot would be de opposite of a necessity? Well, dat’s a queer question, anyway.”

  . . .

  288.31.11

  Questions with Answers

  “Alright den, how bout dose fancy hand towels women put out in de batroom, even doh yer not supposed to use dem.”

  * * *

  4. Recent studies of Freud’s work have preferred the title The Interpretation of Dreaming to The Interpretation of Dreams, but both are acceptable today.

  176.142.4

  Notes

  5. In the original Chiac, the word for hanging up is hãngnér up. Further down, the Chiac term for “come get him” is cri. The proper spelling of these words remains undecided, awaiting revision by the GIRAFE (Grande instance rastafarienne-acadienne pour un français éventuel — Grand Institution of Rastafarian-Acadia for French Eventually).

  212.142.5

  Notes

  6. The editors of La Bibliothèque idéale deliberately included 49 books per category in order to give readers the pleasure of completing the 49 categories with a work of their own choosing. Your ideal library would then contain 450 works.

  228.142.6

  Notes

  7. The Yi Jing method of divination serves as the structural framework for France Daigle’s Life’s Little Difficulties (translated from the French by Robert Majzels, House of Anansi Press, 2004).

  240.142.7

  Notes

  CHAPTER 3

  Literature remains alive only if we set ourselves immeasurable goals, far beyond all hope of achievement. Only if poets and writers set themselves tasks that no one else dares imagine will literature continue to have a function.

  289.144.3

  Epigraphs

  Italo Calvino,

  Six Memos for the Next Millenium, Harvard University Press, (1988)

  It had been a while since Terry had attended one of Carmen’s makeup sessions in its entirety.

  “Were you doin’ dat before, runnin’ a pencil along de line of yer cheek like dat?”

  Carmen, who was being careful not to smudge her line, did not immediately reply.

  “I only just bought this pencil. It cuts down the shadow.”

  She scooped a dab of anti-ageing cream on the tips of the fingers of her left hand and began gently tapping under her eyes.

  Watching her, Terry chuckled.

  “They say it’s best to tap, rather than to spread it on. And you’re not to tap too hard neither. Which is why it’s better to use de left hand.”

  Terry thought that was clever.

  “Is der somebody dat teaches ya all dis stuff, den, or is it someting women’re born knowin’?”

  Carmen wondered if Terry was playing the innocent or truly innocent?

  “Well, there are piles of magazines that talk about pretty much nothing else. I read dem over at Zone’s.

  Terry’s memory flashed the row upon row of beauty magazines at Reid’s and Chapters. Meanwhile, Carmen continued his education:

  “Matter o’ fact, only last week I was readin’ dat now it’s alright to be wearin’ the same colour lipstick an’ nailpolish. Used to be, that was something a girl ought never to do.”

  290.87.2

  The Body

  “Dat’s right, der’s the fingernails as well!”

  They say the entire oeuvre of a writer is already lurking in the interstices of their first book.8

  291.54.6

  Forgotten/Recalled

  Not all the overheard conversations were dramatic. The most ordinary surfaced after closing time at the Babar, while they were cleaning up.

  “Well, I never tot dat’s de way ’twas done. Wot’s yer opinion?”

  “I tinks he was pullin’ yer leg is my opinion! Der’s no way dey does it dat way.”

  . . .

  . . .

  “Still, it would be sometin’ to visit one o’ dem puzzle plants sometime, just to see how dey does it.”

  . . .

  “Does you do ’em?”

  “Do wot?”

  “Puzzles!”

  “Lord no. I gets stomach-sick just turnin’ over all de pieces right-side up afore I even gets started.”

  “I does ’em wid me granny when I go’s to see ’er. She enjoys it. She’s all de time got one on de go, on a card table in de corner of ’er room. She’s in a home.”

  292.6.11

  The Babar

  Materials continued: perle cotton, glossy silk thread, flower yarn, matte cotton embroidery yarn, wool thread, six-stranded cotton (embroidery floss), matted embroidery cotton, linen, silk and rayon floss, crochet thread, lace thread, metallic thread, sewing thread.

  293.71.5

  Intro Embroidery

  Many of Lacan’s discoveries are rooted in the shimmering reflections of language, language as revelatory. In fact, it was in their speech that Lacan located the mechanism troubling his analysands. In addition, he was compelled to invent many new words and to recombine locutions to reveal how and to what degree the unconscious is manifested in language.

  295.34.2

  Lacan

  However, the symbolic numbers 666 and 1,728 produce different results in Arabic multiplication:

  666 = 6 × 6 × 6

  1,728 = 1 × 7 × 2 × 8

  666 = 6 × (6 × 6)

  1,728 = 1 × 7 × (2 × 8)

  666 = 6 × (36)

  1,728 = 1 × 7 × (16)

  666 = 6 × (3 × 6)

  1,728 = 1 × 7 × (1 × 6)

  666 = 6 × (18)

  1,728 = 1 × 7 × (6)

  666 = 6 × (1 × 8)

  1,728 = 1 × (7 × 6)

  666 = 6 × 8

  1,728 = 1 × (42)

  666 = 48

  1,728 = 1 × (4
× 2)

  666 = 4 × 8

  1,728 = 1 × 8

  666 = 32

  1,728 = 8

  666 = 3 × 2

  666 = 6

  296.97.5

  Numerals and Numbers

  It would be unfair not to point out the important contributions made by individual authors to their alphabetical group, particularly Balzac, Bataille, and Breton; Calvino, Canetti, Cendrars, and Cocteau; Diderot and Duby; Flaubert; Gide; Hugo; Jünger; Kafka; Malraux, Maupassant, Michelet, and Musil; Nabokov and Nietzsche; Paulhan and Proust; Sand, Sartre, and Stendhal; Verne and Voltaire; Yourcenar; and finally, Zola. At least five books by each of these authors are listed in La Bibliothèque idéale. Organized according to dates of birth, this list would read as follows: Voltaire (1694), Diderot (1713), Stendhal (1783), Michelet (1798), Balzac (1799), Hugo (1802), Sand (1804), Flaubert (1821), Verne (1828), Zola (1840), Nietzsche (1844), Maupassant (1850), Gide (1869), Proust (1871), Musil (1880), Kafka (1883), Paulhan (1884), Cendrars (1887), Cocteau (1889), Jünger (1895), Breton (1896), Bataille (1897), Nabokov (1899), Malraux (1901), Yourcenar (1903), Sartre (1905), Canetti (1905), Duby (1919), and Calvino (1923).

  297.46.7

  La Bibliothèque idéale

  “Who was it again said ‘hell is de udder’?”

  “Nobody. Dat’s a proverb, everybody says it.”

  “For sure, but somebody had to go and say it first, right?”

  “A proverb happens when its been such a terrible long time people’s been sayin’ it, don’t matter no more where she comes from.”

  “And anyhow, it’s only to get people talkin’. Pro-verb, pro means ‘for,’ an’ verb means ‘talkin’.’ ‘Fer talkin’.”