English Playlist

I’m not gonna lie, I was kind of hyped for this blogging stuff thinking we’d be able to write about whatever we wanted every 2 weeks, but my enthusiasm has most definitely started to wane after seeing this weeks prompt. 

I mean I literally had an idea lined up and everything, but I guess I have no motivation to write about it since it is no longer tied to an arbitrary point value (screw self-fulfillment or whatever that means).

Anyways, I do need to do this since it’s a grade.

So let’s get into it

Le Scaphandre et le Papillon by Jean-Dominique Bauby 

Spotify Playlist 

(but not really cause it’s only 4 songs)

Ah-Vous Dirai Je Maman -  Anonymous (Link)

      I’m not gonna lie, even though its only been 4 months since I stopped having to do French, I think I’ve regressed by like 3 years worth of progress. But yeah, if you couldn’t tell, the memoir takes place in France. I think that the story of this song is pretty interesting. If you listen to the version that I linked here, its basically like a bougie sounding “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”, which it technically is.

        

        According to Wikipedia, the original rhyme and tune was made sometime in the 17th century in France, but the version I have here is based on a variation written by Mozart (12 Variations on "Ah Vous Dirai-je Maman"). The actual lyrics are kind of confusing ngl, but from what I'm getting, its about a French girl talking to her mom about her lover Sylvandre, and how he made her a bouquet of flowers but she tripped and fell into his arms (???). That sounds simple enough, but the way the last stanza is written makes it seem like some tragedy:

"Le cruel avec adresse,   (28) 

profita de ma faiblesse"  (29)

        I don't think you need to know French to realize how overly dramatic that sounds. Anyway, 1960s Paris is basically peak stereotypical France. 

Mad World- Michael Andrews (Link)

bruh this gif isn't working
(pretend its Kermit the frog
falling to his doom)

        Yes, it's the depressing meme song from like 7th grade (The OG Vine Cover). Anyway, I chose this song because represents a specific passage from the memoir really well (god why is this assignment so weird):

Reliés par des coursives interminables, les bâtiments forment un vrai dédale, et il n’est pas rare de croiser un patient de Ménard égaré à Sorrel, du nom des chirurgiens réputés qui servent à désigner les principaux pavillons. Les malheureux ont le regard de l’enfant qu’on vient d’arracher à sa mère et lancent des pathétiques « Je suis perdu ! » en tremblant sur leurs béquilles. Moi qui suis un « Sorrel », comme disent les brancardiers, je m’y retrouve assez bien, mais ce n’est pas toujours le cas des amis qui me transbahutent, et j’ai pris le pli de rester stoïque devant les tâtonnements des néophytes quand nous nous engouffrons dans une mauvaise voie. Ça peut être l’occasion de découvrir un recoin inconnu, d’entrevoir de nouveaux visages, de voler au passage une odeur de cuisine. C’est ainsi que je suis tombé sur le phare une des toutes premières fois que l’on me poussait dans mon fauteuil alors que je sortais juste des brumes du coma. Il est apparu au détour d’une cage d’escalier où nous nous étions fourvoyés : élancé, robuste et rassurant avec sa livrée à rayures rouges et blanches qui ressemble à un maillot de rugby. Je me suis tout de suite placé sous la protection de ce symbole fraternel qui veille sur les marins comme sur les malades, ces naufragés de la solitude. (Bauby 23-24)

        Oops I guess it would probably be easier if I copy pasted the English version one sec:

Linked by endless corridors, the hospital buildings form an authentic maze, and one routinely runs into patients from Ménard hopelessly lost in Sorrel—wards named after eminent surgeons. Like children who have wandered from their mothers, these unfortunates mutter “I’m lost!” as they wobble about on their crutches. Being what the stretcher bearers call a “Sorrel,” I am more or less at home here, but the same cannot be said of newcomers. I could try to signal with my eyes whenever my wheelchair is pushed in the wrong direction, but I have taken to looking stonily ahead. There is always the chance that we will stumble upon some unknown corner of the hospital, see new faces, or catch a whiff of cooking as we pass. It was in this way that I came upon the lighthouse, on one of my very first expeditions in my wheelchair, shortly after swimming up from the mists of coma. As we emerged from an elevator on the wrong floor, I saw it: tall, robust, and reassuring, in red and white stripes that reminded me of a rugby shirt. I placed myself at once under the protection of this brotherly symbol, guardian not just of sailors but of the sick—those castaways on the shores of loneliness. (same-ish page numbers I would assume)

         Anyway, in this scene Bauby is essentially portraying the neuro-patient ward as the most depressing part of the hospital (which in and of itself isn't a very cheerful place to begin with). Earlier in this chapter, he contrasts this to the other areas of the hospital, which still offer patients the hope of eventual recovery, which is not the case for those terminally bound to his ward. This dreary, almost nihilistic attitude is also reflected in the lyrics and instrumental of the song I chose (wow its almost like I chose it for a reason).

Memories - Maroon 5 (Link)

         So its getting late and I need to get this done, so let's get right into it. Yes, a major theme of this memoir is the power of memories. To Bauby, memories are his only way of accessing the outside world, whether they be his own memories as a former travelling editor-in-chief of Elle magazine, or the post cards sent by his friends and family, Bauby's new disability makes immersing himself in his memories easier and as he describes it, much more "vivid" (well he didn't say that in English, but you get what I mean), much like how people who become blind describe their senses of hearing and touch being heightened. 

        Whole chapters are dedicated to him basically reliving parts of his former life, as well as the lives of others. His new-found sense of memory starts to blur the lines between reality and dream, where one second he is describing his trip to Lourdes with his wife, while in the next he is being crowned the king of Spain and watching Spanish dancers in his court.

        On the other hand, the memories that he has also serve as a depressing reminder of his current condition, a duality that is also well reflected in this song. 

The Bidding -  Tally Hall (Link)

(sorry no funni picture for this one, the album art doesn't really have anything to do with the song)

        Ok last song: this one is about the main character of the memoir, which is Jean-Dominique Bauby. Bauby is kind of like what every new MCU character is trying to be in the Marvel movies, he's self-aware, semi-cynical, but he also doesn't try to slip in a quip or joke every two lines (is writing even fun without parenthetical comments though?). Bauby offers insight into his condition, yet he also does manage to keep the novel entertaining with his self-deprecating dry sense of humor. 

(ok not gonna do the French-quote joke again, but seriously I don't have page numbers for the English pdf and all my annotations are on the French version, yes I know that this is purely a problem that I created for myself for choosing a French memoir and then deciding to read it in French (with a bit of help from Google of course))

I would like to be part of all this hilarity, but as soon as I direct my one eye toward them, the young man, the grandmother, and the homeless man turn away, feeling the sudden need to study the ceiling smoke detector. The “tourists” must be very worried about fire 

(Bauby 28)

        You might have just read this quote and wondered how sleep-deprived I am (the answer is yes) because there is no funny in those lines. But see, that's where you're wrong. The quote I have up there is basically a just the pay-off; it's the butt of the joke that Bauby builds on throughout that chapter. 

        To summarize what he's talking about in an ineloquent way that completely stomps out any of the original humor may have been present in the original text,  Bauby is essentially describing the other PT patients that he encounters at the hospital. He calls them "tourists" because (again) they have the luxury of eventually being discharged. Of course, usually they pay him no mind because he's basically just a breathing corpse, so they talk with each other, laugh together and generally just have a jolly old time. However, all of this stops of course when they notice that he is listening (or rather looking at them with his one still movable eyeball), and they suddenly "feel the...need to study the ceiling smoke detector".

        So yeah, the song has a narrator that has a similar to Bauby's, which is why I picked it.  Also this is like the only artist on this list that I regularly listen to (Tally Hall is really good). I may have a weird taste in music but its not 18th century French classical pseudo-romantic nursery rhyme type weird.  

p.s, do you guys like the fancy new formatting, I can actually use the website now

oh god nvm the images look terrible next to the text