Words/Les mots

Two areas that I never tire of reading about are language and intellectuals - subjects which, fortunately, are vast and often connected. I go through degrees of obsession with first one and at the moment, it’s in full swing. For the first time too, my husband has jumped on the bandwagon. Even our joint audio course is related: the fantastic The History of the English Language, given by Professor Seth Lerer from Stanford University. Did you know (just to throw a tidbit at you) that the word ‘butterfly’ is a Modern English version of ‘flutterby’? Etymology is fascinating.

The transit book of the week was On Borrowed Words: A Memoir of Language by Ilan Stavans. We’ve met this author before, and I enjoyed this volume, although it is really different from Dictionary Days. It reveals a lot more about the author and his family, for one thing. He’s descended from Ashkenazi Eastern European Jews who moved to Mexico, where he grew up and learned to speak Spanish, Yiddish, and Hebrew. He then moved to the States and learned English, his preferred tongue. In this book he recounts his journey in search of identity through different family members, countries, and —ultimately — words.

The second text of the week is part of my effort to maintain my French. It’s about one of France’s most well-known public intellectuals, Bernard-Henri Lévy. The book, entitled BHL: une biographie, by Philippe Cohen, filled the gap in my knowledge about the now very controversial figure. He’s currently under fire in the United States for his latest work, American Vertigo, which is an account of his travels in the footsteps of Alexis de Tocqueville. His descriptions are not altogether flattering. For what it’s worth, he also always causes a stir in his own nation, albeit for different reasons. His fellow countrymen love criticizing him for everything from being exceedingly wealthy to being a media-hound; from not coming up with any ‘original theory’ to lying about some aspects of his past. This isn’t exactly a flattering biography. Maybe it’s because I’m Canadian, but I really don’t care about any of the above.

I’ve read several of his books and pretty much liked every single one of them. He writes well, and so what if he’s gone against the stereotype of the homely impoverished Parisian intellocrate? That he’s used the media to maximum effect is very clever, and that he’s opportunistic in what he writes about makes me take my hat off to him even more. I can appreciate a well-managed career, and will follow Lévy’s for some time to come.

You will hear much more about my pet subjects in the weeks to follow; of that I am certain.

Comments

[Gawain]

Hello Library Girl

Very pleased to make your aquaintance. You get a free link today for hello. And I am subsribing to your RSS feed!

Best regards
Gawain

[Michael Wagner]

Glad I found this blog. I love books and words too. I stumbled onto ancient Greek and Hebrew in undergrad days and have been hooked on words, translation theory and etymology ever since.

Thank you for extending this conversation!