The winter solstice may be a good time to reflect on the past, and, not solely, the nearly past year. I have been reading, and editing, my old blog‘s entries for 2014 and 2013. Those were productive years for me, when most of the ideas I worked on since then were developed. I admired, still admire Jean Paulhan, the man who, in 1942, founded Les Lettres Françaises, in occupied Paris, at the risk of falling trapped by the Gestapo. My mother used to read the magazine in the early 50’s. But, of course, my interest in Paulhan was renewed when I (re)discovered Dominique Aury’s novel around 2013. I probably read Histoire d’O first as a teenager, stealing from my mother’s bookshelf, and did not understand the story at all then! In 2013 I knew enough to fall in love with the author, and the character. Furthermore the story prompted me to pull down from the cobwebs of memories the recollection of another young lady, whom I named Melissa, and start writing what would become The Page.

Going back to the old blog, 2013 was the last year when my country last had a chance to be governed as it used to be, as opposed to by soulless, spineless and inept morons. Pace. 2014 saw the start of the war, still burning now, at the cost of countless lives, the longest war in Europe since the Thirty Years War. The beginnings of it inspired me to start writing Viktoria Park, unfinished since I left Berlin in September 2020.

I have a few new things on the bench (the Arcturus tale, inspired by a new reading of Azimov, for example), but the energy is eluding me, such is life. I may not have the time to edit The Page, and possibly not to revive the old blog to its original flavour. While I managed to save the textual posts, many pictures are irretrievably lost since the original sources are no longer accessible. So what about new resolutions?

Well, health and artery stenosis are a consideration (!). Then, I want to finish (re)reading Murakami (currently on Killing Commandatore), do justice to Bulkgakov, and seriously start with Dostoevsky. On the travel front, I wish to spend more time with my grand children, and perhaps go for a break in the Vosges, by far my favourite part of the old country now.

I wish you all a peaceful Christmas, if you fancy a taste for the old Lettres Françaises, please visit the archives.