SIMENON SIMENON. HIS “DICTATIONS”/ 1

What Georges had to say about them and more 

SIMENON SIMENON. SES “DICTEES”/ 1 

Ce que Georges avait à en dire et davantage 

SIMENON SIMENON. I SUOI "DICTEES"/1

Quello che Georges aveva da dire e oltre

The English translation of Assouline’s biography Simenon whittles ten pages about Simenon’s Dictations down to just three. Expanded consideration of these works is worthwhile because they reveal a lot about the man. 

For his 70th birthday, Simenon bought himself a tape recorder, which he called a “toy.” Belittled further as a “hobby” by its user, that little machine, in fact, recorded a prodigious amount of material from 1973 to 1977. In a not so humble justification, Simenon proclaimed therein: “I no longer had the need to instinctively put myself in the skin of those that I met. I was in mine, for the first time in 50 years.” Transcribed by Joyce Aitken onto 1260 pages in 21 volumes, his spoken words emerged in readable form over five years from 1975 to 1979. 

Biographer Assouline offers Simenon’s “compulsive need to express himself” as the principal reason for this outpouring. Although clearly off on a prolonged ego trip, at times Simenon was hard on himself regarding the quality of these works. Take, for example, this dictated denigration: “These dictations show that I am rather talkative by nature… All this is nothing but chatter [… that] I am sometimes ashamed of… I dictate, therefore I am… In the end, I have nothing to say… I can’t keep quiet…” Although the biographer confirms that the author “was not always softhearted towards this autobiographical production,” he does wonder if “was this false modesty on the part of this arrogant man or the ultimate leap of his terrifying lucidity?”  Indeed, he auto-critically compared the “fraudulent copies” of his Dictations to the “original canvas” of his Pedigree. Still, as Assouline points out, “Like a writer who had nothing to lose, he believed himself to be sufficiently untouchable that one would grant his ‘Reflections’ a reprieve.” 

While it does seem apparent that Simenon “did not try to deny the extravagant character” of his Dictations, the following extracts suggest his self-deprecations were phony, at least to me: In 1974, when he applies the Latin derived word elucrubations to these works and states they “don’t look like anything,” it sounds as though he is putting himself down, but he is not because the word’s first meaning is ‘assiduous studies’ and he’s saying they “are unlike anything else.” In 1975, when he states his own “personal notes” are “of little interest,” he has just finished comparing them favorably to Thomas Mann’s “30 great notebooks.” In 1976, when he calls himself an “ignorantus”—seemingly a Latin term for an ignorant person—this has a false ring, too. Since no such word exists in Latin (Molière made it up in The Imaginary Invalid), he is not really calling himself ignorant. 

So, why then did Simenon risk these “extravagant” Dictations? The biographer’s answer is: “to drive off the ghosts that haunted him: failure, old age, and death. To justify himself, encore et toujours.” This latter phrase translates literally as again and always, a pleonastic reinforcement of the idea of once and forever. To my mind, the autobiographer answered the question in 1977, in the last of his Dictations: “I write for my personal satisfaction, I was going to say because of obsession…” 

David P Simmons 

SIMENON SIMENON. LE TIERCE DE MAIGRET 

Un choix de trois romans de la saga, sur un thème particulier 

Trois enquêtes sur Maigret et l'Amérique 

Comme Simenon a tenu à faire enquêter son commissaire dans des lieux que lui-même avait arpentés, il semble évident qu'il n'allait pas manquer de l'emmener à sa suite en Amérique. Sous des prétextes plus ou moins plausibles (on sollicite l'aide de Maigret alors qu'il est à la retraite, ou, alors qu'il est encore en activité, on l'envoie faire un voyages d'étude aux USA), le commissaire débarque donc de l'autre côté de l'Atlantique. Dans le troisième roman cité ci-dessous, c'est en quelque sorte l'Amérique qui débarque en France, avec les bandits de Chicago venus exercer leurs talents dans la capitale parisienne…

"D'abord, il aimait ce coin bruyant et un peu vulgaire de Broadway qui lui rappelait à la fois Montmartre et les Grands Boulevards de Paris." (Maigret à New York) 

"Ce qu'il fallait, c'était cesser de voir ces différences, de s'étonner, par exemple, de la hauteur des buildings, du désert, des cactus, des bottes et des chapeaux de cow-boys, des machines à pousser des billes dans des trous et des phonographes automatiques." (Maigret chez le coroner) 

"Ces gens-là, qu'ils fussent d'un côté ou de l'autre de la barrière, agissaient à Paris comme chez eux. La foule qui circulait dans les rues, pendant la nuit du lundi à mardi, ne s'était pas doutée qu'elle assistait à une poursuite à la manière de Chicago." (Maigret, Lognon et les gangsters) 

 SIMENON SIMENON. LA TRIPLETTA DI MAIGRET 

Una scelta di tre romanzi della serie, su un tema particolare 

Tre inchieste su Maigret e l’America 

Siccome Simenon ha voluto far indagare il proprio commissario nei luoghi che lui stesso aveva frequentato, è evidente che non poteva esimersi dal portarlo al suo seguito in America. Con dei pretesti più o meno plausibili (si chiede l’aiuto di Maigret quando è in pensione, o, quando ancora è in servizio, lo si manda a fare un viaggio di studio in America) il commissario sbarca dunque sull’altra costa dell’Atlantico. Nel terzo romanzo citato di seguito, c’é in qualche modo l’America che sbarca in Francia, con i gangster di Chigago venuti ad esercitare il loro «talento» nella capitale parigina…

«All’inizio gli piaceva questo angolo bollente e un po’volgare di Broadway che forse gli ricordava Montmartre e i Grandi Boulevard di Parigi». (Maigret a New York) 

«Quello che serve, è smettere di notare certe differenze, di stupirsi, per esempio, dell’altezza dei grattacieli, del deserto, dei cactus, degli stivali e dei cappelli dei cow-boy, delle macchine a spingere delle biglie nei buchi e dei fonografi automatici.». (Maigret dal coroner) 

«Quella gente la, che fosse da una parte o l’altra della linea, agiva a Parigi come se fosse a casa propria. La folla che circolava per le strade, durante la notte tra lunedì e martedì, non poteva credere di assistere ad un inseguimento proprio come succede a Chicago.» (Maigret, Lognon e i gangster) 

 SIMENON SIMENON. MAIGRET'S TRIFECTA 

A choice of three novels of the saga, on a particular theme 

Three investigations about Maigret and America 

As Simenon made a point to let his Chief inspector investigate in places which he paced himself, it seems obvious that he wouldn't fail to take him following himself in America. Under more or less plausible pretexts (Maigret's help is asked when he's retired, or, while he is still on duty, he's sent to USA for a study trip), thus the Chief Inspector lands on the other side of the Atlantic. In the third novel cited below, in a way it's America that is landing in France, with the Chicago gangsters coming to test their skills out in the Parisian capital…

"First of all, he liked this noisy and somewhat common Broadway corner, which reminded him at the same time of Montmartre and the Grands Boulevards in Paris." (Maigret in New York)

"What you needed was to forget these differences, not to be surprised anymore, for example, at the height of the buildings, at the desert, at the cactus, at the cow-boys' boots and hats, at the machines with which you could pull balls in holes, and at the automatic phonographs." (Maigret at the Coroner's) 

"These people, whether on one side or the other of the barrier, acted in Paris as if they were at home. The crowd that was walking in the streets, during the night from Monday to Tuesday, didn’t suspect that it was attending a chase in the Chicago style." (Maigret, Lognon and the Gangsters)

by Simenon Simenon