SIMENON SIMENON. A CONTRAST BETWEEN EUROPE AND AMERICA

About the specific impact of climate on his protagonist in one novel 

SIMENON SIMENON. UN CONTRASTE ENTRE L’EUROPE ET L’AMERIQUE 

A propos de l’impact spécifique du climat sur son protagoniste dans un roman 

SIMENON SIMENON. UN CONTRASTO TRA L'EUROPA E L'AMERICA

A proposito dell'impatto specifico del clima sul suo protagonista in un romanzo

In his roman dur, one of his so-called “American” novels (The Fugitive/Account Unsettled/Crime Impuni), the writer cleverly juxtaposes and dramatically contrasts the climates of two worlds far apart. Part One transpires in eastern Belgium and Part Two in southwest America. The reader experiences both locales through the senses of the protagonist and gains insight into how climate can affect behavior. 

In Part One, the composite climate was cold, wet, and dark. In fact, the coldness predominated. For example, inside university student Elie’s boarding house bedroom, the place where he spent most of his time, he typically wore his hat and overcoat, and when it got “as cold there as on the sidewalk,” which was often, he “had to crawl into bed fully clothed” to get warm. Exposed to “long winters lasting six months and more,” he recalled “fighting with his brothers for boots” in order to avoid being one of those “painfully trudging barefoot in the snow.” That life explained why Elie was always “so afraid of the cold” and continued to “spend hours with his feet on the kitchen stove” thereafter. During these Simenon provided Belgian days, when it was “freezing enough to split a stone,” which was common, “black ice covered the streets like black varnish,” turning them into a “cold desert.” And, when it was not freezing, there was “a dark cold rain that seemed eternal” with “a few grayish flakes of snow mixed up in the threads of rain.” And, even if it were not snowing or raining, “the streets were drowning in fog.” 

In Part Two, Elie has fled that “black and white universe bordered by gray” for a composite climate that was hot, dry and bright. In fact, where he was now living in Arizona, the heat predominated. Although it was “almost cool” in the morning because the sun was low, typically “the sun’s line gained little by little on the shadows and, later, by the beginning of afternoon, one had to lower the Venetian blinds, the ventilators no longer stirring anything but hot air.” Even if “there were a semblance of a breeze,” usually “the thermometer at the hotel door read 95 to 113 degrees,” so that “huge ceiling fans circled silently day and night.” Is it “hot enough for you?” was “the ritual joke,” but Elie “never complained about the heat, the hotter it was the more content he seemed. He appeared completely happy to sweat, and the smell of his sweat was strong.” In fact, “he sniffed his own odor with delight” because it was so different from where he had lived before, where “he had trouble convincing himself that there were summers.” In addition, rain was as rare in Arizona as it was common in Belgium. “It did not rain more than three days in a year.” And, what is more, there usually was “no cloud in the sky, which stayed the same uniform blue for weeks” and, because of the always exposed “brilliant” sun, “its light was blinding.” 

In sum, back in Liège, Belgium, Elie “knew only that, one day, if he had some luck, he would live in a region were there was no winter, where he would enjoy the sun’s heat all year long.” Now that he was in Carlson-City, Arizona, it was no wonder, despite Simenon’s carefully crafted downturn for him, that Elie “would prefer to sit on the curbside and allow himself to die in the sunshine.” 

David P Simmons 

SIMENON SIMENON. LETTERATURA SENZA FRONTIERE

E' proprio il caso di dirlo: quando la cultura unisce culture e popoli diversi. Simenon l'ha fatto.

SIMENON SIMENON. LITTERATURE SANS FRONTIERE

C'est le cas de le dire: quand la culture unit des cultures et des peuples divers. Simenon l'a fait.

SIMENON SIMENON. LITERATURE WITHOUT BORDERS

It is appropriate to say: when culture unites cultures and diverse peoples, Simenon did it.

E' uno dei problemi che agita il mondo. La convivenza tra popoli e culture diverse in un ordine che non è quello del '900. Ci riferiamo ovviamente alla cruenta contrapposizione tra jahidisti radicalizzati contro gli stessi islamici, e i popoli occidentali. Pensiamo al fenomeno dell'emigrazione che mette a contatto culture, tradizione e religioni diverse e che è solo agli inizi (chi conosce bene il problema non esita a pronosticare per i prossimi 20/30 anni per lo meno una duplicazione del fenomeno). E ancora la guerra in Siria che contrappone varie razze e culture, il  medio oriente con israeliani e palestinesi... e se volessimo fare un esame completo avremmo ancora molto da dire.

Quello che succede è che le persone si parlano e non si capiscono. E come se la ultra-millenaria permanenza dei popoli su questa terra invece di avvicinare e favorire la comprensioni tra nazioni e popoli, l'avesse complicata e resa più difficile. Certo i problemi di convivenza delle diverse culture non può certo ridursi a questo, ma comunque quello della comunicazione ci sembra un aspetto di non trascurabile importanza.

Nonostante il complesso sistema di controllo e governance globale (Onu, Ocse, Fmi, Banca Mondiale, FMI...) sembrano non possedere l'autorevolezza e gli strumenti (quando non la volontà politica) di incidere con risultati concreti.

Quello che sembra patire meno i confini, le divisioni, i muri, è l'arte. Come si può fermare la musica, le arti figurative, la posia, la narrativa?...

Certo ci sono dittatori che censurano libri, quadri, brani musicali, ma non è la regola ed è più difficile di bloccare le persone.

E i libri che vengono tradotti in più lingue sono protagonisti di questa funzione. Costituiscono una base comune che permette non solo a popoli di lingua, ma anche di cultura differente. E più si allarga quella base comune più la possibilità di colloquiare, di comprendersi.

E Simenon e le sue opere in questo specifico caso sono dei campioni di questo raccordo. Le sue traduzioni in più di cinquanta paesi sono un fatto incontrovertibile. Tra la lista dei paesi troviamo anche l'Iran ed è evidente che la traduzione in una specifica lingua significa che i contenuti di quella narrazione troveranno riscontro in quei lettori anche se molto lontani dalla culutura dello scrittore. Ma nello specifico quella ricerca "dell'uomo nudo" di Simenon, lo portava a centrare l'obiettivo di toccare valori e caratteristiche universali dell'uomo di qualsiasi continente, di ogni religione e di qualsiasi tradizione.

E in più il messaggio che passa insieme al suo commissario Maigret sembra proprio fatto apposta per eliminare frontiere, barriere e incomprensioni... "comprendere e non giudicare" se applicato sarebbe uno standard di comportamento che farebbe fare progressi in moltissime parti del mondo e farebbe crescere l'autorevolezza di tanti politici che al di là  delle parole, sarebbero più capaci a risolvere gli inevitabili problemi della convivenza. (m.t) 

SIMENON SIMENON. UNE MASSE PLACIDE /1

Premières esquisses: un commissaire à la silhouette lourde et épaisse 

SIMENON SIMENON. UNA MASSA PLACIDA /1 

Primi schizzi: un commissario dalla sagoma pesante e spessa 

SIMENON SIMENON. A PLACID MASS /1 

First sketches: a Chief Inspector with a heavy and thick silhouette 

Je devenais plus gros, plus lourd que nature, avec, si je puis m'exprimer ainsi, une pesanteur étonnante." (Les mémoires de Maigret).

Que le personnage de Maigret ait évolué au fil de la saga est un fait indéniable, et qui apparaîtra évident à tout lecteur qui se donne la peine de lire les romans dans l'ordre chronologique de leur rédaction. Certes, dès les débuts ses traits essentiels sont posés: un physique massif, une force tranquille, sans parler de son humanité et de son empathie. Mais au fil du temps, son créateur a affiné la psychologie de sa créature, en même temps qu'il le dotait de quelques-uns de ses propres caractéristiques: une sensibilité aux odeurs, à la nourriture, aux jeux d'ombre et de lumière, ainsi que nombre de ses propres interrogations sur le monde, en particulier à propos de la culpabilité et de la responsabilité humaines. Plus le temps a passé, plus Simenon s'est rapproché de Maigret, alors qu'il l'avait au début imaginé comme une sorte de "tremplin" pour accéder à un nouveau palier dans la littérature, un "meneur de jeu" dont il pensait pouvoir se passer un jour… On sait ce qu'il en est: au contraire, Maigret est devenu, sinon son porte-parole, du moins le porteur de certaines de ses hantises… 

On pourrait suivre cette évolution en se concentrant sur divers thèmes. Pour le billet d'aujourd'hui, nous allons nous focaliser sur un aspect particulier, la description du physique du commissaire, et nous allons voir comment Simenon utilise cette description, et comment, petit à petit, comme l'écrit Gilles Henry (dans La véritable histoire du commissaire Maigret), on passe d'une "sorte de géant, énorme, grand et lourd", à un Maigret "beaucoup plus intériorisé". Gilles Henry dit encore que "Simenon l'affinera considérablement, conservant la taille, supprimant la lourdeur, le poids et ce côté «bovin» des débuts". 

En réalité, il ne s'est pas tellement agi de "supprimer la lourdeur et le poids" de Maigret, mais plutôt d'en faire une lourdeur plus "intérieure", c'est-à-dire une lourdeur morale. Le commissaire reste gros et corpulent, mais plus on avance dans la saga, plus les descriptions de son physique se font rares, et son côté massif et lourd est de plus en plus souvent décrit dans des circonstances particulières de l'enquête.  

Dans le roman qui ouvre la saga et où Maigret apparaît pour la première fois "officiellement", Simenon se doit d'évoquer souvent le physique du commissaire, pour poser sa silhouette telle qu'elle lui est apparue, cette "masse puissante et impassible" que le romancier décrit dans la préface de 1966 pour les éditions Rencontre. On va donc trouver, dans les deux premiers chapitres de Pietr le Letton, une accumulation de termes descriptifs: dans son bureau, Maigret se campe, "large et pesant", puis, lorsqu'il va attendre Pietr à la gare du Nord, il est là, "énorme", comme un "mur" contre lequel vient buter toute l'agitation, et il pousse sa "masse placide" au milieu de la foule. Ce terme de "masse" va apparaître souvent dans les romans qui suivent, pour décrire l'allure du commissaire, et c'est un terme bien choisi: on peut imaginer Maigret non seulement en volume, mais en masse (voir par exemple, dans Un crime en Hollande, lorsque Maigret suit Cornelius, sa silhouette est décrite, si l'on peut dire, en trois dimensions: "Maigret entrait tranquillement dans la zone lumineuse, de toute sa largeur, de tout son volume, de tout son poids."), c'est-à-dire comme quelque chose de pesant, de "rempli", comme un "bloc". Le mot "bloc" apparaît d'ailleurs à trois reprises dans le chapitre deux de Pietr le Letton. Maigret forme un bloc, "énorme et osseux", dérangeant et inassimilable, au milieu des dorures du Majestic.  

Mais déjà dans ce premier roman, Simenon montre que malgré sa solidité, le commissaire a des failles: ainsi, au chapitre 8, après avoir été blessé, et avoir découvert le meurtre de Torrence, Maigret se montre sous un autre jour: "Ce n'était plus le bloc dur, tout d'une pièce, formidable…". Une impression qu'on retrouvera aussi dans Cécile est morte, lorsque, après la découverte du cadavre de la jeune fille, le romancier dit de son personnage qu'il était "grand et fort, solide en apparence comme un roc" (nous soulignons). 

Ainsi, dès le premier roman, des jalons sont posés: Maigret est une masse compacte, aussi bien au physique qu'au mental. Cependant déjà apparaît le fait que le commissaire, malgré son physique massif, reste un être humain, et qu'il ne sera pas à l'abri des attaques… 

Dans la deuxième partie de ce billet, nous tenterons d'établir quelques comparaisons entre les romans, afin de montrer l'évolution de la description que le romancier a faite de son héros. 

Murielle Wenger

SIMENON SIMENON. EGO RULES!

An extreme example of a common theme in the Simenon "romans durs"

SIMENON SIMENON. L’EGO GOUVERNE !

Un exemple extrême d’un thème commun dans les romans durs de Simenon

SIMENON SIMENON . L'EGO HA IL SOPRAVVENTO!

Un esempio estermo di un tema comune nei romans durs di Simenon

Part One of Simenon’s “American novel” The Fugitive/Account Unsettled/Crime Impuni concludes with protagonist Elie egocentrically shooting antagonist Michel point-blank in the face and fleeing from Belgium. Part Two begins 26 years later with Elie hiding from this “unpunished crime” in America. He is a front desk clerk at the only hotel in Carlson-City, Arizona, which is a “dying” copper mining town of about 5000 people. Lo and behold, Michel arrives one day, having just bought the hotel and the solo mine. Elie is now grossly obese with “a double chin,” and Michel’s face is horribly deformed with “only his forehead and eyes intact.” Yet, in an “aha” moment, they recognize each other.

“Elie knew this very time would come someday,” and “Michel had also expected to meet him somewhere in the world one day.” Surprisingly, except for some unfathomable looks coming from his half-face, Michel ignores his prior assailant. “It was hard to tell if he might have been smiling” at Elie because of the “rigidity of his face.” Except for “ a sort of gurgle” that might have been a “goodnight,” he does not speak one word to Elie, and that was not simply because “he was missing half his tongue.” While Michel continues inscrutable, Elie wracks his brain, trying to guess what Michel is thinking, trying to decide how to respond.

The question of “what is in Michel’s mind” torments Elie. Noting how Michel “stared at people and things with formidable gravity” in silence, Elie considers hate, fear, contempt, and pity as factors. Recalling the face with its “bloody hole,” he did not then and does not now see “hate” in Michel’s eyes. He wonders if Michel “might have fear of him? That he might kill him a second time?’’ Since Michel “had always had contempt for him,” Elie wonders if now “he was contemptuous enough to not give him the chance to explain himself?” Was it possible that “Michel would not pity him? Would not someone, anyone pity him someday?”

What Elie eventually concludes is that the bottom line for Michel is his indifference, for he ignores all efforts to communicate. For example, in response to a simple “good evening” from Elie, Michel merely shrugs and waves his hand dismissively. He “barely looks at him” and, most of the time, he “does not pay any attention” at all. Since Michel does not give him “the charity of five minutes of his time,” Elie cannot “explain himself.” Thus, he could not “finally find peace.” Not only did he “not know what that was,” he realizes he “would never be able to know” peace.

Elie considers Michel’s behavior to be “cruelty.” Basically, he “was crushing him under his heel like an insect.” He humiliates Elie and, at the same time, angers him. Feeling “he is eating Michel’s leftovers. Like a dog,” the self-absorbed egocentric actually believes he has “suffered more” than Michel and he has “paid the price as dearly as it was possible for a man to pay.” This was apparent back in Belgium in Part One and, now in America in Part Two, Elie’s actions at the end confirm he is the ultimate egotist. No wonder, (with the risk of providing a spoiler), the novel’s last sentence is: “This time, he was dead.”

David P Simmons