Le delire et les reves d'enfance.

Sunday night, I had the genius idea of adding some rice that I had cooked and frozen to my simple meal of vegetables.
Bad Idea.
I forgot that my freezer is dodge as.
You can imagine the kind of night I spent.
Luckily I had no classes on Monday, that would have been catatrophic.
This is my first experience of food poisoning ever and hopefully the last. Luckily, I threw up so many times during the month I was sick in Perth before leaving for Paris, that I knew exactly what was coming and could prepare.
That's one of the sucky things about living alone: you have to be completely self-reliant, even when you are sick.
I went to the pharmarcy today and told her about my situation and she gave me some pain-killers and some  medicaments to re-instate the balance of my stomach or something. As I was feeling a bit dizzy and out of it, I didn't really pay much attention.

For K5051, Recits et Reves d'Enfance (Narratives and dreams of childhood) we have to read Freud's psychoanalytical interpretation of the dreams which occur in the novella, Gradiva (1901) by W. Jensen.

The next bit is a bit thick so if you only the summary of it, just read the yellow bits.

I started to read this last night (I should have read it by last week, but I missed the first cours so I didn't know this). Gradiva is a really interesting nouvelle a lire parce qu'il s'agit d'un jeune archeologue qui tombe amoureux d'un bas-relief d'une jeune femme pompienne qui fut morte en 79 a cause de l'eruption de Mt. Vuseve  [a young archaeologist who falls in love with the form of a young Pompeian woman who died in 79 AD during the eruption of mount Versuvius]. Due to her unusual walk, he names her Gradiva, meaning she who walks ahead. This imaginative German youth, while in Pompeii dreams about the destruction of the city and the death of the young woman. This dream no doubt rivetted Freud, because there were so many elements that he could tirer du reve which demonstrates the relevance of his new and unconfirmed theories- he spends some time analysing it.

This dream d'angoisse exprime son desir pour avoir une femme certe, vivante, reele. 
The next morning he flees the town for Roma, but he is troubled by all the happy jeunes maries. Meme s'il est inconscient, ces couples le genent parce qu'il n'a pas une femme vivante a lui. On comprend cet origine/raison apres la decouverte de Zoe Bertang, sa ancienne voisine et son amour d'enfance. etc. etc.
He then goes even further South to escape these newlyweds who seem to have invaded every museum, every hotel and street, but finds that there are still cent exemplaires de ces Venus et Poppilon, ces Augustes et Grete. (Auguste, mon amour- Grete ma douceur). He dreams about one of these young couples represented by Venus and some other figure of antiquity expressing their love for one another. Of course, Freud whose theory is focused on the idea that dreams express nos desirs dans une facon cachee completely ignores this dream as it is obvious what it means- it doesn't give him anyway to demonstrate his theory.

Anyway the long and the short of it is that the main character, Nobert, returns to Pompeii and he stumbles across a woman identical to his Gradiva. He speaks to her in Latin, then in Greek only to have her reply, "If you wish to speak to me, you must do so in German".
After a short conversation, she swiftly leaves, leaving Nobert (what a crappy name), completely confused: Is this just a figament of his imagination or is this Pompeiian woman real?- And that is the basis for the rest of the story.


But I won't bore you anymore with these notes of mine.

I now I have to read Freud's interpretation of Gradiva.

I was in my arm chair last night.
My legs en repos on the mono-chair of ma chambre.
Wearing my ski-pants and jacket.
Reading Gradiva.
Presque en dormant.
I read the book: dream-like state.
Whenever je lis en francais, c'est toujours comme je suis en train de rever.
Je laisse couler les mots sur mon esprit, comme l'eau sur le dos en me lavant.

It's interesting to have this double-state of dreaming.
Dreaming, almost falling asleep.
Reading about le delire et les reves du jeune archeologue, Nobert.


Although this unit is a bit recherche, it gives something for my mind to chew on at the very least.