Chicoutimi by (winter) night

Chicoutimi is an Amerindian word
it means up to where the water is deep
this word refers to the Saguenay
a big a beautiful a splendid river
but Chicoutimi as a town is ugly
as every American town
and this ugliness is very interesting
but fortunately nature surrounds every town
in this country
and nature cannot be ugly

Larry Tremblay, The Dragonfly of Chicoutimi

I quoted and quoted again this part of my favorite play written by a Quebecker. I am quoting it again because it is a perfect introduction to this picture, which I took last night. I met a friend for a couple of drinks and catch up. We were on the main street, on the Rue Racine, when I took it. The Rue Racine is nowadays mostly empty, even on a Saturday night. It is not a beautiful street, far from it, but with the snow falling heavily it has a distinct charm. I am glad there is somewhere in the world where winter is still winter.

Chicoutimi, the San Francisco of the North?

"Chicoutimi is an Amerindian word
it means up to where the water is deep
this word refers to the Saguenay
a big a beautiful a splendid river
but Chicoutimi as a town is ugly
as every American town
and this ugliness is very interesting
but fortunately nature surrounds every town
in this country
and nature cannot be ugly"

Larry Tremblay, The Dragonfly of Chicoutimi

I used this quote again yesterday on Facebook. As my long-time readers know, I have a fascination for this play. So anyway, I used this quote on my Facebook page, as usually do. And I was told by one of my cousins that, while the play is great, what the character Gaston Talbot says is inaccurate: Chicoutimi can be pretty in some places, even beautiful and is like a San Francisco of the North. I have not seen San Francisco, except in pictures, so cannot comment about this claim, but I do know that this city (it is a city and not a town, as it has a cathedral, at least that much is inaccurate) can be beautiful, sometimes, in some places. I will need to rediscover it in the upcoming days.

Still, the San Francisco of the North did not look much like San Francisco yesterday. I thought about these lines when the bus was riding through the Boulevard Talbot (fitting name, isn't it? I don't think Larry Tremblay gave the same family name to his character at random). It sure looks ugly. But there are bits, when you are near the Saguenay river and can see the fjord, where it is absolutely breathtaking. Okay, so this would be nature. not the city itself. There are plenty of old buildings which I noticed again and thought they were quite pretty in an old fashioned way. Maybe this is what my counsin meant? Chicoutrimi is also full of hills and slopes, something I rediscover any time. Not unlike Liverpool, but calling it the Liverpool of the North would be kind of redundant, as Liverpool is also in the North. So I will ponder on this in the next few days.

Farewell to Chicoutimi

This post may be my last post of the year 2012. Obviously, I don't know when I will blog again in 2013, with the (very likely) post-Christmas blues and the homesickness. But 670 posts in 2012, it is not bad, although I could have written less and better ones.

So tonight is my last night in Chicoutimi, tomorrow I will go back to Montreal. I have mixed feelings about my home town, but I love it during winter, especially around Christmas, when it is buried in the snow. Remember the lines from The Dragonfly of Chicoutimi I often quote:

"Chicoutimi is an Amerindian word
it means up to where the water is deep
this word refers to the Saguenay
a big a beautiful a splendid river
but Chicoutimi as a town is ugly
as every American town
and this ugliness is very interesting
but fortunately nature surrounds every town
in this country
and nature cannot be ugly"

I think the picture, taken by my brother, illustrates this in a nutshell. And it shows why I will miss it.

A postcard picture of Chicoutimi

This was taken by my father, I don't know when. He sent it to me recently. You can see the cathedral in the center (the Saint-François Xavier Cathedral, but we always called it "the cathedral"), the hospital in the background on the left and the cégep in the background on the right. In front, the Saguenay river, which looks very much like low on water, even though Chicoutimi means "where the water is deep". It does not look like it from this picture.

I posted it here for a few reasons. The first is that I had never uploaded a picture of Chicoutimi before, except of my parents' house or garden. But nothing looked typically Chicoutimian. How does a city look like anyway? This one is pretty much a picture for a postcard. So this is the city where I grew up. I used to walk up and down its slopes, I had my Confirmation at the cathedral (but not my First Communion, whih was done in a small parish), I went to the cégep after high school, I went to the hospital there, this is the city that I was shaped in and which shaped me. I also uploaded it because of this quote from Larry Tremblay's The Dragonfly of Chicoutimi, which I posted on this blog more than once (it shows my obsession with the play)

"Chicoutimi is an Amerindian word
it means up to where the water is deep
this word refers to the Saguenay
a big a beautiful a splendid river
but Chicoutimi as a town is ugly
as every American town
and this ugliness is very interesting
but fortunately nature surrounds every town
in this country
and nature cannot be ugly"

And I find it funny because here, you don't see the ugly blandness of the city, which Gaston Talbot refers to as a town. I mean sure, it is not Rome, but it is pretty. And the Saguenay here does not look like a big, beautiful, splendid river. I always thought the picture Talbot makes of the city was pretty much spot on, right on the money. You look at this, and you think the picture must be lying, yet it is very much the city I grew up in.

An expat from Saguenay

"I travel a lot
I see a lot of things
very different from what we are used to see here
of course
when we travel we see different things
that's quite sure
but I have the feeling to tell it to repeat it
why
I don't really know
maybe saying it I just want to make a contact
to keep in touch as we say"

Larry Tremblay, The Dragonfly of Chicoutimi

I quoted it before, but I do feel like the way Gaston Talbot describe himself in the beginning of the play (we learn later that it is a fabrication, but it fits me anyway). And today is my last day home, in Saguenay, in Chicoutimi where the water is deep.I always have this strange feeling when I come back home. I am a guy from Saguenay, a Blueberry as we say, through and through: I sitll have the accent, I relate to all these little cultural references. I also have the local temperament, or some of it: the pride, the tendency to fabulation, the way of always looking at things in dramatic, larger than life fashion. The Saguenay is often called the Kingdom of Saguenay (I kid you not), even though there is no king in it. But there is no need of a king: the place has enough majesty in itself. It might sound stupid, but I relate to this.

I have been an expat for a long time, maybe since I first left to study in Montreal when I was 19. I wondered before if being an expat did not mean becoming a foreigner. I am foreign wherever I go: in other countries of course, but even in Montreal which I consider home, because of my accent. Yet when I come back here, it is always after a long while: I didn't see the city changing, or the way I changed myself. In a way, I feel that I am from Saguenay when I am in another place.

Where the water is deep

"Chicoutimi is an Amerindian word
it means up to where the water is deep
this word refers to the Saguenay
a big a beautiful a splendid river
but Chicoutimi as a town is ugly
as every American town
and this ugliness is very interesting
but fortunately nature surrounds every town
in this country
and nature cannot be ugly"

Larry Tremblay, The Dragonfly of Chicoutimi

I have quoted Larry Tremblay before, this very quote in fact, but it fits the topic of this post. I am in Chicoutimi, where I grew up, where indeed I spent the first 20 years of my life or so. I had a glimpse of the Saguenay, this beautiful, splendid river, and a lot of the ugliness of the town. It didn't change much. I can say that Chicoutimi is ugly without being considered a traitor, I hope, as this ugliness has now been immortalised in a major play. And because ugliness can be interesting.

I always come back here with an uneasy feeling. Chicoutimi, as I mentioned here in French, has a fitting name: it is deep, far away from everywhere, surrounded by forest and nature, the Saguenay river with its deep, deep water, and it affected our psyche: we are as insular as English people, if not more. I wonder if being an expat does not mean, also, becoming a foreigner. I will come back to it in the next days.

Tout va très bien, Madame la Marquise

La photo a été prise dans le Vieux-Montréal. C'est un cheval plus blanc que gris, mais il fera l'affaire pour illustrer ce billet. J'ai en tête je ne sais pas trop pourquoi cette chanson de Ray Ventura. Mon père en connaissait quelques vers quand j'étais enfant, ça m'avait marqué (comme bien des souvenirs enfantins), l'histoire cette marquise qui perdait tout et qui semble être la seule à se rendre compte de la gravité de la situation, alors que ses domestiques lui dorent allègrement la pillule. C'est une chanson délicieusement ironique, presqu'un vaudeville ou une comédie musicale en un acte (et une chanson!), une preuve que le music-hall peut être à la fois léger, drôle et intelligent. Et Larry Tremblay a utilisé la chanson dans The Dragonfly of Chicoutimi pour donner un effet plus sinistre. En fait, l'expression "Tout va très bien, Madame la Marquise" a en français une connotation profondément fataliste: on dit ça parce que rien ne peut aller plus mal.

What to read where

This is a follow up of this post. I thought about it quite a lot, and a recent post by Leigh Russell got me thinking about it again (and by the way Leigh enjoy your time in the Midi). As I said pretty often here I am a seasonal reader, I read according to the time of the year (horror stories before Halloween, novels set in a heatwave if I am in the middle of one, etc). Maybe I should be, sometimes, a "setting" reader. I thought about it a lot: one understands a country better through its literature. So here is a list of authors or titles I would read, or recommend to read, when I/one visits a place, or travels to a place (disclaimer: I did not visit all these places):

 -Chicoutimi: The Dragonfly of Chicoutimi. Well, duh!
-Japan: something by Yukio Mishima. Read one novel of him, in cégep. If I ever go to Japan, I will pick up one of Mishima's work.
-Florence: Machiavel, in the text if I can, or with a translation on the side.
-Los Angeles: Raymond Chandler, definitely.
-Oxfordshire: Something by Tolkien. You visit the English countryside and you see the Shire, like my dad remarked recently.
-Rome: I would probably reread Bear's Roman Women. I know, I know. I am shamelessly plugging Burgess again. But it is such a great read. I would probably try to read some Italian poets, in the text. I would ask an Italian friend to give me a few tips. Not Dante, I got fed up with him.
-South Africa: something by Deon Meyer. I only read Dead at Daybreak, basically a crime novel about the ghosts of Apartheid, but I want to read more of this author. My mum made me discover this one. It has been too long.
-Train journeys (especially long ones): No, not this one! If you read French, try this one. Tonino Benacquista is sadly not very well known outside the French speaking world. A shame.
-Sea journeys, or beach holidays: Moby Dick or Treasure Island. Just because.

After the acting night

Be warned: there is a lot of rambling here. I did not quite organised my thoughts into something coherent.

So yesterday was my last class of the acting course. This one anyway. The next one will be in May, in a nearby town, unfortunately not at a fifteen minutes walk from home. But I kind of already commited myself to attend: I asked to my teacher "as a favour" if I could use The Dragonfly of Chicoutimi at some point, either for an exercise or a performance or whatever. I am not ready to do the whole play of course, far from it, but I want to work on that text. My readers know my obsession with this play, I might as well make something about it and get it known on this side of the pond in the meantime.

Anyway the night itself was physically exhausting but exhilarating, like these last nights always are. Our performances were recorded for the local radio and it will be aired at a yet undetermined date. "Voice" performances are different than stage performances, they are easier in a way, but you need to channel a lot more of the character in one specific manifestation. I certainly got the voice right, and through it the character just came alive naturally. It is a surreal feeling, just as it is strange to get back to being yourself after it.

However enjoyable the performance was, I still miss stage drama. I discovered yesterday that this is my ultimate during these courses: I want to perform on the stage again. It was very pleasant being congratulated by my fellow classmates, the writer of the play who was there too, and it was flattering being asked by some if I had done this professionally. I wish it could be true, but I know that I am right now an experienced amateur. Still, it felt good. I hope one day I can be, at least on a part-time basis, a professional. But first, the goal is to get back on the stage.

The Dragonfly flies again

The English version of this post below, or shall I say, in French with English words...

Je tiens à ploguer The Dragonfly of Chicoutimi encore une fois: le Théâtre PàP le jouera ces temps-ci à Montréal, ainsi qu'ils me l'ont gentiment appris en commentant dans ce billet. Je prie mon lectorat québécois de faire l'impossible pour aller le voir sur les planches.
----------------------------------
So I am shamelessly plugging again The Dragonfly of Chicoutimi. As I have been gently informed by the Théâtre PàP on this post, they are doing the play. Unfortunately, I cannot be in Montreal. But if there are some of you who are in Montreal, I urge you to watch it. It is simply a masterpeace and it has to be seen on stage (which I haven't, to my great shame). And don't worry: it's in French, but the words are English.

Quoting (again) The Dragonfly of Chicoutimi

"I travel a lot
I see a lot of things
very different from what we are used to see here
of course
when we travel we see different things
that's quite sure
but I have the feeling to tell it to repeat it
why
I don't really know
maybe saying it I just want to make a contact
to keep in touch as we say"

This is at the very beginning of the play, it's incipit as we say, immediately followed (of course) by this quote I already put here. Sometimes I wonder if this play was not written for me... I just hope I will get the skills to play it one day.

To keep in touch

"What a nice expression
TO KEEP IN TOUCH
I like it I love it
I appreciate it so much
really what I'm looking for in life
is to keep in touch
that's the most important thing
and I seriously think that our duty
is to keep in touch
so much people and things are left out
so tonight my motto is
TO KEEP IN TOUCH"

This is from the beginning of The Dragonfly of Chicoutimi I developed an obsession with the play since I first read it, an obsession close to fetishism and I might end up typing the whole play on this blog, quote after quote, line after line. If I need to find a monologue for my acting classes, it will be from there.I have decided this a long time ago, I just need the opportunity. Why did I decide to put the lines here? Because I think that sometimes, quoting great lines is better than trying to find your own words when the lines in question illustrate perfectly your state of mind. I am a guy from Chicoutimi, an expat, and I am trying to keep in touch.

Actor in search of a text

I am eagerly waiting for some news from the acting school I will attend. All I know is that it starts in November, where it is and at what time. I have no idea on what the teacher is expecting of us in the first lesson. I used to take lessons in Montreal, where I had to prepare a little monologue, nothing classic, something simple. It might not be the way my new acting teacher will kick start the course, but I might have to find something, some text in a play. And I have only two plays in English here: Shininc City and The Dragonfly of Chicoutimi. If I can choose one play to pick up a text from, I think it will be from either one of those, because I love them, because they are contemporary and because I would not miss an opportunity to work on texts I love and to look at them in a different light, and from an insider's perspective, so to speak. And there are these lines from The Dragonfly of Chicoutimi which I always found brilliant and I would love to play them for an audience, even if it was a small one. But I wonder if my readers have any suggestions.

In French with English words

I wonder if my blog is not a blog written in French, sometimes with English words. I was thinking about it reading The Dragonfly of Chicoutimi, which I blogged about recently. The play, a brilliant work, which owns to Beckett as much as it does to Kafka and Ionesco, has been qualified as a play "en français avec des mots anglais" (in French with English words). I am not trying to be immodest here. I understand perfectly that this blog doesn't own anything to the great writers mentioned above, it is not their heir, it has nothing of the genius of Larry Tremblay's play. But it has the same cultural background: it is written by a guy who grew up in Chicoutimi and now thinks (often) in English. The mistakes I make, the barbarisms, the clumsy expressions, it is all due to my culture. It is almost part of the style. Furthermore, my sensibilities, the things I care about, my vision of life, all these things influence my writing in a foreign language. So reading the play, I started forgetting the sense of guilt I sometimes have blogging in English. Because I do not blog in English. I blog in French, Quebec French, Saguenay French, Chicoutimi French even, using English words.

Chicoutimi in a nutshell

"Chicoutimi is an Amerindian word
it means up to where the water is deep
this word refers to the Saguenay
a big a beautiful a splendid river
but Chicoutimi as a town is ugly
as every American town
and this ugliness is very interesting
but fortunately nature surrounds every town
in this country
and nature cannot be ugly"

Larry Tremblay, The Dragonfly of Chicoutimi

I read this play a few days ago. It is haunting me and I will probably blog about it again (I already posted something in French about it) but until then, I wanted to put this quote here, which describes the town where I grew up perfectly.

Coïincidence "théâtrale"

Je viens de lire pas plus tard que cet après-midi The Dragonfly of Chicoutimi de Larry Tremblay, une pièce qui, je le sens, risque de me hanter pendant longtemps. Or, j'apprends il y a quelques minutes qu'on a joué la pièce récemment à Montréal. Il y a des jours comme ça. J'espère qu'on a gardé des extraits vidéos de la représentation originale avec le monumental Jean-Louis Millette dans le rôle. Ai-je déjà dit ici que j'ai songé à devenir spécialiste de théâtre contemporain, parce que j'avais reçu quelques bonnes notes sur mes travaux dans un cours de... théâtre contemporain? Finalement je n'ai pas suivi cette idée, trouvant le sujet un peu trop rébarbatif, mais je le regrette parfois lorsque je lis une grande pièce contemporaine. Le théâtre de l'absurde exerce sur moi plus une fascination aussi intense qu'involontaire qu'un véritable engouement, ce qui explique peut-être que je n'ai jamais sérieusement envisagé de devenir un spécialiste de cette littérature. Quand même, ça me fera du matériel pour ce blogue.