deepundergroundpoetry.com
A Literary Spirit
For les bouquinistes, the second-hand booksellers of Paris, in their fight to retain their more than four hundred years of placement on either side of the Seine, amidst plans by the Olympic committee to remove them
The rows and rows of non-fiction,
and comics and literature,
once looted from the pillaged homes
of lace-trimmed girls and card players.
The stanchions of written words
divided just by water’s edge
have withstood that, so will do this,
beside a phantom troop of pamphleteers.
The executed hordes of those
who gave a glimpse of worlds beyond
the brutal pomp of norm.
The pedlars of mind in secondhand books.
A dappled light sets jewels in waves,
a Paris wind stirs parchment leaves.
The rows and rows of non-fiction,
and comics and literature,
once looted from the pillaged homes
of lace-trimmed girls and card players.
The stanchions of written words
divided just by water’s edge
have withstood that, so will do this,
beside a phantom troop of pamphleteers.
The executed hordes of those
who gave a glimpse of worlds beyond
the brutal pomp of norm.
The pedlars of mind in secondhand books.
A dappled light sets jewels in waves,
a Paris wind stirs parchment leaves.
Published 12th Aug 2023
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12th Aug 2023 9:38pm
the olympics are every four years, a second hand book stall tends to linger
far longer ..
far longer ..
12th Aug 2023 10:42pm
Firstly, excellent verse. Secondly, I need to look into this. Are they just wanting to remove them through the Olympics? Or for good? Does their real estate interfere with the Olympic construction or games in any way?
12th Aug 2023 11:14pm
From the Times article I read about it in:
“But now the bouquinistes face a new adversary, in the form of international sport. The Paris city authorities announced recently that most of the bouquiniste stalls would have to be dismantled to make way for the opening of the Olympic Games on July 26 next year. The booksellers are refusing to budge.
The Olympics opening ceremony will take place along the Seine, with thousands of athletes riding on a flotilla of 160 boats before hundreds of thousands of spectators on the river’s banks. For police, the booksellers represent a serious security headache since a bomb could be planted in any one of the 1,000 book boxes, which are usually clamped to the stone walls of the embankment and locked at night.
The city authorities have offered to dismantle and rebuild the stalls. They have invited the bouquinistes to move temporarily to a specially created “bookseller village” in a “literary neighbourhood near to the Seine” for the duration of the 33rd Olympiad between July 26 and August 11. They have offered to pay for any repair work in the event of damage.“
It seems as though the committee have reason for the temporary shift of location, and they’ve been pretty reasonable about offering alternatives, but I personally think that moving the booksellers would set a dangerous precedent. They’ve held their posts for four centuries and through various attempts by the state to shut them down, so moving them now just because a big sporting event is in town could open the floodgates to other “temporary” removals down the line.
I like that France has a very literary culture and holds the distribution of books and a literate populace to be important, a part of its identity. I wish that other countries, including my own, had that. To sweep it aside because a big show is in town would be a shame, I think, when the show could quite easily still go on. That’s just my two pence, though.
“But now the bouquinistes face a new adversary, in the form of international sport. The Paris city authorities announced recently that most of the bouquiniste stalls would have to be dismantled to make way for the opening of the Olympic Games on July 26 next year. The booksellers are refusing to budge.
The Olympics opening ceremony will take place along the Seine, with thousands of athletes riding on a flotilla of 160 boats before hundreds of thousands of spectators on the river’s banks. For police, the booksellers represent a serious security headache since a bomb could be planted in any one of the 1,000 book boxes, which are usually clamped to the stone walls of the embankment and locked at night.
The city authorities have offered to dismantle and rebuild the stalls. They have invited the bouquinistes to move temporarily to a specially created “bookseller village” in a “literary neighbourhood near to the Seine” for the duration of the 33rd Olympiad between July 26 and August 11. They have offered to pay for any repair work in the event of damage.“
It seems as though the committee have reason for the temporary shift of location, and they’ve been pretty reasonable about offering alternatives, but I personally think that moving the booksellers would set a dangerous precedent. They’ve held their posts for four centuries and through various attempts by the state to shut them down, so moving them now just because a big sporting event is in town could open the floodgates to other “temporary” removals down the line.
I like that France has a very literary culture and holds the distribution of books and a literate populace to be important, a part of its identity. I wish that other countries, including my own, had that. To sweep it aside because a big show is in town would be a shame, I think, when the show could quite easily still go on. That’s just my two pence, though.
12th Aug 2023 11:47pm
this is merely a quite superfluous response, but shouldn’t your last words be a tuppence ha’penny reply?
pre-decimalisation, of course. (forget I said anything :)
pre-decimalisation, of course. (forget I said anything :)
12th Aug 2023 11:54pm
I initially put cents but felt that was too American for a loyal Brit lol.
13th Aug 2023 2:15pm
I don't know, J. It's a crazy world out there, and France does have a responsibility to protect the athletes. We've all seen what could happen to a certain ethnicity, even during the Olympics.
