Le courrier des Etats-Unis » Opinions

Trente œuvres “disparues ou volées” saisies à l’Institut Wildenstein

Pierre F. de Ravel d'Esclapon — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 23:51:29 +0000

Pour en savoir plus sur la saga des tableaux disparus, lisez l’article du journal Le Monde en cliquant ici , l’article dans The Telegraph,”Affaire Wildenstein:une nouvelle veuve porte plainte” dans le Paris-Match du 16 .02.2011, “Affaire Widenstein:scandale en toile de fond” par Daniele Georget ,13.02.2011, et l’article de David Le Bailly – Paris Match “L’étau judiciaire se resserre autour de Guy Wildenstein”.

Where else but in New York?

Pierre F. de Ravel d'Esclapon — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 05:13:37 +0000

Wednesday,walking through Central Park with my friend Nicholas D. chatting merrily,if somewhat loudly,in French about the role of France in the concert of Nations a lady ,looking remakably like the New York Public Library librarian in Ghostbusters, and,like her ,a librarian ,stops us ,apologizing profusely for the interruption ,to ask us in very good French,if in current usage a word such as “église” when capitalized should be written”Eglise” or “Église”!

Only in New York!

L’élection qui gêne l’UMP

Pierre F. de Ravel d'Esclapon — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 15:05:47 +0000

Tel est le titre d’un récent article paru dans L’Express sur lequel une aimable lectrice a bien voulu attirer notre attention.

Au moment où les Français de l’Est des Etats-Unis s’apprêtent à voter, la lecture de cet article –cliquez ici pour le lire—incite à la réflexion.

Max Raabe and Dieter Fischer-Dieskau

Pierre F. de Ravel d'Esclapon — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 13:47:33 +0000

Max Raabe and his Palast Orchester‘s recent performance at Carnegie Hall prompted the following question: why such a fine rendition of the German cabaret songs and a not quite convincing rendition of songs in English of the same era? Listen first to his signature song “Heute Nacht or nie” ( click " target="_blank">here) then to the way he interprets the great 1931 classic “Dream a little dream of me”( click" target="_blank"> here ).Now compare Raabe’s interpretation to that of the Dorsey Brothers (click " target="_blank">here ).Which do you prefer? Don’t you agree that Raabe does not quite pull it off?

The answer to the why lies; I suspect and look forward to your comments, in the influence of the Schubert Lieder vocal style on German songs in general and, likely, on the vocal training of Max Raabe. Listening again to “Heute Nacht or nie” I cannot help but be reminded of Dieter Fischer-Dieskau’s interpretation of Schubert’s Winterreisen Op. D 911 (click" target="_blank"> here).The vocal style used to sing Lieder is well suited, and expected, for many German cabaret songs but is not suited to the American songs of Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and many others of that era. This may explain why Raabe’s interpretation of American songs did not sound quite as convincing as his interpretation of German cabaret songs.

Le plan de relance américain:bilan après un an

Pierre F. de Ravel d'Esclapon — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 23:21:41 +0000

Mercredi 17 fevrier 2010, l’émission quotidienne ,L’heure des comptes,de Radio Canada m’a interrogé sur le bilan du plan de relance américain après une année. Pour écouter cette entrevue cliquez ici.

Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol

Pierre F. de Ravel d'Esclapon — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 01:36:58 +0000

The Lost Symbol arrived last night and turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. What the book gained in thickness it lost in tautness .Much of the plot’s main “surprise” can be guessed after the first few chapters. Set in a Washington DC awash with Masonic symbolism one cannot help but be reminded of the movie National Treasure. Readers interested in finding more about the Masonic symbols used by Brown should consult the website, www.freemasonlostsymbol.com which is a collaboration of the Masonic Society, the Masonic Service Association and the George Washington Masonic Memorial to address the book’s Masonic references.

As in his Da Vinci Code, Brown’s villain here is a thoroughly repulsive psychopath, Mal’akh, reminding one of Silence of the Lambs. I wonder why such psychopaths exert such a fascination on Dan Brown. The rest of his characters lack in depth:Inoue Sato director of a mythical Office of Security within the CIA ,improbably investigating in Washington D.C. seems to step out of a cartoon.

While the book is principally a pean to people’s potential, sadly, it is spoiled by suffused sloppiness. Here are 3 glaring examples:

1-at p.421 and 424,Professor Langdon is struggling to decipher a series of pictograms when he exclaims “The first letter is Η” and then “Suddenly he realized what the word might be :Ηερεδομ” the word “Heredom” which he proceeds to define, correctly, giving a correct etymology completely misspelled: “From the Greek Ηερεδομ originating from Hieros-domos “.In Greek, as Mr. Brown should have easily ascertained, the letter H is the capital “η”=eta not the English “H”. In Greek there is no letter for the aspirated “h”, the effect is achieved through the use of a diacritic, the spiritus asper, or rough breathing represented by an inverted comma placed above and before the vowel to be aspirated. Thus the word should have been written Ἑρεδομ or – Ἡρεδομ.

2-at p.437-8, he writes “all spiritual rituals included aspects that would seem frightening if taken out of context-crucifixion reenactments, Jewish circumcision rites….Islamic niqab…”.Sorry Mr.Brown, the niqab is not a spiritual ritual; it is merely an article of clothing that covers the entire body of certain Moslem women leaving only the eyes. Islamic scholars are divided on the question of whether the niqab is mandated or simply permitted by the Koran but none regards the niqab as a spiritual ritual.

3-at p.497, chapter 133 ( yes!) after the protagonists have been chased around ,taken prisoners liberated,escaped from improbable situations all starting with a speech that Prof.Langdon was to give at 7 p.m., Brown writes that Langdon was “still unable to believe that it had been less than ten hours since [about 7 p.m.]“.We too are unable to believe that he could have done it in ten hours, however skilled or superhuman Langdon may be!

All in all ,to borrow the phrase :a good yarn ruined.

Par contre ou en revanche?

Pierre F. de Ravel d'Esclapon — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 14:02:56 +0000

Hier soir nous dînions avec des amis en Périgord. L’une des convives commence une phrase en disant “Par contre” et se fait reprendre par notre ami belge Yves au motif qu’il s’agit d’une expression provenant du français belge et non pas du bon français. Interloqué ,je lui demande de préciser et il nous dit que lui-même s’était fait gourmander par Maurice Druon, académicien, qui lui avait soutenu que “par contre ” était une expression belge et qu’il fallait, en bon français dire “en revanche”.

Qu’en est-il?

Selon le Trésor de la langue française (Tlf), “par contre” est une locution adverbiale marquant l’opposition à un énoncé antérieur citant ,entre autres, Guy de Maupassant :”Si le jardin se trouvait à l’ombre ,la maison, par contre, était en plein soleil” (Contes et Nouvelles t.1Dimanches bourgeois, Paris 1880,p.297).Selon Grévisse ,les expressions “en revanche” ou “en compensation” “ajoutent à l’idée d’opposition une idée particulière d’équilibre heureusement rétablie” alors que ‘par contre” exprime “d’une façon toute générale l’idée d’opposition et a le sens nu de mais d’autre part, mais d’un autre côté”.

La locution adverbiale “par contre” est une apparition récente dans le Dictionnaire de l’Académie française : elle figure à la sixième et à la septièmeédition (1835 et 1878) avec le sens :”Dans le style commercial, Par Contre, en compensation”. Dans la neuvième édition, en cours de parution, l’Académie fait allusion à la controverse sur “par contre” et tranche ainsi:

” Par contre, en revanche, d’un autre côté, en contrepartie, en compensation, à l’inverse. Condamnée par Littré d’après une remarque de Voltaire, la locution adverbiale Par contre a été utilisée par d’excellents auteurs français, de Stendhal à Montherlant, en passant par Anatole France, Henri de Régnier, André Gide, Marcel Proust, Jean Giraudoux, Georges Duhamel, Georges Bernanos, Paul Morand, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, etc. Elle ne peut donc être considérée comme fautive, mais l’usage s’est établi de la déconseiller, chaque fois que l’emploi d’un autre adverbe est possible.”

Laissons la parole à André Gide, cité par le Dictionnaire culturel en langue française (Robert 2005), qui justifie ainsi son emploi de “par contre”:

“Je sais bien que Voltaire et Littré proscrivent cette locution mais “en revanche” et “en compensation”, formules de remplacement que Littré propose, ne me paraissent pas toujours convenables […] Trouveriez –vous décent qu’une femme vous dise:” Oui, mon frère et mon mari sont revenus saufs de la guerre; en revanche, j‘y ai perdu mes deux fils”? ou “la moisson n’a pas été mauvaise, mais “en compensation” toutes les pommes de terre ont pourri”? [….] “Par contre” m’est nécessaire, et, me pardonne Littré, je m’y tiens” Attendu que.. p 89

Notons, que le Larousse tient “par contre ” et “en revanche” pour synonymes et que le Tlf indique dans la rubrique “Revanche” que l’expression en revanche” a pour synonyme “par contre”

N’en déplaise à MM Voltaire et Littré ( et à leurs épigones), la langue a évolué !

A table, tous s’accordèrent à dénoncer les périls auxquels s’exposent ceux qui, ayant acquis la notoriété dans un domaine, utilisent celle-ci pour faire des déclarations, souvent ô combien dogmatiques, sur des sujets ne relevant pas de leur spécialité.

Paul Krugman on Andrew Hall

Pierre F. de Ravel d'Esclapon — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 03:32:46 +0000

Paul Krugman,ever the populist,has now jumped into the Hall fray ( read Rewarding Bad Actors NYT Aug.2,2009 ).In his editorial,Professor Krugman fires a broadside against Goldman Sachs’high frequency derived profits and against Mr.Hall.Arguendo,one might find high frequency trading to be reprehensible because those with higher speed computers are said to have an unfair advantage over the Lumpenproletariat whose computers dawdle along at much lower speeds.To condemn Mr.Hall,Professor Krugman then argues:”What about Mr. Hall? The Times report suggests that he makes money mainly by outsmarting other investors, rather than by directing resources to where they’re needed. Again, it’s hard to see the social value of what he does.”Does Professor Krugman really think there is something wrong about being smarter than others?Is this an indication of a belief that “equality” really means dumbing down to the lowest common denominator?His linking outsmarting other investors and not directing ressources where they are needed is not mentionned in the article he cites as a source ( see David Segal ) nor is there a logical link between the proposition that Mr. Hall outsmarts others and the alleged lack of social value in what a Mr. Hall does with his greater smarts unless one were to hold the belief,as Professor Krugman implicitly appears to hold,that being smarter is unfair and has no social value.More’s the pity that such a leading economist should show such a bias.

James Madison and Hall’s $ 100M bonus

Pierre F. de Ravel d'Esclapon — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 15:27:54 +0000

On July 27,2009,I posted a note ( below: Rémunération des cadres bancaires : les $100 millions d’Andrew Hall ) on the debate raging around Andrew Hall’s right to a $ 100 million bonus,the topic now of David Segal’s front page article in Sunday’s New York Times ( August 2,2009) .In my note I stated that while there were sound reasons to reform the remuneration of traders to avoid excessive risk-taking and to adjust it to account for risks spread over a long period ( the classic problem of long tailed distributions such as Pareto or Lévy ones) there are even sounder reasons for the provision in the U.S. Constitution prohibiting the passing laws that affect contract rights retroactively. These reasons were best articulated by James Madison, writing as Publius, in 1788 ,No44 The Federalist Papers:

“Bills of attainder, ex post facto laws, and laws impairing the obligation of contracts, are contrary to the first principles of the social compact, and to every principle of sound legislation. The two former are expressly prohibited by the declarations prefixed to some of the State constitutions, and all of them are prohibited by the spirit and scope of these fundamental charters. Our own experience has taught us, nevertheless, that additional fences against these dangers ought not to be omitted. Very properly, therefore, have the convention added this constitutional bulwark in favor of personal security and private rights; and I am much deceived if they have not, in so doing, as faithfully consulted the genuine sentiments as the undoubted interests of their constituents. The sober people of America are weary of the fluctuating policy which has directed the public councils. They have seen with regret and indignation that sudden changes and legislative interferences, in cases affecting personal rights, become jobs in the hands of enterprising and influential speculators, and snares to the more-industrious and less informed part of the community. They have seen, too, that one legislative interference is but the first link of a long chain of repetitions, every subsequent interference being naturally produced by the effects of the preceding. “

President Madison’s wise observations deserve to be heeded by those who now seek to retroactively modify contract rights.

Où courrent-ils?

Pierre F. de Ravel d'Esclapon — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 05:16:06 +0000

Les vacances sont pour nos compatriotes l’occasion de souffler un peu,de décompresser,en un mot de ne plus courrir comme ils se sentent obligés de le faire chaque jour durant le reste de l’anné.Courrir, comme l’a si bien fait ressortir " target="_blank">Raymond Devos avec son humour habituel,suscite des questions dont la moindre n’est pas ù courrent-ils? Délectez vous en attendant cette rentrée qui signale le redémarrage de la course!