A niece of my wife who was born and lives in France spent part of the summer in Montreal.
The other day, she asked my sweetheart to pass her a book that would allow her to know a little more about the history of Quebec.
Sophie passed him Memory reflectionsa magnificent collection of photos published by the National Archives of Quebec.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, this remarkable book that traces the evolution of Quebec through hundreds of old family photos is worth 10 libraries on its own.
BLACK MISERY
This superb book opens with a quote from Lionel Groulx: “No, a people is not separated from its past, any more than a river is separated from its source, the sap of a tree, from its land. »
Indeed, history is a long majestic river. But if a people cannot separate itself from its past, as Canon Groulx said, it can on the other hand not know it.
Look at the shock caused by the very beautiful documentary by Félix Rose, The Rosesabout the miserable conditions in which many French-speaking Quebecers grew up, when this feature film was released in theaters.
A lot of young people were like, “Huh? What is that ? Did Quebecers really grow up in such slums? »
Eh yes. Quebecers really grew up in such slums.
This is what Pierre Vallières wrote in white niggers of america.
An essential book that we can no longer quote in our universities.
Our universities, damn it!
A SUBJECT CONTINENT
I am currently reading Raboliotthe bucolic novel by Maurice Genevoix which won the Prix Goncourt in 1925.
The story of a poacher pursued by game wardens.
For a recent edition of this masterpiece of French-language literature, which is filled with tasty words that have unfortunately disappeared today, the philosopher Pascal Bruckner was asked to write a preface.
His short, admirable text should be read in all history lessons.
“To open this book is to come into contact with the strangeness, to write Bruckner.
“The world described by Genevoix, that of peasants, rural dwellers, has become more distant to us than Asia or Africa because it lies in a geography that has been swallowed up forever, that of the past. »
That’s right there.
You leaf through the book Memory reflectionsfrom the National Archives of Quebec, and you have the impression of looking at photos of an Asian tribe.
Just as we have never been so open to the world, we have never been so cut off from our past.
From our roots.
We dance to South Korean music, but we no longer know where we come from.
We travel in space, but not in time.
The change of scenery, now, the real one, is no longer geographical but temporal.
REPEATING THE PAST
“People who do not know their history are doomed to repeat it”, goes the saying.
Look at what is happening in Quebec today.
We’re doing the Beau Risk trick again.
And we sing again about the virtues of bilingualism.
We stutter.
As Marx said: “History repeats itself twice. The first time as a tragedy, the second time as a farce…”