Stop Shouting!

We started this blog as a creative conversation between ourselves and our friends near and far. It was an inspiring year with some wonderful themes, contributions, posts and comments. For those of you following this year, you'll have noticed it's been very difficult for any of us to post since January. Françoise has been our torch-bearer and we thank her from the bottom of our hearts for her enthusiasm and loyalty. After serious consideration we've come to the conclusion that we have to suspend this endeavor for the moment. This year is proving very busy for all of us. The site will remain up until the end of 2012 for browsing. There have been some truly memorable posts!

Before leaving you, we each have these final contributions:

NANCY:

There is nothing so pleasant in my life than finding excuses for hanging out with Emily and James. This has been my favorite aspect of Shouting over the last year. Of course one of the joys of being related to these two interesting people is that they both have some incredible friendships, and they are not stingy in sharing them. I have been completely fascinated by our guest contributor posts over the course of last year. They have taken my mind in brand new directions. Thank you to all of you.

I leave you with a little blast from the past, showing just how imaginatively (and dare I say dramatically) Emily and James have always approached life. How much and how little things change:

EMILY:

It has been so inspiring to work on To Be Shouted with you all. I didn't have a whole lot going on in the creative department last year and this blog provided an exciting outlet for experimentation and collaboration. I have a tendency to censor myself when I'm afraid I won't be able to do something perfectly, so it was a relief and joy to have a forum where I could play around with various media and ideas without the pressure of a final result or judgement. I loved to see each month how different people responded to one theme... where our ideas overlapped, where they diverged. This year my professional and private life have become very busy at the same time. I'm directing a play with a cast of 6 as well planning and organizing a big musical project for next year... AND... little baby Zinnie has arrived and we are now 4 at home. Between the kids and work it's hard to find time to do much else. I'm so happy to have collaborated with you all in so many different ways this past year on To Be Shouted. My creative life (and family life too!) is fuller and richer for it. Thank you!

Here's a bit of what I'll be busy with this year...

JAMES:

To Be Shouted came at just the right time for me. In my first year of PhD research I was looking all over at what kinds of things can come out of collaboration, and how working together can move something in different directions. A year ago, my research was all about reaching as far as I could, to see where I could find collaborative authorship in places one might not expect it. Simultaneously, I was finding that, while researching, it was hard to maintain the creative life that is so important to me. The blog became an outlet to try things out personally and to build something together with my family. The conversations we had, the ideas proposed, the projects were all so inspiring. I appreciated Emily's mini life projects so much—it hadn't occured to me to approach the themes that way. And my mom's dedication to expanding her artistic repertoire always pushed me to work harder. All of the contributors brought their own great ideas. There is something about individuals all working toward a same theme that reveals how differently we all think and enlightens the subject in a way you couldn't on your own.

This year, I'm deeper into writing both my dissertation and creative work, and so that outlet I needed last year is harder to find time for. But I missing Shouting with you already. 

THANK YOU! Love, James

Cigogne, rose ou choux ? Stork, rose or cabbage ?

Je me demande si les bébés arrivent de la même manière dans tous les pays !

I wonder if the babies come the same manner everywhere on earth !

In France, there was a time when children were told that babies came either from roses for girls, cabbages for boys and storks for both .

L'histoire de la cigogne
La célèbre légende de la cigogne, également appelée « Légende du Kindelesbrunnen » est née... en Alsace ! Précisément sous la cathédrale de Strasbourg, où il y avait, autrefois, un lac. Dans ce lac, les âmes des enfants qui attendaient de venir au monde barbotaient et un gnome (gentil) naviguait à bord d'une barque argentée. A l'aide d'un filet d'or, il attrapait les âmes des bébés pour les donner à la cigogne qui les déposait ensuite aux parents.

En Alsace, la légende veut que les parents qui veulent « commander » un bébé doivent déposer sur le rebord de leur fenêtre quelques morceaux de sucre.

Pourquoi la cigogne ? Cela est sans doute lié à leur retour au printemps en Alsace, synonyme de naissance et de renouveau. De plus, leur long bec leur permet de débarrasser les champs et les marécages des serpents et autres animaux nuisibles à l'homme.

La légende alsacienne s'est répandue en France.

   

Birth throughout world

I wish I had seen this movie ! Have you ?

http://www.disney.fr/FilmsDisney/lepremiercri/

Come from another world ?

Is not it amazing that the same word can be used for a baby, a firm, a nation, the beginning of the day, well, the start of anything ? I would prefer another and specific word for such an exceptional event.

I like "venir au monde" (come to the world) which suggests a long travel from a faraway and unknown country and it reminds me of a wonderful book written by one of my favourite french writor who had Nobel Price of litterature in 2008. JMG Le Clézio.

Mondo is a little boy came from elsewhere. His name in french sounds as "world of water"

Many of Le Clézio books have been translated in English but I wonder how his great style can be given in another language because I think each language has its own genius and music.

I also highly recommend you "Desert, Onitsha, the Prospector.

Born, it appears, in violence

a wonderful lullaby

I was offered the disk (vinyl ... no CD at that time !) for my third daughter's birth (1978).

All the songs are nice.

http://youtu.be/2MIO1WG03wU

http://www.mannick.com/

Victor Hugo for ever !

Lorsque l'enfant paraît

Lorsque l'enfant paraît, le cercle de famille
Applaudit à grands cris.
Son doux regard qui brille
Fait briller tous les yeux,
Et les plus tristes fronts, les plus souillés peut-être,
Se dérident soudain à voir l'enfant paraître,
Innocent et joyeux.

Soit que juin ait verdi mon seuil, ou que novembre
Fasse autour d'un grand feu vacillant dans la chambre
Les chaises se toucher,
Quand l'enfant vient, la joie arrive et nous éclaire.
On rit, on se récrie, on l'appelle, et sa mère
Tremble à le voir marcher.

Quelquefois nous parlons, en remuant la flamme,
De patrie et de Dieu, des poètes, de l'âme
Qui s'élève en priant ;
L'enfant paraît, adieu le ciel et la patrie
Et les poètes saints ! la grave causerie
S'arrête en souriant.

La nuit, quand l'homme dort, quand l'esprit rêve, à l'heure
Où l'on entend gémir, comme une voix qui pleure,
L'onde entre les roseaux,
Si l'aube tout à coup là-bas luit comme un phare,
Sa clarté dans les champs éveille une fanfare
De cloches et d'oiseaux.

Enfant, vous êtes l'aube et mon âme est la plaine
Qui des plus douces fleurs embaume son haleine
Quand vous la respirez ;
Mon âme est la forêt dont les sombres ramures
S'emplissent pour vous seul de suaves murmures
Et de rayons dorés !

Car vos beaux yeux sont pleins de douceurs infinies,
Car vos petites mains, joyeuses et bénies,
N'ont point mal fait encor ;
Jamais vos jeunes pas n'ont touché notre fange,
Tête sacrée ! enfant aux cheveux blonds ! bel ange
À l'auréole d'or !

Vous êtes parmi nous la colombe de l'arche.
Vos pieds tendres et purs n'ont point l'âge où l'on marche.
Vos ailes sont d'azur.
Sans le comprendre encor vous regardez le monde.
Double virginité ! corps où rien n'est immonde,
Âme où rien n'est impur !

Il est si beau, l'enfant, avec son doux sourire,
Sa douce bonne foi, sa voix qui veut tout dire,
Ses pleurs vite apaisés,
Laissant errer sa vue étonnée et ravie,
Offrant de toutes parts sa jeune âme à la vie
Et sa bouche aux baisers !

Seigneur ! préservez-moi, préservez ceux que j'aime,
Frères, parents, amis, et mes ennemis même
Dans le mal triomphants,
De jamais voir, Seigneur ! l'été sans fleurs vermeilles,
La cage sans oiseaux, la ruche sans abeilles,
La maison sans enfants !

and if you want to hear it in French :

http://clpav.fr/poemes-audio/plume-enfant.htm

http://clpav.fr/poemes-audio/extraits/lorsque-l-enfant-parait.mp3