What is a "dragedy" ?
You may have heard about "dragees", sweets you offer to somehow exorcise festive events - generally a wedding or a birth... dragedies basically and nonsensically announce death, which means they can be sweet and sour, sad and funny (my definition of humor being the ability to accept death in general and one's weaknesses in particular, in order to make life in general more acceptable, and one's existence in particular more bearable to others).
This excuse for a book proposes a handful of dragedies, and some definitions, along with a few Seoul crumbs which somehow fell into my lap or lens.
Worms in the city, books in the sky, trouble in the company... these 17 dragédies stretch over three decades and three continents :
- La mer amarrée
- de Vermis Seoulis
- Le Dévisseur
- Le regard d'un ami
- Brouillon
- La Bibliothèque de Babel II
- Neige Sale
- Paranoïa
- Etat de Grâce
- Nouvelles du front
- Le Salon de Lecture
- La Malédiction
- Comin'up next
- Si Paris m'était comptée
- Le blues de la grille
- Rendez-vous Rue Van Boo
- L'Année du Chien
Yup. That's in French. Or kindo. So luckily, it won't be as poorly written as my blogules.
And oh. That's fiction. I mean both the book and this last wishful comment.
Stephane 2009
* "dragédies (la mer amarrée et autres dragédies)" - ISBN:978-1449510916 - website : dragedies.com - Facebook group. Soccer nerds can still order my other book (also in French), "La Ligue des Oubliés, l'autre histoire du football" : "The League of the Forgotten / The Other History of Football" tells the tales of unlucky soccer players, personalities or events - they didn't even have the chance to exist.
see this post in French
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ADDENDUM - FAQ ATTN NON-SPEAKING READERS
Q: What if I can't read French ?
A: No problemo : I can't WRITE in French. Besides, there are a few pictures in this excuse for a book.
Q: What on Earth is a dragedy ?
A: dragedy (noun, fem. - pl. dragedies) : bittersweet candy and preemptive death notice. Etym. dragée (tiny, hard confectionery) and "tragédie" (tragedy, or death's foreplay). i.e. "'If I read 'dragedies' ? I almost choked on them !"
Q: Why not "short stories" ?
A: First, I'm not much of a story teller. And to me, it sounds the same as if a painter exhibited his works under the title "40 x 60 in. frames".
Q: Why add a glossary ?
A: I felt the need to put down my vision on such essential concepts as "life", "death", "love", "footballer"...
Q: Why this pen name ?
A: It's not a pen name. MOT (noun, masc.) : French word for "word". 1 - significant unit. 2 - insignificant author.
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