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Elegance of the Hedgehog ~ Muriel Barbery ~ Book Club Online ~ April 1st

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       "Prickly and popular novel on class and culture" - 
 
"Central to the book's appeal is the compelling voice of its main character, Renée Michel, a 54-year-old Paris apartment-building concierge who struggles to hide her self-taught erudition and cultivation from snobby, rich tenants. She disdains their élitist notions of class and social order, but she knows the residents would be outraged at discovering what a deep grasp the hired help has of art and learning. So Renée masks her intellect behind the persona expected of her lowly station." Time Magazine

The second narrator in the book is the precocious 12 year old daughter of one of the tenants, who hides her intelligence  from a world she finds meaningless.  The two characters neatly mirror one another in a philosophical tale of contrasts which succeeds in resolving some issues of life and death.
Discussion Schedule:

April 1-3 ~ Marx Preamble pgs.17-27
April 4-10 ~ Camellias ~  pgs.31-129 (Topics for April 4)
April 11-14 ~ On Grammar ~ pgs.133-170
April 15-19 ~ Summer Rain ~ pgs.173-238
April 20-26 ~ Paloma ~ pgs. 241-315
April 27 ~ My Camellias ~ pgs. 316-325
Final Thoughts     

For Your Consideration
April 1-3 ~ Marx Preamble ~ pgs.17-27
1.  A concierge who reads Marx!   Might one  suspect she is contemplating subversion or joining a  union?  Why is she reading his German Ideology?

2. "Mankind would do better to confine itself to its own needs." Does it appear that Mme. la Concierge is doing just that?  Do you understand the title of this chapter:  "Whosoever sows desire harvests oppression?"

3. Do you think Renée fits the stereotype of the typical French concierge?  How has Muriel Barbery so carefully and clearly  described her?

4. How does the tone and the attitude of the second narrator contrast with  that of the concierge? 

5. Would you say Renée and Paloma are both hedgehogs?  What might  they each be hiding from, or frightened about behind their protective cover?

6. How do you think the young Paloma has developed this "big thing"  about Japan? Did you ever try to write poetry at her age?  Are you familiar with the Japanese haiku?

7.  Is it so  unusual for an adolescent to think about suicide?  Do you think Paloma's dream of a " delicate slipping away"  jives with her actual plan?  How can it possibly achieve social justice?

8.  What is an autodidact?  Or -  "the most recent eructation of the ruling corporate elite."  Shall we keep a vocabulary list of  unfamiliar words? Which ones have you noted?


Relevant Links:
Online Dictionary (English);
Glossary of posted Definitions
French-English Dictionary;
Hôtels particuliers; An Interview with Muriel Barbery;

Discussion Leaders:  JoanP & Eloise

JoanP:
Welcome! Bienvenue! This promises to be one of the more challenging books we've discussed together. I just know it is going to be rewarding - if not life-changing!

 The two narrators are said to mirror one another and yet one is a young 12 year old and the other is a 54 year old widow.  For the next few days we will go slowly, getting to know each one - although they will remain nameless throughout  the Preamble, did you notice that?  Do they have anything in common?

After what seems like such a long wait, we are  eager to hear your initial reaction to the introduction, the two narrators,  to the writing, the new author's  manner  of expression - everything! 

It's important for you to know from the start, that you are not confined to the Topics for Discussion in your remarks.  They are only supplied as possible points for discussion, but we recognize that you will all have different reactions to the book, which is just crammed with so much to talk about!

Allons!

Eloise:
Bonjour mes amies. Welcome my friends.

We have to read between the lines in this book, every line hides some secret meaning for us to decipher. At first the characters behaviour is shocking, but full of mystery and purpose and we have to continue reading to know the reason why they behave this way.

Social status is well defined while the characters intellect has a hard time trying to stay in the background, invisible to the naked eye while life goes on in their ordinary life. It gives me a thrill to read how the author describes live situations intertwined with characters inner thoughts. 

Lets share our own thoughts while we are reading the Preamble and The Miracle of the Arts so we can get a feeling of how we perceive what is going on in the first chapters of Elegance of the Hedgehog.

mrssherlock:
Marx, ah, yes. Did you hear that Das Kapital is going to become a musical?

Gumtree:
Suddenly it's on... I didn't bump into Pat in the night...didn't know Kidsal was an antipodean.... and I'm still thinking about autodidact.

I really believe that in some respects we are all autodidacts.

There are areas of life in which we learn either by experience or teach ourselves  whatever it may be. I would be especially ignorant today if all I knew was that which had been instilled into me by teachers in a formal situation or by parents and others in the informal.
When my formal education ended there still remained vast areas of knowledge of which I knew nothing and which in the intervening half century and more I have tapped into and learned about on my own. I have taught myself skills - typing, art, crafts, horticulture, etc., parenting too, - or perhaps the children taught me that -and more recently computer skills  (though there's still much to be desired there), and through reading (which everyone here loves to do) embarked on a life-long passion for learning. So that albeit in a casual and even haphazard way I have taught myself an appreciation of many subjects - though of course I am master of very few. - I'm sure others here would have had much the same experience.

I failed every attempt to come to terms with philosophy. However in the Preamble  I was delighted to come across the reference to Ludwig Feuerbach of whom I knew a little because George Eliot had translated his Essence of Christianity. Eliot's translation has been reprinted in fairly recent times and is still the primary English text used in tertiary courses both here in the antipodes  ;) and elsewhere. It is quite amazing that this is so as Eliot translated the work in 1854 - just realising that small fact has given me a better appreciation of just how skilled a linguist Eliot must have been and how broad was her grasp on philosophy, theology etc.  Amazing woman. Otherwise I am in the dark about Feuerbach except that he began as a follower or disciple of Hegel and then turned toward other areas.

eructation is a word well known to me - I had an old uncle who used it constantly whenever he belched or broke wind - which was often - 'just my eructation' he would say. I don't use or hear the word in general conversation however on occasions of family reminiscence it still surfaces as we remember our windy old uncle. His war wounds were the cause of his problems and I think he may have learned the word whilst hospitalised. Happily he had many saving graces.

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