15.1.11

Some Posts on Serres in French

For those of you who are interested in reading some posts about Serres in French, you can find some here. If you are less proficient in French, Google can facilitate your cheating (I'm sure some of you are cringing) and give you at least some sense of what is there. 


I keep working on my French (my youngest two are happily in immersion) and constantly envy those who can move with angelic grace between French and English. My lot is to be regularly humbled by my children.


And his new book Biogee as well is here.


Thanks to Stephanie Posthumous for pointing these out.

2 comments:

Pelatan said...

............je ne pense pas que les gens disent "c'était mieux avant...." de façon brute....mais de façon relative, ils veulent dire souvent qu'à certains moments clés, les années 70-75 par exemple, on aurait pu faire mieux avec le même argent et les mêmes hommes, on aurait pu innover tout en conservant des structures et des paysages traditionnels, il suffisait d'avoir un peu plus d'idées
sur l'histoire et un peu plus d'imagination.....par exemple, construire sans enserrer les bourgs existants dans des couches successives urbaines, au lieu des raser les exploitations agricoles, les remettre en perspectives dans l'espace urbain..par exemple, en Hollande, une ferme, toujours active, est devenue une partie du campus de l'université.....Nos urbanistes, nos ingénieurs, nos géographes, nos élus ( très souvent diplômés de l'Université ou de grandes écoles) ont entassé les couches de vie et d'espace les unes au dessus des autres..et évidemment les gens étouffent..même ceux qui n'ont pas connu les paysages précédents....nous sommes un peuple destructeur par omission......nous sommes un peuple dit d'intellectuels, mais sans intelligence d'action....uniquement de la rhétorique.
Comme disent les italien : il discorso..

Ingenuity Arts said...

Here is a rough Google translation of Pelatan's insightful post:

............ I do not think people say "it was better before ...." so gross .... but in relative terms, they often mean that some key moments, the years 70-75 for example, we could have done better with the same money and the same men, we could innovate retaining structures and traditional landscapes, it was enough to have some more ideas
on history and a little imagination ..... for example, building without enclosing the existing towns in urban layers, instead of razing farms, put in perspective in urban areas .. For example, in Holland, a farm, still active, has become a part of the campus ..... Our planners, our engineers, geographers, our elected officials (often graduates of the university or large schools ) have stacked the layers of living space and one above the other .. and of course people choke .. even those who have not experienced the previous landscape .... we are a people by destroying omission .. .... we are a nation of intellectuals said, but action without intelligence .... only rhetoric.
As they say in Italian: it discorso ..

[ Pelatan, feel free to send an improved translation of your remarks, if you like ]