LZ : As a teenager in the Caribbean, you won an essay contest on Abraham Lincoln for which the prize was an invitation to WashingtonDC. A science nerd with no particular interest in racial politics, you found yourself in travelling the USA at the height of the Civil Rights Movement. As a memoirist what were the challenges you faced writing about this episode decades later.
CV : The challenge was thatthe protagonist (my teenaged self) was not very aware, or critical, of his Caribbean social and racial environment. He had little to compare it with, and even when he visited the USA he remained quite naive. He knew nothing of Martin Luther King and probably assimilated the Ku Klux Klan with Tolkein's orcs. To deal with this lack of sophistication and yet inform the reader, the writer has to use other viewpoints, closer to his own, but without confusing the reader, who must know when the protagonist is thinking something and when a comment comes straight from the current writer. I use multiple personas to deal with this problem, and on the positive side the tension between the writer's views and the young protagonist's views can be stimulating. It takes a lot of care in the writing for the change of personas to be seamless. Today, it is clear that the USIA was "wise" and somewhat manipulative with me in 1959, only showing me the positive aspects of US internal race relations. Projecting a positive image of the USA via Lincoln was part of a massive diplomatic effort in the Cold War to keep places like the Caribbean friendly. At the time, my protagonist was completely unaware of this.
LZ: One of the particular pleasures of Caribbean Chemistry is your precise, analytical approach to the intense emotions and sensations of childhood. Has a passion for science made you a better writer?
CV : On the whole, yes. A quest for truth, an attention to detail, and a willingness to analyse causes of events are all part of a scientific outlook. But there is a negative side. Many scientists don't like over-colourful images, they repeat themselves too often, and they systematically hedge their bets. A scientist might say, "The man was approximately five feet tall", because he's not sure whether the "true" height is one or two inches either way. In fiction, or in a memoir intended as narrative, it is better to remove the uncertainty (cut the word approximately) unless this is vital to the story. So there is a shift in language - precision for it's own sake has much less value than in a research paper. Doubt is still very important, but it moves to another level.
LZ: You claim not to understand poetry (or poets), yet your writing has a quiet lyrical quality to it. Are you secretly one of them?
CV: Well, English Literature was my best subject at university entrance (A-levels) so clearly I relished Keats, Blake, Coleridge, and Wordsworth at that age. A classical taste. I even wrote poetry myself (a confession). But it's true that modern or post-modern attempts at poetry annoy me. I certainly don't understand most of it. My feeling is that there is quite sufficient poetry in prose. Looking at symmetry and dissymmetry on a page of good prose, noticing the resonance of certain words, is quite good enough for me.
LZ : Caribbean Chemistry is a book about growing up in St Kitts and Antigua which you wrote while living in France. Do you see yourself as an expatriate writer? A British writer? A French writer? Or simply a memoirist? Do these distinction have any meaning at all? What made you write this book?
CV: A memoirist, if anything. I don't think the place you write from is very significant. Many writers feel more at home when at a distance from their subject. I hold a British passport and a St. Kitts passport but have worked and lived in France longer than anyplace else. I got my doctoral degree from the USA and, particularly in the area of "creative non-fiction", I have enormous affinity with America. That seems to make me a citizen of the world, or at least of Europe. The motivation for writing this book has nothing to do with countries and nationality, though. It's mainly the fulfilment of a boyhood dream to write for others something as enjoyable as all the books that have pleased me. Secondarily, the emphasis on memoir has allowed me to place my past in perspective. We go through life with a set of temporary loans - mind, body, and loved ones - assets that disappear all too quickly. A good memoir is a way of preserving some of our thoughts for future generations.
LZ: You worked for years with a writers’ group in Paris. How did this affect your writing—and you?
CV: Writer's groups and workshops are very useful to a developing writer. By himself, a writer is closeted in his limited egoisms; he needs feedback on style and content to develop. But workshops can be confusing when others want you to write their story and not yours. You have to keep control of your project. There is other positive fallout: workshops help to keep you to a schedule, and through workshops over an eight-year period, I have made some of my best friends.
LZ: Caribbean Chemistry was discovered by its publisher thanks to a literary contest. What are the advantages and disadvantages of contests? How can writers benefit from them?
CV: Contests are a valuable refinement if a writer is really serious about being published. When workshops get too supportive (ie more and more wine and less hard knocks) there's no way to measure the objective value of one's work. Entering a big competition and finding out that you are not even placed in a "long list" of the first hundred candidate stories is quite sobering. Competitions make you re-edit your work seriously, which is always a good thing. Many of them give you valuable critiques for a small extra entrance fee. It's an opportunity to sample the market, see what the competition is like, and learn more about the impact your work makes. I discovered, for instance, that certain of my memoir chapters could compete effectively with stories written as pure fiction - the judges couldn't tell the difference , or didn't care. And finally, a competition can lead to publication of a story or of a whole book.
LZ : All the characters in Caribbean Chemistry are real. Do you anticipate any lawsuits?
CV: Lawsuits are unlikely, but not impossible. This is another steep learning curve that the memoir writer has to climb. One shouldn't let the early writing be inhibited by threats until it is done, but when a book is in its final stages the possibility of lawsuits must be studied. British law on libel and invasion of privacy is currently so much in favour of the plaintiff that publishers oblige their authors to obtain written consent to publish from all the characters who appear in the book. I had mentioned 108 names. Fortunately, many of the name owners were deceased! A few of the living obliged me to change their names or even to erase their actions from my book. The right to free speech is weaker in the UK than in the USA, and in my view this seriously limits a writer's possibilities of telling the truth about politicians and important public figures. I hope this will change. From where I sit, a memoir writer has an obligation to be fair to all parties, but he doesn't have to like them, nor to make them look better than they were, nor to cover up their misdeeds. The stakes are the same as for journalists and historians.
LZ: In addition to memoir, you also write science fiction. Is there a link between the two genres?
CV: Superficially, none. But one of my mentors once told me that if I liked SF so much then that should influence my memoir stories. Perhaps there is an unbridled effect in the dreams and fantasies of my protagonist. Going in the other direction, I think that a memoir writer should be able to create quite credible SF. I do have some unfinished projects with stories about the future. But my addiction to memoir means that the "future of the future" is uncertain.
For years French children have suffered from absent teachers who are not replaced. The scandalous failure to provide substitute teachers in a timely manner poisons the entire system: children left to fend for themselves; impossibility to complete the official program; desperate parents; and ultimately, a poor education. It is a gangrene with far-reaching consequences.
Now, finally, an exasperated parent has taken action. Daniel Garault, father of a child in Pantin (93), filed suit against Education Minister Luc Chatel for "serious failure (faute grave) in the organisation of public education".
In first and second grade, his child had 18 different teachers, with no teacher at all in obligatory subjects during 13 days in the last six months !
He also filed a second lawsuit concerning the teaching of foreign languages: no teacher at all for the first four months of the year! (This actually happens frequently in the Academy of Creteil, one of the worst managed when it comes to foreign language instruction.)
Hopefully other parents will follow his lead. It is time to put an end to this outrageous dysfunction.
LZ: Janet Skeslien Charles, you wrote Moonlight in Odessa, a novel inspired by the women you met when you were teaching English in the Ukraine. What made you want to write this story?
JSC: I couldn’t believe how women were advertised on International Marriage Broker sites. Many times, the photos look like they belong in Playboy. I’d always thought of mail-order brides as a fringe activity that very few men looked into. Yet when I started to research and asked friend about the subject, nearly everyone had at least one person in their family or a friend or neighbor who had found a woman through an IMB. The internet has facilitated the business and there are an estimated 4000 to 6000 women who enter the United States each year on a fiancée visa. Many of the women I interviewed were desperate to leave their country, and desperate in a completely different way once they moved to America. I wanted to capture both kinds of desperation.
It was too good to be true. BHL, France's top philosopher-star, quoted extensively and repeated Jean-Baptiste Botul, well known author of best seller, The Sexual Life of Emmanuel Kant. For this he won the dubious honor of the "Prix Botul", delivered each year by the "Botulism Foundation".
Wall Street tactics akin to the ones that fostered subprime mortgages in America have worsened the financial crisis shaking Greece and undermining the euro by enabling European governments to hide their mounting debts...
Hercules himself would collapse under the pressure of so many tasks!
Under attack for reproducing social classes, failing to promote equality ,incompetence in replacing absent teachers, poor results in foreign language teaching and declining basic skills in spelling and French grammar, France’s public schools are now facing a new challenge: should they or should they not begin introducing lessons of tolerance for homosexuals in nursery school?
about her remarkable film IREMEMBER BETTER WHEN I PAINT,which documents how art helped her mother in the struggle to live with Alzheimer's.
LZ : Berna Huebner, millions of families struggle every day to care for loved ones stricken with Alzheimer's. Seeing your beautiful documentary, “I remember better when I paint” I am struck not only by the remarkable effort you made to help your mother by reintroducing art into her life, but by the incredible achievement of turning this personal struggle into a film which Alzheimer’s associations all over the world have embraced. At what point did you know that you would write and produce a film? How did this come about?
BH : It has been a journey to think about Alzheimer’s in a new way. In the moments when she painted, my mother truly seemed to come alive. That is why we wanted to share these experiences—in the hope that they will help show how our society can address the challenge of Alzheimer's and other memory problems, not only through the search for new medical treatments which might prevent or at least slow the progression of the disease—as important as they are—but also through the healing, communicative power of the creative arts.
With the help of her doctor, the art students who worked with her and a friend (Mary Louise Stott), I met our film director Eric Ellena and he encouraged us to share our story—and said he would like to produce a documentary together.
LZ : Early in the documentary, we learn that your mother had completely stopped speaking and grown so agitated it became difficult to care for her. You arranged for students at the Chicago Art Institute to work with her. It took months to get a first result. Where did you get this idea? How did you know it would work? What made you continue?
BH : As my mother, who had been an artist, struggled with Alzheimer’s in her later years, I asked her if perhaps she might want to paint again. And she had said one day, “Oh yes! I remember better when I paint.” With that phrase ringing in my mind, I became determined to somehow bring my mother back from her detached state. And so I enlisted the help of her doctor. And with his help and the efforts of a dedicated group of art students, and with strong encouragement from our family, my mother, who had used the name Hilgos to sign her work, picked up a brush at age 90 and began to paint again. Through painting and sculpting, she emerged from her listless state and reconnected to the world around her. Her Alzheimer’s symptoms eased, at least in part. She spoke, she danced, she played catch and sculpted—and she painted and painted and painted.
LZ: One of the most exciting discoveries for me was the idea that by soliciting the parts of the brain that still function—sensibility to art, emotion--one can touch and connect with what remains profoundly human. There is a kind of awakening—not just for the Alzheimer’s patients, but for the people dealing with them, family, caretakers, doctors. Did you know about this when you started out?
BH : I knew very little about Alzheimer’s. My mother’s doctor encouraged us to continue to work with my mother. I did not really have any understanding of the disease nor did I know that there were still parts of the brain that could still function. But when I saw the awakening in my mother I decided I wanted to help those who are as afraid of Alzheimer’s as I was, after my mother’s diagnosis—but now are looking for ways to help cope with the disease. Alzheimer neurologists and other doctors have helped us to understand why such therapies can be so helpful, pointing to the fact that they awaken areas of the brain that have not been affected by the disease.
LZ : What were your goals ? Had you made a film before? Did you have any idea how difficult it would be?
BH : Our goal and hope is that this intergenerational story and the stories of others in this film will help educate and raise awareness of those who are touched by Alzheimer’s.
I had never made a film before but was director of research for a governor and then Vice President and I think that helped prepare me to do the necessary research for the film. The information gathering has never seemed very difficult. It was always interesting and exciting.
LZ : How did you write this film? Did you have an overall idea of what it should be, or did it evolve organically as events progressed and you met more experts. Did you discuss it with your mother?
BH : Writing the film evolved organically. I was never able to discuss it with mother. But I did find a letter from mother written before her Alzheimer’s saying that she had such a wonderful and healthy life that if she could ever help the medical world she would like to do that. So we decided we could share her amazing story.
We found other stories similar to the one of mother. I had attended art and health as well as Alzheimer’s conferences. I had worked with mother’s doctor who had encouraged us to put the story into written form. The art students who worked with mother were so dedicated and we continued together to do research and write up what we had discovered. We visited nursing homes and day care centers. We contacted museums where people with Alzheimer’s were able to look at and discuss the masters they were seeing. For a five year period we collected research information on all facets of Alzheimer’s: medical discussions, books, press clips and anything we could find and kept track of that information. In fact the director asked us to put together a resource book.. which we had already started. A group of very dedicated students helped me put that information together with the help and guidance of Dorothy Seman, a director of a day care center in Chicago, whom I had met at an Alzheimer’s conference.
LZ : “I remember better when I paint” is available in both French and English. Olivia de Havilland performs the English narration. What was it like working with her? How did you convince her to participate?
BH : Olivia de Havilland heard mother had Alzheimer's and that since so many of her friends had died from Alzheimer's, she volunteered to help by doing the narration. She is wonderful and great fun to work with.
LZ: How long did it take you to go from the idea to the finished film?
BH : The idea for the film was that of a friend. It originated in the spring of 2006. We have just completed the documentary in December 2009. The original project with my mother began in the fall of 1995 with her doctor and the art students.
LZ : Many of us have projects we would like to do, and few of us manage to see them through. What are the key skills and qualities needed to realize such a project?
BH : First one needs an idea and then I think friends and mentors and a sense of inspiration, all helping one see the connection and path to realize the project.
LZ : So often Alzheimer’s overwhelms the family. In any extremely difficult situation, you helped your mother and created something remarkable in the process. Where did this positive energy come from?
BH : I think it came from mother’s original words “I Remember Better When I Paint”. Her words guided me to speak to her doctor. Then her doctor helped connect me to the art students… and then the path just continued.
LZ :The documentary is being praised as a reference source in the use of non-drug therapies for Alzheimer’s. Experts from all over the world are interviewed in the film and many attended the film premier. How did you achieve this? How was this organized?
BH : It evolved and the wonderful Hilgos team was able to find mentors to help us. Filming was done in many parts of Europe and the US showing Alzheimer’s patients focusing and reconnecting as they paint, visit the Louvre in Paris, the Art Institute in Chicago and the Phillips Collection in Washington DC, and even enjoy the Big Apple Circus in New York.
Among those featured are Yasmin Aga Khan, president of Alzheimer's Disease International and daughter of Rita Hayworth who had Alzheimer’s.The documentary also interviews renowned neurologists who explain how creative activities engage areas of the brain that are not damaged by disease and thus help reawaken a sense of personality, identity and dignity. Doctors interviewed include:Dr. Robert Butler, founding director of the National Institute of Aging; Dr. Sam Gandy of Mount Sinai; Dr. Robert Green of BU; Doctor Bob Stern of BU; Dr. Gene Cohen of GWU; Dr. Barry Reisberg of NYU and Dr. Avertano Noronha of Univ. of Chicago; Dr. Lawrence Lazarus formerly of Rush Presbyterian Chicago.
LZ: What next?
BH : We would like to continue our student play, “I Remember Better When I Paint,” in classrooms as an educational exercise, and we would like to expand our museum and school-based project, where art students work with people having memory problems in more and more communities.
Imagine my surprise when I found large chunks of my beloved Sorbonne Confidential free for the reading on Google books.
I thought that Google would simply allow readers to search inside the book to find passages that matched key words. But not at all! Incredibly, Google posted entire chapters ! Then--vast holes of nothing.
What does this otherwise brilliant company think it's doing?
How wise can it be to shock and offend a staunch supporter like myself?
Once again, the French are on the barricades--and who's to say they are not right?
Here is a Figaro article which explains why French publishers object to the Google agreement
(I contributed a few thoughts to this last article.)
For English teachers, parents concerned about English learning and people interested in French society, here also is a related article on how English and inequality in France.
