The recent assassinations at Charlie Hebdo in Paris bring to mind these associaitons of the name "Charlie" with humor for the French:
- Charlus is pronounced /charli/ or /charly/ with a very tight u or i sound. Marcel tells us the Guermantes were prone to pronounce many things with very short or tight "i" sounds. For example he tells us they would pronounce Villeparisis /viparisi/.
- During Proust's time, Charlie Chaplin was an extremely popular cartoon character for the French.
- These days, many say the Charlie of Charlie Hebdo is supposed to be the American cartoon character Charlie Brown.
People old enough and well read enough in French to have laughed at the Baron de Charlus in Proust's humor, will undoubtedly associate all three Charlies with Charlie Hebdo. The cartoon copied here is signed CHARB.
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The morning of January 17, 2015 NPR reported Francois Hollande of France said many Muslims did not realize how much the French value freedom of speech. I would think the Charlie Hebdo march of 4 million or so was a statement showing how much the French value freedom from religion imposed from the outside. That's a much more concrete position that simply love of free speech in my opinion. (1-17-2015 TC)
pageviews as of Jan 10, 2015 475
The morning of January 17, 2015 NPR reported Francois Hollande of France said many Muslims did not realize how much the French value freedom of speech. I would think the Charlie Hebdo march of 4 million or so was a statement showing how much the French value freedom from religion imposed from the outside. That's a much more concrete position that simply love of free speech in my opinion. (1-17-2015 TC)
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