Mar 10, 2024
Dimanche
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Dimanche
Kirchner STREET WITH RED STREETWALKER & Darrieussecq PIG TALES
Marie Darrieussecq's PIG TALES, originally published in French as TRUISMES, depicts a sales woman at a massage parlour, whose favours have extended well beyond the call of duty of a reputable establishment, shall we say. But her story is quite unique - this masseuse-cum-sex worker begins to metamorphose into a pig.
Her matter-of-fact, dim-witted narration depicts this transformation in a no-holds-barred, wholly visceral and grotesque manner. It's all flesh, piggy tail, trotters and even growing teats (and far more I'll spare here), with a lot of man chasing ever more voluptuous behind.
This is not only a stark portrayal of humanity's animal nature, with the protagonist turning more and more into a little miss piggy as she engages with the most depraved, all the while rather enjoying herself. It's also of course a critique of the sexualisation of women in society. But in the second half the book shifts a gear into the dystopian, and a socio-political critique - we have the most obscene and extreme expressions of a degenerate and corrupt society crashing down. A bizarre vision of Paris, led by Fascists, that falls into nightmarish scenes of orgies and barbarity. Withdrawing from this world, she lands in a fablesque, utopian like life of human pig living with beasts with nature.
So the rather pert-bottomed, awkward looking street-walker in Kirchner's STREET WITH RED STREETWALKER has more than a hint of the woman-turned-pig masseuse while the men behind are like reptilian caricatures of the worst leaders of the metropolis depicted in PIG TALES.
I probably don't sell this book well, making it sound too weird, but the writing is brilliant and makes for a perversely compelling read.
The Museo Thyssen's website goes into further detail about Kirchner's STREET WTIH RED STREETWALKER that probably makes this all a bit clearer.
C'est la 'rationalité' qui perd les hommes, c'est moi qui vous le dis.
Marie Darrieussecq, Truismes, Paris, Folio, 1996.
Comme il parlait arabe la conversation n'était pas un problème, on ne se disait rien, on se faisait des signes, on s'aimait bien.
Marie Darrieussecq, Truismes, Paris, Folio, 1996.