It's Nobel Prize ceremony-week, and literature Nobel laureate Patrick Modiano gave his Nobel lecture yesterday.
You can watch the whole thing on video, or simply read it, in English translation or the French original.
Pedantic note -- though perhaps of some interest, since the lecture can be re-printed pretty much by anyone who wants to, anywhere (see the note at the beginning of the lecture setting out the very generous terms): the English version of the lecture -- which, presumably, will be widely re-printed -- was translated by "James Hardiker, Semantix" (Semantix being, of course, "the leading supplier of language services in the Nordic countries") and he/they saw fit -- sensibly; it's English/American convention -- to add the middle name to a mention of the writer 'Edgar Poe' (as the French original has it). The middle name he/they added is: 'Allen'. That is not Edgar Poe's middle name. Close, but no cigar, as they say. I'm curious how many publication reprinting the lecture will make the necessary correction. (And whether/when the Nobel site will.)
Meanwhile: a reminder that Modiano is worth a look -- I recommend Honeymoon, in particular, but the three-in-one volume that is/includes Suspended Sentences is certainly a good introduction to his work.
Pedantic note -- though perhaps of some interest, since the lecture can be re-printed pretty much by anyone who wants to, anywhere (see the note at the beginning of the lecture setting out the very generous terms): the English version of the lecture -- which, presumably, will be widely re-printed -- was translated by "James Hardiker, Semantix" (Semantix being, of course, "the leading supplier of language services in the Nordic countries") and he/they saw fit -- sensibly; it's English/American convention -- to add the middle name to a mention of the writer 'Edgar Poe' (as the French original has it). The middle name he/they added is: 'Allen'. That is not Edgar Poe's middle name. Close, but no cigar, as they say. I'm curious how many publication reprinting the lecture will make the necessary correction. (And whether/when the Nobel site will.)
Meanwhile: a reminder that Modiano is worth a look -- I recommend Honeymoon, in particular, but the three-in-one volume that is/includes Suspended Sentences is certainly a good introduction to his work.