Why Paris: a manifesto (part II of III)

(continued from Part One; still responding to the Wall St Journal article "Why the Expats Left Paris")

Part Three: Beyond an "American" in Paris

Is anyone else as tired of the word "expat" as I am? The word has become self-aggrandizing or vaguely insulting, and no longer serves its semantic purpose (that of distinguishing one who lives outside his native country). Instead, it seems to me to have become a euphemism for "pretentious loser."

Still, for want of a better word, it seems we're stuck with it. But the phrase we can try to do away with in anything other than a historical sense is that that clunky old "American in Paris."  Are there any Americans in town who do not grimace sardonically when someone says to them, "ah oui, encore un américain à Paris?" It's like you're being accused of having no will or imagination of your own—as if all you can do is aspire to live someone else's life. All the Americans in Paris I know are at the ready to refute the myth, to insist they came to Paris for various reasons (French love interest, studies, job, random geographical decision) but none would agree they came to perpetuate the myth of the expatriates of the 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s.

Come to think of it, when I imagine the period between the wars, when Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Stein & Co were kicking around Montparnasse, the names that come to mind are not exclusively American. James Joyce, Nancy Cunard, HD, Djuna Barnes, Radclyffe Hall, Nathalie Barney, Robert MacAlmon, Katharine Mansfield, Una Troubridge—Anglophones, all; but of varied origin. Today the expat Anglophone scene is even more varied. I count among the expat writers of my acquaintance Canadians, Brits, Scots, Australians, New Zealanders, and South Africans—not to mention Germans, Italians, Venezualans, Japanese, Dutch, etc, etc.

We clearly need to move past the "American in Paris" myth, to recognize that Paris is a global capital with a thriving arts scene, that "expats" may be in town for a year or for life, that the "American in Paris" is a phenomenon of the past, and to look for this species today is to prove oneself at once sentimental and out of date.

Part Four: Ok, where is this flourishing creative scene?

"What's really missing these days isn't just café literary life, but a palpable and vibrant American cultural life," writes Mengestu. But it hasn't disappeared—it's just that the café has gone virtual. If the scene has changed, that does not mean it no longer exists-- the American cultural scene in Paris has adopted the Internet as its cafe of choice. A new Paris blog started every day, or so it seems. Every time a cork pops, an expat signs up at Wordpress. (For a selection of the best of them, take a look at my sidebar, or visit The Paris Blog).

As Fred Wilson remarks on his blog, "the Internet is slowly taking the place of the cafe as the congregation point." In Paris, where newly emigrated authors (like Mengestu) can often feel unmoored, the internet offers a tangible way to hook in to the community.  To the extent that cafes did function as places to meet, discuss, and write, the internet has to a great extent become a space where those activities can thrive. But that doesn't mean cafe culture has waned. Just that, for a number of different reasons, the expatriate creative community no longer hangs out in the three or four cafes in St Germain Mengestu cites.  It's moved elsewhere: on any given night, you can find a sampling of the local hipster flora and fauna at La Perle or Café Chéri(e); many writers still frequent Le Sélect in Montparnasse; the publishing crowd goes to Le Rostand and Les Editeurs.

Word  of events, publications, and so forth, is spread largely through the internet. One of the local superconnecters is the poet Jennifer K. Dick, who regularly posts a thorough list of literary events, calls for submissions, and writing contests. Dick also co-chairs the IVY Paris Writers group, along with fellow poet Michelle Noteboom. Drop by one of their events, and you're likely to find yourself in the company of Marilyn Hacker or Alice Notley. 

Says Dick, "there are a TON of things happening here, and among the authors floating around our fair city, we have CK Williams, Jorie Graham, Ellen Hinsey, Denis Hirson, Jeffrey Greene, Jake Lamar, etc.  Younger poets or poets with first books out such as Michelle Noteboom, myself, Lisa Pasold, and Margo Berdeshevsky," who has 2 books coming out in 2009. Then there's Nicholas Manning and Jonathan Regier, she adds, not to mention the "half-timers," Cole Swensen, Marilyn Hacker, Mary Baine Cambell, Thalia Field, etc.

Dick and Noteboom recently published a thorough summer reading list on the site that functions as a virtual guidebook to the local talent.

Other adopted Parisians include Diane Johnson, Anne Marsella, Mavis Gallant, Nancy Huston, Thirza Valois, and others I'm probably forgetting.

Two major US literary journals specifically employ "Paris editors": Susannah Hunnewell for the Paris Review, and Heather Hartley for Tin House.

There are also regular events at bookshops like the Village Voice and Shakespeare & Co; at a Siri Hustvedt reading a few months ago, I found myself face to face with the Canadian novelist Nancy Huston, who has lived in Paris for several decades, and regularly see the poet and translator Claire Malroux and Emmanuel Moses in attendance. (And those are just the faces I recognize.) At Shakespeare and Co, the readings are often followed with a wine reception where attendees mill around the bookstore, meeting or hiding from each other. Their recent literary festival was a milestone, both for the bookshop and for the Parisian literary scene. Sylvia Whitman is reenergizing the place in a major way, making it not only a monument to the past, but relevant to the current literary conversation.

There are also regular readings at the Red Wheelbarrow, Shakespeare & Co, the American Library in Paris, and WH Smith; when Catherine Sanderson read from her new book, Petite Anglaise, in April, a throng of her fellow bloggers showed up at WH Smith to support her, and flooded a nearby Japanese restaurant for dinner afterward.

As for the literary magazines— there are not as many as there were, it's true, but there is certainly no dearth. Some projects which were still operating as of a few years ago seem to have waned (Lieuscape, Frank, Van Gogh's Ear), but some are still going (more or less) strong: Upstairs at Duroc, part of WICE Paris, which is a great resource for writers in the city; 3:AM (also based in the UK), Paris/Atlantic, Double Change, La Traductière, Kimometer Zero. The new kid on the block is Hitotoki, which I am proud to edit in Paris (we launch next week!).  And let's not forget the Center for Writers and Translators at the American University of Paris, which publishes a series of Cahiers. 

And I haven't even gotten started on the journalists—there are the food writers (Patricia Wells, Dorie Greenspan, David Leibowitz, and the new guard-- Clotilde Dusoulier, Adrian Moore, Meg Zimbeck, Phyllis Flick, and Amy Glaze Wittman), or the fashion writers (Elisabeth Fourmont, Rory Satran, Sarina Lewis, and Rebecca Magniant), not to mention the reporters and photographers and-- well, you get the picture. There are writers. In Paris. Living by their writing. Doing what they love and sharing it with as many people as they can reach. Trying to get through to something new.

To claim that there is nothing going on in Paris, creatively speaking, is ridiculous, not to mention insulting to all of those writers and artists who have made Paris their home, and who go withstand a lot of financial and bureaucratic difficulties to stay.

*

I'm sure I've left many, many people out of this post-- my apologies.  I'm drawing from my own limited experience, and I welcome additions and corrections in the comments section.

A few more literary/cultural resources:
The Spoken Word performance group, which has launched its own literary magazine, Platform
The Live Poets Society
GoGo Paris
Bonjour Paris
Paris Voice
IVY Paris News
the late, lamented Gridskipper
Heather Stimmler-Hall's Secrets of Paris

Coming next: Part Five: Shakespeare & Co: a "myth in three dimensions," and Conclusion: Why Paris

Comments

[Froufrou]

not pretending to be part of any creative community whatsoever :), but have to agree on the virtual sphere being the place to express yourself and find a place-"a tangible way to hook into the community". I've been far from home for a very long time now, comparatively-France is the place I've spent most of my life in-and expat blogs are a way to be home away from home-well, for me. Although I'm not sure I'm being very clear :)

[Aimee]

Hey Lauren,

I've enjoyed this post as I have enjoyed past posts of yours but this skewed definition of expat that people use today does not fit me either. Not the Expat of today... you are right there is a new generation of "Americans in Paris" that do differ from those Americans of the 20s, 30s, 40s, etc...

I don't consider myself in the creative rings of Paris, perhaps falling in and out of a few out of mere coincidence but there is amazing creativity going on in Paris. From the people that I know here and what I can see and read, there are things going on. You list great blogs up there show that creativity is not dead in Paris.

[Aimee]

PS. I got your note when you stopped by the tea house! Thank you! Hope you can stop by this summer sometime if not, come by after la rentrée... there are some changes happening this Aug when we close for summer break.

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[isabelle]

The lady doth protest too much....

[maitresse]

Froufrou-- you are! I agree.

Aimee, you are at the vanguard of Paris's knitting, cafe-owning, blogging mommies, and as such you are irreplaceable. I was sorry I missed you that day! I'm in Tokyo til late August, and will definitely come in at la rentrée.

Isabelle: it's true, I protest!

[moppety]

>(French love interest, studies, job, random geographical decision)

I came for a job, but I learned recently that there is a rumor around about me that I came for a French love interest. I encourage it whenever I can.

[adrian]

Thanks for the mention!

[Courtney MacNeil]

Thanks for the comment! Love your blog and particularly this post (and its other part); so helpful for newcomers (like me) to the Paris scene, literary or otherwise!

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