Louis-Ferdinand Celine
Here’s how it started. I’d never said a word. Not one word. It was Arthur Ganate that made me speak up. Arthur was a friend from med school. So we meet on the Place Clichy. It was after breakfast. He wants to talk to me. I listen. 'Not out here,' he says. 'Let’s go in.' We go in. And there we were. 'This terrace,' he says, 'is for jerks. Come on over there.' Then we see that there’s not a soul in the street, because of the heat; no cars, nothing. Same when it’s very cold, not a soul in the street; I remember now, it was him who had said one time: 'The people in Paris always look busy, when all they actually do is roam around from morning to night; it’s obvious, because when the weather isn’t right for walking around, when it’s too cold or too hot, you don’t see them anymore; they’re all indoors, drinking their cafés crèmes or their beers. And that’s the truth. The century of speed! they call it. Where? Great changes! they say. For instance? Nothing has changed. They go on admiring themselves, that’s all. And that’s not new either. Words. Even the words haven’t changed much. Two or three little ones, here and there…' Pleased at having proclaimed these useful truths, we sat looking at the ladies in the café.
