July 2011
8 posts
1 tag
“America is my country and Paris is my hometown.”
– Gertrude Stein
2 tags
2 tags
4 tags
1 tag
1 tag
Interview with Henry Miller, September 1961,...
Interviewer: Gertrude Stein says that living in France purified her English because she didn’t use the language in daily life, and this made her the stylist that she is. Did living in Paris have the same effect on you?
Miller: Not exactly, but I understand what she meant. Of course I spoke much more English while there than Gertrude Stein did. Less French, in other words. Still, I was saturated with French all the time. Hearing another language daily sharpens your own language for you, makes you aware of shades and nuances you never suspected. Also, there comes a slight forgetting which makes you hunger to be able to recapture certain phrases and expressions. You become more conscious of your own language.
2 tags
3 tags
