Stephen,
Is it Eugene O'Neill's _Mourning Becomes Electra_
that's ringing your bells?
Candice
--- Mark Weiss <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> If it wasn't the reason, how can it be the
> intention?
>
> A few other correctives. The great cemeteries of
> Paris were the result of urbanization--as the
> population density increased the churchyards
> became more valuable, so the bodies were
> transferred. There was also concern about
> sanitation (there are I think only two of the
> older cemeteries that survive--the churchyard in
> Menilmontant, and the convent where the victims
> of the Terror were buried). In no sense are they
> national cemeteries--the closest Paris has to
> that are the Pantheon, with a couple of dozen
> notables, like Voltaire, the Invalides, with
> Napoleon and some of his generals, and the
> cathedral of Saint Denis, with most of the kings.
> Pere Lachaise is just a cemetery--the vast
> majority of those buried there were ordinary
> folks. A great many are in fact cremated,
> including Isidora Duncan. She rests, like the
> others, in a wall niche, which seems to be what
> most people do with the ashes of loved ones, except
> in Hollywood movies.
>
> The cemeteries were also built as parks, like
> Brooklyn's Greenwood Cemetery, at a time when
> urban space wasn't being routinely set aside for
> greenery and the royal parks were still royal. It
> wasn't tourists who were expected to stroll
> there, but locals. Last I was there they didn't
> sell tickets. Except on national holidays
> (especially Armistice Day) they're not very
> crowded, except for the vicinity of Jim Morrison.
> Pere Lachaise is unique in the volume of its
> tourist traffic--usually the Montparnasse, which
> I lived a block away from for a few months, is
> deserted except for folks taking a shortcut or a
> neighborhood stroll. Not a tour bus in sight.
> Lots of famous dead, though. Likewise the Montmartre
> and Passy cemeteries.
>
> After the fall of the 1871 commune a couple of
> thousand communards were lined up against the
> north wall of Pere Lachaise and shot. I don't
> remember if there's a plaque. Another use for open
> space.
>
> In the year that I lived five blocks from Pere
> Lachaise I went in once, on Armistice Day.
>
> Do you really think that large numbers of people
> come to Paris for the cemeteries? The only place
> that might be true of is the Nile Valley.
>
> Mark
>
> At 05:28 PM 3/31/2007, you wrote:
> >Anny, the cynic and once Francophile in me wants to
> say that early on the
> >French Government, it appears, was into marketing -
> putting or burying fame
> >all in one place and then making it into a global
> destination target!
> >Certainly that was not the original reason why much
> of Frances cultural
> >wealth got buried in the same place. But a tourist
> economy trumps all other
> >intentions, I suspect, and so France has discovered
> another level of
> >mortuary meaning.
> >(Somebody recently said that if Tourism were a
> country, it would be the
> >third or fourth largest in the world!)
> >
> >I also suspect there are the families of both
> famous and/or not who prefer
> >cremation - inaccessibility of remains becomes a
> virtue. Or, if you are
> >really interested, read the books or look at the
> art of the beloved
> >deceased.
> >
> >Yet, to contradict, I love the Vietnam Memorial as
> a site of grievance - and
> >its huge service to the needs of this country to
> take account the dark facts
> >of that way. May the Memorial for the Iraq dead
> (both Iraqi and 'Coalition
> >Forces' }be enshrined in Crawford, Texas - I say.
> Bush should never left to
> >live with himself again. I diverge!
> >
> >As to where to bury and enshrine poets, it's kind
> of a startling thought -
> >but sweetly curious for the imagination to wonder -
> if there could be a
> >national burial ground in the USA, Canada,
> Australia or anyone else. Imagine
> >- in the USA - Wallace Stevens, Dickinson, Frost,
> Lowell, Rexroth, Duncan,
> >Langston Hughes, etc., etc., all buried in shared
> grounds. Talk about
> >possibilities for creative landscaping! (And the
> politics of getting in.
> >One hesitates to think of National Endowment for
> the Arts application to get
> >your remains into a 'plot'!
> >
> >Just off the cuff, a single line from Beverly
> Dahlen's recent book, A
> >Reading 18 - 20:
> >
> >Mourning becomes etc.
> >
> >I am not sure precisely why that line rings some
> bells, hard one. I am sure
> >it was written during the overwhelming number of
> deaths from AIDS as that
> >epidemic took off in the eighties.
> >
> >Stephen V
> >http://stephenvincent.net/blog/
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > > I googled Père Lachaise Cemetery because I had
> the idea of quoting it in a
> > > poem, see here for God's sake who is in there
> besides the ones that Mark
> > > mentioned: Doré, the same Abelard, Balzac,
> > Isadora Duncan, Max Ernst, Gérard
> > > de Nerval, and I haven't scrolled down the page,
> yet.
> > >
> > >
> >
>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Burials_at_P%C3%A8re_Lachaise_Cemetery
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > On 3/30/07, Mark Weiss <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
> > >>
> > >> You pass Chopin, Berlioz, Yves Montand and
> Simone Signoret on the way
> > >> from the one to the other. Pretty neat, tho it
> definitely could use a
> > >> cafe. Every decent cemetery should have a cafe.
> > >>
> > >> Don't tell Starbucks.
> > >>
> > >> The tombs of the Rothchilds are in the
> Montparnasse cemetery, near
> > >> where I used to live. Their very plain crypts
> are marked with a larfe
> > >> R, reminiscent of the double R of Rolls Royce.
> > >>
> > >> Check outthis funereal news in the New York
> Times:
> > >>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/30/us/30ashes.html
> > >>
> > >> Mark
> > >>
> > >> At 04:34 PM 3/30/2007, you wrote:
> > >>> I guess I would just split myself and gather
> around both. Never been
> > >> there
> > >>> even if I was twice in Paris but just for a
> short stay.
> > >>>
> > >>> On 3/30/07, Mark Weiss
> <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > >>>>
> > >>>> Which in French means "don't gambl;e with
> tough guys." Always good
> > >> advice.
> > >>>>
> > >>>> Last time I was in Pere Lachaise more folks
> were gathered arounf
> > >>>> Apollinaire than Morrison. Something to cheer
> about.
> > >>>>
> > >>>> Mark
> > >>>>
> > >>>> At 03:33 PM 3/30/2007, you wrote:
> > >>>>> Sorry, I meant to add that in Paris, where
> Jim
> > >>>>> Morrison is buried, they have a French
> saying that
> > >>>>> translates roughly as "don't put the cart
> before The
> > >>>>> Doors."
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> Candice
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>>
>
=== message truncated ===
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