Yeah, can't find it on kindle as that, though 🤔 It doesn't come up at all under that name. There is one called The Outsider which has the same main characters name in the blurb. Is it set in Algiers?
Aye, indeed it is
That's weird that the name has been changed for the English translation 🙄 Thanks
Just remembered that he's said How Beautiful You Are and A Letter to Elise were both inspired by French writers. I think Baudelaire was one them. On Wikipedia it says Kafka's Letters to Felice was the inspiration for Elise, but I seem to remember an interview I read where he named someone French. But who knows? Ha.
Yes, 'How Beautiful You Are' was inspired by some poems of 'Les Fleurs du mal' ('The flowers of Evil') by Charles Baudelaire.
Last Edit: Feb 6, 2017 23:54:56 GMT 1 by gongoro73
Oh! You want to know why I hate you today. It will undoubtedly be less easy for you to understand than it will be for me to explain, for you are, I believe, the most beautiful example of feminine impermeability one could ever encounter.
We had spent together a long day that had seemed short to me. We had indeed promised that we would share all of our thoughts with one another, and that our two souls would henceforth be one — a dream that isn’t the least bit original, after all, if not that, dreamed of by all men, it has been realized by none.
In the evening, a bit tired, we wanted to sit down in front of a new café that formed the corner of a new boulevard, still strewn with debris and already gloriously displaying its unfinished splendors. The café was sparkling. The gaslight itself sent forth all the ardor of a debut and lit with all its force walls blinding in their whiteness, dazzling sheets of mirrors, the gold of the rods and cornices, chubby-cheeked page-boys being dragged by dogs on leashes, laughing ladies with falcons perched on their wrist, nymphs and goddesses carrying on their heads fruits, pies, and poultry, Hebes and Ganymedes presenting in out-stretched arms little amphoras filled with Bavarian cream or bi-colored obelisks of ice cream — all of history and all of mythology at the service of gluttony.
Right in front of us, on the sidewalk, a worthy man in his forties was standing, with a tired face, a greying beard, and holding with one hand a little boy and carrying on the other arm a little being too weak to walk. He was playing the role of nanny and had taken his children out for a walk in the night air. All in rags. The three faces were extraordinarily serious, and the six eyes contemplated fixedly the new café with an equal admiration, but shaded differently according to their age.
The father’s eyes said: “How beautiful it is! How beautiful it is! You’d think all the gold in this poor world was on its walls.” — The eyes of the little boy: “How beautiful it is! How beautiful it is! But it’s a house only people who aren’t like us can enter.” — As for the eyes of the smaller child, they were too fascinated to express anything other than a stupid and profound joy.
Song-writers say that pleasure makes the soul good and softens the heart. The song was right this evening, as regards me. Not only was I moved by this family of eyes, but I also felt a little ashamed of our glasses and our carafes, which were larger than our thirst. I turned my gaze toward your’s, dear love, to read my thoughts there; I plunged into your so beautiful and so bizarrely gentle eyes, into your green eyes, inhabited by Caprice and inspired by the Moon, and then you said to me: “I can’t stand those people over there, with their eyes wide open like carriage gates! Can’t you tell the head-waiter to send them away?”
So difficult is it to understand one another, my dear angel, and so incommunicable is thought, even between people in love!”
Robert Smith reflected on the songwriting process and the influence of a book of Baudelaire poems in a 1987 interview with Promotional 12":
"I read through them all and one just really struck me, because I'd actually written a song like that... about how you think that you really know someone, and you really love someone, and suddenly discover that they can react to something you find very important, and they react in a totally different way, and you can't believe that it's the same person. I had a set of words that had that sort of idea in it."
He added: "Once I'd read it I thought it's really a good idea actually having it so that you take it down to one incident. I tried doing it into a very general sense of not understanding someone, but then I thought I should actually take one particular incident and write a song - that was about the most difficult song to write because I wanted to get it just right, so that it sounded like a song rather than just a literary exercise."
It's funny because many of these writers are writers who are studied at school and strangely, one is not always very receptive at the time when one has to do it.
Let's say it becomes more a chore than a pleasure
The pleasure comes later, when one does not have the obligation of things and that one takes another look on it. However, if you are interested in classical literature, there is Stendhal's "The Red and the Black". This one also I remember very well
(On the other hand, I do not know if Robert read this one)
It's funny because many of these writers are writers who are studied at school and strangely, one is not always very receptive at the time when one has to do it.
Let's say it becomes more a chore than a pleasure
The pleasure comes later, when one does not have the obligation of things and that one takes another look on it. However, if you are interested in classical literature, there is Stendhal's "The Red and the Black". This one also I remember very well
(On the other hand, I do not know if Robert read this one)
The pleasure wasn't lacking back then for us nerds. I am including Robert here. Haha!
Just remembered that he's said How Beautiful You Are and A Letter to Elise were both inspired by French writers. I think Baudelaire was one them. On Wikipedia it says Kafka's Letters to Felice was the inspiration for Elise, but I seem to remember an interview I read where he named someone French. But who knows? Ha.
The second novel mentioned by RS as an inspiration for A letter to Elise was Les Enfants Terribles by Jean Cocteau.
But I don't see And I don't feel But tightly hold up silently My hands before my fading eyes And in my eyes Your smile
I mistook stars reflected in a pond at night for those in the sky.
Oh! You want to know why I hate you today. It will undoubtedly be less easy for you to understand than it will be for me to explain, for you are, I believe, the most beautiful example of feminine impermeability one could ever encounter.
We had spent together a long day that had seemed short to me. We had indeed promised that we would share all of our thoughts with one another, and that our two souls would henceforth be one — a dream that isn’t the least bit original, after all, if not that, dreamed of by all men, it has been realized by none.
In the evening, a bit tired, we wanted to sit down in front of a new café that formed the corner of a new boulevard, still strewn with debris and already gloriously displaying its unfinished splendors. The café was sparkling. The gaslight itself sent forth all the ardor of a debut and lit with all its force walls blinding in their whiteness, dazzling sheets of mirrors, the gold of the rods and cornices, chubby-cheeked page-boys being dragged by dogs on leashes, laughing ladies with falcons perched on their wrist, nymphs and goddesses carrying on their heads fruits, pies, and poultry, Hebes and Ganymedes presenting in out-stretched arms little amphoras filled with Bavarian cream or bi-colored obelisks of ice cream — all of history and all of mythology at the service of gluttony.
Right in front of us, on the sidewalk, a worthy man in his forties was standing, with a tired face, a greying beard, and holding with one hand a little boy and carrying on the other arm a little being too weak to walk. He was playing the role of nanny and had taken his children out for a walk in the night air. All in rags. The three faces were extraordinarily serious, and the six eyes contemplated fixedly the new café with an equal admiration, but shaded differently according to their age.
The father’s eyes said: “How beautiful it is! How beautiful it is! You’d think all the gold in this poor world was on its walls.” — The eyes of the little boy: “How beautiful it is! How beautiful it is! But it’s a house only people who aren’t like us can enter.” — As for the eyes of the smaller child, they were too fascinated to express anything other than a stupid and profound joy.
Song-writers say that pleasure makes the soul good and softens the heart. The song was right this evening, as regards me. Not only was I moved by this family of eyes, but I also felt a little ashamed of our glasses and our carafes, which were larger than our thirst. I turned my gaze toward your’s, dear love, to read my thoughts there; I plunged into your so beautiful and so bizarrely gentle eyes, into your green eyes, inhabited by Caprice and inspired by the Moon, and then you said to me: “I can’t stand those people over there, with their eyes wide open like carriage gates! Can’t you tell the head-waiter to send them away?”
So difficult is it to understand one another, my dear angel, and so incommunicable is thought, even between people in love!”
It's almost a shame to read this as I love listening to RS's songs and wondering about the ideas behind them. This is almost word for word the same as the lyrics.
Maybe it's just on kindle that I can't find the book as its original name. I'm going to Morocco in May so might keep it to read there as it's next door to Algiers 😊😊 I'm loving this thread too. I have so much to read now! 🤓🤓
I don't think it's related to the Cure song, but there is a chidren's book called The In-Between Days. Also probably not related (but worth reading anyway) W. D. Valgardson Bloodflowers: Ten Stories. The astonishing title story could easily be a Cure song.
Love Cats is supposedly taken from Patrick White's book, The Vivisector. Two of his other titles are The Cockatoos and The Hanging Garden, so Robert was probably influenced by his writing.
PS Just ran across a full text PDF of the Stranger. I haven't checked to see if it's complete, but worth a look if you haven't read it:
I don't think it's related to the Cure song, but there is a chidren's book called The In-Between Days. Also probably not related (but worth reading anyway) W. D. Valgardson Bloodflowers: Ten Stories. The astonishing title story could easily be a Cure song.
Love Cats is supposedly taken from Patrick White's book, The Vivisector. Two of his other titles are The Cockatoos and The Hanging Garden, so Robert was probably influenced by his writing.
PS Just ran across a full text PDF of the Stranger. I haven't checked to see if it's complete, but worth a look if you haven't read it:
Link to copyrighted material removed
Sorry, I saw that and figured it was in the public domain. But doing the math, I should have figured out it won't be available for another 20 years or so.