French Weird hosts dispatches from a book in progress. This will be a book about contemporary French culture, a strange book that explores what is “weird” about France today. This newsletter thinks about culture - books, music, film, art - as much as it does about society, history and place. “Weird” here is not, as it often is, an adjective used to dismiss but a mode of perception or a starting point for critical thinking. Throughout its history, France has been a crucible for clear, rational thought. French Weird aims to uncover another side of French culture: the irrational, the unconventional, the overlooked, the liminal, the strange. Along the way, and while thinking about France, I hope we’ll also learn a little more about global weirdness. As befits its subject matter, French Weird is also a weird place to be. I look forward to hearing from, and exchanging with, whatever readers I might pick up along the way.
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I remember Brigitte Rollet telling us back during my ULIP days that what she liked most about the British was their admiration for and almost reverence of eccentrics, something which she said she had not found in France. Now I wonder if this project will uncover a few French eccentrics and encourage them to be viewed in a more favourable light on the southern side of La Manche. Best of luck with this very interesting sounding book!