Tag: collaborationism

Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, and their poodle, Basket

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Part 1 here.

Barbara Will devotes considerable space to pondering the relationship between Stein’s Jewish identity and her far-Right views.

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Barbara Will
Unlikely Collaboration: Gertude Stein, Bernard Faÿ, & the Vichy Dilemma
New York: Columbia University Press, 2011

Before 2011, I knew precisely five things about Gertrude Stein: she was Jewish; she was a lesbian; and she said that Hitler deserved the Nobel Peace Prize for tossing the Jews out of Germany. There were also two unimpeachable quotes: “A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose” (you can’t argue with logic like that) and “There’s no there there,” referring to Oakland, California. (more…)

A photo of Bowden from 1991.

89 words / 52:45

The following is the video of the last public lecture Jonathan Bowden ever gave in his life, and it has been difficult to find online. The topic was Charles Maurras and the Action Française, and it was given at The London Forum on March 24, 2012 — only five days before his death on March 29. The audio quality is not the best, particularly during the first couple of minutes, but it does improve. A transcript of the lecture can be found at The Jonathan Bowden Archive, here. (more…)

Céline . . . and Houellebecq.

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This essay is being published today to commemorate Céline’s 128th birthday. You can find all of Counter-Currents’ resources on Céline here.

You don’t have to dig too deep through the past two decades of reviews to find that the French novelist-critic Michel Houellebecq is often compared to the late Louis-Ferdinand Céline. (more…)

Gertrude Stein.

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Barbara Will
Unlikely Collaboration: Gertrude Stein, Bernard Faÿ, and the Vichy Dilemma (Gender and Culture Series)
New York City: Columbia University Press, 2011

The joy of the body, the most honorable and fecund joy of all, reign[s] in America.

— Bernard Faÿ (more…)

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If there ever was a time that whites and blacks have aired their grievances, then the past two weeks have been it. Cities are burning. People are being killed. “Justice,” as defined by one person or another, is being demanded. In so many ways, the true nature of blacks in the United States is being put on display for all to see. In fact, many blacks are expecting us to thank them for their mere presence. (more…)

Charles Maurras

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The following text is the transcript by V. S. of Jonathan Bowden’s last lecture, delivered at The London Forum on March 24, 2012. The original title was “Charles Maurras, Action Franҫaise, and the Cagoule,” but since he does not mention the Cagoule, I dropped it from the online version. I want to thank V. S. for transcribing a largely unlistenable audio track, and Michèle Renouf and Jez Turner for making the recording available. 

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852 words

Otto Abetz

Translated by Guillaume Durocher

Translator’s Note:

The following is translated from Dominique Venner’s Histoire de la Collaboration (Paris: Gérard Watelet/Pygmalion, 2000), 160-62, under the heading “Weakening the defeated to better get along with him.” The title is editorial, and refers to German Ambassador to Paris Otto Abetz, who was said to rule like “King Otto” over the French capital and in particular its vibrant cultural scene.

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The draft Statute on Jews of October 3, 1940, apparently toughened by the hand of Marshal Pétain.

1,988 words

Translated by Guillaume Durocher

Translator’s Note:

The following extracts are translated from Dominique Venner’s Histoire de la Collaboration (Paris: Gérard Watelet/Pygmalion, 2000), 118-22. The title is editorial.

Before creating something new, to ensure that the old regime is genuinely laid low, one begins by driving out those who represent a potential counter-revolution, the risk of a lapse backwards. (more…)

2,509 words

Translated by Guillaume Durocher

Translator’s Note:

The following extracts are translated from Dominique Venner’s Histoire de la Collaboration (Paris: Gérard Watelet/Pygmalion, 2000), 103-12. (more…)

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“The white people invented the atom bomb, and a little later they disappeared.”
—Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Rigadon

May 27th is the 121st birthday of French writer Louis-Ferdinand Céline (real name: Louis-Ferdinand Destouches)—avant-garde novelist, propagandist, dissident, and physician. In America Céline is mainly known for his first two dark, expressionistic novels, first published in the 1930s, (more…)

924 words

Translated by Greg Johnson

In the center of all the questions raised by the sinuous and contradictory path of François Mitterrand is the famous photograph of the interview granted to a young unknown, the future socialist president of the Republic, by Marshall Philippe Pétain in Vichy, on October 15th, 1942. (more…)