iPhone Photo Chronicles
~ Je Vous Emmerde ! ~
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I'm not saying I've done them well, but I can't help feeling pretty pleased with myself. I've stuck with something for once. I respect anyone who can stick with something despite criticism or simple lack of interest or feedback. That takes grit and guts.
The funny thing is, there's a fairly common characteristic shared by people who do have nothing good and plenty bad to say about other people's efforts, and believe me I've been on the receiving end of some of these tirades. That common characteristic is that it's extremely difficult to find what these naysayers themselves have contributed to the field except negativity and bitterness.
I've been as guilty as any of sending off regrettable comments and living to rue them greatly.
Hopefully those days have passed and I can now read, or at least acknowledge the existence of, an in-depth blog post on the absolutely bestest macaroon parlours in town or the 'only' place you should be being seen in your new Jimmy Choos at the moment without the slightest urge to whine and whinge or generally mock someone else's creative efforts.
There are two sides, it seems to me: the creators of stuff, and that stuff's consumers.
Creators of stuff need the consumers and the consumers tend to want stuff or no-one would be consuming anything in the first place.
And of course we all create and consume, although some are more active on one side of the equation than the other.
Anyway, I just wanted to say, after all this beating around the bush, that if you don't like my stuff, je vous emmerde, which is a beautifully succinct French expression which suits my purposes admirably, and I've been dying to find a good opportunity to use it, and this is it.
If forced to translate the sticker above, proudly posted on a Parisian lamp post for all to see, it would run something along the lines of: "Sects, religions, superstitions... I'm an atheist and I don't give a damn".
A slyer but no less accurate translation might be "I'm an atheist and you can go to hell!"
In fact, this classic French provocation is here being used as part of a campaign for some sort of anti-capitalist group with possible feminist tendencies - it was a bit difficult to work it out from their web site.
Anti-religious propoganda is actually exceedingly rare in Paris, which makes sense in a way, because if you don't believe in anything much, what have you got to shout about? And anyway, most good Catholics in this country just get discretely on with their lives give or take the odd ménage à trois and a baise-en-ville here and there, and if no-one complains who's any the worse off?
I was only kidding about emmerding you, by the way. Well, maybe I do, but if that was the case you probably wouldn't be reading, so hopefully everyone's happy, with the exception of the occasional emmerdeur, but you always find a few of those around, don't you?
And why not...
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© 2012 Sab Will / Paris Set Me Free - Contact me directly for photo tours, interviews, exhibitions, etc.
© 2012 Sab Will / Paris Set Me Free - Contact me directly for photo tours, interviews, exhibitions, etc.
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