tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post3673076695384712861..comments2023-10-31T15:39:09.651+01:00Comments on box elder: Of joy and boats, and the joy of boats.Lucyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09764296105901909328noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-27682234290875179722010-03-25T18:56:12.315+01:002010-03-25T18:56:12.315+01:00Thanks, friends.
Although she is a replica, la Pa...Thanks, friends.<br /><br />Although she is a replica, la Pauline is already more than twenty years old, which is not much younger than the original was when she sank, so I think some of the patina, as well as being the result of authentic materials in her construction and maintenance, is that of real usage and life.<br /><br />I think the subject of the book, which sounds good, though I haven't read it, rather deals with how, at one time, happiness was seen as the product of good luck, so the French 'heureux', hence 'bonheur', and the vestige of it in our use of the adverb 'happily' as synonymous with 'fortunately', but has now come to be seen as a state of something closer to perpetual joy, which is of course impossible. Interestingly, though the French use 'content' a lot, which isn't quite the same as it is in English but perhaps carries something of its mildness and quiet, there doesn't seem to be an abstract noun, like our 'contentment' deriving from it. I'll check that out though.Lucyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09764296105901909328noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-17743274073475388222010-03-25T11:03:42.260+01:002010-03-25T11:03:42.260+01:00Apart from making me drool over the photographs of...Apart from making me drool over the photographs of La Pauline, her gear and tackle and trim, you have made me think about the difference between bonheur and joie. It was an excuse to repair to Le Petit Robert. Bonheur has a primary meaning of luck while joie penetrates deeper into the soul. It is, I suppose the same in other languages. Schiller's ode to happiness wouldn't have worked and would have left Beethoven cold. Maxime may have been inluenced by the season and infected with the grace and youth which you convey so well, when he introduced joie rather than bonheur. But I have a feeling that the book in question was concerned with bonheur rather than with joie.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06972049290586377462noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-25812862864906252762010-03-25T08:46:10.063+01:002010-03-25T08:46:10.063+01:00How my Dad would have loved these pictures. He was...How my Dad would have loved these pictures. He was a huge fan of Brittany and loved nothing more than being under sail on a working boat.Dickhttp://patteran.typepad.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-50364905072354346092010-03-24T22:41:46.364+01:002010-03-24T22:41:46.364+01:00Such beautiful clear and bright images Lucy. Thank...Such beautiful clear and bright images Lucy. Thankyou for taking me with you.herhimnbrynhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01182397064631016552noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-9001289472351501292010-03-24T22:22:15.682+01:002010-03-24T22:22:15.682+01:00Believe me, my young friend, there is NOTHING--abs...<i>Believe me, my young friend, there is NOTHING--absolute nothing--half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.</i><br /><br />I've never really believed this, but these pictures are really persuasive.Beehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02375981493145612394noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-10643840536979029662010-03-24T21:03:19.491+01:002010-03-24T21:03:19.491+01:00If I had a boat to get to, I'd be in a hurry t...If I had a boat to get to, I'd be in a hurry too! What a heart lifting image that boat makes.Nimblehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16426446791363667887noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-81783958940668852252010-03-24T17:00:52.481+01:002010-03-24T17:00:52.481+01:00Old wooden ships are so organic and alive, in ever...Old wooden ships are so organic and alive, in every detail.Zhoenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03515663141425057088noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-71049497566060117332010-03-24T15:49:11.881+01:002010-03-24T15:49:11.881+01:00Ah, I can hear the gulls and feel the rope in my h...Ah, I can hear the gulls and feel the rope in my hands. Her natural brown masts indicate an earlier age. I'd gladly serve a stalwart captain of such a vessel. Your photo angles somehow make me feel as though I am moving around the quay with you, Lucy.Rouchswalwehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01393987883437907945noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-25869215781629810412010-03-24T13:12:00.478+01:002010-03-24T13:12:00.478+01:00La Pauline sous voiles tout dessus avec son hunier...<em>La Pauline sous voiles tout dessus avec son hunier</em>. I had to look up the last word and am now kicking myself - I should have known. And perhaps if my brother had retained his mooring at the port near La Baule and we'd continued our explorations of the Bay of Biscay I would by now. Not that Takista, now sold alas, had a topsail but you ease into the vocabulary for the sheer pleasure of using the words, in English or in French. <em>La Pauline</em> belonging to another, non-fibreglass era is proof that there is no such thing as an ugly yacht and that once the sails are set and filled with wind from an appropriate quarter they confirm Ratty's ecstatic utterance that there is nothing - absolutely nothing - like messing about in boats. Or simply being associated with them.<br /><br />How purposeful she looks under full sail and how right it is that she carries a woman's name (though the addition of the definite article raises a moment of apostolic queasiness). You done the old/new girl proud, Lucy, and I envy you her propinquity. I also envy you a pupil who can extrapolate <em>bonheur</em> all the way up to <em>joie</em>. Gosh, you've left me in a shockingly sentimental mood.Roderick Robinsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16828395545197001637noreply@blogger.com