De Franse schrijver André Gide werd geboren op 22 november 1869 in Parijs. Zie ook mijn blog van 22 november 2006 en ook mijn blog van 22 november 2007.xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Uit: Corydon

„« Comprenez-moi : l’homosexualité, tout comme l’hétérosexualité, comporte tous les degrés, toutes les nuances : du platonisme à la salacité, de l’abnégation au sadisme, de la santé joyeuse à la morosité, de la simple expansion à tous les raffinements du vice. L’inversion n’en est qu’une annexe. De plus tous les intermédiaires existent entre l’exclusive homosexualité et l’hétérosexualité exclusive. Mais, d’ordinaire, il s’agit bonnement d’opposer à l’amour normal un amour réputé contre nature - et, pour la commodité, on met toute la joie, toute la passion noble ou tragique, toute la beauté du geste et de l’esprit d’un côté ; de l’autre, je ne sais quel rebut fangeux de l’amour... »

(...)

 « Ne vous êtes-vous pas avisé qu’elles agissent aussi bien dans l’autre sens ? Souvenez-vous du mot profond de La Rochefoucauld : Il y a des gens qui n’auraient jamais été amoureux s’ils n’avaient jamais entendu parler de l’amour. - Songez que, dans notre société, dans nos moeurs, tout prédestine un sexe à l’autre ; tout enseigne l’hétérosexualité, tout y invite, tout y provoque, théâtre, livre, journal, exemple affiché des aînés, parade des salons, de la rue. Si l’on ne devient pas amoureux avec tout ça, c’est qu’on a été mal élevé, s’écrit plaisamment Dumas fils dans la préface de la Question d’Argent.

Quoi ! si l’adolescent cède enfin à tant de complicité ambiante, vous ne voulez pas supposer que le conseil ait pu guider son choix, la pression incliner, dans le sens prescrit, son désir !

Mais si, malgré conseils, invitations, provocations de toutes sortes, c’est le penchant homosexuel qu’il manifeste, aussitôt vous incriminez telle lecture, telle influence ; (et vous raisonnez de même pour un pays entier, pour un peuple) ; c’est un goût acquis, affirmez-vous ; on le lui a appris, c’est sûr ; vous n’admettez pas qu’il ait pu l’inventer tout seul. »

André Gide (22 november 1869 – 19 februari 1951)

De Engelse schrijfster George Eliot werd geboren op 22 november 1819 in Nuneaton in Warwickshire.

Zie ook mijn blog van 22 november 2006.

Uit: Middlemarch

“WHO that cares much to know the history of man, and how the mysterious mixture behaves under the varying experiments of Time, has not dwelt, at least briefly, on the life of Saint Theresa,' has not smiled with some gentleness at the thought of the little girl walking forth one morning hand - in - hand with her still smaller brother, to go and seek martyrdom in the country of the Moors? Out they toddled from rugged Avila, wide - eyed and helpless - looking as two fawns, but with human hearts, already beating to a national idea; until domestic reality met them in the shape of uncles, and turned them back from their great resolve. That child - pilgrimage was a fit beginning. Theresa's passionate, ideal nature demanded an epic life: what were many - volumed romances of chivalry and the social conquests of a brilliant girl to her. Her flame quickly burned up that light fuel; and, fed from within, soared after some illimitable satisfaction, some object which would never justify weariness, which would reconcile self - despair with the rapturous consciousness of life beyond self. She found her epos in the reform of a religious order.

That Spanish woman who lived three hundred years ago was certainly not the last of her kind. Many Theresas have been born who found for themselves no epic life wherein there was a constant unfolding of far - resonant action; perhaps only a life of mistakes, the offspring of a certain spiritual grandeur ill - matched with the meanness of opportunity; perhaps a tragic failure which found no sacred poet and sank unwept into oblivion. With dim lights and tangled circumstance they tried to shape their thought and deed in noble agreement; but after all, to common eyes their struggles seemed mere inconsistency and formlessness; for these later - born Theresas were helped by no coherent social faith and order which could perform the function of knowledge for the ardently willing soul. Their ardour alternated between a vague ideal and the common yearning of womanhood; so that the one was disapproved as extravagance, and the other condemned as a lapse.”

George Eliot (22 november 1819 – 22 december 1880)

De Russische schrijver Viktor Pelevin werd geboren op 22 november 1962 in Moskou. Zie ook mijn blog van 22 november 2006.

Uit: Buddha's Little Finger (Vertaald door Andrew Bromfield)

„Tverskoi Boulevard was exactly as it had been when I last saw it, two years before. Once again it was February, with snowdrifts everywhere and that peculiar gloom which somehow manages to infiltrate the very daylight. The same old women were perched motionless on the benches; above them, beyond the black latticework of the branches, there was the same grey sky, like an old, worn mattress drooping down towards the earth under the weight of a sleeping God.

Some things, however, were different. This winter the avenues were scoured by a blizzard straight off the steppes, and I should not have been in the least surprised to have come face to face with a pair of wolves during the course of my walk. The bronze Pushkin seemed a little sadder than usual - no doubt because his breast was covered with a red apron bearing the inscription: 'Long Live the First Anniversary of the Revolution'. I felt not the slightest inclination for ironical comment on the fact that the cheers were intended for an event which could not by definition last longer than a single day - just recently I had been afforded more than ample opportunity to glimpse the demonic face concealed behind such lapidary absurdities inscribed on red.

It was beginning to get dark, but I could still make out Strastnoi Monastery through the snowy haze. On the square in front of it were two open trucks, their tall side walls tightly strung with bright scarlet material; there was a crowd jostling around them and the orator's voice carried to where I stood. I could scarcely make out anything of what he said, but the general meaning was clear enough from his intonation and the machine-gun rattle of the 'r' in the words 'proletariat' and 'terror'. Two drunken soldiers walked past me, the bayonets on their rifles swaying behind their shoulders. They were hurrying towards the square, but one of them fixed his brazen gaze on me, slowed his pace and opened his mouth as though about to say something; fortunately - for him and for me - his companion tugged him by the sleeve and they walked on.“

Viktor Pelevin (Moskou, 22 november 1962)

De Brits-Indische schrijverstweeling Suresh and Jyoti Guptara werd geboren op 22 november 1988 in Frimley, Hants in het zuidoosten van Engeland. Op zeven-jarige leeftijd verhuisden zij naar Zwitserland. Het eerste ontwerp van “Conspiracy of Calaspia”, deel 1 van de geplande Insanity Saga. voltooiden zij toen zij elf waren. Na vele herschrijvingen en correcties werd het boek in 2005 uitgegeven. Jyoti ging op zijn vijftiende al van school af om fulltime schrijver te worden. Zijn broer Suresh voltooide eerst wel de opleiding wel aan Bradfield College, alvorens zich bij hem te voegen.

Uit: Conspiracy of Calaspia

„Spray from the waterfall moistened his suntanned skin.  Sand skipped through the air, the granules sticking uncomfortably where the water had dampened him.  This rare gust of wind ruffled the Dwarf’s mane of hair and sent the golden curls dancing around his massive shoulders.

There it was again – the bellow of Nurgor war-cries.  Galar leaned further on the head of his axe, surveying the lay of the land with a myopic squint. 

‘Jevel,’ the Dwarf cursed under his breath.  He had forgotten his spectacles, yet again.  His axe, on the other hand, he didn’t even need to think about, strapped as it was to his back – unless it was in his chunky hands, like it was now. 

Galar jumped to run and stopped on one foot, poised between darting back to his hut to retrieve his spectacles, and investigating at once.  If battle were to come, it was always a compromise between looking fierce and seeing clearly.  The decision was made in an instant as the momentum of his charge conquered considerable inertia.  Then Galar was flying down the mountainside, bare feet flinging up sand like a camel.  Short, quick strides carried the warrior through the desolate terrain that was a blur to either side of him. 

Were they trees or Nurgor?  Galar had lived here for years, and yet it was impossible to judge between vegetation and monsters without his glasses.  The land had a mind of its own.  And it liked to change its mind frequently.  The Dwarf ignored the hazy blobs and kept his course, figuring that if they had been Nurgor, they would either be rushing him or fleeing by now.

The glaring sun suddenly faded for a moment, throwing the mountain range around him into gloom.  Galar had just mounted the top of a hill, and it was at this moment that he found what he was looking for.  No Nurgor were in sight, but their prey was.  Out of breath by now, and cursing for the hundredth time the climate of the land he had made his home, Galar hurried to the stranger’s side.

‘Friend!’ he called.  ‘S’alright, yer safe!’

As he approached, the figure became, in Galar’s sight, with ever more certainty, a man.

Was he dead? „

Suresh en Jyoti Guptara (Frimley, 22 november 1988)