Well THAT was one hell of an experience

So, as expected, Farida Belghoul is a Character with a capital C. And perhaps one of the most negative people I've ever met regarding the future of France (she said France is now Sodom and Gomorrah, and in her words, "you know how that ended." Ouch).

The visit started with me (before I found Belghoul) witnessing a student pushing a hall monitor into a fence, which meant that I had to go to the main desk area and back up the monitor's story and try to help identify which kid did it (he ran away after the fact). They were all apologetic that my visit started like that, and they certainly weren't expecting my reply, which was the obvious "oh I taught in a lycee professionel, don't worry, I know what it's like!"

Anyway, I then found Belghoul and we walked over to her classroom. As we walked in, she was like, "I'm sorry, it smells like students here." (which it did, but what can you do). hahaha.

The interview did not start off on the right foot at all, in that as we were walking to the classroom and she asked me about my topic, I said I was trying to understand where the beur literature phenomenon comes from. I was thinking that my emphasis was on "phenomenon" in the sense of how the category got created, but she took it differently and railed against me about how it's a constructed category and that it's my fault as an academic for legitimizing it. I realized a minute later what the problem was and apologized for misspeaking and explained what I was really doing (thank god I've got the foreign thing going on, even though it wasn't a mistake specifically tied to the language, perhaps she was willing to cut me some slack anyway). There was definitely a moment where she realized I wasn't your average boring researcher trying to do the same old thing, as she paused for a second and was like, "oh. now THAT is a different question." Huge sigh of relief on my part, haha.

The interview itself actually might not end up being the most useful thing in the world, mainly because I had a hell of a time keeping her on task. I wanted to talk about literature, she wanted to rail against French society. Case in point: I asked her what books she likes to teach, and she went on a rampage about how you can't teach books when kids don't know how to read and that she's just a glorified jail guard. She's quitting at the end of the year, and there's some serious sour grapes going on. That said, I can't blame her, I found the lycée professionel system draining after just one year so I don't know how she has done it for as long as she has.

But every question was like that. When I asked her what contemporary books she likes to read, she said literature is dead. When I asked her about new movements trying to redefine the relationship between literature and politics, she said she only believes in politics in the Platonic sense and not in the corrupt modern world, where it's all crap anyway. She even took up Le Pen's classic slogan ("France, love it or leave it") and was like, "it's time to leave."

All in all it was a fairly soul destroying interview, if you choose to look at it that way, haha. I did ask her if there was any hope anywhere, and she said it was in individual fulfillment, making your own path away from the spotlight. So I can see her point there at least.

So yeah, you can see why this interview may not be the most productive for my thesis, but it was damn interesting.

After the actual recorded interview, we had a long conversation that was much more interesting. I think I won her over, as she gave me extra time and was very nice after that. She said some nasty things about other people that I probably shouldn't put on a public blog (haha), but the highlight was when she called this other book "atrocement nul" (atrociously worthless). Lindsay and I have already discussed the spectacular nullity of said book, so I had a good laugh over it. Lindsay's problem is that it's super relevant to her topic, despite the crap quality. So I told Belghoul that I had a friend doing this specific topic, and Belghoul was like, "oh man, she's screwed, she does have to use that book!" haha. She also asked me for some recommendations of recent beur novels, so I was able to give her one suggestion that I think was a good choice. I figure that was a pretty big deal, that she was willing to ask me for references.

In any case, I felt like I won the lottery at the end of the interview when she was like, "well, I still don't really know why I accepted to speak with you, but I'm really glad I did." Score!

Needless to say, I was totally brain dead afterwards, haha.