tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3056806344672425847.post3599925077987430321..comments2024-03-28T18:09:06.163+01:00Comments on Fx Reflects: Exiled in Paris in SeptemberFrances Guerinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09601712331094033951noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3056806344672425847.post-11714212033828211902010-10-01T22:39:50.117+02:002010-10-01T22:39:50.117+02:00The connection to Simmel is an interesting one but...The connection to Simmel is an interesting one but I am not familiar with this part of his writings. But what you say resonates with what so many say about that in between space occuppied by the one who does and does not belong.<br /><br />The choice of an identity of exile has brought a great sense of freedom for me. I was brought up in a world in which there was no place for me. At least, the person I was brought up to be - culturally, socially, intellectually - doesn't fit the world that made me that person. To appropriate the identity of the exile affords an identity that connects me to others who also choose exile. Simultaneously, that identity is divorced from any geographical, cultural, national, political, etc. specificity.Frances Guerinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09601712331094033951noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3056806344672425847.post-43479264047868677332010-09-30T02:36:18.763+02:002010-09-30T02:36:18.763+02:00Yes, it's a state (of mind and geography) I...Yes, it's a state (of mind and geography) I'm familiar with and seem always to have sought out. I very much enjoyed your musings on the condition. I personally don't think of myself as an exile - to me the term implies something imposed rather than chosen. I tend to think of my chosen condition as that of a stranger in George Simmel's sense of the term -- a person both near and far, never praying to the group's gods enough to properly belong, yet close enough to have a function (often of a reflective nature).Virginia Pittshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06024791333291797670noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3056806344672425847.post-23092559933970690042010-09-23T00:26:50.928+02:002010-09-23T00:26:50.928+02:00This comment has been removed by the author.Frances Guerinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09601712331094033951noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3056806344672425847.post-64193835529496866872010-09-23T00:26:45.616+02:002010-09-23T00:26:45.616+02:00Thanks for your comment - Camus says that too, or ...Thanks for your comment - Camus says that too, or at least, his outsiders do, they embrace their exile and in ownership, they claim their identity and a kind of peace with their place in the world. It is what gives them power.Frances Guerinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09601712331094033951noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3056806344672425847.post-84259503056981165122010-09-22T09:05:11.298+02:002010-09-22T09:05:11.298+02:00Lovely meditation on the current life of France, a...Lovely meditation on the current life of France, and being outside of it. I think there is something really valuable in "carrying your exile with you." You (we) are able to see the city and it routines, its politics and its frustrations in a way that most Parisians can not--from the vantage point of an outsider. I also think that even in the countries we come from, we see ourselves as outsiders. Being an exile turns that other outsiderness its own powerful place.Jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00829529935907151115noreply@blogger.com