Introducing
The Facts of Winter.
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The Facts of Winter,
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Paul Poissel was not born in 1848. As a young man, he did not set out to become the greatest Turkish architect in Paris. He did not fail to become the greatest Turkish architect in Paris. He never became a poet, nor did he invent puzzles for an illustrated magazine. In 1904, he did not write the book The Facts of Winter.
Paul La Farge has translated (from the original French) this collection of dreams—funny, haunting, enigmatic—all dreamed by people in and around Paris in 1881. La Farge's afterword investigates The Facts's creation, uncovering startling revelations, unknown truths, and new falsehoods.
La Farge is a frequent contributor to McSweeney's and is the author of Haussmann, or the Distinction, a New York Times Notable Book, and The Artist of the Missing, winner of the California Book Award. He is also a leading scholar on the work of Paul Poissel, one of the least known of the little-known French "tiny metaphysician" writers of the late 19th century.
Below are two excerpts from The Facts of Winter. To read the excerpts in the original French, click here.
The Mystery of the Rue de Morée
On February 27 a waitress at the Brasserie des Martyrs, on the rue de Morée, dreams of a young woman who entertains her lover in an apartment over the Brasserie Moderne, across the way. Until this moment the waitress didn't understand love: she thought it was a feeling that you kept hidden in your heart. Now she understands feeling has nothing to do with it. The young woman sits on the sofa. Her lover moves an empty glass on the small table. Love is a way of occupying space, nothing more. That changes everything, thinks the waitress. Her lover is a jealous man who shows her no kindness; she will leave him. Better to get paid for it, she thinks. The young man closes the blinds above the Brasserie Moderne.
That same night, a waitress in the Brasserie Moderne dreams of a young woman who entertains her lover in an apartment over the Brasserie des Martyrs, across the way. He is jealous: he accuses, she denies. He kneels before her, begs her pardon. She turns her back. Up until this moment, the waitress didn't understand what love was. She thought it was a matter of words and gestures, but now she sees that words and gestures have nothing to do with it: love is an invisible thing that hides beneath the most deceptive appearances. So much for the young man who whispers lovers' words in her ear, but who, at bottom, is as cold as a small table or an empty glass. She will look elsewhere, or she'll get paid for it. Above the Brasserie des Martyrs, the young man closes the blinds.
The Fifteen-Year Cry
It's still February 27. Felix Lemaître, fourteen and a half years old, dreams of a room in the Hotel du Doubs, located at Number 220, Boulevard de la Villette. In this room, Number 42, is a cry of human origin, which has been locked up there since 1866. Felix's job is to free that cry. He arms himself with a bottle of "Brothers' Glue," with a picture on the label of twin boys glued together at the ribs, who try to separate themselves with their free arms. Felix goes to the Hotel du Doubs. He climbs the stairs. From the corridor he hears the fifteen-year cry: the soft voice of—he was not expecting this—a girl. "I thought it was me," Felix thinks. "But obviously that can't be. The cry is older than I am." He opens the door of Room 42. In a dark and dirty room, he finds the naked body of a girl lying on the bed. Using his fingers, he puts glue over her heart. He lies on top of her, so his skin is stuck to hers. For the rest of his life Felix will remember the warmth of this body, its bones and its soft parts, sensations that he will have again with other girls, but without being able to recover the joy of being glued to this motionless body. He hears nothing more of the fifteen-year cry: it must have left the room when Felix opened the door.
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