for which I brought a large tub of CoolrnWhip for all to enjoy. This fall festivalrnhas become quite popular, with over 400rnguests attending, much more than the littlernchurch hall can handle all at once.rnBesides the neighbors, attendees includernsuch luminaries as former U.S. Sen. GaylordrnNelson, who is originally from nearbyrnClear Lake, and Amery Mayor andrnformer State Assembhinan Hanc)’ Stower,rn”The Conscience of the Assembly”rnand a friend from the state capital das ofrnmy youth.rnFor the rural churches where I comernfrom, such events are a very importantrnpart not just of their heritage but of theirrnroutine. As cometh the harvest, sornCometh the fall festivals. Whether thernsuburban megachurches have fall feshvals,rnI do not know. I suppose it would bernhard to feed so many thousands of attendees;rnbnt really, what would be there torncelebrate? They have no tie to the land,rnto the people that till it, or to the rhythmsrnof the harvest. Thev’ are merely a transitrnstop for our transitory population. Thernhar’est and the fall feshval are for thosernthey have left behind.rnSean Scallon is a newspaper reporter [romrnEllsworth, Wisconsin.rnLetter From Corsicarnby Curtis GaternEthnicity as a Way of LifernYears ago, an Hungarian friend of mine,rneager to finish a novel, decided to go tornCorsica to find the peace and quiet herncraved. Some six months later, after hernreturned to Paris, I asked him if, duringrnhis stay, he had picked up any Corsican.rnNot much, he admitted, except for arnjjhrase he had often heard and had foundrnappealing for its curious sonority: “{] lurnhrutu!”rnMy friend’s subsequent explanationsrnas to just what those three words meantrnwere vague in the extreme. Apparently,rnbnitu was one of those convenient, allpurposernwords people —more particularly,rnthe young—invent to express var)’ingrndegrees of enthusiasm—such !is formidablernin French, fabelhaft (“fabulous”) inrnCerman, estupendo or Carambal inrnSpanish, and everything from “v^i/ard,”rn”super,” “terrific,” and the latest, singularlyrnweak-kneed superlative —”brilliant”rn— now used by the Brifish. I was remindedrnof the “Que brutal!” I had heardrnin Mexico at a time when the bamba wasrnfirst being danced — in 1946, no less! —rnand which v.as no more “brutal” in itsrnconnotations than the popidar Fnglishrnsuperlative “terrific!”rnThe four repetitive u (as in our “you”)rnsounds in “L/ lu hrutu!” clearly linked it tornthe ancient Provengal, more closelv derivedrnfrom the Latin than modernrnFrench, in which the words would havernto be phonetically (and more clumsily)rntranscribed as “Ou lou broutou!” I havernno idea who invented this phrase or if herncould in any sense be considered arn”Provengal,” but its mere existence couldrnprovide a conenient argument for thosernFrench men and women who like tornthink that the island of Corsica has “indissoluble”rnties linking it to the “hexagone”rnof mainland France.rnEver since last July, when Prime MinisterrnLionel Jospin, in desperate search ofrnsome miraculous wav of “pacifv’ing” thernrestive island of Corsica, caved in to therndemands of certain “nationalists” bv outliningrna four-year plan designed to allowrnthe inhabitants to “rule themselves” withrnthe aid of a local mini-parliament arid tornhave the Corsican “language” taught inrnall its schools, French newspapers, likernthe radio and TV channels, have beenrndeluged with articles, interviews, andrnspeeches expressing everv conceivablernnuance of opinion—from the forthrightrnrefusal to make an’ vital concessionsrnmanifested bv French Minister of the hiteriorrnJean-Pierre Chevenement, who reluctantl}’rnresigned from the governmentrnrather than condone a policy likely torndestabilize France and undermine thern”indivisibilih” of the Republic, to the casualrnindifference of Raymond Barre, arnformer prime mini.ster and now outgoingrnmayor of Lyon, who more or less intimatedrnthat, if thev so wished, the Corsicansrnshould be allowed to go their own wa-rnand stew in their own juice.rnNot the least curious aspect of the resultantrndebates has been the striking wayrnin which the- have cut across traditionalrnparty lines. In his adamant opposidon tornconcessions that would, in his opinion,rnlead to an eventual independence and tornthe triumph in Corsica of a drug-peddlingrnmafia, Chevenement, an outspokenlyrnleft-wing Socialist, was immediatelyrnjoined by another former minister ofrnthe interior, Charles Pasqua, who (despiternbeing of Corsican origin) is anrnequally outspoken archconservative ex-rnGaullist. Early on in the debate, two formerrnFrench foreign ministers —Jean-rnRaymond Bernard and Herve dernCharette—appealed (in the pages of LernFigaro) to Jacques Chirac, asking thernpresident, supposed (according to thernterms of the constitution) to be the “guarantor”rnof the “integrity of the Republic,”rnto throw tile firll weight and prestige ofrnhis high office into the battle against thernSocialist prime minister —somethingrnChirac has shown no signs of doing, preferringrn(as he privateh’ explained tornmembers of his entourage) to see LionelrnJospin “mire himself up to the chin” in arn(Corsican) bog of his ovyn making.rnThe Corsicans themselves are profoundlyrndi’ided on the subject. At leastrntwo mayors—Emile Zuccarelli, the leftwingrnmayor of Bastia (near the northeasternrntip of the island), and DominiquernBucchini, mayor of Sartene (in thern.south)-promptly joined Henri Emmanueli,rna former secretan,’ general of the SocialistrnPart, in supporting Chevenement;rnand when Jose Rossi, a “Liberal”rndeputy in the French National Assemblyrnand the foremost advocate of the fouryearrn”peace plan,” rashly tried to “seize”rnthe mayoralh of Ajaccio from its incumbent,rnhe was soundly trounced by thern”Bonapartist” Marc Marcangcli. Ascatiiingrncritique by Charles Lambroschiui,rnthe foreign editor of Le Figaro, accusedrnRossi of wanting to make himself thernPrince Rainier of a Monaco-h’pe principality;rnand in a pathetic plea for tolerance,rnJean-Pierre Colombani, the editorin-rnchief of the distinctly left-wing andrnfashionabl) anti-bomgeois Le Monde,rnsought to remind his readers that it vasrnthe “jacobine” Robespierre who hadrnhailed Corsica’s independence in thernearly 1790’s —actually, it was the anythingrnbut “jacobine” Mirabeau —andrnNapoleon who had ruthlessly suppressedrnit toward tiie end of that momentous re-rnolntionar-)- and postrevolutionan.’ decade.rnThe most intriguing aspect of this debaternhas been its almost classic exemplificationrnof tiie highly contemporary phenomenonrnof “linguistic drift.” When arn”progressive” buzzword is invented, itrnquickly acquires a social momentum ofrnits own. Before they Isegin to realize exactlyrnwhat is happening, even its adversariesrnend up the hapless victims of theirrnenemies’ vocabulary. This is what hasrnhappened with tiie so-called “Corsicanrnlanguage,” just as it has happened withrn38/CHRONK:LESrnrnrn
January 1975April 21, 2022By The Archive
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