What is « normal » ? What are your criterias of normality?
Is it normal for my Japanese classmate not to know where Greece is?
Is it normal to cast some old lepers from their center to build the metro?
Is it normal to hear all day long the child next door crying?
Is it normal to run into debt to buy a brand name bag?
Is it normal to kill oneself because of an unhappy love affair?
Is it normal for a suicide to fail because someone else was killed instead by accident?
Is it normal to think the grass is greener on the other side of the fence?
Is it normal not to think the grass is greener on the other side when you finally get there?
Is it normal to call your husband 20 times a day?
Is it normal to open your computer first thing in the morning as soon as you wake up?
Is it normal to be normal?
Is it normal for me to rush back home every time I realize that I have forgotten my cellphone?!
Today’s favorites
Framing a New Value System in Taiwan by Benoit Vermander.
The Goose and the Hen by Bob.
To illustrate the above questions, here is a French song about what is normal.
C’est normal. (It is normal)
( A French song by Areski Belkacem and Brigitte Fontaine, 1973)
-The translation is my own, so it might not be accurate.
La la la…
- Areski !
- Qu'est-ce qu'il y a ? (What’s up?)
- T'as pas entendu un truc bizarre ? (Didn’t you hear something strange ?)
- Si. (Yes, I did.)
- Qu'est-ce que c'est ? (What is it ?)
- C'est le gaz. C'est le gaz dans l'appartement en dessous. Des fois y'a fuites, alors ça s'accumule, puis si y'a une étincelle ça explose. C'est normal ! (It’s the gas, the gas in the flat downstairs. Sometimes there are leaks which accumulate and explode, if there is a spark. It’s normal !)
- Ah.
- Et qui dit explosion, dit détonation. D'où le bruit que t'as entendu tout à l'heure. (And if there is an explosion, there is also a detonation. That’s the noise you heard a moment ago.)
- Ah.
La la la… (singing)
- Dis donc ? (Hey ?)
- Quoi ? (What ?)
- Tu n'sens pas le brûlé ? (Do you smell something burning?)
- Ben ouais, c'est normal je t'ai expliqué. Il y a eu une explosion. (Of course, it’s normal, I’ve explained it to you. There has been an explosion.)
- Oui.
- Et l'agitation moléculaire due à cette explosion… (And the molecular agitation due to that explosion…)
- La… quoi ? (The what?)
- L'agitation moléculaire. (The molecular agitation.)
- Ah oui. (Oh yes.)
- Provoque une élévation thermique suffisante pour enflammer les matières environnantes. (It causes a thermal rise high enough to set fire to the surrounding materials.)
- Oui, oui.
- C'est alors ce qu'on appelle la combustion. C'est normal ! (That’s what ‘s called « combustion ». It is normal !)
- Ah.
- Tu comprends ? (Do you understand ?)
- Oui, oui.
La la la…
- Mais alors… mais… (But then… But…)
La la la…
- Qu'est-ce que tu voulais ? La la la… (What do you want now? La la la…)
- Là je voulais savoir… Tout l'immeuble, il est en train de brûler, c'est bien ça ? (I just wanted to know… The whole building is on fire, isn’t it?)
- Mais oui, écoute. Les matières qui ont servi à la construction de cet immeuble sont très fragiles. Tu comprends ? (Of course, listen. The materials they used to build this building are very flammable. Do you understand?)
- Oui.
- C'est normal parce que de toutes façons il n'y a que des familles d'ouvriers et des étrangers et quelques improductifs. (It is normal because there are only workers and foreigners families here, and a few unproductive people.)
- Oui.
- Alors le feu s'empare très facilement des matières. (Then these materials can very easily catch fire.)
- Ouais. (Right !)
- Ça se propage. Nous sommes donc en présence d'un incendie. (It is spreading. It's a fire!)
- Aaaah. un incendie. (Aaah. A fire.)
- C'est normal. (It’s normal)
- Oui, oui, oui. (Yes, yes, yes.)
- Oui ? (Yes ?)
- D'accord. (OK.)
La la la…
- Areski !
- Qu'est-ce qu'il y a encore ? (Again ? What is it this time?)
- Tu sens pas comme si on commençait à tomber, là, un peu… ? (Don’t you feel like we’re falling a bit ?)
- Ecoute… Ecoute… (Listen…Listen)
- Oui.
- Essaie de comprendre, c'est très simple. (Try to understand, it’s very simple.)
- Oui.
- Tu te souviens la combustion ? (Do you remember the combustion thing ?)
- Oui.
- La destruction de l'immeuble par les flammes ? (The flames destroying the building ?)
- Oui.
- Bon. Ça veut dire qu'en-dessous, les murs et les étages ont disparu. (Well, that means that underneath walls and floors have disappeared.)
- Hum.
- Et qu'nous n'sommes plus soutenus par rien. (And we are not being held up anymore by anything.)
- Ouais.
- Or, une chose qui n'est plus soutenue par rien, tombe. C'est ce qu'on appelle la pesanteur. C'est normal ! (Something not held by anything falls. That’s what’s called gravity)
- Aaaah, ouais.
La la la…
- Mais alors… on va tomber… (But then… we’re gonna fall…)
- Mais oui. (Yes.)
- Du 15e étage ? (From the 15th floor ?)
- C'est tout à fait normal. C'est l'attraction terrestre. (It’s completely normal, it’s the Earth’s gravity.)
- D'accord. (OK)
La la la…
- Ares, excuse-moi. (Ares, pardon me)
- Quoi ? quoi ? (What ? What ?)
- Pardon, mais je pense à un truc. On n'va pas mourir dans une minute ? (Sorry, but I’ve just thought about something. Aren’t we gonna die in a minute ?)
- Brigitte, tu es fatigante ! (Brigitte, you are so wearisome !)
- Pardon. (Sorry)
- Donc, on est en train de tomber. (Well, we are falling.)
- Oui.
- Or, tout corps tombe à une vitesse définie. (And every body falls at a certain speed)
- Oui.
- Et en arrivant au sol il subit une décélération violente qui amène la rupture de ses différents composants. Par exemple, les membres se séparent du tronc… (When it touches the ground, it is subjected to a violent deceleration which causes the breaking of the different parts. For example, the limbs separate from the trunk...)
- Oui.
- Le cerveau jaillit hors de la boîte cranienne, etc. (The brain goes out of the skull, etc..)
- Ouais.
- Dans ces conditions de déconnexion, il est évident que le phénomène de la vie ne peut pas se maintenir, c'est NORMAL, tu comprends ? (In these conditions of deconnection, it is obvious that life cannot be maintained. It’s NORMAL, don’t you understand?)
- Ouais… (Yeah…)
As we enter the winter season in the Northern hemisphere and we've all come down with viruses, flues and other boo-hoo's, eRenlai is still on full speed and we have our very own cocktail of vitamins to ease you through the freeze. This month's edition has an artistic and contemplative flavour as we introduce you three talented and original musicians. Yaping Wang is a young Taiwanese female composer w
ho tells us how she discovered her vocation, Luo Chao-yun (AKA Pipawoman) likes to merge her
experimental music with musicians from all over the world, including Erdem Helvacioglu, a Turkish guitarist and musical engineer with whom she has recently recorded an album in Istanbul. This music, together with Yaping's is provided in the printed edition of Renlai Magazine in Taiwan (email me for more info or to get the CD).
Our Focus invites you to a poetic and pictorial exploration of Taiwan through its 'colour code': if you had to express one feeling or one recollection with a colour, which tint would it be? You could stop one moment, close your eyes and think of a landscape or the immediate environment you’re in, what is the first image to appear in your mind? Is it only a picture? Could it be a sound, a smell, a feeling? Here, we would like to offer you a synesthetic experience through associations of colours, sensations and memories, starting for example with Grey and Pink.
