“At the same time”

Paris, february 2014.

There is a tendency to believe that some things resist the writing powers. Irony, for example, or innuendo. Stripped of gestures and intonation, sentences would not fully bring out in their readers this fine form of understanding that comes with the connivance of those who share the here and now of the situation. This obviously is a bit of a caricature. It is to forget, for instance, the incredible words that Freud attached to his signature on the document authorizing the exile of his family under Nazi Germany: “Ich kann die Gestapo jedermann auf das beste empfehlen”, I can strongly recommend the Gestapo to everyone. But more simply, it is to ignore all the examples that punctuate our daily lives: what does this no parking sign do except make it clear, without even putting it in black and white, that parking at this location will risk the intruder seeing his car towed away? There is nothing, however, but a simple fact here, information: the tow truck is in Bercy. There is absolutely nothing else. Yet many motorist readers will hear a warning, and maybe even a giggle.