GEEK MUM

Je soupçonnais depuis ma grossesse qu'on pouvait être enceinte et rester geek, à preuve plusieurs articles de Think Geek que j'avais hésité à acheter.

A présent que le Glapiot est là, je découvre la merveilleuse communauté des "Geek Moms".

Vous pouvez par exemple y comptabiliser les "Top 25 Ways You Know You’re A GeekMom" *.

Bien sûr, le Crapion est trop jeune pour que je puisse vérifier la plupart de ces constats mais nous avons d'ores et déjà :
#16 rearrange the kid’s extracurricular activities around your role-playing game schedule.*
#23 sing lullabies in Elvish.*

Je ne doute absolument pas que dans un futur plus ou moins proche, nous :
#5 drag the family out of bed at 2AM to watch a lunar eclipse.*
#12 As soon as a new book came out, would send the children to bed early so you could get a head start on Harry Potter…* même si ce sera pour un autre livre, tous les tomes de Harry Potter étant déjà sortis… à moins que, compte tenu du récent et spectaculaire hint donné par JKR…

et peut-être même :
#11 expect the child to know as many digits of pi as their age…* même si c'est un peu problématique, car je n'en connais moi même que 30…

En tout cas j'espère bien que celle-ci se vérifiera :
#25 Your children think this is all normal.*

De plus, ce qui contribue indéniablement à faire de moi une "geek mum", j'ai déjà, par ordre chronologique :

- lu Le Seigneur des Anneaux à haute voix au Pataton-dans-mon-ventre, conformément à la tradition familiale inaugurée par ma mère (même si je ne l'ai pas fini avant sa naissance, soyons précis, je n'ai lu que les trois premiers livres, donc très exactement la moitié)

- pesté en apprenant que la connexion Internet de la maternité était en panne : comment allais-je pouvoir jouer à Echo Bazaar ?

- allaité devant l'ordinateur (en jouant à Echo Bazaar, par exemple)

- laissé le Glapiot jouer avec la souris (enfin, ça, c'est surtout le Geek Dad qui l'a fait) et avec une tasse à café… vide, je vous rassure (toujours le Geek Dad, moi je bois du thé)(il joue aussi avec mes tasses à thé, ceci dit, mais ça sonne moins geek).

C'est donc une grande et amusante aventure qui commence, et une toute nouvelle série de posts sur ce blog… moins poétiques, certes, mais… mais, et je reviens là à un registre plus sérieux, tout aussi juste, tout aussi moi. Car comme nous l'avons souvent évoqué avec Lucie, nous sommes des mosaïques d'identités. Je suis certes écrivante, rêveuse, littéraire, mais je suis aussi geek, et aussi une maman, à présent, et aussi une "geek mom", ce qui est un peu plus que la somme des deux.




--------------------------

* maintenant que je sais que Titi lit ce blog, je traduis l'anglais : les 25 raisons principales prouvant que vous êtes une Maman Geek.

#16 réorganisé les activités extrascolaires de votre enfant en fonction de votre planning de JdR (d'accord, pour l'instant, TOUTES ses activités sont extra-scolaires)
#23 chanté des berceuses en elfique

#5 tirerons la famille du lit à 2 heures du mat' pour observer une éclipse de lune
#12 à la sortie de chaque nouveau tome de Harry Potter, enverrons les enfants au lit plus tôt pour pouvoir commencer à lire. Et si vraiment ça ne marche pas, je commencerai à le leur lire à haute voix, na !

#11 attendrons du pauvre Loupiot qu'il connaisse autant de décimales de pi que son âge (en années, soyons sympas)

#25 Vos enfants pensent que toutes ces choses sont normales…

QUE LISENT LES ÉCRIVAINS ?

se demande Télérama, et de poser la question à 100 écrivains francophones en leur demandant non pas ce qu'ils lisent en ce moment mais de choisir 10 livres qui les ont marqués.

Je ne suis pas écrivain. Ou à peine. En tout cas, je ne me définis pas comme écrivain.
Et j'ai toujours été incapable de dresser ce genre de listes.
Mais je l'ai fait, un peu avant Télérama, à la demande de l'écrivain et amie Léonor Lara (elle non plus ne se définit pas comme écrivain, elle préfère "auteur".)

Je m'essaie donc à tailler dans le vif de cette liste, à choisir, à déchirer, pour vous livrer ces 10 livres qui m'ont marquée, me marquent sûrement encore.

J.R.R. Tolkien, Le Seigneur des Anneaux
Vous êtes nombreux à connaître l'histoire. Ma mère, enceinte, lisait Le Seigneur des Anneaux. Elle l'a emporté à la maternité et s'est hâtée de le finir avant ma naissance, afin que je puisse en profiter (sans quoi, disait-elle, il faudrait attendre que j'apprenne à lire.)
J'ai donc eu ce privilège insolite d'absorber l'oeuvre de Tolkien in utero.
Plus tard, pour mon neuvième anniversaire, un garçon qui ne connaissait pas cette histoire m'a offert Bilbo le Hobbit. J'étais amoureuse de lui et n'ai pas osé lui dire que je l'avais déjà lu, un ou deux ans auparavant. Plus tard encore, je me suis lancée dans une lecture, ou relecture, du Seigneur des Anneaux, ai pleuré la mort de Boromir, aimé Aragorn et Glorfindel. Bien plus tard encore je l'ai relu, en anglais.
A l'évidence, ma vie en a été infléchie. Je rêve encore de Rivendell. Je l'écris, même, quelquefois. Et les voiles qui s'estompent à l'Ouest me mettront toujours les larmes aux yeux.

A suivre…

ERRANTE ET ÉTERNELLE ? (SUITE ET FIN)

A few months later, King Elessar lied down to rest and said his farewell to his people and his family. What he then told to his son is known, and how he and Queen Arwen tried a last time to convince each other to change their choices. But in the end it was as their daughter had foretold. And he gave his son the Sceptre and the Winged Crown. But none has told what he said to his youngest child, nor the fate of the Elessar.
As she came to her father, he opened his left hand, revealing the green shining of the stone. “I want you to bear the Elessar, he said. For Estel I was, in times which are now forgotten, but Estel you’ll have to be, in times I cannot yet see. I wish I could give you the light of Eärendil, as the Lady Galadriel did for Frodo, but the only light I can claim for mine and give you is this one. Keep it, for you’ll have to bear the inheritance of Elves and Dunedain into distant ages.”
Then he hesitated, for he loved her dearly, and felt sad and worried for her. But as she had said before, there shouldn’t be any untold words between them. So he went on : “That will be a lonely road.”
And she was weeping, but gripped the Elessar in her hand and answered : “I know, Father. But you will be with me, and also will Mother."
"No one can advise you, for no one followed this road before you. But if I see right, I would tell you to walk cross Middle Earth, to be a Wanderer, as I was in my youth, and as Mithrandir was, in past ages of the world. For all lands will need you, not only the western realms. And you will need them, too."
"I will do as you said, Father.”
And he saw stars in her eyes, but perhaps were they just tears.
Then he softly caressed her cheek and gave her the name which is still hers.
“Eldawen Calacolindë” he said. And added : “Aure entuluva.”(*) We have to suppose these were the last words they shared.

After the death of the King, her brother and sister tried to convince their mother to stay with them, but Eldawen didn’t join them. She left the White City at nightfall, as all the eyes were fixed on Queen Arwen’s departure. Her sister only saw her leaving, and said : “Shall I lose in the same day all the people I love ? He had to leave, and I suppose she couldn’t stay after him, but you ? You are young, and spent so few years among the people of Gondor. You have time.”
But Eldawen answered : “Utùlie’n aure. Time has come. I will miss you, and our brother, and all the people. I will miss the gardens of Ithilien, and the morninglight over the White Tower of Ecthelion. Yet I shall leave.”
And her sister saw the light on her head and under her cloak. But she added :
“Where will you go ?"
"All around Middle Earth, she answered. I don’t know if we’ll meet again in this world.”
She kissed her sister and went out of Minas Tirith. If she met her mother and they had a last meeting before Arwen’s death on Cerin Amroth, their words haven’t reached us.
It is told that Eldawen was on the shore when Legolas and Gimli sailed over Sea, and that Legolas offered her to join them, for he had seen her nature, and alone among Arwen’s children she would have the choice of the Half-Elven. But she knew this was too easy a way, and too fast.
It is told that she was seen from time to time in the following centuries — walking in a wood, fighting for a cause, singing in a lost valley, learning a foreign language or teaching an ancient magic. It is told that she still inhabits Middle Earth, bearing the Light of the Elessar and her own Light.
It is little for a story. But the time will come, when Middle Earth will need the heritage of the Peredhil. And then, the time for her story to be told.

Marseille, France, Middle Earth, 7.12.2003


(*) which means, in high-elvish, Eldawen Light-Bearer and Day shall come again.

ERRANTE ET ÉTERNELLE ? (1)

Pour le Gabian, qui vient d'évoquer une autre Errante Eternelle, et de réveiller en moi non seulement le souvenir de St John Perse, mais aussi, plus humblement, celui de ce texte.


In the last months of his reign, the King was walking through the gardens of the White City with his youngest daughter. Their walk was peaceful, for they knew each other very well and few words were needed between them.
The people of Minas Tirith bowed to them, and the shine of twilight falled on their heads. The head of the King was noble and white, but the head of his daughter was golden, for she never had the dark hair of her family.
And finally they came to the Fontain and sat under the White Tree of Gondor, and there in the last sunbeams they were an image of the peace and beauty of a fading world.
The King looked at his youngest child and found she was tall, golden and white, and her face seemed to be at both that of a lady from ancient world and of the anxious child he had rocked some years earlier.
And he smiled to her, but it wasn’t a joyful smile.
“We have always tried to find whom you were bearing resemblance with, and I only see it today — the King said. For you are not like Eowyn was, even if you are slim and blonde and share her love for swords and a free life. And you are not like your brother and sister, and not like me, even if we understand each other more than father and daughter usually do. But it is only today I see what is your inheritance. And what will be your fate.”
After that they kept silent for a while, until she stared at him and said :
“For one thing I am grateful. No untold words lie between us, so grief but no sorrow shall beget your loss.”
Then a shadow fell on the King and he muttered :
“Always your sight was deep, my child.”
And she still was a child, so she answered :
“World will be so dark a place, without you and Mother.”
And the King held her arm tightly and said :
“Your mother will be allowed to stay with you. Her fate is not mine, and she still can live on this Earth, or another.”
But she looked at him, and in her grey eyes he read understanding and sadness.
“No — she said— it isn’t time for this any more. There still can be ships to the West, but none for her. She has chosen to share your fate."
"She didn’t know what she was choosing."
"She chose love. This cannot be undone.”
And the King kept silent, for he knew in his heart she was right.
But she repeated softly : “So dark a place” and he saw tears in her eyes. Then he stood up again, and on his face a great power could be read, which was not only his own but that of all his ancestors. And he answered : “ So you’ll have to be the light.”
And his voice was like the voice of a Seer coming across many ages of the world.
“Eldarion is not my only heir, dear. The three of thou art. He has to be the King of Men, and thy sister is the Mother of a New World. But thou, my child, thou art the Light. Not only my heir, and the Kings of the West’s, but the heir of thy mother’s bloodline, of Elwë and Finwë, heir of the Eldar’s part in the world.
And unlike thy brother’s, this part of the story will not be told. For Men do not need to hear it, not yet. But a time will come when they will need thou, beyond all the stories.”
And as he finished, the sun set at West.

(A suivre)