MYTHOLOGY AND PATHOLOGY.

Paris is always a great city.  It is also stressed and often rude.  Since the massacre, the neurotic aspects of Parisian life have disappeared and the indifferent waiters have become again the sophisticated handlers and voyeurs in the vein of Sartre, the Left Bank and Charles Trenet. Out of the ashes of tragedy, Paris seems to be reborn for awhile as the city of lights and love. The cover of The New Yorker  (Nov. 30, 2015) speaks louder than words.

There are other lucky cities like New York, Prague, Rome, which might descend into hell at times, but never lose their claim to the mythology of being the first-tier enchantresses.  Other cities are in various degrees relegated to the inferior classes. Whatever their merits--London, Berlin-- they lack the "existential proximity response" factor in the psyche.  Humans need "such stuff of as dreams are made of ".  The same goes for personalities who for some reason resist all attempts (including those of their own making) to diminish them and have a staying-power larger than time.. Churchill, JFK, Mandela.  One remembers the grace and prefers to avoid what Churchill called the times of the "black dog".

France does not suffer from low self-esteem. For now its cafes, intellectuals, rituals have received a prolongation of life, until arrogance displaces the good-will yet again.  The good thing is that people will continue to flock to the magical cities because they provide allegories and dreams. Tragedy only multiplies that appeal. Other cities remain stuck in a pathological lack of recognition.  They are shunned, and when visited it is for reason rather than for pleasure. They will never be validated. On the contrary, the cloud of impatient despise which hangs over their urbanized banality will only increase.

The current "Paris +" vogue will not last but for the time-being both the tragic play and the actors deserve each other. Not since the funeral of Princess Diana and 9/11 have so many been touched by a grief which is as much rooted in the tragedy played-out as in the increasing loss of wonder and confidence which plagues the Western psyche today.