Welcome to Litsy!

I cross the Place Saint-Michel in the rain, listening to Nathalie Quintane on France Culture. She thinks we need to get over the idea that literature is there to save us, to heal or repair us: 'As the world falls flat on its face and we become increasingly troubled, unsettled, worried, nervous and stressed [...], literature[....] is seen as a personal, private aid to feeling better. [...]

I think it shouldn't just be that. [...]

I complained about the way that the leadership used its authority; the way that we teachers made space for it, despite ourselves; about the lack of horizontality. I complained about the students, and how they acted like visitors in their own school; I found that the very idea of pedagogy was losing its meaning.... These criticisms spoke rather to the extent to which cracks and imperfections are the starting point that make work possible.