Let me be frank: I have
gotten quite fed up with my anxious chronicling of the demise of high culture,
the closure of bookshops and the alleged end of Europe.
Henceforth my thoughts (and blogposts) will be positive or
be nothing worth!
The people at Brussels’ most swinging second hand bookshop "Pêle-Mêle" (2) don’t seem to need such stern self-admonitions
– they effortlessly look happy & lively.
It’s a particularly bracing mix of people there at the Pêle-Mêle: young
parents with kids relaxing in the bar/playground/tearoom in the basement, teenagers
intently browsing the book shelves and passionately discussing their finds , elderly
couples cosily settled for the afternoon
in the bookshop’s vintage salon chairs – with piles of books, cookies and a thermos
of coffee. The place buzzes with positive energy,
and with talk in an array of European languages.
Bracing people are attracted by bracing books of course. Over the years Pêle-Mêle has astutely
branched out from its core French franchise into English, Dutch, German,
Italian …. books. And though its offer at first may look like a jumble,
there’s always some order to it. An order reflecting the evolving tastes of both
European expats and Belgian-French intello’s.
The French section,
to my delight, is regularly restocked with pre-post-modern art history books (like
those thoroughly researched and documented “l’Univers des Formes” volumes from the 60s-70s!).
In the English section one can sense the origins
and interests of various Brussels-based diplomats (selling their books before
moving on to another post, or retiring, or, soon, brexiting?).
Leafing
through the books, one can find, here a colourful “National Galleries of
Scotland“ bookmark, there a carefully folded 1993 clipping with a lengthy book
review from the New York Times. And one month
a collection of ”Roman empire” books may
arrive, then a batch of last years’ current affairs bestsellers arrives,
or suddenly a whole shelf fills up with Judaica.
Ever since I’ve lost the reassuring certainty to be living
in a period beyond history (& beyond its struggles) I‘ve been forced to “reconceptualise
the past” (3) (in order to better understand the perplexing present) and have therefore had to do quite some catch-up reading of history books.
So I’m particularly grateful to Pêle-Mêle to
have furnished me over the past years with
books covering, amongst others, Rome’s
age of anxiety & transition, religious conflict in early modern Europe , Balkan
ghosts , the end of the Habsburg empire,
and Roman mosaics in Tunesia (4).
Readers will be largely
acquainted with the subject matter of the formerly mentioned books – but may be
less familiar with the lighthearted (5) (and yet surprisingly resilient) Roman art of
mosaics in North Africa, as illustrated in the latter book.
Wholly in keeping with my announced positive mind set,
let me offer this quote as a conclusion:
“[…] It is debatable whether […] the inhabitants of this
little province of Africa were richer or more carefree than we are today […] Each and every mosaic, right up to the 6th
century reverberates with happiness, with a joy which has nothing ephemeral
about it.[…] They were neither more nor less vulnerable than we are and so they
liked to surround themselves with beneficial representations which proclaimed an
ordered way of life in which joy and love have their appointed place, beauty is
sacred and there is room for hope. […] “
and because there’s always room for one more note:
1. How lovely, really : the English translation of “pêle-mêle” turns out to be “pell-mell” !
2. the Pêle-Mêle at the Chaussée de Waterloo/ Steenweg op Waterloo is not to be confused with the Pêle-Mêle of the Boulevard Maurice Lemonnier
3. a phrase borrowed from Benjamin J. Kaplan
4. Mosaïques romaines de Tunisie – Georges Fradier, André Martin, O. Ben Osman, E. Beschaouch et al.
5. mosaics as frivolous fragments?
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