SOAF First Tuesday, November
‘Gregor, why is it only women who attend your First Tuesdays,’ asked Shelley. Or was in Annabel? Or possibly Pamela? Dallas grinned and flashed one of his winning smiles, both eyes twinkling -- and the evening had only just begun.
The Society Of Authors France, you see, is Gregor’s baby: born out of one of those life-changing moments that hurts. On SOAF‘s blogpage, just above the item, ‘About Me,’ Dallas claims he set up the French-based organisation as a ‘professional tool for members of the Society of Authors, France: a forum of discussion, debate, networking, and the sharing of ideas and problems.’ It is all that. But Dallas admits that it has also turned out to be about women, because one of the curious features that has developed at ‘First Tuesdays’ in Paris is that ladies are the principal participants.
The women who arrived last November at the 11th arrondissement’s literary café L’Ogre à Plumes -- nicknamed as the evening developed as 'the Dallas harem' -- agreed unanimously that the reason there were no men besides Gregor is because women authors are better and more adventurous communicators. Men like to hide in their cave, you see. And ponder. First Tuesdays, by contrast, is all about exchanging thoughts, ideas, emotion and information. Conversation in November began with Sexus Politicus: the breed of men who combine politics with women who aren’t their wives. Fodder for many a Parisian authors’ book, not least my own. When we’d exhausted sex (as a topic of conversation), SOAF turned to weightier matters: literary agents. Dallas remarked that choosing an agent was about as difficult as choosing a wife. Shelley proposed a joint collaboration -- compiling advice for SOAF members bien sûr.
In need of sustenance, Dallas and his harem headed down the road to SOAF’s regular Tuesday haunt, Aux Tables de la Fontaine. The door barely had time to shut out the winter chill before Gregor’s twinkling eye turned its attention to the gay waiter. And suddenly our glasses were full. Again. The wine and the conversation were flowing; A group of writers were in a Paris café: clear philosophy territory. Gregor pursued Sartre's line that a conversation with a woman is more interesting than with a man. ‘With a man, after two minutes of chatter everything is predictable and you know where the conversation will be in thirty minutes; with a woman, whatever her age or her appearance, it is always a trip into unexplored territory -- you never know where you are heading,’ he said, eyes still sparkling. A man who knows how to put his philosophy to work: ‘Gregor Dallas -- you are flirting with every woman here,’ chorused his harem, before bursting into laughter.
Emma Vandore
Author of Schizophrénie française: Ségo, Sarko, Jacque et Moi (Paris: Jean-Claude Gawsewitch, 2007)
Blog: http://anglosaxonne.blogspot.com
The Society Of Authors France, you see, is Gregor’s baby: born out of one of those life-changing moments that hurts. On SOAF‘s blogpage, just above the item, ‘About Me,’ Dallas claims he set up the French-based organisation as a ‘professional tool for members of the Society of Authors, France: a forum of discussion, debate, networking, and the sharing of ideas and problems.’ It is all that. But Dallas admits that it has also turned out to be about women, because one of the curious features that has developed at ‘First Tuesdays’ in Paris is that ladies are the principal participants.
The women who arrived last November at the 11th arrondissement’s literary café L’Ogre à Plumes -- nicknamed as the evening developed as 'the Dallas harem' -- agreed unanimously that the reason there were no men besides Gregor is because women authors are better and more adventurous communicators. Men like to hide in their cave, you see. And ponder. First Tuesdays, by contrast, is all about exchanging thoughts, ideas, emotion and information. Conversation in November began with Sexus Politicus: the breed of men who combine politics with women who aren’t their wives. Fodder for many a Parisian authors’ book, not least my own. When we’d exhausted sex (as a topic of conversation), SOAF turned to weightier matters: literary agents. Dallas remarked that choosing an agent was about as difficult as choosing a wife. Shelley proposed a joint collaboration -- compiling advice for SOAF members bien sûr.
In need of sustenance, Dallas and his harem headed down the road to SOAF’s regular Tuesday haunt, Aux Tables de la Fontaine. The door barely had time to shut out the winter chill before Gregor’s twinkling eye turned its attention to the gay waiter. And suddenly our glasses were full. Again. The wine and the conversation were flowing; A group of writers were in a Paris café: clear philosophy territory. Gregor pursued Sartre's line that a conversation with a woman is more interesting than with a man. ‘With a man, after two minutes of chatter everything is predictable and you know where the conversation will be in thirty minutes; with a woman, whatever her age or her appearance, it is always a trip into unexplored territory -- you never know where you are heading,’ he said, eyes still sparkling. A man who knows how to put his philosophy to work: ‘Gregor Dallas -- you are flirting with every woman here,’ chorused his harem, before bursting into laughter.
Emma Vandore
Author of Schizophrénie française: Ségo, Sarko, Jacque et Moi (Paris: Jean-Claude Gawsewitch, 2007)
Blog: http://anglosaxonne.blogspot.com
posted by SOAF Chairman at 10:31 AM
1 Comments:
Gregor, unlike most men, is a great communicator. He reveres Sartre who was also a great communicator and was surrounded by admiring women. I think perhaps that may explain the phenomenon of the 'Dallas harem'! But it's also true that whatever society or club one joins - drama group, choir, painting class - there are usually hordes of women and often only two or three men. Men aren't joiners in the way that women are.
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