„The sea did not want“ by Saint Loup

Arthaud editions, Paris, 1978, pp. 254

As we have become unconditional fans of Saint Loup, we are going to present to you his collection of short stories (not novel) „The sea did not want“ which was first published twelve years before his death. This collection excited us for several reasons. We let the words of Olier Mordrel, father of our friend FB Trystan Mordrel, whet your appetite with an article published in 1967: „For the readers of West France and American filmmakers, the SS was a bunch of assassins whose essential acerbity consisted around the crematoriums. For the nuns of Pléchâtel, who lodged a company of them, they were sacrilegious pagans who had demolished the plaster statue of the virgin in their garden with stones. For most people, after twenty years of propaganda, these two letters remain a scarecrow „(see the article“ Waffen SS d'Occident „in“ Bretagne Réelle „number 237, autumn 1967, Rennes, page 5). Having treated Saint Loup as a pagan in an older article of ours (for his novel „Les Nostalgiques“), these old phrases from Mordrel fill us with great satisfaction since we have finally located the source of our satisfaction by reading Saint Wolf.

There are twelve fiction short stories across the pages of the collection. Since Aesop is one of our favourite ancient Greek authors and whom we had transferred to film, we are going to reproduce a tale of his own reworked by Saint Loup: „Among the sailors an ancient custom was maintained, that of keeping Maltese dogs on board or monkeys to distract them during their voyages. One day, a sailor took a monkey on his ship. Off Cape Sounion, famous premonitory of Attica, assailed by a storm, the vessel capsized and all were thrown into the sea. They tried to swim to the coast. Among them was the monkey. A dolphin saw him struggle, came to his aid, mistaking him for a man, loaded him on his spine, swam towards the mainland. In sight of Piraeus. , port of Athens, the dolphin asked the monkey if he was Athenian. „Of course“ retorted the latter „and from one of the first families in the city“. The dolphin replied „In that case, you must know Piraeus?“ „Of course“ confirmed the monkey and believing this to be a distinguished citizen, he added „he is a close friend of mine.“ Indignant at so much ignorance and aplomb, the dolphin plunged and left the monkey to drown „(op.cit.pages 238-239). It is quite obvious that Saint Loup chose the monkey as hero so that we do the parallel with the blacks, this time the „men“.

And as a statement to the above quote from Mordrel, we will end with this reference to this South African boxer but white on page 157: „This time it is about taking on a certain Robbey Leibbrandt, South African boxing champion but who since the Olympic Games of 1936 let itself be conquered by National Socialism. He must be deposited clandestinely on the coast of the former German South-West Africa from where he will reach Pretoria in order to set off a pro-Hitlerian revolution there „(op .cit. page 157). „The Rhodesian affair will constitute a test for our country. If the French have fallen asleep in the climate of easiness created by the religions of love, they will not move“ (quote from Saint Loup reproduced in „Under the sign of the solar wheel „by Jérôme Moreau, Aencre editions, Paris, page 236, 2002. And so the example of this South African boxer will be the best to consider a return to the glorious past of the neighboring country (of South Africa): the one of apartheid (separation).

written by Dionysos Andronis