The first day I met Dan we stayed in each other’s company for well over twenty-four hours, not thinking to go to bed. Our conversation lasted all night, and throughout the next day. The following evening, still reluctant to pause the conversation we headed to my studio so I could show him some works. Dan, in his first act as my Theoretical Advisor, drew a large diagram on the studio wall. Pointing to the tip of what looked like an iceberg, he said “you are here”, and then pointing to somewhere way down below, “But you’ve got to get to here”. [F1]
[F1]
Bouvard and Pécuchet Bouvard and Pécuchet (1881) is a novel by Gustave Flaubert. It remains unfinished as Flaubert died (1880) before completing it. The eponymous Bouvard and Pécuchet begin the novel as copy clerks working in a Paris. They meet on a bench, and – through their similarities and enthusiasm – fast become best friends. Inheritance affords them the chance to leave the city, and they head for the country to try their hand at (amongst other things): Agriculture; Science; Archaeology; Literature; Landscape Gardening, Politics; Love; Philosophy; Religion; Pedagogy. All of these endeavours are undertaken with endearing enthusiasm, but are met with (at best) middling results – everything falls apart in their hands. Bouvard and Pécuchet give up. The novel finishes with fragments from Flaubert that sketch out what was to become of our protagonists. They decide to resume work as copy clerks, and “copy haphazardly, whatever falls into their hands”. They order a specially made two-sided desk for this purpose.
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