I approve of this message. And, for that matter, of the fact that it was a very sunny morning as I made my way to the station and onto the very efficient TGV to Lyon - and then a bus straight to the hotel and conference center. Here's the view from my room: this is the Rhône, but it looks like the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River (that's a quote from Kipling, if you can't quite place it).
And then the opening lecture was by Orhan Pamuk - a very strange one, really - and he himself said he's had to cut it a lot - it started brilliantly, talking about making narratives - and probably, indeed, characters - from the things that one wants to write about; he also talked about museums of ordinary things, and then about his novel The Museum of Innocence, and the actual Museum of Innocence he established in Istanbul - and then it swerved off into reading out a set of propositions for museums - and then stopped. But he was unmistakably thoughtful, original, has a great sense of humor - I'm so glad I went. Conference proper starts at some early hour tomorrow ...
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