parlez-vous francais? written on a typewriter

AWM Story of the Week

Every week, the AWM is excited to bring you stories written by our visitors in our Story of the Day exhibit. Check back weekly for new stories, and visit the Museum to try out our typewriters and possibly be featured here!


This visitor imagined or remembered a day in a city in France:

On this one I follow the lead of the French soldiers on the street outside. Chicago sounds more romantic. The mean streets chill far away from the hearth of home fires burning. I leave small piles of pennies and dimes at the sleeping bodies of people living on the street. Some sleep, some sing, all pass with wisdom for the passersby.

“Hey…Laverne and Shirley!” yells the man to the two  women walking by. I laugh. He is a comedian.


Conversely, this visitor wrote in French about Chicago:

by Lucie Baras-Riviere

From Chicago

 

Rien ne me predisposait a venir ici

pourtant je t’ai suivi

Bob Dylan et compagnie

ont su bien me ravir

en vous souhaitant autant de plaisir

avec la ville de Chicago…

 

lucie


Finally, a letter in French about the Museum (and typewriters, of course):

Chicago, 17 juin 2017

Quelle merveilleuse idee que ce musee des ecrivains americains. Decouvrir tant de talents et de genies de le litteratures, la France devrait s’en inspire. Mais malheureusement t’en plus de faires des fautes d’orthographes je ne mait rise absolument pas cette machines sorti tout droit de la vie des mes grandparents, que meme mes parents voyaient comme une antiquite. Et pourtant quelle plaisir que d’ecrir sur un morceau d’histoire. A l’avenir je n’utiliseserais que des ordinateurs, ou au pire des crayons, inventions certes moins revolutionaires pour ecrire que n’a pu l’etre la machine a ecrire mais tellement plus fiable.

Je m’arrete ici, ce n’est pas sur cette machine de torture que j’ecrirai le prochain chef d’oeuvre de ce siecle. Marc Levy et Guillaume Musso auraient du s’en servir, ils auraient arrete au bout de quelaues minutes et notre monde n’aurait pas eu a subir leur oeuvres(?). Ce conseil je le prend aussi pour moi.
. (point vraiment finale a cette experience)

Quentin Paille
Amis americains la France vous embrasse.

2 thoughts on “AWM Story of the Week

    • American Writers Museum says:

      We’re so glad you enjoyed it! We also had to do some translating to understand. Both talk about enjoying the Museum (the first loved Bob Dylan, the second wants a similar museum in France), and the letter goes into how difficult it is to type on a typewriter. Hope that our summary doesn’t take too much of the whimsy away 🙂

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