Who is Gaston Miron? | The Journal of Montreal

You can’t know how happy it made me when Paul St-Pierre Plamonton quoted one of Quebec’s greatest poets in his win/lose speech on Monday night.

When the young leader of the PQ elected in Camille-Laurin said: “Tonight, we are not here to come back. We are here to begin”, he quoted the author of the book Gaston Miron famously. Raped man.

Oops! On Monday evening, in the midst of all these political speeches, after the election campaign, there was no talk of culture, a little beauty, a little elegance and a little poetry. .

Verogate

Why does it strike me as PSPP quoting Gaston Miron?

1– Because I love poetry. 2– I fear that Quebec is forgetting its best writers.

For two weeks, “Who is Véro?” We get asked that question a lot. Due to Louis Morissette’s text in the magazine Vero In it he asked “Who is Véronique Cloutier?”

English and French students don’t recognize the host because of Guy Nantel’s vox pop around Dawson College.

But after the media arts and technology graduate school at Cégep de Jonquière made public a study of 600 students’ cultural and media consumption habits. The teachers were surprised that some of their students did not know Vero.

• Listen to the Nandel – Durocher meeting live on the Sophie Durocher program every day at 3pm. via QUB-Radio :

Instead of asking young people if they know Véro, I think we should ask them if they know Gaston Miron to measure their cultural knowledge. Is the national poet completely forgotten today?

I love Véronique Cloutier and I loved her documentary Lotto-meno (which had a real impact on the lives of Quebec women), she shines on TV and radio, but she also entertains.

If we want to assess young Quebecers’ knowledge of, or appreciation for, their own culture, we need to ask them what they know in the field of culture.

I take it very seriously that a CEGEP student does not know Michel Tremblay or Robert Lepage, Dany Laferrière or Kim Thuy, and has never heard of Riopelle or Marc Séguin. How many youths from the Southwest pass in front of the Marie-Ugwe Cultural Center but know nothing about the poet who died at the age of 26?

Every year, the artists who built modern Quebec die of neglect because young people don’t know who they are. Yves Desgagnés recently told me on QUB radio that on the day of Michelle Rossignol’s death, when he was called on television for another lesson, the show’s researcher told him not to mention the actress’ death because it was not enough for the public. ..

• Tune in to the Durocher vs Dudrisak match live every day at 12:40 PM. via QUB-Radio :

A country of revenge

A culture is alive when it circulates.

Gaston Miron died in 1996. But he will never die as long as politicians and ordinary citizens continue to quote him in the course of a sentence, in support of a speech.

“I am at the center of the world, it rings within me.”