User:Scartol/BalzacShrine

My Wikipedia Shrine to Honoré de Balzac

While I was a student at New College of Florida, I read Le Père Goriot by Honoré de Balzac. As a young and mentally overloaded student, I didn't notice anything special about it, immersed as I was in many other examples of European literature. It was my first introduction to the man and his work, but it didn't make much of an impression on me.

A few years later I got a job at Book Gallery West in Gainesville, Florida. Eager to procure a set of Dusty Old Books which would make me look erudite and sophisticated, I found – forgotten in a corner of the shop – a complete set of Balzac's La Comédie humaine. Forty dollars for sixteen volumes seemed like a good deal, so I took them home and gave them a spot on top of my shelves.

For seven years I transported the books from apartment to apartment, only occasionally glancing through them. I kept telling myself that I'd read them some day, and in the meantime I thought well of myself for owning such a tattered set of classic literary work.

Enter Wikipedia

In August 2007, I found myself searching for some way to meaningfully contribute to Wikipedia. Everything I was interested in or knew about was covered in such detail that I felt useless, unable to bring anything significant to the project. (I didn't realize then how important copyediting, reorganization, and reliable-sourcing could be.) I stumbled upon an alphabetical list of WikiProjects related to literature; when I saw "Balzac" at the top of the list, I remembered the books I'd bought.

This appears to be one of those synchronicitous experiences which logic alone is unable to explain. If I took my faith in the divine more seriously, I'd say that the universe arranged for my ego's conception of itself as a Literature Genius to collide with some worthwhile preservation of human knowledge. In any case, I quickly became enmeshed in the world of M. de B., and have enjoyed every minute of it.

With the kind and patient guidance of the editors Awadewit, WillowW, and JayHenry – and others – I've carved a space for myself in this crazy encyclopedia thing, attacking one Balzac article after another. Early in the process, I grew tired of hunting for books in libraries, and began purchasing them online. My collection currently consists of more than twenty-five biographies and critical volumes (not including the actual novels). There are others I'd like to own, but so far I've resisted paying more than US$50 for a book. (One annotated map I saw somewhere sold for $200.)

Impact

This work has been tremendously satisfying for me. Not only because I've learned so very much about the man, his work, and the world in which he lived; but also because it (and work on other Wikipedia articles) has helped me conceptualize history in a more meaningful way. My schooling laid the groundwork, I suppose, but I'd never been able to satisfactorily organize a schema for looking back through time. By viewing the 19th century through Balzac's eyes, I'm able to stabilize my temporal footing and feel comfortable looking at events in a wide variety of epochs.

It's also boosted my ego, insofar as I feel proud of my success in finally creating something that people find worthwhile. My previous efforts online (music, animation, etc) have been generally well-received, but I've never felt as though they really serve a purpose outside of quickly-forgotten entertainment. While I know that 19th century French realist literature isn't exactly the most urgently-researched topic in the world today, I still feel like I'm doing something significant. It's a nice feeling.

The Novels

I don't know that I'm really able to judge the quality of La Comédie humaine itself – at least not yet. The biographies tend to be very glowing in their reverence for the man, and even the critical books are effusive with praise. Granted, he's remembered for a reason; I recognize without question the tremendous importance of his novels. But do I really enjoy them? It's hard to say.

I certainly I enjoy things about them; the final pages of La Peau de Chagrin gripped me like few other works of fiction ever had. I found myself enmeshed with the characters to a startling extent, and I don't mind admitting that I was nearly moved to tears. Goriot's demise was also sad, but for some reason I didn't connect to it very strongly.

I also enjoy Balzac's writing style. It can get tedious – extremely tedious at times – but it's also highly revealing. Every student I've ever had uses the clichéd phrase "I can really get a mental picture" to describe books they like, but it's an established fact that HdB was one of the creators of modern detail-driven writing. Little wonder that he came to feel so close to the characters of La Comédie humaine. (One legend claims that he called for Doctor Bianchon – one of his creations – on his deathbed.)

More than anything, I'm impressed with Balzac's desire to portray all of the society around him. From the most obscene wealth to the most hideous poverty, he brings all of 19th century French life together, weaving the infinite threads together into a grand tapestry. I suppose I'll have to finish reading the 100+ works in the Comédie before I can make a final judgment. (This is one of the reasons why I plan to reconstruct the LCH article itself last of all.)

Et Cetera

I plan someday to nominate Balzac as a Featured Topic. As many of you know, this means I'll have to improve most (if not all) of the articles about each work in La Comédie humaine – as well as articles about his wife, the characters, and others – to Good Article or Featured Article status. This is sure to take many years.

I sometimes wonder if it's worth it – I have writing of my own to do! (I've written four novels, but they need to be redrafted before I'll feel comfortable sending them to publishers.) I sometimes think about biographers and think: "How silly to spend so much time writing about someone else who wrote great books!" So what does that say about me, spending so much time writing about those other people who wrote about other people?

On the other hand, it's odd for me to think of this as work. As Calvin the comics character once said: "It's only work if someone makes you do it." Because I find this all so interesting and fulfilling, I truly enjoy spending Saturdays surrounded by novels and biographies of M. Balzac. And I get to impress people (including myself).

One of my fears is that someone will show up on Wikipedia who has more intelligence and expertise about Balzac than myself. I've been researching him for less than a year, and while I feel like I'm getting a hold on who he was – and what he did – I still feel like a total noob. I get very nervous when I think about some erudite French literature professor retiring and writing Balzac articles on Wikipedia to relax. S/he'll get all the credit when the Featured Topic is certified, and I'll be a minor "Thank you" note at the bottom of the page. And of course since I don't own any of the articles – even the ones I've written almost completely by myself – I won't really have any cause to complain when this happens. (Yes, I know it's all very unlikely. But who knows?)

Like Noam Chomsky, I wish there were some relevant way to connect my leisure work and my professional work. But it's very hard to make Balzac relevant to my high-school students (except for the fact that his name sounds like a certain body part). Still, the work helps me feel intellectually engaged, and I'm able to translate that passion into my lessons on gerunds and essay-writing.

To close, here is a quote from a letter Balzac wrote to his wife. All emphasis is original. Enjoy!

Here is the work! Here is the gulf, the crater, the material that fills it! Here is the Woman—she who absorbs my nights and days, she who gives value to this letter, stolen from hours of study....
Remember me to all friends—remember the chiseler, the smelter, the sculptor, the goldsmith, the galley slave, the artist, the thinker, the poet that I am—remember I am whatever you want me to be.
Some day, when it is all done, we will have a good time. Today I must work.