Ceci n'est pas un blog is french for "This is not a blog" an allusion to René Magritte's famous painting entitled La trahison des images (The Treachery of Images) which depicts a tabacco pipe, underneath which is emblazoned -- in script, if memory serves me correctly -- the words:
Ceci n'est pas une pipe
(in english, "This is not a pipe")
Ceci n'est pas une blague, non plus... is a pun, utilizing the homophonic nature of the words "blog" and "blague", which is french for "a joke", so that the translation of the second french sentence is: "This is not a joke, either..."
Which is which, and what does it all mean? Like Magritte's masterpiece, its ultimate meaning is entirely for you to decide, as is the nature and content of this section of Camera Obscura. Obviously, although the object portrayed in La trahison des images (The Treachery of Images) is obviously a pipe, it is not, itself a pipe, but the representation of a pipe, which is an entirely different phenomenon. There are some who harp upon the slang meanings of the term "pipe" in french, but as Magritte himself described his work:
My painting is visible images which conceal nothing; they evoke mystery and, indeed, when one sees one of my pictures, one asks oneself this simple question, "What does that mean?". It does not mean anything, because mystery means nothing either, it is unknowable.
So, as far as i'm concerned - as stated on the introductory page - this section of Camera Obscura is simply a collection of random rants, ravings, rhetoric, and - occasionally - reason...
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This document was created on October 13, 2002
Last updated March 22, 2006