Anekdotos II

I'll start by saying that I have in my possession these two big, hardcover books called "La civilisation du phoque." They are, basically, a compiling of the journals Paul-Emile Victor kept when he stayed in Ammassalik, Greenland in the thirties. PEV, as he is often called, is a major reference in terms of exploration of the poles and of inuit ethnography. Now these two books he wrote with the help of Joëlle Robert-Lamblin, a great researcher who works on indigenous peoples of the Arctic.

I remember, when they told us our papers had been accepted, I told Chloé, "maybe even Joëlle Robert-Lamblin will come to the conference!" But then they sent us the list of participants, and she was not in it.

On thursday I was seated at the table in the projection room, waiting for the session to begin. Suddenly I looked up from my paper and saw Joëlle Robert-Lamblin looking for a seat. Slow-motion, close-up and dismay all over again (Anekdotos I). On my left sat Yvon Csonka and on my right Nancy Wachowich, both experts in social anthropology. Saying that at that moment I wanted to disappear would be quite an understatement. Since I could not very well run away or crawl under the table, I tried to focus on my paper.

At the end of the session, to my great relief, Nancy told me she thought my paper was interesting. And Mrs Robert-Lamblin came up to me, and told me the greatest anecdote about a very old film I talked about. She met the son of the main actor in the film, and promised to send me his email address (which she did) and I gave her a copy of the film. I couldn't believe it. It took me at least ten minutes to recollect myself.