Illustrated Life

Urban Corpus Christi - photo by Nigel James

Fronleichnam/ Corpus Christi

Each year in June, the Roman Catholic Church celebrates Corpus Christi with a procession. This picture shows the religious education teacher, Trixi Zotloterep, taking part in one such parade with some of the children from her class.

I took this photo in Breitensee, the 14th district of Vienna, Austria.

Corinne Maier

*Suffer the Little Children

In an eye-opening interview which I read in the Wiener Zeitung this Summer, Corinne Maier, the provocative French Author and psychoanalyst, said that childhood is a disaster. And her latest book,. No Kids – 40 Reasons for Not Having Any (No kid. 40 Gründe, Keine Kinder zu haben) has left a trail of shock and disgust in France!

This book was too much for the normally cool French, and feelings in the Grand Nation soared to an all time high because of it. Having children, says Corinne Maier, is just about the worst and most stupid thing that that anyone could possibly do! And it was these sentiments that sent this nation of child loving frog eaters into a spin.

Children, CM basically believes are boring. With them you are never free to do what you want; and life, particularly in the school holidays is restricted to mindless time-killing things. Kids love zoos and Disney World, both of which, CM believes to be as bad as the plague; and, as for museums - or any other kind of culture – forget it!

Then, of course, there is Christmas. This is the time of year when people can prove what good parents they really are. The shops are stormed and tons of rubbish is purchased, all so that kids can believe that they are really the centre of the attention that they deserve to be, and that they are also important! The rule is, if even for only a day, if the kids are happy - then the parents are happy too!

Corinne Maier finds no good words for children. She describes them as leeches, killjoys, future losers, boring, and squealing Gremlins. All of which naturally means, that she, too was all these things when she was a child! And being a child was something she hated.

She was born in Geneva which really makes her Swiss – not French , a fact which she blames for her boring childhood! She hated school, she had no real friends, and, just like millions of other people, her father was an unexciting businessman, and her mother a tiresome housewife! So what sort of person is Corinne Maier now?

Surprisingly, CM is, despite her very own 40 good reasons for being the opposite, a mother! She has 2 children which she had because she was scared of being alone, and life, because of them, is a battle. She has to get them up in the morning, she has to feed and cloth them, she has to make sure that their homework is done, and, because they take all of her time, she can’t be herself.

And this seems to be her problem. Childhood, she says, is not paradise, and children are nothing more than objects which are owned and controlled by their parents. Utopia is being grown-up - because, only then is one able to do what one wants. And, as far as kids are concerned, if you really want to bring up a parasite, you’d be better of with a gigolo!

All strong words. In short, Corinne Maier is everything that she never wanted to be. Maybe she was scared of herself and everyone else as well; or, maybe the answer is much simpler. Could it be that she simply hates life? A good question, but judging by the number of people who bought and read her book to the end, she must be a very good writer!



Language Assistance – English - German

*Suffer – an old English word for allow/ let - erlauben /lassen. It’s modern meaning is (in German) leiden.

1 -
Provocative – herausfordernd.
Childhood – Kindheit.
Trail - Spur.
Disgust – Empörung.
2 –
Feelings – Gefühle.
Worst – Schlimmste.
Stupid – dümmste.
3 –
Boring – langweilig.
Mindless – gedankenlos.
Plague – Pest.
4 –
Prove – beweisen.
Parents – Eltern.
Rubbish – Mist.
Purchased – kaufte.
Important – wichtig.
5 –
Leeches – Klettes.
Future loser – zukünftiger verliere.
Boring – langweilig.
Squealing gremlin – Kreischende Gremlin.
6 –
Unexciting - langweilig,
Tiresome – lestig
Despite – trotzdem.
Opposite – Gegenteil.
8 –
Owned – besaßen.

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