Until the night of the Inauguration (which I consciously avoided like the plague to come) my regular dream world miniseries, comprising between two and five episodes per night, mostly kept step with the angsty times. Nightmares landed me in Gaza, on traffickers’ boats, in the torched Amazon. That kind of thing. You’ve all been there.
But yesterday my subconscious clearly went awol and channeled whatever it damn well wanted, after embracing Zuckerberg’s turning-of-his-own-Titanic message. A cultural Tipping Point. Not sunset, but dawn! The result? Deep in the small hours, right after the greatest, most beautiful Inauguration since Genesis, my dream world danced with the Zeitgeist. I dreamed about Golden Pu– let’s call it, for family consumption, ‘Golden Felinity.’ So, the story went like this: A VIP, FOT, multi-billionaire had an oft expressed preference for blonde, or as he liked to say, Golden, Felinity. Moreover, in an AI’s nano-byte he could distinguish the Real Thing from someone who had, say, plucked the whole sensitive region back to that infantile simulacrum prized by many of his colleagues, or, worse yet, subjected the au naturel to, horrors, a fake dye job!
Now pops up an interviewer (Joe Rogan?) with a trick question: would our MB pay a billion dollars (uh-oh. Has the greenback devalued so sharply already, in dreamland?) to “stroke, haha” a thousand brunette Felinities… OR pay the same billion for a single session with a Golden Felinity. “I want the Golden F,” our MB declared, almost stepping on Joe’s line. “Those Reals are way more rare than you guys think. Plus I have a way to predict whether she—” (reader, thanks to another recent cultural whoopsie-doodle there are now only shes and hes in the USA) “–whether she is genuine or not. Like, know in advance. Before making contact! So don’t anyone out there even try to scam me.” The multi-billionaire’s brilliant method? He burrows with help of Perflexity into the candidates’ school health records, preserved from transferred CDs, which include full frontal exceedingly unerotic photos taken during puberty. Proof of the vanilla pudding, so to speak. If you think this record-keeping is unlikely you haven’t lived in a German-influenced totalitarian country. And besides, it was just a dream.
Dear Readers, if you’ve come this far you’ll have noticed that pointdevue is shifting if not voice, then tone and, perforce, perspective. A wider range, while at times more personal (see above). I’m also mulling a move to Substack. The free version, natch. Your thoughts on all this would be gratefully received, as would be suggestions for renaming the URL. Paris feels like a corset at present. I’d like to keep the pointdevue bit but ‘Pointdevue: partout’ is an oxymoron, moreover one that would leave many readers–Ni hao, China!– scrambling for their dictionaries. Suggestions?
POINT de VUE: PARIS 
Bonjour Kai!
First, “vanilla pudding” made me smile!
About substack, another blogger (Pierre at “French Moments”) migrated his flock to substack just this week since his costs had gone up 170%. The only rub: at least in the beginning his output will be half, bi-weekly not weekly. Not a hugh deal, and actually easier to read him without the many hyperlinks he used before.
About a name change. How about “thepointis”
Fondly,
Jim in Sweden
Bonjour Kai!
First, “vanilla pudding” made me smile!
About substack, another blogger (Pierre at “French Moments”) migrated his flock to substack just this week since his costs had gone up 170%. The only rub: at least in the beginning his output will be half, bi-weekly not weekly. Not a hugh deal, and actually easier to read him without the many hyperlinks he used before.
About a name change. How about “thepointis”
Fondly,
Jim in Sweden
Jim, Many thanks for weighing in! Although I was completely sober during the writing and posting of this piece, I woke up today certain that my cover image as an observer, commentator and book reviewer was blown. That henceforth I would be labeled, and shunned as, a wildly ironic x-rateable surrealist. On the other hand, extreme times call for extreme writing. Whew. Enough about me. How is Sweden? How are you? I do like the baseball poem but that was a while back.
Hi Kay…
I wonder whether a corset is now just a general feeling… Haven’t been to Paris last year. Trying to make up reasons to go this year… The sorry sight of French… lunacy makes me want to cry at times… But then, living South of the border (the US border) makes me want to wail…LOL.
So, we’re going to Asia in february. Let’s see how things are over there…
Anyway, I rambled… Substack. A good E-friend of mine has moved a while ago. I have a feeling she’s lost much feedback. It’s now only her and individuals. It feels a bit limited in scope.
Anyway, your decision. Just let me know. I’ll follow. I like your style. (And tone…)
Be good.
Brian
Such grand compliments from a reader who remains a complete stranger, in the usual sense. Doubt our paths will ever cross in RL, unless possibly in Paris, if you can steel yourself. Enjoy Asia;vit’s a big place. Mongolia? Laos? Report, please. Thanks for the warning about Substack. We’ll see. Lethargy is a strong factor in decision-making.
With pleasure, form one stranger to the other… 😉
Singapore. Been there already. Angkor. Second time too. More time. I want to be able to spend hours in just one spot if I feel like it. Then Indonesia (a first) to Borobudur. A week too.
Lethargy? Or maybe that’s what the Tao tells us about Wu Wei, non-action… (Which I still have trouble… grasping…)
Be good Kai. (I’m not sure whether those are dark or interesting times coming…)