Foto do autor

Carol Dunlop (1946–1982)

Autor(a) de Autonauts of the Cosmoroute

3 Works 319 Membros 13 Reviews

Obras de Carol Dunlop

Autonauts of the Cosmoroute (1982) 317 cópias
Melanie dans le miroir. (1980) 1 exemplar(es)

Etiquetado

Conhecimento Comum

Data de nascimento
1946-04-02
Data de falecimento
1982-11-02
Local de enterro
Cimetière du Montparnasse, Paris, Île-de-France, France
Sexo
female
Nacionalidade
USA
Local de nascimento
Quincy, Massachusetts, USA
Local de falecimento
Paris, France
Locais de residência
Montréal, Québec, Canada
Paris, France
Educação
McGill University
Lake Erie College
Ocupação
writer
translator
activist
photographer
travel writer
Relacionamentos
Cortazar, Julio (2nd husband)
Pequena biografia
Carol Dunlop was born in Quincy, Massachusetts. She attended Lake Erie College in Painesville, Ohio and later graduated from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. She married François Hebert, a writer, with whom she had one son and settled in Montreal. The couple divorced in the 1970s and she eventually moved to Paris. She met Argentine writer and activist Julio Cortázar in Canada in 1977 and married him in 1981. She accompanied Cortázar on trips to a number of destinations and sometimes traveled without him. In 1982, they took a 33-day, 800-kilometre trip in their Volkswagen camper van from Paris to Marseille along the Autroroute du Soleil, never leaving the freeway, and exploring each of its 65 rest areas. They co-authored a now-classic book illustrated with their photos and her son Stéphane's drawings called Autonauts of the Cosmoroute, first published in 1983. Carol died shortly after the end of the trip at age 36. Among her other works were a novel, Melanie dans le Miroir (1980); and Llenos de Niños los Árboles (1983), reporting on the lives of children in Nicaragua, also co-authored with Cortázar.

Membros

Resenhas

Why oh why have I not read this before? Shame on me. This is just immense - a glorious Quixotic adventure, a love story, a paean of praise for slowing down and looking at life completely differently, a celebration of language, of words and of friendship.

Cortazar, I have to admit, is fairly new to me, but already his style and stories have blown me away. This, an account of a 33-day journey made by him and his wife Carol Dunlop from Paris to Marseilles, should be given to everyone you know, to read, to love, to live by.

Unlike anything I've read before. Have I said I enjoyed it? And omg, the last page will break your heart and make your heart soar at the same time. Wonderful, simply wonderful.
… (mais)
1 vote
Marcado
Alan.M | outras 12 resenhas | Apr 16, 2019 |
Je ne savais pas trop à quoi m’attendre en ouvrant ce livre au titre étrange. Avec un tel titre et avec Julio Cortázar comme auteur, je m’attendais à du fantastique, du surréalisme, en tout cas quelque chose de loufoque et de pas très compréhensible pour mon petit esprit cartésien. Et bien non, partie à reculons dans cette lecture, je dois dire que j’ai été conquise, au sens propre du terme. Ce texte m’a apprivoisée, petit à petit, m’a fait l’aimer lentement et avec beaucoup de douceur. Et c’est toute émue que je ressors de cette lecture.
Les Autonautes de la cosmoroute a en fait quelque chose d’oulipien. Julio Cortázar et sa femme Carol Dunlop décident de faire prendre l’autoroute Paris-Marseille, en s’arrêtant sur toutes les aires de parking, à raison de deux par jour. Cela fera un trajet de 32 jours en tout et, ce qui pourrait paraître un voyage plutôt glauque (qui aurait l’idée de visiter ainsi un à un tous les parkings d’une autoroute ?) devient un ode à la liberté et à l’amour. Cortázar a déjà plus de 65 ans, Carol Dunlop n’en a pas 35, mais elle est déjà atteinte de la leucémie qui l’emportera quelques mois seulement après la fin de ce voyage. Et savoir ces deux personnes sur la fin de leur vie (et ils le savent eux-mêmes) donne une douceur nostalgique à ce voyage sans prétention. Un voyage sans frontière, un voyage sans exotisme ni découverte, mais un voyage d’une incroyable gaité et d’une merveilleuse joie de vivre. Un voyage comme pourraient le faire des enfants qui s’inventent des histoires en traversant le jardin, un voyage de deux personnes probablement usées et fatiguées, mais qui continuent à rêver et qui ne s’aigrissent pas du fait que leur horizon n’est plus aussi vaste qu’avant et savent le trouver toujours aussi riche.
La simplicité des moments vécus, associée à l’immense vitalité de l’écriture, surtout celle de Carol Dunlop et aux envolées lyriques, comme la description par Julio Cortázar du corps de sa compagne, tout cela donne à ce texte un charme irrésistible. Je m’étonne moi-même de m’apercevoir à quel point il m’a émue, alors que ce qui est raconté est finalement si terre à terre. Je ne ferai pas la route Paris-Marseille en passant par les parkings de l’autoroute, ni si je dois mourir à l’âge de Carol Dunlop, ni si je me fais vieille et rhumatisante. Mes rêves, même mes petits rêves tout proches, ne sont pas là et ne le seront jamais. Mais j’espère que j’aurai moi aussi toujours des idées loufoques comme celles-là, des idées qui nous correspondent plus, à moi et à mon M’sieur Raton, et j’espère surtout que je serai toujours capable d’une telle joie de vivre, d’une telle envie de faire des projets, d’une telle gaité. C’est une merveilleuse leçon de vie que ce livre, un livre qui est dans la vie et qui donne envie de la mordre à belles dents, quelque soit l’âge que l’on a derrière nous, et quelque soit l’âge qui nous reste devant.
Merveilleuse et lumineuse lecture.
… (mais)
 
Marcado
raton-liseur | outras 12 resenhas | Jul 20, 2015 |
At once meditative, playful, literary, quirky, erotic, imaginative, and even modestly paranoic, this delightful book chronicles a journey Cortázar and Dunlop made in May and June of 1982 along the autoroute from Paris to Marseille stopping at every rest stop at the rate of two per day. Why did they do this? Initially, the idea came to them as a way to escape the responsibilities, especially phone calls and mail, that confronted them in Paris, and also perhaps a certain psychological gloom, but as ideas will, it evolved, and they came to see it as a an expedition inspired by those of the early European explorers and resolved to scientifically document their observations. They traveled in their VW van, nicknamed Fafner the dragon, which was outfitted with a refrigerator and a jerry can of water, along with other supplies including food, liquor, books. and cassette tapes. They arranged for a few friends to meet them along the way for companionship and fresh food (they also ate occasionally in restaurants at the rest stops and stayed overnight in hotels at the stops).

What was perhaps most surprising to me is how frequent the rest stops on this highway are. In the logs that detail each day -- times of arising and travel, as well as of other interesting events, information about each rest stop, their meals, the temperature and weather, etc. -- it seems to take about 15 minutes to get from one rest area to another. Thus, they spent most of their time in rest areas, not on the autoroute. This gave them ample time for exploration, reading, writing (they brought two typewriters with them), and enjoying their freedom and the opportunity to be only with each other. In addition to the logs, and the descriptions of what they saw at the rest areas, this book includes forays into fiction, meditations on everything from music to love, visits from imaginary characters, photographs, and illustrations (drawn by Dunlop's son). Every page is both deeply personal and addressed to the reader -- they knew from the beginning that they would write a book about the trip.

Thus their journey was a search for happiness, as well as an exploration of the rest areas. They call each other by their pet names, La Osita (little bear) for her, El Lobo (the wolf) for him, and their affection for each other shines through the writing. At one point they mention a bet two of their friends made about whether they would complete the trip, one hypothesizing that they would squabble and separately return to Paris. Instead, the trip seems to have deepened their love for each other, perhaps (although this isn't clear) knowing that Dunlop was ill and would die, tragically early, the next year, before the book could be completed. While each wrote different sections, it is sometimes difficult to know who wrote what.

In a way, the trip left them suspended in time (thus "timeless" in the subtitle), allowing them the illusion that life, like the autoroute, continues indefinitely. Hence their sadness when they arrived in Marseille and returned to "real" life. Speaking of the deeper meanings some of their friends attempted to hang on the trip upon their return to Paris, Cortázar writes:

"All that dazzled us a bit, but most of all we found it funny, because we'd never conceived nor realized the expedition with underlying intentions. It was a game for a little Bear and a Wolf, and that's what it was for thirty-three wondrous days. Faced with disturbing questions, we said many times that if we'd had those possibilities in mind, the expedition would have been something else, perhaps better or worse but never that advance in happiness and love from which we emerged so fulfilled that nothing, afterwards, even admirable travels and hours of perfect harmony, could surpass that month outside of time, that interior month where we knew for the first and last time what absolute happiness was." pp. 351-352
… (mais)
5 vote
Marcado
rebeccanyc | outras 12 resenhas | Jun 1, 2014 |
Heruitgebracht na loftuiting Mutsaers, hetgeen niet verrast want het is boek dat lijkt op de hare. Door haar optreden in DWDD heb ik mijn ramsjversie - destijds leek het me leuk maar ik zette me er toch niet aan, zoals trouwens ook met een verwant Nederlands boek over de autosnelweg, ook in de ramsj gekocht. Nu wel.

Knap is dat de auteurs het kort houden. Knap is de omkering van voor- en achtergrond. Maar daarmee redden ze het niet, oordeelden de auteurs zelf. Vandaar excursies in het fantastische die niet altijd even dwingend/nodig zijn. Jammer dat beide snel dood gingen maar dat mag geen reden zijn om een boek zachtmoediger te behandelen. Streng beoordeeld is het een aardig idee, iets te lang uitgewerkt.… (mais)
½
 
Marcado
Gerard670 | outras 12 resenhas | Feb 3, 2014 |

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Associated Authors

Stéphane Hébert Illustrator
Anne McLean Translator

Estatísticas

Obras
3
Membros
319
Popularidade
#74,135
Avaliação
3.8
Resenhas
13
ISBNs
20
Idiomas
7

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