by Rafaël Newman
Notational
A Zurich-based translator answers an ad that reminds him of his youth and is sent several lapel pins, or buttons, bearing the likeness of a 20th-century French poet emblazoned with a motto. The creator of these buttons, a Chicago-based teacher, does not charge for his products, but asks only that they be worn. Their recipient is happy to comply.
The two men have not yet met in person; nevertheless, they discover a shared bond in their love of poetry and music, and begin to correspond. The second man eventually sends the first a new shipment of buttons (which he has been manufacturing together with his daughter), this time featuring the masked face of a contemporary Edinburgh-based artist and a new motto, once again free of charge. The first man agrees to wear these as well, especially since they give him the beribboned air of the dandy he once was.
The first man is then moved to distribute both series of buttons to people he meets during his travels, abroad and in his country of residence, on buses and at gatherings, and to photograph himself with these new recipients. He shares the photographs with the second man, as well as with the Edinburgh-based artist, who is, unlike the French writer, still alive.
Purple
Athwart the banks of the Limmat, that bucolic ribbon amongst Helvetian streams, a nostalgic North American, member in good standing of the Mercurial guild, borne thither (viz to the city on the aforesaid banks, known to the Romans as Turicum) on peregrinations post-graduate, responds to a tender of adornments fabricated—in the environs of Shikaakwa, as the Miami-Illinois named the present megalopolis on the distant shores of Lake Michigan—in artisanal industry by a local preceptor, animated in his turn by the luster of the Old World and indulging said velleity by fashioning miniature laminated tributes to a Gallic bard of recent vintage, yclept by the august moniker of Raymond, Sire de Queneau, and to a Hibernian minstrel rejoicing in the appellation Stephen Clarke, id est Graece Latineque “Coronated Cleric”. Their fabricator’s only stipulation for the non-reimbursable disbursement of such artifacts? That they be sported, affixed by means of a fastening device appended to their infrastructure au verso, laterally upon the lapel of a suitable outer garment, and displayed, by those so bedighted, to all and sundry in recognition of the signal honour lavished on the luminaries thus portrayed, whether posthumously or during their current span of animate existence.
Quotidian
Dude makes buttons, like old-school rock merch, only not with band logos, instead some kind of oldey-timey foreign writer guy, I CARE ABOUT QUENEAU, guess that’s his name, also I think a DJ? except from somewhere random, like Scotland, in a red skimask (reminds everyone of Pussy Riot) tells you to KEEP DREAMING, might be better advice these days to wake up? anyway free of charge, postage paid and everything, seems only fair to hand them out, what with no cost to the consumer and whatnot. Kind of weird tho, like what’s in it for this dude. Probably just decent is all. Anyway it gets pretty cold in Chicago I guess, so you need stuff to do indoors. Where’s global warming when you need it eh. Actually an extra button on your lapel might be a good idea, come to think of it. At the top, tie up against the breeze. The Windy City right.
Petrarchan
As antics once a venerated form
Drew on their countenance to play the past,
Dressed noble deeds upon their common cast,
Stirred in the cinders cold, and made them warm;
As mummers at a masque staged second storm
Round royal ribbon bound atop the mast
Of man-o’-war downfacing cannon-blast,
Whilst fiendish seamen chivvied it in swarm—So we too now, in buttoned cameos,
Prove our allegiance to a time and cause,
Although a younger and less martial stream:
We honour one whose deeds were done in prose,
And one who cheers the crowd; who earns applause
Not for his battle-cry, but for his dream.
Social
@raf_newman (word merchant) DM to @daniel_dansturn (Father. Teacher. Aspiring Layabout. Books Accumulator.) Nov. 18, 2022 5:32 am re: #RaymondQueneau: “For button: Rafaël Newman XXXstrasse XXX CH-80XX Zürich Thank you! Sorry about 4X no-no char., couldn’t avoid it.” @daniel_dansturn DM to @raf_newman Nov. 18, 2022 5:36 am: “It’ll be in the mail ASAP. Thanks.”
@raf_newman DM to @daniel_dansturn May 18, 2023 5:02 pm re: #stephenclarke1980 (Northern Irish writer and electronic musician. Based in Edinburgh, Scotland.): “I would love a Free Button! They look terrific. Kudos to you and your wonderful daughter! Rafaël Newman XXXstrasse etc.” @daniel_dansturn DM to @raf_newman May 18, 2023 5:43 pm: “I’ll definitely send one or two your way.” @daniel_dansturn DM to @raf_newman May 18, 2023 5:44 pm: “Maybe I’ll send you a few extra to leave around Zurich.”
Old school
For Daniel & Stephen, and for Raymond