Bunuel_Luis_My_Last_Breath

question than a statement, and one containing a profound truth atthat. Of course, some might find that relationship between blindnessand mortadella somewhat absurd, but for me it's the quintessentialexample of surrealist thought.While we're making the list of betes noires, I must state myhatred of pedantry and jargon. Sometimes I weep with laughter whenI read certain articles in the Cahiers du Cinema, for example. As thehonorary president of the Centre de Capacitaci6n Cinematogriifica inMexico City, I once went to visit the school and was introduced toseveral professors, including a young man in a suit and tie whoblushed a good deal. When I asked him what he taught, he replied,"The Semiology of the Clonic Image." I could have murdered himon the spot. By the way, when this kind of jargon (a typically Parisianphenomenon) works its way into the educational system, it wreaksabsolute havoc in underdeveloped countries. It's the clearest sign, inmy opinion, of cultural colonialism.And I add to the list John Steinbeck, whom I dislike intenselybecause of an article he once wrote in which he described-seriously~asmall French boy walking by the Elysee palace carrying abaguette raised in a salute to the palace guards. Steinbeck found thisgesture "profoundly moving," but the statement made me furious.How could he be so shameless? It seems clear to me that withoutthe enormous influence of the canon of American culture, Steinbeckwould be an unknown, as would DOS Passes and Hemingway. Ifthey'd been born in Paraguay or Turkey, no one would ever haveread them, which suggests the alarming fact that the greatness of awriter is in direct proportion to the power of his country. Galdbs,for instance, is often as remarkable as Dostoevsky, but who outsideSpain ever reads him?On the other hand, I love Romanesque and Gothic art, particularlythe cathedrals of Segovia and Toledo, which for me are livingworlds in themselves. Where French cathedrals have only the icybeauty of their architectural forms, the Spanish cathedral has thatincomparable spectacle of the retablo with its baroque labyrinths,