Gratuitous Language

The blackened skull of Mary Magdalene in its reliquary at the Basilica Saint Maximin la Sainte Baume in southern France. Baume as in cave. In one legend she fled home with other disciples in a magic boat and landed on the shores of France. She stayed there, made it her new home and supposedly died there.

 In the late 1200s renovations started on the basilica and a Gallo-Roman crypt was uncovered. A man opened the lid of an ossuary of bones and claimed he smelled sweet perfume and had a holy vision revealing the remains belonged to Mary Magdalene. The remains have been housed on display at St Maximin ever since and the basilica and nearby town became a place of pilgrimage and worship of the Magdalene. The basilica (a cathedral blessed by a pope) is currently part of a larger commune devoted entirely to the continuing cult of Mary Magdalene.

On The Sobering Uses Of Literature

Jean-Paul Sartre was working furiously on his second play, Les Mouches (The Flies), while finishing his major philosophy treatise, L’Être et le néant (Being and Nothingness). Jean Paulhan had convinced Gallimard to publish the 700-page essay even if the commercial prospects were extremely limited. However, three weeks after it came out in early August, sales took off. Gallimard was intrigued to…