Dedication

In Memoriam,

Irène Hillel-Erlanger.

b: 1878 - d: 1920                                                      

A minor poet who after abandoning her male pseudonym Claude Lorrey embarked in 1915 on a career as "cinéaste" and business partner with the director Germaine Dulac. Her audacious and iconoclastic "Voyages en Kaleidoscope" projected a remarkable vision of a technological future fraught with calamity. Erlanger's spiritual self "Grace (naturally)" is locked in battle with her body self "Vera (voluptuous)" over the sanity of the genius inventor "José" (I dare) with only the innocent "Gilly" (salt of the earth) to program the technology.

With a cast voiced like a string quartette, (Soprano, Alto,Tenor, Bass) Erlanger unsparingly explores Parisian society circa 1919 where humility and hubris clash. 

From her introduction: 

FRONTISPIECE


               in which the author would like to shed light
                   
                                 on her intentions


                                                         and on


                                                  THE IMAGES


                                                                     that follow

This is not a novel

even less a character study 

we have tried simply and fervently 
to grasp and fix a few Signs.