Dany Laferrière: A Particular Form of Resistance

The Mother’s Strategy

I feel increasingly drawn to a form of resistance that consists of curling up into a ball and letting the waves wash over me in a world in free fall. My mother, who had a peculiar relationship with time, always returned to a kind of wisdom she had borrowed more from peasants than from philosophers. In reality, there is no philosophy that does not have its origins in peasant wisdom. Her strategy consisted of going to bed in the middle of the day to keep creditors away, since they were always afraid of contagious