Mars and Venus On a Date at FNAC

So on a friend's recommendation, and because it'll be funny and naff to discuss and because I'm curious if the advice in it will seem very culturally specific (i.e., American) or not, I picked up Mars and Venus On a Date. Yes, Venus and Mars of the the inter-planetary relationship counselling franchise. I counted no less than 8 Venus and Mars books on the shelves, some with vomit-inducing titles like, Venus and Mars in Harmony Forever, and Venus and Mars in Love 365 Days of the Year.

I clearly plan to read this book ironically. Ahem, obviously. Not that the state of my love life is such that advice wouldn't perhaps be useful... And to minimise the trash factor, I got it in French so I can try to convince myself that it's somewhat of an intellectual exercise during my non-French speaking vacation and not just the gender stereotyping fluff that it clearly would be in my native language (and the original language it was written in).

I might be the only person who enjoys reading anglophone books in translation because I think it's so interesting what translators decide they have to explain to a foreign audience. And do they keep to the original and explain it, or use a cultural equivalent? Like in the French version of the American TV show Veronica Mars set in Southern California, they made the poor kids from the Valley from St. Denis (a Paris suburb with a bad reputation). I love cultural footnotes in books, like in Bridget Jones' Diary, they footnoted Pride and Prejudice and explained that it was a famous Anglophone literary classic, that Jane Austin was a writer known for her social commentary, especially about the role of women in society and gave a brief plot summary. Isn't it intersting to imagine people reading that book who have NO idea who Mr. Darcy is? I mean, not that it's super deep or anything, but knowing who Mr. Darcy is does add a little layer to our girlfriend Bridget, don't you think?

I also figure if I ever apply any of the advice in the book, I'll probably do it in French, so might as well start with the French version, non? And when I handed in my attendance sheets for the last time ever at work, returned my key to the school and filed away all my course programmes and class notes, I happened to be near a bookstore.

A friend of mine swore by Men Are From Mars and I read bits of it, but as I'm not married, I didn't really relate. I think those kinds of books can be helpful because at best, they make you think about communication in a relationship and that different people have different ways of expressing what's important to them. At their worst, of course, those kinds of books become reductive gender stereotyping. So we'll see how Venus and Mars do on the Parisian dating scene.

When I went to pay for my relationship self-help book, I noticed that the guy in front of me was buying, of all things, Relationships For Dummies (Relations Amoureuses Pour Les Nuls). Seeing that this was clearly fate, or at least a pick up line made in heaven (and as a foreigner I have the priviliged positionof being able to start conversations with strangers and it's charming, rather than slutty or weird, as it probably would be for a French woman here), I hesitated and carefully evaluated how attractive this man was and if I wanted to use this golden opportunity or not.

I ultimately decided not to pursue this one, (would that seem really lonely and desperate? Just how good a pick up line is it really? "I see we're both single and looking for a relationship" is not exactly a huge thing to have in common, is it? Or is it? And what if he were in fact happily married and just buying the book as a present for someone else? That would be really embarassing...) and save my ace for a different card game. Although I'm waiting to see what Venus and Mars would have done...