FOR AND AGAINST

The news should not go unnoticed. If Parliament authorizes it, the State will soon liquidate a whole stock of more or less deserted islands. There is the island of Capense, which bathes in the blue waves of the Mediterranean, in the very close vicinity of another island which is Corsica. There is the island of Roch-C'hroume, which is located near Le Conquet, and that of Roch-ar-An, which is part of the department of Côtes-du-Nord. There are others. There will be great opportunities, it seems. Because there are more deserted islands than free apartments in Paris.

Either I am very much mistaken, or very many amateurs will fight over these small plots of rocks and land at auction. It will be enough for the auctioneer to point out that they are, according to the formula, "surrounded by water on all sides" for buyers to hurry and hurry... An island... We will see that there will soon no longer be enough desert islands for everyone in the world...

An island... it is a dot on the i of the verb to isolate oneself... An island can be the last refuge of individualism, of dream, of pride and of freedom... Now, we have arrived at such a degree of life in common, of civilization in common, of thought in common, of distraction and affliction in common, that the time is near when the civilized in common, having become horrified by this agglomerated existence, this existence of anchovies in barrels or sardines in cans, will no longer be able to bear even the sight of one of their fellow men.…

After years and years of life in an anthill (anthills of factories, barracks, offices, palaces, theatres, hospitals, dance halls, cinemas, trains and subways...) even the solitude of the fields will seem insufficient to them. There will no longer be any solitude in the fields, with cycle-cars, coaches and all the "thingy-cars", the shining fruits of progress. There will be benzol on the most remote dandelions and rice powder or even chicken leftovers on the cyclamens lost in the Alps.

That is why we will all need desert islands. That is why we will have only one desire, one idea, one fever: to desert... Desert civilization, progress, politics, fashion, the world and even the jazz band... Desert!... Save ourselves!... Flee cars, films and three-act plays. Flee the broth-restaurants, the broth-palaces and the literary broths!... Flee!.…

The desert island will be our only wish, our only hope... We will only be at peace when we see, on all sides around us, the silent sheet, the protective sheet, the insulating sheet of friendly waters.... Our guardian! Our confidante!.... It is inevitable... When the civilized will have finally reached the supreme degree of civilization, they will have only one dream: to live in the wild...

Maurice PRAX.