Page 409 - Christian Maas Full Book

early age indeed, but from this constraint he would forge strength, for imagination would take the place

of mundane concerns. His first mates, some with whom he would remain friends, would lend him the

miniatures cars he desired. The value of each and every thing would then clearly appear to him even in
his early childhood, and he would make it a habit to never waste a thing. The dice were tossed: solitude
was to become his friend, the world of objects his own world, for he would quickly know how to divert its

prime purpose; he used to drag his grandmother onto afternoon strolls around rubbish dumps to salvage

objects of all kinds. He was four. He discovered what Francis Ponge calls the çbiased thingsé. Within the
child already lay dormant the artist, and what greater artist than the one who, at such an early age, expe-
riences his power over each thing by the might of his imagination? If, as Freud claims it, the child is the

man’s father, then no doubt that Christian Maas’s childhood will have been decisive. His parent’s love

but also the sharp perception and understanding of loneliness would contribute to forge his character.
Respect of all creation would inspire him distaste of excessive consuming, and protestant rigor would
lead him to an attitude sometimes close to ascesis.

*ligerian: From the Loire River region.

Thus, respect would encompass his perception of all things, as if god’s might dwelt
in him. Nevertheless,peaceful days went by beneath the Forezian’s linden trees, in keep-

ing with family reunions and childhood’s pleasures; but no happiness is eternal and some-

times fate can show a cruel face. His father’s sudden death was to brutally throw Chris-
tian into adulthood, and it would forever leave him with an open wound, barehearted.
He lost this beloved one when he was only ten years old, and earth ceased its whirling all the sudden.

Eden had been lost forever; nothing would ever again be the same..

As an only child, he soon felt charged with a mission: he had to help his mother, but what a ten-
year-old child could do facing urging creditors? His father’s small business experiencing great difficul-

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