suicide

Alternative to Suicide

/ kevinhobbs

Sandy Hobbs | Letters to Ambrose Merton # 16, 1998

In Dear Mr Thoms Nos 35 and 36, we dealt with suicides by architects, engineers and the seventeenth century maitre d’hotel, Vatel, who supposedly took his own life when the fresh fish for a meal he was planning failed to arrive in time. The Food Chronology by James Trager (Henry Holt, New York, 1995, and Aurum Press, London, 1996) contains this story. The version given, like all of the accounts of which I am aware, derives from a letter written by Madame de Sevigne. However, The Food Chronology (page 485) also contains a supplementary story about the chef, Auguste Escoffier. Apparently Escoffier was once asked how he would have reacted if faced with the same situation that affected Vatel so badly. He replied:

I would have taken the white meat of very young chickens and made filet of sole with the. Nobody would have known the difference.

Le Parc de Montsouris

/ kevinhobbs

Jean-Bruno Renard | Dear Mr. Thoms # 36, 1994

Below are extracts from (A) a book by Dominique Camus (1992) and (B) a book by Jacques Hillairet (1956). Both relate the anecdote. Hillairet seems the more skeptical (“It is said”).

A. Parc Montsouris. The creation of this park is due to a wish of Napoleon III and of Haussmann to establish a large gree space in a popular quarter. Haussmann cose this waste ground, full of stone quarries and windmills, and, between 1865 and 1869, 16 hectares were laid out in the English style much in vogue during the Second Empire. Alphand, who designed the park… created an undulating garden with paths twisting and meandering around cascades, and a large artificial lake. The park was inaugurated by the Emperor in 1869 and the lake, which was to an extent the jewel of the park, was filled with water for the big day but – by accident or through defective workmanship – it emptied suddenly. The engineer who had conceived it, not being able to bear this indignity, committed suicide like Vatel at Chantilly, who could not get over spoiling the king’s lunch because of the delayed arrival of the fish.
(Camus, Dominque, Paris. Paris: Arthaud, 1992, p 571)

B, Le parc de Montsouris. The park of 16 hectares, the largest in Paris after the one at Buttes-Chaumont, is the work of Alphand, it was completed in 1878… It contains an artificial lake almost a hectare in size, the digging of which began in 1869. On the day the park was inaugurated, this lake emptied, it is said, because of a construction fault; its originator committed suicide.

Footnotes

Sandy Hobbs

The Story Spreads: A further and recent example of the story in tourist literature is to be found in this entry on the Parc Montsouris in the Berkeley Guide France written by students from the University of California (New York: Fodor, 1994, page 93):

“…Just so you know, the pond magically emptied on the park’s opening day, and the designing engineer consequently committed suicide.”

Vatel’s Suicide: From the entry on Vatel in Larousse Gastronomique (London: Mandarin, 1990, pp 1352-1353):

“In April 1671 the Prince of Conde entrusted with the task of organizing a fete in honour of Louis XIV, with 3000 guests. The celebrations began on a Thursday evening; in the course of the supper following a hunting party, several tables lacked roast meat because a number of unexpected guests turned up. Later, the planned fireworks display was spoiled by the cloudy sky. These incidents, which were recounted by Madame de Sevgne in a letter of 26 April, persuaded Vatel that his hnour was lost. Learning at dawn that only two loads of fresh fish ordered for the meals of the day had arrived, he gave way to despair: declaring ‘I shall not survive the disgrace,’ he shut himself in his room and ran his sword through his body, at the very moment when the fish carts were entering the castle gates.”

This particular suicide story may have a solid foundation in history, but the irony of the arrival of the fish carts surely has the flavor of legend about it.

The Engineer’s Blunder

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Sandy Hobbs | Dear Mr Thoms # 35, 1994

Stories about architects or sculptors who commit suicide when they discover an error in their work are widespread and have been discussed on a number of occasions by writers interested in contemporary legend (e.g. Degh and Vazsonyi, 1978, McCulloch, 1987, Hobbs, 1992, Simpson, 1992).

One of the cases I mentioned in my article in Foaftale News concerns the Parc Montsouris in Paris. I quoted three contemporary guidebooks which all told essentially the same story. On the day the Parc opened, the artificial lake suddenly dried out and the engineer who designed it committed suicide.

I have since discovered that the Blue Guide: Paris and Versailles (Robertson, 1992, pp 85-86) also caries the story. No doubt other guidebooks do likewise. However, there is a limit to what I am willing to spend on guides to Paris. I bought the Blue Guide in a fire sale!

I must also be said that not all books for tourists tell this story. One which does not is A Traveller’s History of Paris (Cole, 1994). The author describes the Parc Montsouris (pp. 282-283) and discusses its planning and building. Unlike the guides which carry the suicide story, Cole mentions the name of the engineer responsible for the work, Adolph Alphand.

Reading this, I thought I might be able to make some progress in checking out the accuracy of this particular suicide story. However, I have discovered a problem. The works I consulted mention an architect-engineer called Alphand, Lavedan’s French Architecture (1979) and Le Petit Robert 2 (Rey, 1987). However, they both refer to him as Jean-Charles Alphand. The same person? Probably, since Le Petit Robert attributes the Parc Montsouris to him. If he is indeed the engineer in question, he appears to have taken a long time to decide to commit suicide. The same source gives is death as 1891. The Parc Montsouris opened in 1878.

References:

Cole, Robert. A Trveller’s istory of Paris. Moreton-in-Marsh: Windrush Pressm 1994.
Degh, Linda and Vazsonyi, “The Crack on the Red Goblet or Truth and Modern Legend, in Folklore in the Modern World, (Ed. Richard Dorson), pp 253-272. The Hague: Mouton.
Hobbs, Sandy, “Errors, Suicides, and Tourism” Foaftale News 27, 1992, 2-4.
Lavedan, Pierre. French Architeture, (Revised Edition). London: Scholar Press, 1979.
McCulloch, Gordon. “Suicidal Sculptors: Scottish Versions of a Migratory Legend”, in Perspectives on Contemporary Legend Volume II (Ed. Gillian Bennett, Paul Smith and J.D.A. Widdowson), pp 109-116. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1987.
Rey, Alain (Ed.). Le Petit Robert 2: Dictionnaire Universel des Noms Propres (Revised Edition). Paris: Le Robert, 1987.
Robertson, Ian. Blue Guide: Paris and Versailles (Eighth Edition). London: A & C Black, 1992.
Simpson, Jacqueline, “More Suicidal and Homicidal Architects”, Foaftale News 28, 1992, 5-6.

Footnote

Gillian Bennett

Five texts should be added to the growing bibliography of the “Architect’s/Engineer’s Blunder”. None of these appear to be cited in FOAFtale News 27 (September 1992) 2-4; 28 (December 1992) 5-6.

The first, perhaps most obvious, one is Mick Goss’s article in The Unknown, which covers some of the same ground as Gordon McCulloch’s paper; there’s also a mention of the story n Nigel Pennick’s article about walled up trains in the London underground. Finally, there are two articles in Folklore in the early decades of this century, in which the author discusses variants where a jealous master builder either kills the pupil who outshines him or commits suicide(motif W181.2.1). The note by Rose is a follow-up to Crooke’s articles: Rose suggests that the story originated in foundation sacrifices (an outdated theory, perhaps, but worth mentioning!). Here are the citations:

Crooke, W. “Prentice Pillars: The Architect and His Pupil”, Folk-Lore 29 (1918): 219-25.

Crooke, W. “Prentice Pillars: The Architect and His Pupil”, Folk-Lore 31 (1920): 323-24.

Goss, Michael, “Legends For O
ur Time 1: The Architect’s Blunder”, The Unknown (July 1987): 10-16.

Pennick, Nigel. “Urban Folklore of the London Underground”, Folklore Frontiers 6 (1987): 8-11.

Rose, H. A. “Prentice Pillars”, Folk-Lore 34 (1923): 381.

Dead Man On Campus

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Sandy Hobbs | Letters to Ambrose Merton # 20, 1999

One of the papers in A Nest of Vipers, edited by Gillian Bennett and Paul Smith (Sheffield Academic Press, 1990) is “The roommate’s suicide and the 4.0” by William S. Fox. Fox summarises this piece of contemporary American college lore as:

If your roommate commits suicide, you get a 4.0 that semester.
The value “4.0” means the highest marks available in each subject.

Dead Man on Campus is a feature film whose narrative is built round this concept. Josh (Tom Everett Scott) enters the medical programme at Daleman College on an academic scholarship. He intends to work hard but is distracted by his partying roommate Cooper (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) and by Rachel (Poppy Montgomery) who becomes his girl friend. Josh’s early grades are so bad that he would find it impossible to achieve the average for the year which he requires to keep his scholarship. Cooper’s business-man father arrives on campus and threatens dire consequences if he does not start working, so both roommates are in trouble.

In a bar, an old drunk tells them of his experience at college, His roommate committed suicide and he benefitted from a college rule that “if your roommate kills himself you get straight As”. Cooper’s reaction is to suggest that Josh sacrifice himself but Josh rejecxts that idea, However, they decide to check out the College Charter in the library. In a section on suicide they discover that it does contain just such a provision. Cooper persuades Josh that they should arrange to have a suicidal student move in with them. They try to increase their knowldge of the circumstances in which suicide s are committed. Josh goes the the Psychology department for information where he is interviewed by Dr Durkheim. Durkheim wrongly assumes that Josh is himself contemplating taking his own life. [This is presumably a knowing reference to Emile Durkheim, the author of a famous sociological analysis of suicide,]

They focus on a number of potential suicides, including a paranoid who believes Bill Gates is trying to control his brain and a rock musician who only pretends to be suicidal to create an appropriate image. Having given up their attempts to benefit from the suicide rule, they find a friend, Pickle, who has swallowed pills and left a suicide note. Believing him to be already dead, they plan to move him into their room. However, Josh realises he is still alive and revives him. Cooper is angry that Josh has spoilt their last chance of good grades and they quarrel.

Josh climbs the College Tower and threatens to jump. A crowd gathers but Cooper succeed in “talking him down”. Once saved, Josh secretly tells Cooper that he figures that the college would not expel a student who had shown himself to be suicidal. He is correct and he stays on to study psychology rather than medicine. Cooper’s father, impressed by his success in saving Josh from suicide, agrees to finance another year at college. Things seem to have worked out well for them both, but they arrange for Pickle to move in with them, “just in case” things go wrong.

Dead Man on Campus was copyrighted in 1998 by Paramount Pictures. It is an MTV Production, directed by Alan Cohn and produced by Gale Anne Hurd. The story is credited to Anthony Abrams and Adam Larson Broder. The screenplay is by Michael Traeger and Mike White.