This is a first: lovers of space and words are invited on Sunday to participate in a giant dictation from space. It will be read in orbit by Thomas Pesquet and retransmitted to the Air and Space Museum at Le Bourget, near Paris.
About 500 people of all ages are expected, provided with a sheet and a pen, to write under the dictation of the astronaut an extract from the novel by Marguerite Duras. A dam against the Pacific, specify the organizers of this open-air, open-air event.
At 3 p.m., on the exhibition tarmac where tables and chairs will be set up, a giant screen will broadcast a pre-recorded video of Thomas Pesquet, on a mission since April in the International Space Station, 400 km from Earth.
THE FIRST DICTION OF SPACE
One of my interlocutors was skeptical about the idea of making people like dictation and replied: “A little serious. Do you think that we can make young people dream with your dictations?”. pic.twitter.com/OwuCdxbWI1– Rachid Santaki (@rachidsantaki) August 23, 2021
“Thomas Pesquet chose this classic of French literature“, explains the novelist Rachid Santaki, founder of the giant dictation. For eight years, this author of black novels (including”Angels dress in curds“) made “take dictation out of school“to decline it in improbable places and make it a popular exercise: he has read more than 500 texts in penitentiary establishments, urban districts, at the Stade de France, but also on social networks and on the radio.
“By taking dictation into space, we will make people dream!“, enthuses the writer, anxious to overcome the”trauma“what could be for some the exercise on the benches of the school.
#MissionAlpha The Blob-ISS educational experience, piloted by the @CNES. Thousands of students will soon realize its variation in their class #StudentTonBlob. Have a good start to all! https://t.co/GpFZ6oGpMv pic.twitter.com/bgFfaRsTwg
– Thomas Pesquet (@Thom_astro) September 2, 2021
“I really like the principle of making fun – I hope – an exercise that sometimes has a bad reputation“, abounds in his message the astronaut of 43 years. Thomas Pesquet confides to have read at the age of 20 years A dam against the Pacific, published in 1950. “Participating in the dictation of space, it makes me want to read it again with my eyes today, to see how the metaphor of the dam resonates in me now“.
After his first reading of the extract (approximately 700 characters), Rachid Santaki will tackle the second, in slow flow, before the self-correction session. The event will be broadcast on Saturday September 11 at 5 p.m. during its broadcast on France Culture.
