Dali and Me by Catherine Millet

Dalí and Me
by Catherine Millet

English edition published by Scheidegger & Spiess 2008

Dalí and Me is a very good introduction to the writings of Salvador Dalí and his similar obsessions related to the writer Catherine Millet, who actually never knew him in any way whatsoever except in her imagination, which is basically her point in writing about him. Millet is a smart cookie and proves it with her critical analysis of his writings and art.

The English edition proved to have too many errors, too many wrong words such as "too" for "to" and other common mistakes that proved quite irritating to me. It is unfortunate the publisher did not have better proofreaders in respect of the seriousness of this book. Obviously Millet was at the mercy of her publisher and I doubt she knows a lick of English except maybe the word "fuck". The proofreaders on this assignment were either unfamiliar with the English language or perhaps uncaring enough for doing a good-enough job., It is also possible their spell check software was flawed or did not recognize a correctly spelled word as still being wrong. Very irritating and unnecessary segment of my experience reading Millet who I would have to believe would have wanted her work presented in a more professional manner.

From reading the book I did learn that the moral judgments passed on by the masses played a role both in her own life as it did Dalí's, though Dalí used them in his life as a tool for advertising and building his personal myth. Though I respect Millet, and find her work fulfilling, there are few similarities between she and Dalí, except perhaps for their actual performances outside and off the written page.