Lake Effect News

Strange graffiti is popping up in North Center, which is either the work of a linguist or a tagger who’s paying attention in school.

Andy of North Center sent in this photo of a French quote as seen on the Metra bridge at Ravenswood and Berteau on Sept. 29: “on attaque, et puris on la verra.”

A Napoleon aphorism, roughly translated “They attack, and then we will see,” possibly meaning that life is lived forward but understood backwards. (Andy’s theory, not ours, we’re not that intelligent.)

Says Andy: “This is the first time I have ever seen graffiti in French in Chicago. Pretty clever. But not sure of the revelance to Chicago. Any insights? Perhaps some other readers have seen similar graffiti around town?”

A few days later, Andy sent in this second photo. The city’s graffiti blasters painted over the on attaque, et puris on la verra quote. The tagger cunningly added a new quote the next day: “graffiti.”

Andy says he has scoured the Internet trying to find out more about the quote, but hasn’t come up with anything concrete, other than Napoleon used to say it and Lenin liked to quote it a lot.

“There is a vague reference in the book ‘Welcome to the Desert of Real – 5 Essays on September 11′ by Slavoj Zisek, a Marxist philosopher,” Andy writes. “I’ve tried to read a little of the essay, but its WAY over my head. I’m not sure where he might have been going with his thoughts …. anyway, here’s the quote:

“. . . is inscribed in Russian language, in the unique expression awos or na awos, which means something like ‘on our luck;’ it articulates the hope that things turn out all right when one makes a risky radical gesture without being able to discern all its possible consequences–something like Napoleon’s on attaque, et puis on verra, often quoted by Lenin. The interesting feature of this expression is that it combines voluntarism, an active attitude of taking risks, with a more fundamental fatalism: one acts, makes a leap, and then one hopes that things will turn out all right. . .”

Andy adds, “I know it’s wrong, but I kinda hope they spray some more on that bridge.”

So do we.