DiotimosReading Desk

Nature

Trees marked for felling

arbres mis en coupe

The condemned are compared with trees set aside to be cut down because they receive the verdict with silence and tranquillity.

From the book

The Gods Are Athirst

Anatole France · Diotimos Editions · 2026

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Meaning

Phrase.

The condemned are compared with trees set aside to be cut down because they receive the verdict with silence and tranquillity. The comparison concerns their submission and the process imposed on them, not an assertion that they lack feeling. It belongs beside the batching of cases and the later penning of prisoners like cattle: each image makes administrative treatment concrete while maintaining the victims’ human particularity elsewhere.

Places to read

  1. Chapter XXIV, paragraph 39Frenchdes arbres mis en coupe: trees marked for felling. The narration reports the comparison prompted by the prisoners’ quiet response.