Grégoire Perra was an intern at the French satirical magazine 

CHARLIE HEBDO for six months in 1993-1994.

In his memoir, "My Life Among the Anthroposophists", 

Perra wrote of his involvement with the magazine.

When I translated the memoir, I skipped that section, 

but now I have circled back and plugged this gap.

CHARLIE HEBDO is an extraordinary, 

and quite valuable, publication.

A comic magazine, it is nonetheless 

both serious and incisive.

It uses humor to convey deep insights 

into contemporary social issues.

Perra's exposure to the magazine helped inform him 

as he tentatively began moving away from Anthroposophy

and tested the possibility of entering the real world.

Here is what Perra wrote in his memoir:

An Intern at CHARLIE HEBDO

I had undertaken my first years of study while living largely in isolation; but in order not to be wholly alone, I began to make some genuine friendships. Anthroposophy and my Waldorf education had made me a kind of alien in my own time, a man of the Middle Ages landing in the twentieth century. But my new friends informed me about politics, modern literature, editorial cartoons, etc. My best friend was a young passionate man, a very intelligent and cultured personality. Director of a publishing department, he opened doors to a new world for me. We hurled ourselves into publishing a fanzine named GATO, where I published my first short articles. At this time, CHARLIE HEBDO first appeared. Fascinated, I read it every week, waiting feverishly for the release of each new issue, hoping to find a key that would explain the world of today, a key that had been denied me throughout my schooling. I decided even to attend the magazine’s staff meetings, which at that time were open to magazine correspondents, so permission was easy to obtain. My passion for this magazine was a measure of the knowledge that had been denied me for years. To give an example of the social isolation experienced in a Waldorf school, I can mention the fact that the widespread youth protests of 1986 were wholly unknown within our school. There was no trace of French political life at the school. There was also no internal political life: no class representatives, no elections, no editorials or newspaper articles about current events, etc. In our study of history, we stopped in the Middle Ages after reviewing the succession of great civilizations that Steiner describes in his books: India, Persia, Egypt, Greece, Rome. As for geography, we did not study it at all in the upper grades! We had no notion of the geographic regions of France, let alone other countries or continents. The only geography item we discussed was the story of an ancient continent, Gondwana, which was used primarily to argue that Atlantis probably really existed [as Steiner claimed]. I also remember the "religion class" we had in 12th grade in which the teacher used a newspaper article from LE POINT to try to show that the Japanese — who have no respect for individualism — threatened to invade us. The image created was such a caricature that for years afterward I used to repeat, in a tone halfway between serious and joking, "the Japanese have no souls."

My intense desire for knowledge about the political life of my time and my country, my passion for CHARLIE HEBDO, and in 1995 my intense interest in student strikes were explained by the profound emptiness that Steiner schooling had left in me on these matters. I had to quickly catch up on everything that was intentionally ignored previously [at our school]. Today my impulse is to compensate by travel, as if I need to see and learn about all the lands and cultures about which not a word had been breathed — with the obvious exception of Germany, which had been held up as the panacea, the dear native homeland of Steiner.

Nevertheless, I remained in my heart a divided individual. Admittedly, I was going to weekly meetings with the editors of CHARLIE HEBDO, and I was drawn to leftist political ideas. But at the same time, I continued studying Anthroposophy. It was as if my mind was divided into two watertight compartments: on one side, strong allegiance to certain modern ideas, and on the other side, attachment to Anthroposophy. I was well aware of the division between these two halves of myself, because I made sure that no one at CHARLIE HEBDO knew about my involvement in Anthroposophy. I was even secretly reading publications from the Anthroposophic headquarters! If I had continued my involvement with CHARLIE HEBDO, which very nearly happened, I would have become a kind of Anthroposophic sleeper agent within one of the most important French magazines. And if I had still been stationed there when, a few years later, the magazine printed cartoons that mocked Steiner-Waldorf education, no doubt I would have done everything in my power, no matter how underhanded, to block the appearance of these drawings. I mention this because I think this is very often how Anthroposophists operate: They manage to assume key positions in the company of people who, unwittingly, allow them to pomote the interests of their sect. It is quite possible to be an Anthroposophist and yet work at a place like CHARLIE HEBDO. Anthroposophists are often divided within themselves, which allows for such inconsistency. I think that today there are many sleeper agents that Anthroposophy and Steiner-Waldorf schools have been able to place in key positions in our society! And that's what I might have become.

I also learned, at the time, that the journalist Fournier — founder of THE OPEN MAW (one of the first newspapers devoted to environmental activism) and onetime editor of CHARLIE HEBDO — had enrolled his own children in the Steiner-Waldorf school I had attended. I think here we can see one of the first signs of the congruence between the Green movement and this sectarian faction. 

—

On January 7, 2015, masked gunmen attacked the offices

 of CHARLIE HEBDO, killing twelve individuals. 

Perra was personally acquainted with two of the victims. 

Here is what Perra wrote on his blog about his slain friends:

In 1993-94, I was an intern at CHARLIE HEBDO for more than six months. Previously, for a whole year, I had attended editorial meetings every Wednesday as a freelance writer. I was then only 23 and had very little political consciousness, but I was excited about the freedom of thought and creativity that journalists at this publication demonstrated. Their editorial debates, sometimes heated and tense, and their shared opinions full of wisdom about the news, greatly contributed to the formation of my critical mind, my opinions, and my search for truth. I was emerging from the sectarian diversion that is Anthroposophy, and CHARLIE HEBDO — not only as a publication, but also through the individuals who were its staff — constituted my first door opening onto the reality of the society of my time. The Waldorf school where I was educated had deliberately kept me blind to such reality. This publication contributed during a critical time of my intellectual and emotional maturation as my young man discovering life; it helped satisfy a mighty thirst to know the political and social life of my time.

I remember Charb, his person, his drawings, and his writings. He was radical! Yet his radicalism was good, felt good, because his thinking was clear, going to the point, refusing compromises and mudslinging. He told me how he had been hired at BIG BERTHA, which later became CHARLIE HEBDO. One day, he just decided to take the train and offer his drawings, stipulating that he would do his work at home. He was then a draftsman at HEATWAVE, a fanzine that was banned shortly after publication. At CHARLIE, he published a drawing, then two, then more, as he wielded his pen. His style was direct, and powerfully funny. Yet he himself was shy and delicate; his penetrating gaze was inaccessible under his thick glasses.

His radicalism spoke of the simple events of everyday life. At the time, he commuted from Pontoise to Paris by train to attend editorial meetings. He told me that to return to his home in Pontoise, he had to climb a long, very steep hill. That is why, he told me, he had decided to ascend the hill every day by running up it (!) rather than submit to the boredom of a slow climb. Who does such a thing except a rare spirit! In a like vein, I remember him eating nothing but sandwiches every day because he was determined to save up, in the shortest possible time, enough to afford an apartment in Paris; he had to economize radically.

That was Charb: straight to the point, not taking any detours or any allowing any delays!

Tignous, meanwhile, rarely attended art meetings. He did not want to be dragged into conflicts, often loud and heated, that would interfere with his artwork. He was sweet, always considerate of those he met. His career path was very different: Before coming to CHARLIE, he drew comics with dragons for HEROIC-FANTASY. As he knew I especially liked such fantastic animals, he drew a beautiful dragon for me, just to be kind. At the time, he was the father of two children. 

That these people died, and the others, upsets me greatly. This is why I needed to write about them. They were wonderfully impertinent. That they arrived at the forefront of the media scene is a kind of minor miracle, as the elevators of society rarely carry such personalities as high as these individuals ascended, to play the roles that they assumed. We don’t usually realize how unusual it is to meet such personalities, and we don’t often pause to consider how rare it is for life to produce them. Yet a nation needs such impertinence! 

—

Please note that Perra writes in French. 

Consulting with Perra, I have undertaken 

the English translations that appear on this page.

Any errors in the translations are wholly my responsibility.

Perra's original postings, in French, can be found at

Blog de Grégoire Perra,

https://gregoireperra.wordpress.com/.

— Roger Rawlings

—

[R.R.]