How did Guy Lafleur influence Quebec culture?

First of all, what strikes me is Guy Lafleur’s very long presence in the media. He was one of the first players to become a media star when he was young. He was 10 years old and we already knew he was going to be a star. In the history of the National Hockey League, there was only one case before that, identically, it was Bobby Orr.

And so, he immediately became close, familiar. We grew up with him. Maurice Richard arrived in 1942, no one expected him. Jean Béliveau arrived with the Quebec Aces, no one expected him. When Guy Lafleur arrived with the Canadian, everyone had been waiting for him for at least 10 yearsBenoît Melançon immediately explained.

Throughout his life, Guy Lafleur has inspired all artists: singers, musicians, writers and, of course, artists.

He is conspicuously represented, and these are the most famous paintings, by Serge Lemoyne. In 1970, he would have a very strong season in hockey with at least three paintings representing Guy Lafleur. Lemoyne made only three colors: blue, white and red. And that was enough for Guy Lafleur to appearcontinued Mr. Melançon.

” Therefore, he has a presence in painting, but also in literature. It appears in novels, in poems, in plays. He becomes a familiar figure. He even made a record that never really went down in hockey training history. “

Of course there was a famous song dedicated to him by Robert Charlebois, called Champion. It’s an absolutely amazing song, because it’s a song about Guy Lafleur. We knew it was a song about him and Guy Lafleur was not named, because we knew it was about himexplanation by Benoît Melançon.

The teacher remembered his favorite movie which is The red kitchen where there is a scene of a fight in a tavern where there is one of the characters attacking the other by telling him: Repeat after me, Guy Lafleur is the greatest of all Quebecers.

Therefore, for him there is something very impressive in these fully diversified cultural representations. Benoît Melançon explains that there are many biographies and children’s books dedicated to him, and more surprisingly, a book about Guy Lafleur about his years in Quebec when he was young.

Guy Lafleur, the poet

Well, poetry will not be passed on to future generationssaid Benoît Melançon.

There was an article from 1972 by writer Victor Lévy-Beaulieu that spoke about Guy Lafleur as a proletariat and a poet. And there is also the title of Georges Hébert-Germain’s book, Shadow and light, which comes from one of Guy Lafleur’s poems. It’s not something I teach in my history of literature classes in Quebec, but it’s still pretty significant that it was presented that way in the 1970s.He added.

That we describe him as someone who comes from the working classes and seeks himself in the existential. And to find himself existentially, he writes poetry. So, with the loss of Guy Lafleur, one wonders what will remain in the collective memory of Quebecers.

Many things according to Benoît Melançon

Things will remain completely different from what we saw before. Maurice Richard had this unexpected success. Jean Béliveau is different. He was a tall gentleman, especially in size, slow to speak, deep in voice, fond of being photographed reading books. And so, he went down in history as an elegant man. This is how we always represent Jean Béliveau, elegance par excellenceexplained Mr. Melançon.

Guy Lafleur, how will he be remembered? There are several qualities, but one, above all, is his kindness, his openness, his closeness, his familiarity, the details of Benoît Melançon. Everyone who spoke, who wrote about Guy Lafleur, said he was the closest person to his audience you can think of.

He never needed an introduction, so much so that he recently gave his face for an advertisement for the CHUM, well, there’s a photo of Guy Lafleur, but not his name. We don’t need his name, we know who he is!

Finally, Guy Lafleur will forever leave this image of someone who is always close to us, like a member of our family.he concludes.