After the Charlie Hebdo attack, it seemed as if French grief followed the Western model set in place after the death of Princess Di. Emotional prostration. Candlelight vigils. Heaps of teddy bears. A rally for Healing, with Instagrammed memorials stamped with the generally accepted hashtag. Everyone was Charlie for a week, with a tricolor Twitter avatar. Teens on Tumblr found mournful Piaf videos to embed.
This time? Well, a news report from Paris said that a musician rolled up a piano to the Bataclan theater and played John Lennon’s “Imagine,” the mopey utopian anthem that asks you to imagine no religion. It’s easy if you try, says the song. It’s easier if you’re deaf and can’t hear the men with the guns shouting “Allahu akbar.”
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