Скачать книгу

the desire to dig into these notions, to map out their realm, including within myself. Then, literature must follow. The style can be varied; it’s a question of internal rhythm, of my personal state. I’m not too worried about issues of consistency; it seems to me that consistency will come of its own accord.

      J-YJ and CD: Whatever is your first novel. What motivated this choice, after a collection of poems?

      J-YJ and CD: It could also include scientific diagrams.

      MH: Yes that would be perfect. You should be able to put everything in it. Novalis, and the German romantics in general, aimed to achieve total knowledge. It was a mistake to give up on this ambition. We wriggle about like swatted flies; and yet we have a vocation for total knowledge.

      J-YJ and CD: Obviously, as it happens, all of your writing is filled with a terrible pessimism. Could you give two or three reasons that you think may help stave off suicide?

      MH: Kant clearly condemned suicide in 1785 in his Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. Let me quote him: ‘To annihilate the subject of morality in one’s own person is to drive out morality from the world, insofar as that world depends on oneself.’2 The argument seems naive and almost pathetic in its innocence, as often with Kant; I believe, however, that it’s the only argument. It’s only a sense of duty that can really keep us alive. Concretely, if you wish to endow yourself with a practical duty, you must make sure that the happiness of another being depends on your existence; you can for example try to raise a young child, or failing that, buy a poodle.

      MH: It’s very simple. Animal and human societies set up different systems of hierarchical differentiation, which can be based on birth (the aristocratic system), wealth, beauty, physical strength, intelligence, talent, and so on. Actually, all these systems seem to me to be almost equally contemptible; I reject them; the only superiority I recognize is kindness. Currently, we move about in a two-dimensional system: erotic attractiveness and money. The rest, people’s happiness and unhappiness, flows from these. In my view, this is by no means a theory; we do live in a simple society, which these few sentences describe completely.

      J-YJ and CD: One of the most violent scenes in the novel is set in a nightclub on the Vendée coast. There are abortive scenes of seduction, flabby bellies that cause resentment and bitterness, purely sexual encounters. However, this place appears in your texts as the equivalent of the supermarket. Are people consumers in both places in the same way?

      J-YJ and CD: Can you tell us about that computer engineer, the one you call ‘the network man’? What does this type of character refer to in our contemporary reality?

      J-YJ and CD: Your story can be given an initial psychological reading, but it’s its sociological character that creates the most lasting impression. Could this be a work of less literary than scientific ambition?

      J-YJ and CD: Despite the choice of the novel as a genre, you seem to think naturally in terms of poetry.

      MH: Poetry is the most natural way to translate the pure intuition of an instant. There really is a core of pure intuition, which can be directly translated into pictures, or words. As long as we remain in poetry, we also remain in truth. Then the problems begin: when it comes to organizing these fragments, establishing a continuity that is both meaningful and musical. There, the experience of montage probably helped me a lot.

      J-YJ and CD: Yes – before you started writing, you made some short films. What were your influences? And what’s the connection between these images and your literature?

      MH:

Скачать книгу