Michon impossible
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Global Times, July 4, 2011
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Novelist Pierre Michon in Beijing. Photo: Wang Zi |
Pierre Michon is a writers who, while not well known to the general reading public, enjoys a stellar reputation among critics.
"Each of his books was like a fine work from goldsmiths, graceful as prose, and is eagerly anticipated by connoisseurs," claimed publicity material for his China tour.
The 66-year-old avant-garde novelist, whose sharp grey-blue eyes belie his aged physical existence, shared an afternoon with language students at the French Institute of China on Saturday, immersing readers by reading works which are due to be published in Chinese next year.
But Yu Zhongxian, a veteran French translator and editor-in-chief of World Literature magazine, said Michon's works are very difficult to translate, comparing them to books by Chinese writer Can Xue, known for inexplicable allusions and intense narration.
Michon was in Beijing to raise his profile ahead of publication, attending the first Congress of the World Literature Association today, organized by Peking University, with the theme of "The Rise of World Literatures," and discussing China's current situation in this context.
"China shows a strong momentum of catching up with the Anglo-Saxon literature world in holding such an event and I hope that China can surpass them," Michon told the Global Times, picturing any future potential "thriving on age-old literature traditions."
Born in 1945 in rural France, Michon went to university at Clermont-Ferrand and wrote his Master's thesis on theatrical legend Antonin Artaud. Michon himself has gone onto receive several major French literature awards over the years, including the prestigious Prix Décembre (2002), the Prix Louis Guilloux (1997) and the Prix de la Ville de Paris (1996).
He gained overnight recognition aged 40 for debut novel Vies Minuscules (Small Lives, 1984), which won the Prix France Culture. Before that, he says, he "dared not" pick up a pen as he lacked "the right theme." Eventually, he was "visited by grace" and established his own style. "It was a big relief the moment I found it, then I could follow it and write it down."
This search for identity is reflected in Michon's first published novel, about regular folks in his native region of La Creuse. Behind their humble lives is the narrator's own futile struggle to become a writer, as seen in works like La Grande Beune (The Great Beune, 1996) and Corps du Roi (The King's Body, 2002).
An admirer of Marcel Proust, Samuel Beckett, William Faulkner and Shakespeare, who speaks only the essentials in his opinion, Michon interweaves art into his text by depicting Rimbaud, Goya, and Van Gogh to the point where writer and work become one. "The forceful claims of the imagery, the painting of the starry night… Michon misses the poetry of the past, and in missing it he possesses it," wrote US writer Benjamin Lytal.
His latest novel La Onze (The Eleven, 2009), set during the French Revolution in 1794, reportedly took 15 years to write.
"That's not quite true," explained Michon, stating that he simply started 17 years ago, and continued whenever insight struck him. "The first part was a conceptual blending of history and fiction, while the latter part flows like a film with light and shade," he said.
Unlike writers who produce, on schedule, a certain number of words a day, Michon is "not a graphomaniac."
"My relationship with the text is a relation of struggle and rejection," as he told one interviewer. In the words of Beckett, "Nothing matters but the writing. There has been nothing else worthwhile... a stain upon the silence."
Michon has taken a new direction with his ongoing work, to be published in two years. But he refused to divulge details. "It is a super secret," he claimed.
He is a writer who wants to "end grief, bring back the lost and better overcome it." He writes stories of unremarkable people who don't usually have singular voices. With beauty and brevity, he brings alive general and private history. In short, Michon instills power into literature as, in his words, "it is not just entertainment: it goes further."
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