Le plus compliqué, c'était de reprendre tout le processus, d'imaginer des péripéties et de faire semblant de les découvrir. Aux débuts du roman moderne, quand Cervantès écrivait Don Quixote ou Rabelais Pantagruel par example, c'était dans les contes qu'on se racontait de village en village, dans les fables, dans les romans qu'on commençait à peine à lire, que les lecteurs étanchaient leur soif de récits ; c'était là que se jouaient l'affrontement du bien et du mal, la rivalité between frères ou l'ambition dévorante – tous les grands thèmes que les romans savednt illustrer et mettre en musique. The story of the novel also comes from the press, between the milieu of the XIXe et le milieu du XXe siècle : en Occident, the population is désormais alphabetisée et, grâce aux progrès social, disposait de temps libre. Les gens étaient comme des children qui demandent des histoires, encore des histoires, toujours des histoires.
Une dernière histoire.
Mais aujourd'hui? Que pouvais-je encore inventor ? Chaque jour, chacun lisait, entendait, voyait des dizaines, des centaines d'histoires. Il y en avait des courtes, dont on parcourait à peine les titles. If you have access to the history, you don't have to wait until the end of the year to have a change between the collections in a cantine with neon lights. Il y en avait des longues, ces scandales qui s'étirent, se développent pendant plusieurs semaines, avec des protagonistes plus vrais que nature – l'ambitieux, le méchant, la victime – et all les departments narratifs nécessaires à un bon récit: révélations, confrontations, dénouement. It has diverse faits, political affairs, animal documentaries, cultural actualities, and sport dramaturgies. If you look at the films that are trop courts, you can prefer the series and everything, so that you can see the last day of work, so that you get the guarantee of the heights of emotion for several euros in pain. You have access to an appetizer for the bizarre, the baroque, the existence of pléthores de sites dévoilant de grands plots or révélant des vérités cachées. C'était sans fin.
David Rochefort, This secret country (Gallimard, 2023).
The hardest part was repeating the entire process, inventing the twists and turns, and pretending to discover them. This was the case in the early days of the modern novel, when Cervantes, for example, was writing. Don Quixote or Rabelais Pantagruel In the early days of literature, it was the fairy tales passed from village to village, the fables, and the novels that people were just beginning to read that quenched their thirst for stories; here, the confrontation between good and evil, the rivalry between brothers, or the consuming ambition unfolded—all the great themes that novels can illustrate and set to music. The golden age of the novel was also the golden age of the press, from the mid-19th to the mid-20th century: In the Western world, the population was now literate and, thanks to social progress, had more leisure time. People were like children, demanding stories, more stories, ever more stories.
One last story.
But today? What could I possibly invent anymore? Every day, everyone read, heard, and saw dozens, hundreds of stories. There were short ones, whose titles you barely glanced at. There were silly stories, whose sole purpose was to provide fodder for bored colleagues to chat in a cafeteria with poorly adjusted fluorescent lighting. There were long stories, scandals that dragged on and developed over weeks, with relatable protagonists—the ambitious one, the villain, the victim—and all the narrative driving forces a good story needs: revelations, confrontations, resolution. There were miscellaneous news items, political affairs, animal documentaries, cultural news, and sports drama. If films were too short, you could opt for series and thus, under the covers at the end of a workday, guarantee dozens of hours of emotional entertainment for just a few euros. If you had a penchant for the bizarre and the baroque, there were countless websites that uncovered grand conspiracies or revealed hidden truths. It was endless. 1
This article is written in German and can be found at https://rentree.de. Automatic translations into English and French are available. English, French.
Notes- "On the train from Marseille to Paris, a man dreams of a book that will make him famous. He is recently divorced, has picked up his two young daughters from their mother, and intends to return to Paris with them. As he watches them move around him, as the other passengers appear first curious and then frightened, and as the worry for his ex-wife grows ever stronger on the phone, the novel overlays the real world. Two narratives unfold: one of missed opportunities and one of revenge. The characters, Henri, Giulia, Joffre, and Lola, take the blows for their creator. When one has to get off the train, the truth appears, radiant, but so too does the incredible mastery and artistry of the novelist David Rochefort." This secret country (This secret country) is a narrative machine, a satire on the spirit of seriousness, in which the art of storytelling questions the power of literature. Where everyone, out of vanity or ambition, has made themselves a prisoner of the social world, fiction offers a second chance.” (Translation of the publisher's announcement.)>>>
