Reading Time: 6 minutes
“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” This quote by Roosevelt echoed the emotion which reigned while interviewing the French author Charles Dantzig. Archana interviewed the renowned novelist, poet, essayist, and editor, in the regular column, exclusively for Different Truths.
People who think are fearless and courageous. Their honesty gets expounded in their written expressions. A writer whose works bear such intriguing titles that there was a lot of curiosity what lies behind these words. Charles Dantzig is an acclaimed novelist, poet, essayist and an editor. There is a long list of accolades attached to his contributions towards writings. As the head of Grasset Publishing House, he is in-charge of the projects Le Courage and Le Cahier Rogues. His views on homosexuality, gay rights speaks of the courage he possesses to express himself without any inhibitions. His writings have a lucidity, honesty. To quote him, in love stories the cruelest roles is that of confidant. This appears in his book, In a Plane to Carcass. Happiness invades, it is an occupation. Cheerfulness is a distraction. Or Mirrors dream we admire which we see in the poem, The Swimmers.
Isn’t it interesting that he made an attempt to write essays like, About Masterpieces, Why read? Capricious Encyclopaedia of Everything and Nothing, There is no Indochina.
If we speak of novels the list goes on as, In a Plane to Carcass, My name is Francois, Our lives hasty, A Film of Love. He chose and continues to write poems too like Swimmers, La Diva with long eyelashes, What are the Planes? Remembering the Lang haul. Each one has a unique theme. His each creation is unique and can be termed as an unexpected literary object. The more I read the keener I was to meet him and have a medley of thoughts unravel his much critical acclaim about Populism in Literature.
Charles Dantzig’s literary tour to India was organised by French Embassy and Institut Francois India, the cultural outfit of Embassy. He chose to spend few days in Delhi after attending the Mumbai Literature Festival. The evening was slated for an event called Literary Conversation with Taslima Nasreen. Here’s the interview with Charles Dantzig, at Hotel Imperial, Janpath, New Delhi, in December 2016.
Archana: How did writing to happen to you?
Charles: I read a lot as a kid, have been reading since the age of six and started composing poems. My poetic compositions found the way in the school magazines as early as when I was seven years old. They were appreciated but somehow I never liked them. I was born into a family where all were teachers of Medicine and was expected to fall in the same league but I gravitated towards law. The decision primarily arose out of a choice to give instructions diplomatically.
Archana: You appear as an honest and courageous writer, are all writers courageous enough?
Charles: Writing is a kind of struggle where internal strife seeks manifestation in form of words. Yes, it takes a lot of courage to write. Writers have that special courageous voice to stand up and fight for others. Here I would like to mention, Emile Zola a French writer who put his career at stake for the cause of a Jewish soldier, Alfred Dreyfus. Entire France was against him but he waged a fight against the wrong doing. Again it was James Faulkner a writer who first made mention of mentally challenged in 1931 in his writings. Literature is empowering when it brings what life wants to hide.
©Archana Sharma
Photos by the author.
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