Villa Vortex and Maurice Dantec
From: lightsearcher1
Date: Fri Dec 19, 2003 7:15 pm
Subject: Villa Vortex and Maurice Dantec
July 14, 2003
VILLA VORTEX
Maurice Dantec's new novel, Villa Vortex (in
French only) is a stupendous book of over 800 pages, brilliant
and obnoxious, exhilarating and exhausting, radical and reactionary—all
of this in ways that are difficult to disentangle, or even to
describe coherently.
The book starts out (after an introduction
in which the narrator informs us that he is already dead) as
a kind of police procedural, a cop investigating various gruesome
serial killings, against the backdrop of world events from 1989
(the fall of the Berlin Wall) to 2001 (the bombing of the World
Trade Center).
The cop has more philosophical ruminations
than is usual for a police procedural—way too much Eurocentric
whining about the decline of Western Civilization for my taste—but
for a while it doesn't seem all that unusual.
But then, as the book proceeds, we get all
sorts of unexpected genre shifts, strange discontinuities, and
many amazing and wonderful individual passages (I especially
loved the chapter where the narrator, strung out on methedrine,
is hallucinating on Omaha Beach, where the Allies landed in 1944,
thinking about, not only the carnage of that invasion, but of
Hiroshima, Nagasaki as well, and beyond World War II of burning
oil wells in Kuwait after the first Gulf War, and so on).
After that, there are all sorts of metafictional
twists; the narrator comes to think he is really a character
in an unwritten novel by a French journalist-photographer who
died in Sarajevo covering the Bosnian war; we get more and more
paranoid formulations of the narrator's general thesis about
the "suicide" of Western Civilization (of which 9/11
is only the confirmation—Dantec sounds a lot like Baudrillard
in places, despite his apparent dislike of Baudrillard).
And then—the narrator is killed (as foreshadowed
at the start of the book) with over 200 pages left to go; and
that's when things really get crazy, as the writing of the book
itself is dramatized within the book as a messianic act capable
of undoing and inverting history, by means of a comic book science-fiction
narrative that combines the visceral experience of video games
with theological speculation mixing Maurice Blanchot with the
Kabbalah, with the 2nd-century Church Fathers Iranaeus and Origen,
and with crackpot theorizing about the mystical powers of the
DNA "meta-code."
Whew.
On one page I will be blown away by the sheer
excess of it all, and the weird, unexpected connections Dantec
keeps on making; then, on the very next page, I will be irritated
by inane rants about the evils of technological domination in
the modern world, or about the need to stand firm with America
in its fight against international terrorism.
All in all, I'd say that Dantec is taking
some very particular gripes he has that are parochially exclusive
to France in the 1990s, and blowing them up to world-historical
proportions.
I'm also disappointed that Dantec seems to
have dumped Deleuze (who was the main philosophical influence
on Dantec's previous book, the brilliant, and also apocalyptic,
Babylon Babies, which I wrote about earlier), instead, the key
philosophical figure here is a French writer I know little about,
Raymond Abellio, but who seems to have made a bizarre synthesis
between phenomenology, on the one hand, and a Gurdjieff- or Rudolf
Steiner-like mysticism, on the other.
(As far as I'm concerned, it's hard to decide
which I find more boring, phenomenology or Gurdjieff/Steiner/etc).
In short, Dantec is "too French for his
own good" (as Pauline Kael, I believe, once said of Marguerite
Duras); in spite of which, Villa Vortex is filled with much that
is audacious and wonderful.
(Not to mention that, in the French context,
there's a lot to be said for a book that takes, as one of its
key allegorical images of evil, the architectural monstrosity
that is the Mitterand Library).
http://www.shaviro.com/Blog/archives/000135.html
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An Interview: Maurice G. Dantec - (29 September
2003)
Widely acclaimed author of 'La Sirène
Rouge', 'Les Racines du Mal', and 'Babylon Babies', Maurice G.
Dantec shook up the French literary establishment with the publication
of his diaries in 2 volumes: 'Le Théâtre des opérations:
Manuel de survie en Territoire Zéro' ('Theatre of Operations:
Survival Guide for Ground Zero') and 'Laboratoire de catastrophe
générale' ('Laboratory of Generalized Catastrophe')
where he elaborates on his opinions, regarding politics and metaphysics,
which are the antithesis of what is politically correct for the
Paris Intelligentsia.
The literary critics were out in force for
the publication earlier this year of his fourth novel 'Villa
Vortex'. Dantec is now judged more for his political views than
for his talent as a writer.
Maurice Dantec has been living in Montreal
for the last 5 years. He was kind enough to take time out for
a short interview with 'Merde in France' for which we are extremely
appreciative.
(Thanks to Subversiv.com
for enabling the contact; English translation of interview by
'Merde in France').
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Do you think we have just witnessed the start
of a definitive break between Europe and the US?
Yes, it's obvious, but it must be understood
that what has happened - as a result - is also, and foremost,
the definitive BREAK within Europe itself.
Between the newcomers to NATO, the ex-popular
democracies of Eastern Europe having learned much from their
experience with communism, and the neo-kollaboration Franco-Kraut
which has learned absolutely nothing from the past, no 'historical
compromise' is possible.
There are those who will fight totalitarian
Islamism on the side of the free world, and those who have already
slipped under the control of the (Arabic) oil kingdoms and Islamic
killers, represented by a 'French Council of Islam' -- whose
direction is composed of leaders belonging to radical organizations
favorable to Sharia law.
Let me quickly remind you of a few figures:
in 2002 11% of the French population is Muslim. The middle term
projections are: more than double the figure in 15 years, triple
in less than 25. The combined effect of demographics and migratory
flows (the competent French abandon ship, third world populations
flow in, it's pure social Darwinism.
The situation is Herzegovinian and Chiraq
King of the Frenchies is riding the wave with 82% of the vote!
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Do you believe that the French population
is properly informed as to the differences that now separate
the US and France?
The French population is brainwashed since
at least 1981, the year that Mitterand rose to the throne of
Francois-La-Francisque [Ed. Mitterand received the 'francisque'
which was the Vichy regime's highest award], along with his 1968
style cultural revolution.
A program of generalized (public media) management,
thanks to Propaganda Staffel of the leftists in control of the
Press and the Television, stepped up to a decisive level with
the second Intifada and 9-11 followed by the Taliban in Afghanistan
and the Saddamites in Iraq.
From now on, for a French prick (a fucking
frogman), the USA is more dangerous than the verminous Al-Qaeda
(I refer you to this past Spring's polls).
As you know, the response was immediate, and
it was pronounced by Condoleeza Rice: we'll forgive the Russians,
we'll forget the Germans, but the Frenchies will pay. Thomas
Friedman's editorial in the New York Times, 'Our War with France'
is the last nail in the coffin.
The French population is about as well informed
as in 1940: at the time it was said that we didn't need to fight
wars in order to win them. You know how that turned out.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The American public is not really aware of
the hatred directed against the United States by the political
and cultural casts in France. What advice would you give to American
decision makers with regards to future relations with France?
On the political level: total isolation 'by
all means necessary' of the Chiraq-Schroeder consortium.
On the cultural level: let the national Titanic
navigate among its icebergs: serial gang rapes, Islamic gangstahs,
pedophile literature, bullshit rap music, anti-establishment
culture.
On the economic level: boycott EVERYTHING
that can be boycotted, in both directions (imports and exports).
Choking the life out of today's French economy
with its all sacred 35 hour work week, sub-Sahara standard hospitals,
and its civil servant- artist youths, would be as simple as pushing
the pillow down on an dehydrated elderly person. Just choose
the right color for the pillowcase.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Do you read the French press since the fall
of Baghdad and if so, what do you think of its way of presenting
events in Iraq?
See above. From Edwy Plenel to J.M. Colombani
to Serge July to Moulod Aounit, from Paris-Match to Libération,
from the Green Party to the National Front, everyone says the
same thing without fail. This is when we see that FREEDOM of
PRESS is of no use to a POPULATION of SLAVES.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Religion has always played a very important
role within all Presidential administrations in the United States
(especially in the adminstrations of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton).
Why does the Paris Intelligentsia criticize Bush for his religious
beliefs?
Human-Rights-endorsed (French-)Republican
Atheism is a secular religion even more intolerant than Islam
or Communism, and this didn't start just yesterday in this Jacobin
Republic built on the equality of one and all before the guillotine.
Everything that evokes our civilization's multi-millennial Judeo-Christian
values provokes a rash for our courageous 'Dhimmis'.
I might add that, very soon now, the seal
of approval from the head of the Paris Mosque will be required
before publishing a novel or a mere biography.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
'Survival Manual for Ground Zero', written
in 1999, is a title which has a special meaning for many Americans.
Do you have the sentiment that you have written prescient books
with 'Survival Manual for Ground Zero' and 'Laboratory of Generalized
Catastrophe' which was also finished before 11-9-2001?
There have been many prescient books SINCE
9-11. I wouldn't dare compete on their own territory with the
Masters of Scoop, such as Marc-Edouard Nabe. We certainly live
in an era of great prophets: Thierry Meyssan, Nick Mamère,
the 'entertainers' of the anti- establishment culture such as
Zebda. Largely sufficient to send Ezekiel back to Babylon !
To respond seriously to your question, in
just a few words: to have seen Vukovar, Sarajevo, and earlier
(and later) Beirut, Lebanon ... Knowing how to read a map, and
a few books, is largely enough to have just the INTUITION that
something FUNDAMENTAL was being prepared, and in the shadows
quite obviously.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
How long after 9-11 did you start working
on 'Villa Vortex'? [Ed. - English language book review of 'Villa
Vortex' from a blogger.]
I started working on 'Villa Vortex' around
February-March of 2001. Six months BEFORE 9-11.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Is there an English language translation planned
for 'Villa Vortex'?
For the time being, no English language translations
of any of my books are 'planned'. I am not Amélie Nothomb
or Frédéric Beigbeder, and I am not the author
of 'safe' best-sellers. I write with a view towards metaphysics,
based on the theories of Reich, Deleuze, Whitehead, the Cabal,
and genetical 'metacode', but I am not a 'leftist'.
I do not support Michael Moore, Howard Dean
or Sean Penn, and as far as I am concerned a good Palestinian
is from the East Bank of the Jordan river. On a cultural level
I do not interest anyone on the other side of the 'pond' (now
situated South of me) or in Great Britain (now to the other side
of the pond for me).
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
How do you feel about the new French literary
season and they way it has taken inspiration from 9-11?
I have no opinion about the new French literary
season. Every September, French writers rehash the same old question:
how to talk about Nothingness.
Obviously it's the same problem, only worse,
in Quebec.
http://www.liberaux.org/article.php?sid=255
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