In a column published by Release on January 18, more than 1,200 signatories “poets, artists, publishers, booksellers, librarians and cultural actors” condemned the appointment of Sylvain Tesson as godfather of the Spring of Poets 2024. At issue: his status as a “reactionary icon”.
For L’Express, Patrice Jean, author of Kafka at the candy shop (Léo Scheer), analyzes the mechanisms of this text, which according to him betrays an “extension of the domain of the extreme right”. “The only thing that should matter to us is the literary quality of the writers, whether they are on the right or the left; and if an individual thinks that political correctness takes precedence over this quality, it is because he does not care about literature “, he says. Interview.
L’Express: What did you think of the column published by Release ?
Patrice Jean : At first I misunderstood what it was about. Although we have been warned of the intolerance of progressives, it is difficult to believe that six hundred writers, professors, booksellers (more than 1,200 at the time of publication of this interview, Editor’s note) have signed a petition against a writer. It takes effort to imagine such baseness. Then, I tried to understand what could motivate “actresses and actors of the French cultural scene” to lynch, verbally, socially, a writer. The lexicon, ironically, says what they are: actors and actresses on a stage. They play at virtuous conscience. We are witnessing an expansion of the domain of the extreme right: any person who is not progressive will be described as extreme right. We need to update the proverb: “Whoever wants to kill Tesson says he is extreme right.”
And admitting that Tesson is “reactionary”, should we remind the petitioners that Baudelaire was a “reactionary icon”? Leopardi, Pessoa, Nietzsche, Flaubert, Péguy, etc. were reactionary. So, any bookseller, teacher, or poet with two balls could preside over the Spring of Poets, while Baudelaire could not? We can clearly see that these people believe that literature is another way of being left-wing, which is historically false. If I had one criticism to make of Sylvain Tesson, it would be for having accepted this pandemonium that is the Spring of Poets. Can we imagine Rimbaud sponsoring the Spring of Poets?
The column opens with the idea that “the end of 2023 marked the shift in the second term of Emmanuel Macron, a president self-designated as ‘neither right nor left’, towards a more political project never close to the extreme right. What should we understand from this reminder?
This reminder is part of this extension of the domain of the extreme right. Any difference in point of view with progressivism is seen as a far-right way of being. And since the extreme right is synonymous with fascism, anything that is not progressive will be considered fascist: lynchers will be able to hit, spit, petition. We see very clearly that literature in their minds can only be a branch of progressivism. Basically, they prefer a bad progressive writer to a talented reactionary writer.
Paradoxically, the column never mentions the work of Sylvain Tesson. Should we be surprised?
You are right. We can assume that the signatories have not read it or read it very little. They must have heard Tesson in interviews, learned that he was at the burial of the devil (Jean Raspail), and above all, as they are sheep, rabid sheep, they understood that everyone was going there with their stone thrown at the poet, so they said to themselves: “Cool! It’s up to me to throw stones! And bingo, what’s more, I’m considered progressive and virtuous and courageous. It would be wrong for me to be embarrassed.”
In your work Kafka at the candy shop (Léo Scheer), you postulate that literature is in danger of disappearing due to activism, among other things. Do you really think that such a petition could have a real impact on the work of Sylvain Tesson, acclaimed by readers?
No, I don’t think that this type of action can call into question the art of fiction, on the contrary, any novelist can only be amused by this buffoonery. The novel is, in my opinion, the art which allows us to go furthest in the exploration of dishonor. That said, it is possible that Sylvain Tesson’s life will become a little more difficult. If that were the case (and I hope it is not), the petitioners would have succeeded.
“The literary extreme right”, to use the title of the work by journalist François Krug French reactions. Investigations into the literary extreme right (Threshold), mentioned in the article, does it exist in your opinion?
If the literary extreme right is Michel Houellebecq, Yann Moix or Sylvain Tesson, the literary extreme right is a fantasy, and, once again, an extension of the concept to everything that displeases these virtuous censors. It is possible that there exists a literary extreme right (apart from these three names), just as there exists a literary extreme left, but the only thing that should matter to us is the literary quality of the writers, whether they are from the right or from LEFT ; and if an individual thinks that political correctness takes precedence over this quality, it is because he does not care about literature.
“Poetry is a fundamentally free and multiple word. It cannot be neutral, without a position in the face of life. Poetry is in us, it carries our pain. It is in the masses. The everyday. The infamous. The tenderness . The street. Exhaustion. The neighborhood”, write the signatories. Does this passage not betray a confusion between poetry and “poets” (at least those who claim to be so) – in other words, art and individuals?
There is some confusion, but the surrealists already claimed that poetry had to escape from collections to go into “the street”. When they write that “poetry cannot be neutral”, I can only agree, but do they mean that poetry must be progressive? That from the year 2024, poetry is the other name of La France Insoumise?
After the interview with Sylvain Tesson on France inter, on the occasion of the release of his new book With the fairies (The Ecuadorians), an article Freeze Frames denounced an interview which “fails when it comes to recalling its links with the extreme right”. Do you think that in certain cases, the political ideas of the authors should be taken into account?
The political ideas of the writers are to be taken into consideration, but they are not the essence of a literary work, because if they were, it would be preferable for the writers to devote themselves directly to politics and activism (and therefore cease to be writers). In reality, these compulsive petitioners confuse the aesthetic order and the political order.
Sociologist Kaoutar Harchi explains that “Michel Houellebecq or Sylvain Tesson, by writing the books they write, they too are committed, they too defend a vision of the world. There are, book after book, values which are more more ardently defended. Nationalist, sexist, reactionary values in particular. But of them, it will not be said that they are committed writers. But: Writers“…
A writer is committed when he takes clearly, in his works, political positions. I have not read all of Sylvain Tesson’s books, but I have not observed “sexism” in his writings, nor “nationalist values”. Here again, we are witnessing an extension of the concept of reactionary. I suppose that Tesson must have written that he loved France, so that in the sociologist’s head, this confession was transformed into “nationalist values”. Houellebecq created female characters who were not angels, which, in the sociologist’s mind, was transformed into “sexist”. This sociologist is not capable of having a literary reading of novels, which is normal, he is a sociologist.
Detractors of the platform highlight the fact that the signatories are mostly “unknown”. Would it have been more legitimate if it had been co-signed by “big names” in the literary world?
It’s still better that this column is signed by unknown people than by “big names” in contemporary literature. It’s reassuring. For famous writers to be so stupid would have been worrying. In addition, these strangers will have, thanks to this petition, been able to believe themselves important for a few days. I think it’s good for their mental balance.
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