The Night of Reading, for its fourth edition, offers hundreds of events throughout France, this Saturday evening. Among them, a reading in music by Alain Damasio of his latest novel, Les furtifs , accompanied in music by Laurent Pernice, who produced the soundtrack for the novel. Then, on January 30, for the Night of Ideas, the writer will renew his performance, with also a conference with his guests.
Rare in bookstores, Alain Damasio enjoys giving his public readings and explains to 20 Minutes the scope of these performances.
You will give two readings-concerts in two weeks in Paris when you have the reputation of being a rather rare author…
I come out of a year where I made kilos of meetings, I am depreciated ... But these are two beautiful transversal events in which I am delighted to participate, especially on this mode of reading in music. It's a link with the live performance that touches me a lot. And for the Night of Ideas, I was able to bring together on stage the set I wanted, with a philosopher and an anthropologist in the field, today's thinkers and action. We are going to spend an intelligent and beautiful evening.
Your first reading performance takes place for Reading Night. Which reader are you?
No. Finally, not zero, but not very interesting. I am often asked for reading advice, but I am more of a re-reader than a real reader. I keep re-reading the same books, the same authors I read 20 years ago. So it's not very interesting for others. I am completely dry. In addition, in recent years, I have almost read that slab because I have only written. And I can't read and write at the same time.
Are you lonely in writing?
I'm pretty schizo. I have periods of nourishment, with a lot of social life, collective projects of creation, of video games for example. In these phases, I constitute my narrative bible. And then at other times, I close the shop, and I become very lonely. And the writing will go up. We are two-stroke machines, but on very slow times. We are rarely just one or the other. Me, when I write, I need to do only that. Nothing can come in addition. Maybe it's because I make novels that ask to invent a whole universe. I take everything out of my hat, my guts, and everything has to articulate.
You also have a very precise work on the language in your novels. With different vocabularies, different ways of speaking depending on the narrators ... Are your books hard to read?
Not for me ! Finally, I have to focus of course, but I'm fine. Reading aloud is still great. It's like going from black and white to color.
What do you mean ?
Going from written to oral allows me to give life to everything that is there but implicit in my writing. I write with address effects to an imaginary reader I have in mind. Having them in front of you causes energy transfers. I had the chance to hear Volodine read his texts and I enjoyed it a lot, and it allowed me to understand a lot of his writing. With the oral, we understand the work on phonemes, the colors of sounds, the timing of syntax. It's great to make it heard, which is very obvious to me internally when I write. In writing, we have the quality of the line. Orally, everything takes on a scale, a vitality.
Public reading by authors is more common in the United States than in France. How to explain this?
I imagine that we are still in a heritage conception of writing. In the minds of some, a writer sits at his table, shows are almost vulgar.
This passage from written to oral also reminds you of your taste for militant action.
There is something political in the idea of the performing arts. These are precious moments, because they will not take place twice. Sometimes it's messed up, and sometimes there's a moment of grace. What made me want to take the plunge, the first time, it was the urgency, the freshness, the energy of the relationship with the public that it brought. You have no second chance, you must be absolutely there, in a unique and singular moment.
So you could give up writing?
Of course not. But it is true that in the social dimension of my work, I realize that the action has taken a large part. And this echoes the social movements that we know today which are, in their modes of action, very original, very inventive.
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