- Popesia - alias Guillaume Plassans - and Aurélien Fernandez wrote together the comic book Les Bons Gros Bâtards de la philosophie , published on June 26 by Éditions Lapin.
- Did you know that Marcel Proust tortured rats? What did Voltaire consider the Jews to be "the most abominable people on earth"? Their book is full of anecdotes on the dark side of writers.
- "There are real big bastards, and then pranks," says Popesia, while for Aurélien Fernandez, "the biggest bastard is Verlaine".
Literature counts in its pantheon many great women and great men, who were not only saints. Victor Hugo, Voltaire, Arthur Rimbaud, Verlaine, Colette, Georges Sand ... "Giants of art, geniuses of the pen, incredible artists ... but also sometimes, good big bastards", claims at the outset the (short) preface to the comic strip Les Bons Gros Bâtards de la Littoral (Rabbit editions) that 20 Minutes unveils to you exclusively. A book teeming with cruel and funny anecdotes and unsuspected stories about these feathered people.
Did you know, for example, that Marcel Proust tortured rats? What for Baudelaire, "loving intelligent women is a pleasure of pederast"? What did Voltaire consider the Jews to be "the most abominable people on earth"? That this same Baudelaire had plagiarized the author Catherine Bernard, first woman played at the Comédie française? Attention, it is not for the two authors of the book to "launch the anathema" on artists they adore, they warn, but to "take a new look, surprised or amused" on their lives. 20 Minutes interviewed Popesia - aka Guillaume Plassans - and Aurélien Fernandez, pen and pencil respectively of this book.
Why did you become interested in this aspect of writers?
Guillaume Plassans : For a few years now, I have had a file on my computer called "The good big bastards", in which I write down the anecdotes that I come across, as I like to read their bio, their correspondence. One day I told Aurélien about this file when we were eating couscous, and we thought it would be very funny.
Aurélien Fernandez : I already had an activity in historical comics and the desire to set the record straight. When Guillaume told me about this angle, I liked it right away.
Who is your favorite bastard or bastard?
GP . : Victor Hugo, my favorite author! He is an author who has a lot of anecdotes, who has lived a lot of things, often we come to say that he is a big bastard, but in fact not that much, if we compare him to Verlaine or Maupassant. My model in the facetious debunking - he also uses that word - is Ionesco, who in the Hugoliade smashes Victor Hugo. I like to show the shadow parts of figures that everyone knows.
AF . : I have a lot of affection for Jean-Baptiste Botul, an author who was fabricated in order to make fun of people who take quotes from it. It's my nice discovery while working on the book.
GP . : The word "bastard" is polysemous: there are real big bastards, and then more of the pranks. This can be as much an insult as a movement of admiration.
AF : It was a journey in itself to work on this book. Voltaire I said to myself "Ah yes, it's a little scum" but the more I advanced in the book the more I said to myself "It's really a big scum". Same for Baudelaire. But the biggest bastard in my humble opinion is Verlaine [ see exclusive extract below ]: he threw his baby against the walls, he was violent with his wife, his son, his entourage ... In high school I loved his poems and getting to know him was a great disenchantment…
Which literary character do you hate the most?
GP : Les Thénardier, in Les Misérables . It is really human filth, the dregs of humanity. Hugo was inspired by a guy he did not like who refused to reduce the hours of child labor. In the end, they become slavers.
AF : I really like Dangerous Liaisons , and the character of Madame Merteuil. She is a powerful woman who abuses her position to crush the weakest but also the equal. She is a superb character who falls very low, we come to take pity on her. A splendid scoundrel.
Is there something you didn't know that surprised you a lot?
AF : Romain Gary mixed with Clint Eastwood in an anecdote. He was in a relationship with Jean Seberg and Clint Eastwood seduced her, a Gary-Eastwood clash I found it funny.
GP . : A bit of everything! What is always a source of surprise and astonishment, is to browse the correspondence of the authors, like that of Goncourt: it is full of small spades, and it is there that we find the anecdotes which escape the history.
There are many writers who have had sexist, racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic remarks. Do you think it is necessary to contextualize their works?
AF : I think it can be justified to give context. Lovecraft is adulated by a whole section of pop culture who does not know where their fear of the inexpressible comes from, a place of racism, intolerance and perhaps a form of communitarianism on their part.
GP : I make a distinction between the work and its author. It is important to recontextualize works that could be problematic with a critical device, notes and a preface. But I don't think we should do it on works that are not problematic but whose author is. Our title is also a reference to the Good Fat Giant by Roald Dahl. When I learned of the anti-Semitic comments he made, that parts had been struck down, it did not dirty his works in my eyes. If Roald Dahl writes an anti-Semitic book it must be said, when he writes Mathilda it is not necessary. Voyage au bout de la nuit [by Louis-Ferdinand Céline] when he came out was applauded by the Communists who saw it as a criticism of colonization and Fordism. A book is an open work that belongs to the public.
AF : The aim of the book was not to throw authors at the stake. Everyone has the right to take this information and digest it as they wish.
GP : We don't make a thesis book, it remains facetious. You don't have to be absolute. And there are many that I feel sorry for ...
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