Maurice Dantec

[vx69]

This french writer - famous in france because of his political ideas, which are not very "politically correct" to say the least - seems to owe a heavy debt to Michael Moorcock (and other writers too but that's another story), in terms of atmosphere - crumbling western civilization, a world at war, reminding a lot of the Jerry Cornelius books (and maybe some Pyat too). He even named one of his main characters "Cornelius Toorop", which seems quite significant... Did someone here read one of his books ? Some were translated to english, especially his masterpiece :



On a negative note, Maurice Dantec has slowly turned to extreme-right ideas, which makes the man less than sympathy-inspiring...

I should had - that's another loose MM connection - he worked with Norman Spinrad as a musician, both being part, at a time, of the "Schizotrope" project.

I wonder if Mike ever heard about him...

[Michael Moorcock]

I had heard of him, yes, but in the context you mention -- right-wing ideas. I'm sometimes depressed because right wing authors see something in my work which inspires them. This is usually, I suspect, because they miss the irony. I've been astonished, for instance, that some people have taken the Pyat books without understanding that they are parodying right wing ideas! Makes me a bit nervous, sometimes!

[Morgan Kane]

I wonder if Brussolo has been translated in English ...... He is famous in France for rthe somber mood of his novels, having written in Science Fiction, detective novels, horror ..... and very strange fantaisy litterature for children, ....... very disturbing ...

One of his novel is a critics about Christmas ....

[vx69]

Basically Dantec was extreme-left, then he went through some kind of religious experience (the Philip K.Dick influence ? ha ha) that left him paranoid about muslims and so on. Before that, he worked with marxists, especially in the musical field (Dantec was a musician before being a writer). Now he lives in Canada because "europe is dying from socialism" and hopes for George W.Bush to rule the whole world... I think he smoke way too much marijuana and that didn't help his psychological problems (his second book was dedicated to "Allah and the THC god"...).
And like a lot of french writers, he probably thinks he can be a new Celine by turning into a neo-fascist...
This is all quite sad, because his books were really good.

[vx69]

I wonder if Brussolo has been translated in English ...

Brussolo is good but writes way too much books. Too much "alimentary" work... But he has a very dark imagination indeed.

[Michael Moorcock]

Sadly, I have seen certain acquaintances in France drift towards this form of neo-conservatism, including a distinct anti-muslim, anti-homosexual, pro-GWB attitude. This to me is a familiar progress of exchanging one authoritarianism for another (Catholic to Marxism, Marxism to Conservatism). Hell, some of them even become Scientologists!
However, I'm glad to see non-Anglophone writers being discussed here. It was what I had said I'd hoped to see before the Big Crack. The more we hear about non-English-speaking writers, the more chance we have of seeing them translated in the UK, America and elsewhere.

[Morgan Kane]

Thanks Mike ......

To pass from a leftist position to a conservative or militaristic position is not new .....

WWI was a famous occasion ant the betrayal of pacifism by the social democracy was a factor of attractiveness for the russian revolution !

Roger Martin du Gard wrote the biography of the imaginary Jean Barrois, french intellectual, Dreyfusard, Free Mason who in his late years converts back to catholicism and conservatism.

In his forties, he writes a letter to be sent to his friends of the time after his death, explaining his ideas ansd saying that if the feebleness of old age change them, it will not be his true self. When he dies his family finds the letter and burns it ....