ENGLISH TRANSLATION BELOW:
http://northwardho.blogspot.tw/2015/10/french-book-critic-ted-interviews.html
Fascinating [French] interview with Nathaniel Rich, ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW, in English here: http://northwardho.blogspot.tw/2015/10/nathaniel-richs-cli-fi-novel-from-2013.html#Clifi
=============================
UPDATE is that Nat has completed his next novel, but the pub date and title remain a closely held secret at FSG his publisher. It is more ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW cli-fi storytelling, or has Nat gone back to literary fiction of another kind? Stay tuned to this blog.
http://northwardho.blogspot.tw/2015/10/french-book-critic-ted-interviews.html
Fascinating [French] interview with Nathaniel Rich, ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW, in English here: http://northwardho.blogspot.tw/2015/10/nathaniel-richs-cli-fi-novel-from-2013.html
=============================
UPDATE is that Nat has completed his next novel, but the pub date and title remain a closely held secret at FSG his publisher. It is more ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW cli-fi storytelling, or has Nat gone back to literary fiction of another kind? Stay tuned to this blog.
==================================
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''Mon troisième roman est presque terminé, mais ne sera pas publié avant un certain temps.'' [''MY THIRD NOVEL IS ALMOST FINISHED BUT I AM NOT SURE WHEN IT WILL BE PUBLISHED AS IT ALL DEPENDS ON MY PUBLISHERS PLANS AND MARKETING CAMPAIGN FOR IT. MAYBE 2017?'']
=====================
QUESTION: What was the genesis of this novel ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW? What was his point of departure and how long did it take to write it from start to finish.
NAT: Five years.
The original idea came during a conversation with a friend of at Yale - who lives in Paris now. Then he was working for a law firm on Wall Street. He explained to me that the September 11 has made it impossible for the companies to get insurance against disasters. They had begun to resort to various kinds of tricks legal cynical in order to compensate for future disasters. This idea has become the seed for "Future World", the society in the novel.
I wrote the first draft in one year and reworked the text for four years. I have always been very concerned that a hurricane, such as the one that I describe in my novel, struck New York. And then it happened a few months before the publication of my book.
QUESTION: In your novel, the 9/11 event does not appear at all, at least it is not mentioned. Is this a deliberate choice on your part? Is there a willingness to ignore? Or did you want to create a universe without this event?
NAT:
There are a few references but without being appointed. It was voluntary. The 11 September is a strong symbol for the readers, particularly for American readers, whereas I just wanted to provide an entertainment. I am concerned about, for example, to mitigate the tone and to make any attempt at humor impossible. As I said, the tragedy haunts the history. It also defines that the circumstances of the story occur.
The opening scene, which is happening at the college during the earthquake in Seattle, is a record precise enough of my own experience of 11 September 2001. I am sitting in a conference room of Russian literature a few minutes after that the towers have collapsed. Our teacher did not think that the attack was worth the trouble to discuss and to the place, he showed us some slides on the garden of Pushkin.
QUESTION: Your novel is a mixture of genres, Nature Writing, Post-Apo , Cli-fi, satirical novel . Did you voluntarily had the want to mix the genres, or is this the novel that has imposed this constraint?
NAT:
I tried very hard to avoid trap me in a kind. When we talk of kind, we are really talking about a series of snapshots, and nothing is more toxic to the literature as snapshots. I have tried to frustrate the expectations of the kind the or i have seen arise. In particular, I wanted to avoid the vicissitudes that you can see in many blockbusters post-apocalyptic such as "Escape from New York". That is why there are not huge scenes of fracas of crowd, explosions, of politicians giving speeches filled with emotions etc. . We remain focused on Mitchell and his point of view, which is fairly limited. Most of the time, it is literally ghost-lit warder in the darkness. It is a vision to small scale of a disaster on a large scale, which is how, after all, we all have a tendency to experience a disaster: as individual human beings with our own anxieties, our own anxieties.
QUESTION: You started your wrtting career as an author of nonfiction and longfrm journalsim , so what prompted you to try your hand at literary fiction?
NAT:
I know why you think it, but this perception is due to the publication dates and the time it took for me to write a novel. I began by writing a novel but it was published well after my trial. I started my first novel, "The mayor's tongue", when I was 22 years old. It took me six years to complete and it was published in 2008 (it is not yet published in France). During this time, I began to publish the tests. "Paris on the future" took me five years and has been published in the United States in 2013. My third novel is almost finished, but will not be published before a certain time.
I think roundtrips between fiction and test is a way to vent of the two forms. The fiction also allows me to escape from a little of our world. I think that if i had to write novels full time i would go nuts. And my novels would suffer.
QUESTION: In your novel ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW a Jeiwsh risk analyst, a mathematician, is found to be worshipped in the novel as a prophet, is it the reflection of a contemporary American society in lacking any real heros or an icon?
NAT: The Americans live in a state of national paranoia. Our fears influence (and degrade) our policy, culture and our economy. I wanted to write on this that this paranoia we made. What are we doing to our brain to be exposed daily to the many threats that we face in the press or on media not only social, environmental threats, but also of the new terrorism, war, economic collapse, epidemics, armed violence, what you want. What can serve as the fear? Who is it? But more importantly, what ca we made and the impact on our private lives.
QUESTION: We are witnessing, from our Europe window on the USA the emergence of American authors of a high literary quality such as Adam Novy, Ben Marcus and you. How can one explain the emergence of this wave of USA authors?
NAT: I do not know the answer. I suspect that the European interest for these novels reflects European tastes, but it is difficult to generalize for a continent. I understand that in France, at least, there is a greater appetite for novels that are discussing on of big ideas. In the U.S. , the market seems oriented toward novels that divert attention from the reality or flatter our time.
QUESTION: So.....who are the authors who you have influenced you?
Martin Amis, Don DeLillo, Mikhail Bulgakov, Jane Bowles, Charles Dickens, Stephen King, Flann O'Brien, John McPhee
FRENCH TEXT HERE
=====================
QUESTION: What was the genesis of this novel ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW? What was his point of departure and how long did it take to write it from start to finish.
NAT: Five years.
The original idea came during a conversation with a friend of at Yale - who lives in Paris now. Then he was working for a law firm on Wall Street. He explained to me that the September 11 has made it impossible for the companies to get insurance against disasters. They had begun to resort to various kinds of tricks legal cynical in order to compensate for future disasters. This idea has become the seed for "Future World", the society in the novel.
I wrote the first draft in one year and reworked the text for four years. I have always been very concerned that a hurricane, such as the one that I describe in my novel, struck New York. And then it happened a few months before the publication of my book.
QUESTION: In your novel, the 9/11 event does not appear at all, at least it is not mentioned. Is this a deliberate choice on your part? Is there a willingness to ignore? Or did you want to create a universe without this event?
NAT:
There are a few references but without being appointed. It was voluntary. The 11 September is a strong symbol for the readers, particularly for American readers, whereas I just wanted to provide an entertainment. I am concerned about, for example, to mitigate the tone and to make any attempt at humor impossible. As I said, the tragedy haunts the history. It also defines that the circumstances of the story occur.
The opening scene, which is happening at the college during the earthquake in Seattle, is a record precise enough of my own experience of 11 September 2001. I am sitting in a conference room of Russian literature a few minutes after that the towers have collapsed. Our teacher did not think that the attack was worth the trouble to discuss and to the place, he showed us some slides on the garden of Pushkin.
QUESTION: Your novel is a mixture of genres, Nature Writing, Post-Apo , Cli-fi, satirical novel . Did you voluntarily had the want to mix the genres, or is this the novel that has imposed this constraint?
NAT:
I tried very hard to avoid trap me in a kind. When we talk of kind, we are really talking about a series of snapshots, and nothing is more toxic to the literature as snapshots. I have tried to frustrate the expectations of the kind the or i have seen arise. In particular, I wanted to avoid the vicissitudes that you can see in many blockbusters post-apocalyptic such as "Escape from New York". That is why there are not huge scenes of fracas of crowd, explosions, of politicians giving speeches filled with emotions etc. . We remain focused on Mitchell and his point of view, which is fairly limited. Most of the time, it is literally ghost-lit warder in the darkness. It is a vision to small scale of a disaster on a large scale, which is how, after all, we all have a tendency to experience a disaster: as individual human beings with our own anxieties, our own anxieties.
QUESTION: You started your wrtting career as an author of nonfiction and longfrm journalsim , so what prompted you to try your hand at literary fiction?
NAT:
I know why you think it, but this perception is due to the publication dates and the time it took for me to write a novel. I began by writing a novel but it was published well after my trial. I started my first novel, "The mayor's tongue", when I was 22 years old. It took me six years to complete and it was published in 2008 (it is not yet published in France). During this time, I began to publish the tests. "Paris on the future" took me five years and has been published in the United States in 2013. My third novel is almost finished, but will not be published before a certain time.
I think roundtrips between fiction and test is a way to vent of the two forms. The fiction also allows me to escape from a little of our world. I think that if i had to write novels full time i would go nuts. And my novels would suffer.
QUESTION: In your novel ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW a Jeiwsh risk analyst, a mathematician, is found to be worshipped in the novel as a prophet, is it the reflection of a contemporary American society in lacking any real heros or an icon?
NAT: The Americans live in a state of national paranoia. Our fears influence (and degrade) our policy, culture and our economy. I wanted to write on this that this paranoia we made. What are we doing to our brain to be exposed daily to the many threats that we face in the press or on media not only social, environmental threats, but also of the new terrorism, war, economic collapse, epidemics, armed violence, what you want. What can serve as the fear? Who is it? But more importantly, what ca we made and the impact on our private lives.
QUESTION: We are witnessing, from our Europe window on the USA the emergence of American authors of a high literary quality such as Adam Novy, Ben Marcus and you. How can one explain the emergence of this wave of USA authors?
NAT: I do not know the answer. I suspect that the European interest for these novels reflects European tastes, but it is difficult to generalize for a continent. I understand that in France, at least, there is a greater appetite for novels that are discussing on of big ideas. In the U.S. , the market seems oriented toward novels that divert attention from the reality or flatter our time.
QUESTION: So.....who are the authors who you have influenced you?
Martin Amis, Don DeLillo, Mikhail Bulgakov, Jane Bowles, Charles Dickens, Stephen King, Flann O'Brien, John McPhee
FRENCH TEXT HERE
Comment est né ce roman ? Quel fut son point de départ et surtout, l’écriture du roman vous a pris combien de temps ?
L’idée originale est venue lors d’une conversation avec un ami du collège – parisien maintenant. Il travaillait alors pour un cabinet d’avocats à Wall Street. Il m’expliquait que le 11 septembre a rendu impossible pour les entreprises d’obtenir une assurance contre les catastrophes. Ils avaient commencé à recourir à diverses sortes d’astuces juridiques cyniques afin de se dédommager de catastrophes futures. Cette idée est devenue la graine pour « Future World », la société dans le roman.
J’ai écrit la première ébauche en un an et retravaillé le texte pendant quatre ans. J’ai toujours été très inquiet qu’un ouragan, comme celui que je décris dans mon roman, frappe New York. Et puis ça s’est produit quelques mois avant la publication de mon livre.
Dans votre roman, le 11 septembre 2001 n’apparaît pas, du moins n’est pas évoqué. Est-ce un choix volontaire de votre part ? Y-a-t’il une volonté de passer outre ? Ou souhaitiez-vous créer un univers sans cet évènement ?
Il y a quelques références mais sans être nommé. C’était volontaire. Le 11 septembre est un symbole fort pour les lecteurs, particulièrement pour les lecteurs américains, alors que je voulais seulement fournir un divertissement. Je me suis inquiété, par exemple, d’atténuer le ton et de rendre toute tentative d’humour impossible. Comme je le disais, la tragédie hante l’histoire. Il définit également que les circonstances de l’intrigue se produisent.
La scène d’ouverture, qui se passe au collège durant le tremblement de terre de Seattle, est un compte rendu assez précis de ma propre expérience du 11 Septembre 2001. Je me suis assis dans une salle de conférence de littérature russe quelques minutes après que les tours se soient effondrées. Notre professeur n’a pas pensé que l’attaque valait la peine de discuter et à la place, il nous a montré des diapositives sur le jardin de Pouchkine.
Votre roman est un mélange de genres, Nature Writing, Post-Apo, roman satirique new- yorkais… Aviez-vous volontairement eu l’envie de mélanger les genres, ou est-ce le roman qui a imposé cette contrainte ?
J’ai essayé avec acharnement d’éviter de m’enfermer dans un genre. Quand nous parlons de genre, nous parlons vraiment de série de clichés, et rien n’est plus toxique pour la littérature que les clichés. J’ai essayé de déjouer les attentes du genre la où je les ai vues surgir. En particulier, je voulais éviter les péripéties que vous pouvez voir dans beaucoup de blockbusters post-apocalyptiques tels que « Escape from New-York ». Voilà pourquoi il n’y a pas d’énormes scènes d’esclandre de foule, d’explosions, de politiciens donnant des discours remplis d’émotions…. Nous restons centrés sur Mitchell et son point de vue, ce qui est assez limité. La plupart du temps, il est littéralement nimbé dans les ténèbres. C’est une vision à petit échelle d’une catastrophe à grande échelle, qui est de savoir comment, après tout, nous avons tous tendance à éprouver une catastrophe: en tant qu’êtres humains individuels avec nos propres angoisses, nos propres anxiétés.
Vous avez démarré votre carrière en tant qu’auteur d’essais, qu’est-ce qui vous a poussé à passer à la fiction ?
Je sais pourquoi vous pensez cela, mais cette perception est due au dates de publication et le temps qu’il m’a fallu pour écrire un roman. J’ai commencé par écrire un roman mais il fut publié bien après mon essai. J’ai commencé mon premier roman, « The mayor’s tongue », quand j’avais 22 ans. Il m’a fallu six ans pour le terminer et il a été publié en 2008 (il n’est pas encore paru en France). Pendant de ce temps, j’ai commencé à publier des essais. « Paris sur l’avenir » m’a pris cinq ans et a été publié aux États-Unis en 2013. ''Mon troisième roman est presque terminé, mais ne sera pas publié avant un certain temps.'' [''MY THIRD NOVEL IS ALMOST FINISHED BUT I AM NOT SURE WHEN IT WILL BE PUBLISHED AS IT ALL DEPENDS ON MY PUBLISHERS PLANS AND MARKETING CAMPAIGN FOR IT. MAYBE 2017?'']
http://northwardho.blogspot.tw/2015/10/fascinating-french-interview-with.html
http://northwardho.blogspot.tw/2015/10/fascinating-french-interview-with.html
Je pense que les allers-retours entre fiction et essai est une manière de s’aérer des deux formes. La fiction me permet aussi de m’échapper un peu de notre monde. Je pense que si je devais écrire des romans à temps plein je deviendrais fou. Et mes romans en souffriraient.
Qu’un simple analyste, mathématicien, se retrouve adulé tel un prophète, est-il le reflet d’une société américaine contemporaine en manque d’icône ?
Les américains vivent dans un état de paranoïa nationale. Nos craintes influencent (et dégradent) notre politique, la culture et notre économie. Je voulais écrire sur ce que cette paranoïa nous fait. Que faisons subir à notre cerveau pour être exposés quotidiennement aux nombreuses menaces que nous rencontrons dans la presse ou sur des supports non pas sociaux seulement, les menaces environnementales, mais aussi des nouvelles du terrorisme, de la guerre, l’effondrement économique, les épidémies, la violence armée, ce que vous voulez. A quoi peut servir la peur? Qui sert-elle? Mais surtout, ce que ça nous fait et l’impact sur notre vie privée.
Nous assistons, depuis l’Europe à une émergence d’auteurs américains à la qualité littéraire plus exigeante, et osant mélanger les styles tout en revenant à une narration plus linéaire, je pense à Adam Novy, Ben Marcus ou vous. Comment peut-on expliquer l’émergence de cette vague d’auteurs ?
Je ne connais pas la réponse. Je soupçonne que l’intérêt européen pour ces romans reflète les goûts européens, mais il est difficile de généraliser pour un continent. Je crois savoir qu’en France, au moins, il y a un plus grand appétit pour les romans qui débattent sur de grandes idées. Aux États-Unis, le marché semble orienté vers des romans qui distraient de la réalité ou flattent notre époque.
Pour finir quels sont les auteurs qui vous ont le plus influencé ? WHO INFLUENCED YOU?
Martin Amis, Don DeLillo, Mikhail Bulgakov, Jane Bowles, Charles Dickens, Stephen King, Flann O’Brien, John McPhee
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