Pave: Art Cribs Life, Life Retaliates

SHANAHAN AND LAMONT [fictional characters], fearing that Trellis [their author -- drugged by his characters to forestall his writing them about -- himself a fictional character created by another author, unnamed, created by Flann O'Brien, a creation of Brian Nolan] would soon become immune to the drugs and sufficiently regain the use of his faculties to perceive the true state of affairs and visit the delinquents with terrible penalties, are continually endeavouring to devise a PLAN. One day in Furriskey's [another fictional character, written bad but who aspires to virtue, family, and a mortgage] sitting room they discover what appear to be some pages of manuscript of a high-class story in which the names of painters and French wines are used with knowledge and authority. On investigation they find that Orlick [a fictional character fathered by Trellis, the author, on Sheila Lamont (the above Lamont is her indifferently vengeful brother), a fictional character created for the express purpose of improper ravishment; since Orlick is born full-grown, his birth kills poor Sheila] has inherited his father's gift for literary composition. Greatly excited, they suggest that he utilize his gift to turn the tables (as it were) and compose a story on the subject of Trellis, a fitting punishment indeed for the usage he has given others. Smouldering with resentment at the stigma of his own bastardy, the dishonour and death of his mother, and incited by the subversive teachings of the Pooka [an Irish folk spirit on hire by Trellis for the outer narrative], he agrees.

Flann O'Brien,
AKA, Brian O'Nolan or Nolan or Ó Nualláin
(1911-1966),
novelist
At Swim Two Birds (Normal IL: Dalkey Archive Press, 1981/1966). 236.

First published in 1939, ASTB posited the dangers of characters who would not stay put on the page. But how was one to know its fabulous theory of aestho-autogamy would go so wrong? In France of all places. In France where fictions normally have all the life deconstructed out of them.

VILLAGE DRAMA SEES FRENCH NOVELIST
ATTACKED BY OWN CHARACTERS

AURILLAC, France June 23, 2007 (AFP) - Five farmers from a tiny hamlet in central France stood trial this week on charges of violently attacking a writer they accuse of revealing their family secrets to the world in a tell-all novel.

Pierre Jourde says his 2003 novel "Pays Perdu" (Lost Country) was an attempt to get under the skin of Lussaud, a village of 20 souls nestled in the green hills of the Cantal region, where his family roots go back three centuries and where he has spent every summer since childhood.

... Names and dates have been changed, but the two dozen residents of Lussaud -- Jourde's friends and neighbours, whose family stories are intertwined with his own -- easily recognised themselves and their kin.

In July 2005, when Jourdes arrived with his wife and three children for their annual summer stay, they were immediately encircled by six or seven of his neighbours, hurt and angry at what they had heard.

Quickly the scene turned nasty.

... The writer's 15-month-old baby was hurt by flying glass in the face when stones shattered his car windows. Another of his sons was chased down the road under a hail of stones, before the whole family was hounded out of the village.

Jourde's children, of mixed race, got the usual French verbal tarring. It was later affirmed that they had not authored any of the book's characters or contributed any episodes.

... Three women and two men, all farmers aged 39 to 72, went on trial on Thursday in the nearby town of Aurillac on charges of gang violence, attacking a minor, vandalism and making racist insults. ... Defence lawyers argue that Jourde brought the attack upon himself by failing to consult his neighbours of his book project.

... Jean-Marc Morel, mayor of Lussaud, quoted by Le Monde:

Some people have taken this very badly, and the atmosphere is terrible. He will never be forgiven by local people. ... Everybody knows. But we don't talk about these things. He brought out some ugly things, and no one will thank him for that.

If you love Lussaud, like he says he does, then you take the people that come with it. And you stay well clear of writing certain things. We have nothing to gain from this, not like him.

M. Jourde must be quite the naïf to think he could expose the private histories of his lifelong provincial neighbors and escape provincial wrath. Having placed them vividly on the page, why the surprise to see them lividly off the page?

That said, there are few practical protections against being co-opted for art or what passes for art, though there are legal remedies, an area of French law with a strong privacy bias. Lussaud is not so lost to the world that the neighbors were without legal recourse.

Ah, but this is France and the French have a taste for the personal satisfactions of personal justice.

PFFT (What is this?): The joys of provincial France 0 | Off the page and dangerous 4 | Rayonnement français 0