Re: RARA-AVIS: I Spit on Your Grave/Boris vian

Etienne Borgers (freeweb@rocketmail.com)
Mon, 21 Dec 1998 03:56:15 -0800 (PST) I have to correct your impression here, about the
influence of Vian on the introduction of Noir
American literature in France.
The real initiator is Georges Duhamel, that
translated for Gallimard in France, prior to 1945,
some American literature including some from the
hard-boiled and Noir domains (Noir was not yet
existing as a word to qualify this literature).
He is the one that for sure recognized the value and
potential of the genres, as it was therefore he
pushed Gallimard to create the legendary Serie Noire,
to publish in France this literature (by American
authors mainly) in a collection aimed initially to
the general public.

As Vian was a model of ecclectism, it could be that
he recognized some authors of value to be recommended
for the series; he was anyway doing occasional
translations for it. But he was better known for his
very good translations of American science fiction.

He was himself a real author, publishing more
mainstream novels(if we may call mainstream the very
original style of Vian in his novels!) in French.
'Spit...' is really a pastiche of tough American
mystery novels and was fuelled by Vian's humor for
its promotion in France!
Vian was one of the central characters of the
Saint-Germain-des-Pres night life in Paris (
lifestyle supported by many intellectuals of the time
and linked to the Existentialist literary and
philosophical movement in Paris during and after WW2).
He played jazz in the 'caves' (cellars) of SGDP, was
also a jazz critic, was a song writer, a singer
(famous for some antiautoritarian songs and also for
some very funny blues parodies in French), a
translator; he acted in a few films... and was an
engineer by profession.
Not that many like him!

I take the opportunity to wish all the followers of
this list a very good Season holiday.

E.Borgers
Hard-boiled Mysteries
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/6384

---Tosh <tosh@loop.com> wrote:
>
> Interesting commentary from Jay Gertzman.
>
> What I know of Boris Vian is that he was friends
with jazz players Charlie
> Parker, Ellington, and Miles Davis. What he knew
of America (I believe he
> never been to America before and during the writing
of I SPIT ON YOUR
> GRAVES) was through his Jazz friends - and perhaps
U.S. soldiers. He was
> also responsible for translating hardboiled
American crime novels into
> French. So he was partly ( or IS) responsible for
introducing American
> noir novels into France.
>
> Where can one get Geoffrey Gorer's essay? Many
thanks for Jay in bringing
> up the subject.
>
> -----------------
> Tosh Berman
> TamTam Books
> ----------------
>
>
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