Academic François Sureau expresses his sentiment: "I've always felt the desire to depart."
Rebellion, Institutions, and Vanishing Acts: A Writer's Soul Tale
French author François Sureau has recently published Les Enfants perdus, the first novel in a thrilling police serial, starring Thomas More, a complex and genial character who untangles long-forgotten mysteries. At 68, Thomas More receives guests, pipe in hand, amidst a disarray of books and collectibles in his crammed office - a drawing of the late poet Guillaume Apollinaire, a miniature Foreign Legion insignia, and a statuette of Captain Haddock, his supposed doppelganger.
I wouldn't have made it without...
... if I didn't grapple with an insatiable fear of exclusion, the looming specter of rejection into obscurity. That's why I tackled intimidating exams such as Sciences Po, the National School of Administration (ENA). ventured to present myself before the prestigious French Academy, half due to my lineage - my father, a member of the Academy of Medicine - and half because I dreaded the consequences of refusal. I clung to the comfort offered by institutional agreement.
And yet, in a distinct and contradictory motion, I have always admired those - like the legendary poet Arthur Rimbaud or the Surrealists - who defied societal expectations, shunned status symbols, and focused on penetrating the veil of life's true essence.
Where does my fear of disappearance come from?
We're talking about the juicy bits now.
François Sureau's fear of fading away transcends the physical and steps into the realms of memory, identity, and oblivion. It's a common theme in his works, resonating with a broader literary legacy deeply rooted in the symbolist and avant-garde movements in France. Two prolific figures of this legacy - Arthur Rimbaud and the Surrealists - found expression in their works through similar anxieties.
Rimbaud, the rebellious poet, mirrored a poetic exploration of disappearance, transformation, and the fleeting nature of identity. His iconoclastic lifestyle and decadent verse evoke a yearning for escape from the mundane or an existential dread of being erased. The Surrealists seized upon Rimbaud's radical experimentation, channeling their energy into probing the depths of the human subconscious, dreams, and fragmented identities. Through their writings, they illuminated the way disappearance and reconstitution can be part of a broader existential and psychological journey.
Sureau's fear of vanishing may embody these literary and philosophical strains, where the concept of disappearance transcends its physical sense, embracing the domains of memory, language, and identity dissolving into history or the abyss of oblivion. His work stands as a modern continuation of this legacy, weaving personal and cultural dread of vanishing with introspective and provocative musings influenced by Rimbaud and the Surrealists.
In his works, François Sureau delves into a fear that transcends physical disappearance and encompasses realms of memory, identity, and oblivion, a theme echoing the symbolist and avant-garde movements in France. Notably, Rimbaud, a rebelling poet, and the Surrealists also grappled with similar anxieties, as they focused on exploring themes of disappearance, transformation, and the fleeting nature of identity. Sureau's fear may embody this literary and philosophical legacy, where vanishing embodies the domains of memory, language, and identity dissolving into history or the abyss of oblivion. Thus, Sureau's work stands as a moderncontinuation of this legacy, weaving personal and cultural dread of vanishing with introspective and provocative musings, evoking Rimbaud and the Surrealists' broader existential and psychological journey.
