Dans la forêt des paradoxes

"In the forest of paradoxes"
Author(s)	J. M. G. Le Clézio Translated by Alison Anderson
Original title	"Dans la forêt des paradoxes"
Country	France
Language	French
Genre(s)	Essay
Publisher	Svenska Akademien
Publication date	December 7, 2008
Pages	1 pp

"Dans la forêt des paradoxes" is an essay written by French author and Nobel laureate J. M. G. Le Clézio in French^[1] and translated into English by Alison Anderson as In the forest of paradoxes^[2].

Purpose

Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio delivered his Nobel Lecture,"Dans la forêt des paradoxes"(In the forest of paradoxes), 7 December 2008, at the Swedish Academy, Stockholm.^[3]

Introduction

Le Clézio was introduced by Horace Engdahl, Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy.

In his comments to reporters after the announcement that the Nobel Prize this year was going to Le Clézio, Engdahl again struck a cosmopolitan note. Le Clézio, he said approvingly, "is not a typical Frenchman; he is a nomadic writer. He doesn't belong anywhere."^[4]

— Jonathan Derbyshire

The Lecture was dedicated to...

“To the Africans:

• Wole Soyinka
• Chinua Achebe
• Ahmadou Kourouma
• Mongo Beti
• to Alan Paton’s Cry, The Beloved Country
• to Thomas Mofolo’s Chaka
• To the great Mauritian author Malcolm de Chazal
  • who wrote, among other things, Judas
• To the Hindi-language Mauritian novelist Abhimanyu Unnuth^[5], for ‘Lal passina’ (Sweating Blood)
• to the Urdu novelist Qurratulain Hyder
  • for her epic novel Ag ka Darya (River of Fire).”

— Le Clézio^[6]

French

The lecture was delivered in French.^[7] There is an English translation published on the web-page of the Nobel prize in Literature.^[2]

"Dans la forêt des paradoxes"

French version on the Nobel Lecture web-page^[1]

as published by THE NOBEL FOUNDATION 2008

Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, winner of that year's Nobel Prize for Literature, gives a lecture about the "forêt des paradoxes", which "is, precisely, the realm of writing, the place from which the artist must not attempt to escape". Speaking about his own influences and the global importance of literature in translation, the french-mauritian laureate quotes Stig Dagerman, claiming after the following quote that the very name and concept of the "forêt des paradoxes" is taken from "The Writer and Consciousness", one of the swedish author's political essays.^[8].

"How is it possible on the one hand, for example, to behave as if nothing on earth were more important than literature, and on the other fail to see that wherever one looks, people are struggling against hunger and will necessarily consider that the most important thing is what they earn at the end of the month? Because this is where he (the writer) is confronted with a new paradox: while all he wanted was to write for those who are hungry, he now discovers that it is only those who have plenty to eat who have the leisure to take notice of his existence."

— Stig Dagerman, "The Writer and Consciousness", as quoted by J-M.G. Le Clézio^[9]

English translation

Translated by Alison Anderson with the title "In the forest of paradoxes"^[2]

Calls on publishers to boost efforts to disseminate books in all languages

Publishers must support literary translation and act creatively so that books are no longer an inaccessible luxury for many

— Le Clézio speaking at the Swedish Academy,reported by the guardian ^[10]

Mentions Hitler

Who knows, if the Internet had existed at the time, perhaps Hitler's criminal plot would not have succeeded – ridicule might have prevented it from ever seeing the light of day.

— J. M. G. Le Clézio^[11]

Criticism

"If there is one virtue which the writer's pen must always have, it is that it must never be used to praise the powerful, even with the faintest of scribblings."

— Le Clézio, Brittany, 4 November 2008 translated by Alison Anderson

Clay Risen's derision of Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio's acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize for Literature"Really? In my humble experience, sometimes powerful people can do great good [...]and poor people can do great evil."^[12]

Permission to re-publish

"General permission is granted for the publication in newspapers in any language after December 7, 2008, 5:30 p.m. (Swedish time). Publication in periodicals or books otherwise than in summary requires the consent of the Foundation. On all publications in full or in major parts the above underlined copyright notice must be applied".^[2]

— THE NOBEL FOUNDATION 2008

Publication history

• 2008, Brittany,France,THE NOBEL FOUNDATION 2008 Svenska Akademien

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Le Clézio, Jean-Marie Gustave (2008-12-07). "Conférence Nobel" (in French). Conférence Nobel. LA FONDATION NOBEL 2008. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2008/clezio-lecture_fr.html. Retrieved 11 December 2008. 
2. ^ ^{a b c d} THE NOBEL FOUNDATION 2008 (2008-12-07). "THE NOBEL FOUNDATION 2008". Nobel Lecture. THE NOBEL FOUNDATION 2008. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2008/clezio-lecture_en.html. Retrieved 11 December 2008. 
3. ^ http://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=French_author_Le_Cl%C3%A9zio_wins_the_2008_Nobel_Prize_in_Literature&stable=1
4. ^ "Rise of the new Anglo-world order". Books. New Statesman. 2008-12-18. http://www.newstatesman.com/books/2008/12/world-literature-french. Retrieved 2008-12-18. 
5. ^ "Interview with Jean-Marie Le Clézio". Interview conducted by Tirthankar Chanda Academic and contributor to Le Magazine littéraire. France-Diplomatie. 2008. http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/france_159/label-france_2554/label-france-issues_2555/label-france-no.-45_3724/literature_3732/interview-with-jean-marie-clezio_5092.html. Retrieved 18 December 2008. "Le Clézio said "I am thinking of the Mauritian novelist, Abhimanyu Unnuth, who I discovered recently when the new translation of his book "Lal Pasina" was published. This is a novel which in some ways reminds you of Eugène Sue. Unnuth uses the traditional novel form, but the better to subvert it by introducing epic elements, songs and a rhythm which belongs to Indian poetics. The result is The Wandering Jew or Les Mystères de Paris, Ramayana revisited!"" 
6. ^ "Le Clézio dedicates Nobel Prize to Qurratulain Hyder, others". IANS. 2008-12-08. http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/le-clezio-dedicates-nobel-prize-to-qurratulain-hyder-others_100128633.html. Retrieved 2008-12-14. 
7. ^ Le Clézio, Jean-Marie Gustave (2008-12-07). "Dans la forêt des paradoxes". Nobel Lecture. THE NOBEL FOUNDATION 2008. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2008/clezio-lecture.html. Retrieved 11 December 2008. ""See a Video of the Nobel Lecture"" 
8. ^ Le Clézio, Jean-Marie Gustave (2008-12-07). "Dans la forêt des paradoxes". Nobel Lecture. THE NOBEL FOUNDATION 2008. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2008/clezio-lecture_en.html. Retrieved 22 April 2011. . J.-M. G. Le Clézio is quoting from "a collection of political essays entitled Essäer och texter" he is "particularly fond of".
9. ^ "Le Clézio travels into 'the forest of paradoxes'". Charlotte West [e-mail]/08 656 6518. The Local Swedens news in English. 2008-12-08. http://www.thelocal.se/16192/20081207/. Retrieved 2011-04-22. 
10. ^ Lea, Richard (2008-12-08). "Le Clézio uses Nobel lecture to attack information poverty". guardian.co.uk. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/dec/08/jmg-clezio-nobel-lecture. Retrieved 11 December 2008. ""Publishers must support literary translation and act creatively so that books are no longer an inaccessible luxury for many, he said."" 
11. ^ "The potential for tyranny is there in any era". Tom Sutcliffe. the Independent. 2008-12-08. http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/thomas-sutcliffe/tom-sutcliffe-the-potential-for-tyranny-is-there-in-any-era-1058043.html. Retrieved 11 December 2008. ""Unfortunately he also, very briefly, mentioned Hitler. As a result a passing aside in his lecture won most of the headline space"" 
12. ^ "Nobel Rot". Clay Risen. The New Republic. 2008-12-09. http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2008/12/09/nobel-rot.aspx. Retrieved 11 December 2008. "Really? In my humble experience, sometimes powerful people can do great good—i.e., Franklin Roosevelt—and poor people can do great evil. And vice-versa—the world is a crazy, complicated place. Most people I know gave up such reductive, proto-Marxism in their late teens." ^{[dead link]}