The same stories
I’m rereading L’Effet Casimir. In preparation for its electronic publication, I thought of a new cover page, but with the painting of Sylvie Laliberté, a friend at the time from whom I had modestly bought the reproduction rights. This painting is essential to the story, as it is described and represents the theme well.
I would have thought that my gaze and my mind would have changed, evolved over the past ten years. I’m not sure anymore. The story of the psychoanalyst Marthe in this novel is undoubtedly different from Diane’s story in Les Mailles sanguines. However, both of them met, drank, and encountered the reef at the will of an artist stronger than they were. Both were also lost. It is true that, later on, their paths diverge. Martha has a more distant personality, while Diane struggles with her emotional passivity.
And then there is also Lucienne, very different from Rose, but still. Two women who are in the service of another, two maids and two rural women. In the novel, these two characters are used to illustrate the "simple reality." For the rest, fortunately, it is literature, different scenes, and dialogues.
Michel Tremblay, and many others before him have already said that there is nothing more to tell. Let us repeat the same themes, the same stories over and over again. There is a little truth in that, especially since we seem unable to renew ourselves. To avoid falling asleep too much, you have to question yourself. Write a story by generally using the same principle: there is a crisis, and it must be solved. The word crisis has its origin in Greek and means choice.
It gives me an idea for the next novel. I wouldn’t hate writing short stories as I did for La Vie dure. The theme: people who do not make choices, who remain to wait, who deal with it, who are satisfied with their little happiness tasting a little vinegar or having softened, without having the courage to do it again. How many people think that their joy ends where their dissatisfaction begins?
This leads me to think about the current political situation. The electorate is stagnant, the people, disillusioned, hesitant, no longer want to choose, because they have the impression that they have no choice. I like this "spring" in Quebec 2012 that doesn’t want to turn into winter...
We always have the choice to do something different. Today, on Facebook, I read this maxim: You can’t start a new chapter in your life if you keep reading the previous one.
Looking back at my old writings, I can see how far I still have to go. I have been given an existence (or if you prefer, my life is in me), it is up to me to cultivate it.
