Vincent Villeminot and the future of our society
- Le Nerd Librarian
- Apr 16, 2019
- 7 min read
A month ago, I was lucky enough to be chosen as part of a small crowd who would get sent a copy of Vincent Villeminot’s latest novel to read and review. We were also invited to meet him on April 10th, as he was in Paris to promote his book. [My review here].
[Disclaimer: I am not a professional translator!!]
Who is Vincent Villeminot?
Vincent Villeminot first worked as a journalist before he 'chanced upon' the universe of YA.
In 2003, he was working on a tourist guide when his editor asked him whether he would be interested in writing a book for children. He had a 6-year old at the time and accepted the challenge to write for his son. This book became Anatole n’aime pas l’école.
He admits that he was “insolently lycky never to have to send a manuscript to a stranger”. He now writes full-time.
Nous sommes l’étincelle: Villeminot and the future of our society?
In his latest novel, Nous sommes l’étincelle, Villeminot tries to imagine what happens to political movements led by young people who try to envision a different societal organization. More specifically, we follow a handful of characters, some of whom decide to retire to uninhabited parts of France and build small autonomous communes.
Another dystopian novel?
VV: "I reject the label dystopia for this novel, even though it is marketed as such. To me, the dystopian genre refers to a time or a place where everything is made extreme to make us think about our current reality.
I don't think everything is pushed to an extreme in the case of Nous sommes l'étincelle, even though I admit that I chose to focus on one of the villages where the situation is possibly the worst. However, I stand by the idea that there are still things to do, to explore, to put through the test of time.
YA writers have a tendency to focus on- and glorify rebellions, but what interests me is the aftermath, what happens 30 years after that? Have the former rebels become the force that need to be overturned by a new generation of underdogs? I want to take the time to see how these young rebels can evolve.
The question of creating a utopia is interesting, Thomas' manifesto in the novel, Do Not Count on Us, is actually based on Thomas More's Utopia. Writing this novel was a way of creating a universe similar to ours in the beginning and of exploring the political ramifications of the radical choice that my characters make. My goal is to talk about the world as it is now, by open as many windows as I can on our current situation, even if the result should feel a bit heavy-handed."
The writing process
"In the beginning, I was writing two different stories: a detective novel taking place on a college campus and a novel about hooligans. After a while, I got stuck, until my editor sent me an article by a geographer about what the French countryside would look like 30 years from now if we converted to Veganism. There it was: the place where all of my characters could finally come to life. I decided to combine these two stories into one!
It's important to me to find inspiration in real life. I don't want my characters to become mere mouthpieces, to the point of becoming caricatures.
I found inspiration for this novel in many different events, one of them being the Arab Spring. I lived in Egypt for a time, and I know that revolutionaries hired Al-Ahly hooligans to learn street fighting and to prepare themselves to face the army. This very group of hooligans was then attacked by the opposing club Al Masri in the stadium of Port Said, aided by the military, who locked the gates of the stadium after a match."
The research behind the book
"I contacted fellow YA author and friend, Clémentine Beauvais [who is a scholar at the University of York], and she helped me flesh out my character Thomas' career as a brilliant young scholar who turns on the system that made him.
I also consulted a lot of survivalists' websites about life in the forest: what to eat, how to build a house... But I didn't need to dig too deep, because my characters don't know anything about the new lives they're trying to build for themselves, which was easier for me to write. I was also visually influenced by American movies about the Vietnam War.
It is painstaking work, but necessary, even though I would say that most of the work is character development. This novel represents 18 months of non-stop writing, 8 to 12 hours a day, without a single day off. And I was lucky enough to have an editor to help me, knowing that this book would be published eventually."
Working on Musicality
“I am veering more and more towards an evocative, musical style. I start including free verse in my writing. At this point in my career, I feel like I absolutely need this musicality to write certain types of scenes, scenes of street fighting for instance. It’s not unlike drafting a choreography.
You also need this when you write in French, where the verb is not as central as it is in the English language, and which makes it easier for English-speaking authors to write action scenes.”
A complex back-and-forth in time and space
"Here, the diegesis is not chronological, we go back and forth between several time periods, which makes it more difficult for the reader to follow, but which to me was essential. It enabled me to ask the central question of the novel: were they wrong all this time? Were they wrong to to make the decision to secede?
And I did write a chronological version of this novel, but it made more sense to me to approach the lives of the 3 children (Dan, Montana and Judith) through the prism of all of the struggles and the political choices that led to their situation.
I am aware that I might lose some readers along the way, and it pains me to think about this. But I am convinced that, for the ending to make sense, and for it to be impactful, the story has to be told this way."
Is it really a novel for Young Adults? Why publish it with PKJ?
"I know that it's a risky move, that I am alienating a great number of adult readers who might be interested in this topic and questions, and who will not have the curiosity to browse the YA section of their bookstore. Nevertheless, it's a risk I'm willing to take.
To be honest, I'm not sure there exists a right place for this novel, outside the realm of genre literature. This is the sad reality of the French publishing industry. If this were a translation, sure, but not for a French novel. On the other hand, I do write for adults, my target audience is the 18-20 bracket. And I write for my children, first and foremost.
I think that children's and YA literature is looked down upon, the same way adults look down on teenagers and their culture. I have tremendous respect for teenagers. Some discussions that I've had during school visits have had an incredible impact on the way I write. Writing for teens has helped me look further than my own person and has steered me away from the narcissistic novels that I used to write.
I feel like if we write well for teenagers, adults will come around. I am intimately convinced that we need to write novels that stimulate teenagers's minds and intelligence.
Besides, I prefer the YA side of the publishing industry. Editors are very helpful and very passionate about the authors that they follow. From a purely financial perspective, there is less of a turnover in YA bookstores, which means that a hardback can stay on the shelves for a few years if it is a personal favorite of the bookseller's.”
What is the message here exactly, that rebellions are inevitable yet doomed to failure?
“I try not to write ‘message novels’. I create situations according to my personal interests, my culture.
To me, literature is the moment when something happens between a writer and a reader through a book. Once I’m done writing a book, it no longer belongs to me. What the readers takes away from it not up to me. I do not wish to influence the way my readers receive my book. This is why this novel is not a “green” manifesto, nor is it pro-Vegan or pro-Hooliganism.
I never try to enhance reality to make it ideal, I try to depict it as it is. For instance, I am a Pacifist, yet in my novels, pacifists always lose because this is how it usually goes in life.
I feel like novels are different from plays in that the role of the novelist is to create a universe that embodies the reality of our world, whereas theater is a laboratory where other realities can be explored.
All of this is moot, however, since good novels resist the test of time and outgrow the author’s intensions.
Some of my characters do reflect my personal opinions, though. I am an Anarchist, and some of my characters are as well, but I don’t like the idea of my novel being hailed as an Anarchist manifesto. Especially as I try to include opposing ideas. I don’t want my novels to be interpreted in only one way.”
Should we expect a sequel?
“I don't think I could write a sequel to Nous sommes l’étincelle, emotionally-speaking. I might be interested in writing different stories from the same universe, but when it comes to these characters - some of whom have become very dear to me - I just can't pick them up again. What I've written has set. To write about them again would require a good reason.”
Villeminot’s relationship with his editor
“Novels are often too long: nowadays you could easily cut 20% of most genre novels. This is why it is so important to work with an editor, because they help you peel away the layers that make your novel too verbose, too descriptive.
In France, people tend to look down on this back-and-forth between an author and their editor, but it is the core of the writing process. People are uncomfortable with the idea of art as work, of the work of art as something that reeks of sweat.
This is pure snobbery: there is no revelation in writing. I know a lot of writers who work like me, because we need reassurance, coaxing, challenging, otherwise we might take fewer risks for fear of not being published and we might stop ourselves from writing something truly original.
And we need to take risks, to be less conformist, or else TV shows will kill us. YA fiction is the place to do just that. It is a space where we can experiment and explore the blind spots of TV.
As for my relationship with my editor on Nous sommes l’étincelle, it was very intense, exhilarating. He never imposed his ideas but was very present. Sometimes, we spent an entire day discussing a single sentence.”
**The editor timidly adds: “to be honest, I couldn’t afford to work like this on all of the novels that I follow, otherwise I would never sleep! On the other hand, this is the reason I do this job.”**
To conclude
Even though I did not like this novel and am not Villeminot's biggest fan, I found the discussion about the French YA publishing industry and the work of a YA editor fascinating! Thanks, Babelio!
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