sado-robbe-grillet

the académicien robbe-grillet is about to release another novel, un roman sentimental. damn it! so much for his profession at the time of the release of les derniers jours de corinthe that he was giving up writing. apparently he had other things to do (such as tend to his beloved garden on his property in basse-normandie, which was apparently devasted by a storm. his property was bought with the help of former the former head les éditions de minuit, jérôme lindon. conveniently for robbe-grillet, and his wife, who visits the imec regularly, it is located apparently only 5 minutes drive from the institute where he placed his beloved manuscripts in 1998 after withdrawing them from the bnf), and had no complusive drive to continue writing until his death bed. but two novels have subsequently appeared, and a movie, and by all reports robbe-grillet is still rather healthy, and so there could be plently more to come.

this novel is slightly different from the others in that now at 85 years of age robbe-grillet makes no bones (hahaha!) about it, that his work is in indeed pornographic (or at least likely to offend). that is, according to his interpretation of society's sensibilities.

as happy as i am that robbe-grillet is still out there writing, it seems as though the warning to readers on the plastic sealed book sounds like the best thing about the new book:

« L’Editeur tient à signaler que ce « conte de fées pour adultes » est une fiction fantasmatique qui risque de heurter certaines sensibilités. L’ouvrage n’étant pas massicoté, il est préférable, pour l’ouvrir, d’user d’un instrument coupant plutôt que de son doigt »

wahoo! pages you have to cut. an extra physical, textual delight! better than fingering the pages...

but how wacky is robbe-grillet? he loves to be loved so he can then give the bras d'honneur in return. what was the first thing robbe-grillet did after being elected to the académie? he refused to be offically inducted since he didn't want to wear the traditional costume (he loves his turtle necks so dearly!), and refused to submit his induction speech in advance (he loves to improvise his speeches). and then, of course, he made a film. and now two years after his film, he writes a porno book, or 'conte fées pour adultes', that could well be banned. haha!