Provoking debate

Casually dressed, soft-spoken and a patient listener, Pascal Bruckner is an acclaimed French novelist. Born with an instinct for the fresh, Bruckner belongs to the Generation of 1968, a revolutionary era in the history of France. In town to promote The Divine Child (Rupa France), a novel published sometime back, he is a man who doesn’t divorce politics, culture and sexuality.
“There are numerous ways to exhibit the spirit of resistance. In France, everybody wants to resist, some against the government and others against culture. In Divine Child the question that I place before readers is what if a child were permitted to choose, before birth, whether or not to enter the world,” says Bruckner.
In the book, Madeleine Barthelemey is pregnant with twins. Doctors advice her to undertake their education in utero. Soon Celine is born. But she has to forgo her eruditeness upon entering the world. Being a spectator of her fate, Louis refuses birth and embarks on a rebellion. In chapters like “the Uterine Republic”, “the pedantic peewee”, “the cerberus of conjugal life” and “a retiring foetus”, the critically-acclaimed novel unfolds.
Bruckner is not a first time visitor to the country. His first visit was in 1980. “I had read Naipaul and his description of a ‘sinking country’. I investigated the matter for a few French newspapers and covered Indira Gandhi’s re-election. Back after 25 years, I find that Naipaul was wrong. The country has changed immensely. On one hand you have millionaires and on the other a vast and aspiring middle class. Liberalisation has been a huge incentive. After witnessing the change, I have stopped making predictions. In the course of one life I find history changing.”
The French novelist wrote an important criticism of what Paul Berman calls “Left-wing self-delusion” in The Tears of the White Man. He is also known for La Mélancolie Démocratique and La Tentation de l’innocence. The last mentioned goes on to show his understanding of the United States. Speaking on the rise of China and India on the political map he says, “India has an advantage over China as far as democracy is concerned. You can vote and reject a President or Prime Minister. China is lacking in this respect. In India, the press is free. This is proved time and again when I read The Statesman or The Hindu. I feel France should attract more Indian students. Visa regulation in my country should be eased out. Occidentals look at the Orient with curiosity and fear, for China and India are emerging countries.
“Previously India was considered a poor country. But seeing the new image of the country, they are a bit scared.”
Some friends of Bruckner see the novelist as an individual who attacks the peace of the French intelligentsia. He is a person who provokes debates.
-- Mathures Paul
(The article was published in The Statesman when Pascal Bruckner visited the Kolkata Book Fair)