[The Typing Baker] What Remains for a Novelist... The Novelist Answered "People"

'Sharp Social Critique' French Writer C?line
Writes Novel Interviewing Himself
Invents Uninhibited Style of Expression

"The reality is, simply put, that the publisher is experiencing a very serious slump in sales." The 'Interview with Professor Y' begins this way. This is also the reason why the writer Louis-Ferdinand C?line conducted an interview with Professor Y. The interviewer is Professor Y, and the interview is about the writer C?line. He conducted this interview to satisfy Gaston Gallimard, who wanted him to 'work.' Gaston Gallimard, the founder of the French publishing house 'Gallimard' and a figure who launched a literary criticism magazine with Andr? Gide and others, wanted C?line to appear on the radio, shoot videos, and call journalists to get published in magazines, or so C?line thought. Instead of participating in that 'confusing and terrible process,' C?line came up with this interview as a desperate measure. By doing so, in an era when the publisher was suffering from a serious sales slump, he could sell at least one more book. In fact, Louis-Ferdinand C?line wrote this work as a kind of promotional piece before releasing his new novel. This honesty, far from hypocrisy, runs through the novel 'Interview with Professor Y.'

Louis-Ferdinand C?line is a 20th-century French writer who stands shoulder to shoulder with Albert Camus and Marcel Proust, gaining attention for his free and scathing criticism of reality. His debut novel, 'Journey to the End of the Night,' deals with nationalism and colonialism. In 1936, he published his second novel, 'Death on Credit,' attacking capitalism, and after traveling to Russia, he wrote 'Guignol's Band,' criticizing the communist system. The reason he needed a book to promote himself through an interview was due to his openly declared anti-Semitism. Because of this, after World War II, he was condemned as a collaborator with the Nazis and imprisoned in Denmark. The literary world and academia thoroughly shunned him. After serving his sentence in Denmark and just returning to France, at a time when he had nothing left as a novelist, he wrote 'Interview with Professor Y.'

Professor Y is none other than the writer himself; it is a novel in which he interviews himself. C?line meets Professor Y in a park. They talk all the way to Gallimard's house. In this simple conversation, C?line reveals himself as he is. For example, when Professor Y asks, "What are you?" he answers, "Just a trivial inventor." He says he only invented a very minor technique and does not convey any message to the world. C?line 'invented' a unique style that boldly uses raw language, including various slang expressions, drawn from the rural and urban back alleys and market floors of France at the time. He says he knows that his invention is a very minor technique, like a small log-shaped button that will be forgotten someday. Nevertheless, he claims that his invention of expressing emotion in written language is better than those 'ideas.' "I have no ideas! Nothing at all! And in my opinion, nothing is more vulgar, banal, and disgusting than ideas," C?line exclaims.

Still, the writer concludes the interview with Professor Y by saying, "This is not an important text." That may be true, but if someone is waiting for and reading that text, it is already important. This aligns with C?line's answer to the question of what remains for a novelist: 'people.' His answer remains meaningful to us today, who write and read texts.

(Interview with Professor Y / written by Louis-Ferdinand C?line · translated by Lee Juhwan / Eutta / 15,000 KRW)