A Picnic on Earth de Rupert Morgan
Chronique
Quand j’ai lu cet ouvrage, j’ai immédiatement pensé à A Million Year Picnic de Ray Bradbury et ai été interpellée par les similitudes entre ces deux textes.
Rupert Morgan nous propose en effet une version loufoque d’un autre pique-nique qui lui aussi réserve des surprises et donne à voir une vision de l’être humain assez sombre ! L’auteur, tel Bradbury, dénonce nos abus et notre manque de respect pour la Terre et la nature. Une belle ode à notre environnement !
Ce roman est également hilarant à la manière des sketchs et films des Monty Python. Un humour britannique mordant ! Les personnages, tout en flegme typiquement britannique, sont farfelus mais touchants.
Ce livre est idéal pour de jeunes lecteurs francophones qui veulent se plonger en douceur dans la lecture en VO.
Review
A delight of sheer British humour. It both reminded me of Asimov’s Picnic as well as of Monty Python’s humour. This novella is an homage to Asimov in which Rupert Morgan revisits the original story while denouncing human beings’ lack of respect for other species and for our planet, as Asimov did in A Million Year Picnic. Students will love the story, the style and will be able to read in the original language almost effortlessly. What else?
The Consultant
Chronique
On retrouve dans cet ouvrage les éléments qui font le style de cet auteur : Humour britannique, satire du capitalisme et du monde du business, amour, dépaysement, … tous les ingrédients sont en place pour plaire à nos adolescents (et pas qu’à eux !)
Ce livre revisite Lord of the Flies de Golding avec brio et nous transporte sur une île paradisiaque qui ressemblera en fin de compte plus à un enfer sur terre qu’à un quelconque paradis !
Review
A jewel of British humour. One more! Rupert Morgan’s satire of business and capitalism is hilarious and his characters are absolutely likable/treacherous, depending on whose side of capitalism they are!
This novella will provide an amazing first read in English for our students, and a perfect introduction to British humour as it revisits Lord of the Flies by William Golding.
NB: il ne s'agit pas de traductions mais de deux chroniques écrites dans chaque langue :)
Et l'interview de Rupert
When did
you know you wanted to become a writer?
I think I was
about nine or ten years old. We had an English teacher who used to make us
write our own stories in class each week and I discovered that it was something
I loved – and so was quite good at! He also used to devote a whole lesson each
week simply to reading to us, which was such a pleasure compared to all our
other classes. The first book he read was an early sci-fi adventure called A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice
Burroughs, the man who invented Tarzan. I was absolutely enthralled by it and
knew from that moment on that I wanted to write books for a living.
What did
you write first?
My early writing was all science fiction and
fantasy stories, heavily influenced by the writers I read in those days such as
H.G. Wells (The War of the Worlds, The
Invisible Man), Robert E Howard (Conan
the Barbarian), Greek myths, 1950s sci-fi movies, and, of course, Marvel Comics. I have a massive collection of
Marvel comics from when I was a kid in the 1970s that today’s fans would die
for. I don’t know what to do with them as they take up a massive amount of
space but my daughters won’t let me sell them!
Who most
influenced you?
In terms of
the kind of writer I grew up to become, I’d have to say the American author
Kurt Vonnegut (Slaughterhouse 5, Breakfast
of Champions). In the '60s and '70s, he was doing a kind of darkly comic
science fiction that was totally about our own society but throwing in other
elements in a really wild, anarchic way that allowed him to go off in all
directions. I found his books incredibly liberating – both as a writer and in
terms of how I think about the world. I tend to turn things around in my head
and try to look at them from a different angle to see if maybe we’re all
understanding it the wrong way. That’s Vonnegut’s influence, I think. The other
two books that had a particular impact on me are Catch 22 by Joseph Heller and Vanity
Fair by William Thackeray. For me, Catch
22 is the greatest book of the 20th century and I’ve never
understood why it isn’t better known in France – it’s a fantastic satire of
World War 2 and the craziness of the military, but the points it makes are true
of all human organisations at all times. It’s a comedy, but totally serious –
which is what I’ve always aimed for in my own writing. Vanity Fair is my favourite book of the 19th century
with a brilliant anti-heroine, Becky Sharpe, who is selfish, manipulative, and
totally reprehensible, but you can’t help but be on her side because of society she lives in is so unequal and snobbish.
Did Monty
Python influence your sense of humour?
Not Monty
Python, but probably the most Python-ish of English writers: Douglas Adams. He
wrote The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
which was, far and away, my favourite comedy as a kid. It’s become a geek
classic and its influence is in tech all around us. Siri on iPhone is forever
making Douglas Adams jokes.
What would
you like to say to French teenagers who do not dare reading in English?
I totally
understand your problem! The trouble is that it’s no fun reading if you keep
getting stuck on words that you don’t know – reading should be a pleasure, not
a chore! But the good news is that English and French are much closer allied
than most of us realise – we have about two-thirds of English coming through
French and Latin and only a third of it is Germanic or Celt. But that one-third
is what makes it seem so difficult! What I’ve tried to prove with the literary
collection that I edit and sometimes write for, Paper Planes, is that English
authors can write good, stylish literature while staying mostly on the Latin
side of our vocabulary. That’s not a constraint for us - we always have about
three ways of saying things in English, so it’s never difficult to find a way
of expressing yourself that will seem magically clear and simple to a French,
Italian or Spanish reader. It’s just that most English writers won’t ever think
about doing that because they imagine foreign readers will automatically read
them in translation. Read one of the books in the collection and you’ll
discover that you know about a hundred times more English words than you think
you do – because they’re the same words as in French!
What would
you recommend teachers to do in order to help students read more in English?
Mastering a
language is all about confidence. So the most important thing is to tell them
to relax and not worry if there are things they don’t understand – they should
focus simply on what they DO understand. With the right texts they’ll find they
are smart enough to guess most of the rest and this will give them more and
more confidence the more they read. This is how we learned language as children
– we understood some words and we just guessed the rest. Sometimes we got it
wrong, but so what?
Who are
your favourite writers? Why?
Setting
aside the writers I’ve already talked about above, and focussing just on
contemporary authors, I have the most respect for writers who don’t consider
themselves to be more important than the reader. What I mean by that is that
it’s quite easy – and very tempting - to write in an overtly ‘literary’ style
where the reader is always conscious of the writer’s voice and clever use of
language, but it takes real skill and humility to write in a way where you, the
author, disappear behind the characters and their story. Unfortunately, because
people are so easily impressed by a certain kind of artistic pretension, it’s
usually the most self-indulgent books that win awards! Yet if you take a writer
such as, say, William Boyd or Jonathan Frantzen, they are primarily serving
their characters – and therefore the reader – while being every bit as
intelligent, creative, and perceptive as more flamboyant writers.
Why did you
accept to join my students’ project?
Because
good, inspirational teachers are the most important people in society in that
they can influence many, many lives in the course of a single career and so
always deserve support.
Anything
you’d like to add?
You know
that feeling you often have at school that you’re being taught stuff that you’re
not going to need as an adult? You’re right. You won’t. And, to make things
more complicated, today we have almost no idea what skills will be useful in
the world of 15 or 20 years from now because everything is changing so fast.
But there is one skill that will definitely, always, in every domain, give
those who have it an advantage over other people: the ability to communicate
well. That’s why reading and, above all, writing is incredibly useful – it
teaches you how to organise your thoughts and how to express them clearly. Most
people are very bad at that. It also teaches you to think better, deeper, and
more originally. It teaches you to know yourself and others better. And, for
those who find they like it, it’s a source of great pleasure!
Thanks so much Rupert!
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Merci d'échanger avec nous !
Gabriel et Marie-Hélène.