Ayerdhal

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Ayerdhal (2014)

Yal Ayerdhal (* 26. January 1959 in Lyon , † 27. October 2015 in Brussels ), actually Marc Soulier , was a French science fiction - writers .

life and work

Marc Soulier grew up in the Lyon suburb of Vénissieux , in a traditionally politically left-wing milieu. His father Jacky Soulier is considered the best known French collector of science fiction. For example, he owns all of the works in the Anticipation series by Fleuve noir . The father's collection awakened a passion for science fiction in his son too. At the age of 13 he chose his pseudonym Ayerdhal and kept it all his life.

Ayerdhal worked in a number of professions: ski instructor, professional footballer, employee at L'Oréal and entrepreneur. Nonetheless, he wrote all this time. At the age of 28 he submitted his first manuscript to a publisher, La Bohème et l'Ivraie . It's about an artist who revolted against a political regime. The book was published by Fleuve noir in 1990.

Ayerdhal admired the Americans Ray Bradbury , Frank Herbert and Norman Spinrad . After his first work, he wrote a number of other dystopias , but also space operas . He saw himself as an enlightener in the sense of the thesis of Jean-Paul Sartre he quoted :

«La fonction de l'écrivain est de faire en sorte que nul ne puisse ignorer le monde et que nul ne puisse s'en dire innocent. »

"The job of the writer is to make sure that no one can ignore the world and no one can say that he is innocent of it."

In 1993 he received the Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire for Demain, une oasis . In this novel, a humanitarian command kidnaps a doctor from Geneva to a village in the Sahel region so that he can work in a refugee camp.

Even though they are set on strange worlds, his narratives are realistic and political. They celebrate the uprising for freedom. Ayerdhal saw science fiction as the successor to philosophy; as the domain in which one can still speculate about humanity and its future. With Transparences , published in 2004 by Diable Vauvert , Ayerdhal switched to the genre of crime . He later mixed the two genres. Bastards , published by Diable Vauvert in 2004, begins as a classic crime thriller and then turns into the paranormal. Meanwhile, he turned back to an old passion, the fifth volume of his cycle Cybione . Its heroine Eylia has to throw herself into suicidal actions, which she always survives. However, each time she loses memory of her previous life. Ayerdhal couldn't find the time to finish the work.

His advocacy for tolerance, for the environment and for the fair distribution of wealth runs through all genres. In 2013, twenty years after Demain, une oasis , he turned back to Africa in the thriller Rainbow Warriors . The work can be read as political fiction, as a social utopia or, in another reading, as a spy thriller in which the western states are guilty of secret service actions to protect their interests. An army of 5,000 lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transsexuals from five continents is bringing down a homophobic dictatorship that is selling its culture and natural resources to multinational corporations. Ayerdhal also campaigned for the rights of authors: in October 2000 he founded the interest group Le droit du Serf for this purpose .

Ayerdhal died of cancer . He shared his illness with his readers on social networks .

Awards

literature

Web links

Commons : Ayerdhal  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Unless other sources are expressly stated, the description follows the obituary of Macha Séry in Le Monde .
  2. ↑ Michel Guilloux: Ayerdhal. La science, la politique et la fiction. In: L'Humanité . February 3, 1995, accessed on November 1, 2015 (French, interview with Ayerdhal, republished on the occasion of his death).
  3. ^ Jean-Paul Sartre: Qu'est-ce que la littérature? (=  Folio essais ). Gallimard, 1985, ISBN 978-2-07-032306-7 (French: Qu'est-ce que la littérature? 1947. First edition: 1947, cited from Le Monde).
personal data
SURNAME Ayerdhal
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Soulier, Marc (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French science fiction writer
DATE OF BIRTH January 26, 1959
PLACE OF BIRTH Lyon , France
DATE OF DEATH October 27, 2015
Place of death Brussels , Belgium