Jean-Baptiste Botul
The alleged philosopher Jean-Baptiste Botul is a fictional character created by the journalist Frédéric Pagès of the satirical French weekly Le Canard enchaîné in 1995. Pagès also founded L'association des amis de Jean-Baptiste Botul , abbreviated A2JB ("Association of Friends of Jean Baptiste Botul"), devised a sophisticated biography for his fantasy figure and annually awards a "Prix Botul" for works in which Botul is mentioned . Pagès also published several (alleged) works by Jean-Baptiste Botul.
Fictional biography
Allegedly, Jean-Baptiste Botul was born in 1898 in the village of Lairière in the Aude department , where he also died on August 15, 1947. He left no written work: his statements are only passed down orally. Allegedly he had affairs with Marthe Richard , Marie Bonaparte , Simone de Beauvoir and Lou Andreas-Salomé . On his frequent trips, he is said to have met Zapata , Pancho Villa , Henri Désiré Landru , Stefan Zweig , André Malraux , Jean Cocteau , Jean Giraudoux and François Le Lionnais .
reception
In 2010, the French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy fell for this fake and seriously cited works of Botul for his attacks on Immanuel Kant .
Works
The following works were published by Pagès under the name "Jean-Baptiste Botul":
- La vie sexual d'Emmanuel Kant ("retrouvée" by Frédéric Pagès), 1999, ISBN 2-84205-424-5
- The sexual life of Immanuel Kant . Reclam ( Reclams Universal Library ), Leipzig 2001, ISBN 3-379-20017-4
- Landru, précurseur du féminisme: Correspondance inédite, 1919–1922 (correspondance “retrouvée” by Christophe Clerc et Bertrand Rothé), 2001, ISBN 2-84205-587-X
- Nietzsche et le démon de midi (texts «exhumé» by Frédéric Pagès), 2004, ISBN 2-84205-873-9
- Métaphysique du mou (texts «exhumé» par Jacques Gaillard), 2007, ISBN 978-2-7555-0030-1
Botul prizes awarded so far
- 2004 Jacques Gaillard for Mes aventures en Haute Savoie
- 2005 (ex aequo) Ali Magoudi for Rendez-vous and Jean-Hugues Lime for Le Roi de Clipperton
- 2006 Patrice Minet for Moi et la Reine d'Angleterre
- 2007 Emmanuel Brouillard for Trois claques à Balzac
- 2009 Bertrand Rothé for Lebrac, trois mois de prison
Web links
- Reviews of The Sexual Life of Immanuel Kant in the Pearl Diver
- France laughs. BHL quotes an invented thinker , article in the WELT from February 10, 2010
- Website of the "Friends of Botuls" (French)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jacques Roubaud , Botulisme et Oulipisme , La Bibliothèque oulipienne, 2009.
- ↑ Philosophical Irrungen und Wirrungen , article of the taz from February 11, 2010 on the botul fake