Mess (novel)
The novel Schweinerei with the French original title Truismes was written in 1996 by the French writer Marie Darrieussecq . The work was translated into German in 1997 by Frank Heibert . The socially critical satire tells of a young woman who takes a job in a perfumery. Through her work environment and her activities, which go far beyond massages, her body changes and she slowly turns into a sow.
The bestseller
She wrote her first work within six weeks and at the same time was working on her doctoral thesis "Autofiction et ironie tragique chez Georges Perec, Michel Leiris, Serge Doubrovsky, Hervé Guibert". The book has been translated into 30 languages, published in 34 countries and was high on the bestseller lists in many countries in 1996. Over 1,000,000 copies of this novel have been sold worldwide. Truismes topped the French bestseller list for 28 weeks and sold more than 250,000 nationally. Marie Darrieussecq was nominated for the Prix Goncourt with this work . The French director Jean-Luc Godard secured the film rights for the book .
Truismes is Darrieussecq's sixth novel. However, the first published because she did not feel that her first writings were good enough to publish them. She sent her work Truismes to six publishers and the four publishers POL , Grasset , le Seuil and Fayard wanted to publish the book immediately. Darrieussecq chose the smallest publisher, POL , where most of her works are still published today.
content
An unemployed young woman who remains nameless gets a job in a perfumery. The protagonist quickly realizes that the services in the business go beyond advice and massages, but she likes them. From then on she works as a prostitute and describes her job as something banal, even normal, if not irrelevant. Over time, your body begins to change. At first, her skin turns pink, becomes tighter and more feminine. She even grows teats and a curly tail, and she can only stand upright with pain. She turns into a sow and consequently develops an aversion to any sausage and meat products.
Your clientele doesn't seem to be bothered by the change, because the massage parlor remains well attended. However, customers seem to have changed too. They are no longer the same customers as when they started working in the perfumery. Her clientele becomes more and more insolent, insults them during sexual intercourse and even adapts to the physical appearance of the protagonist. Customers crawl on all fours and behave like animals by making animal sounds.
But when the change in the protagonist can no longer be hidden - a state in which she hardly appears human - she loses her job in the massage parlor. She experiences more and more negative things by leaving Honoré from her partner, being abused for various election campaigns and having to celebrate various orgies.
However, her life takes a turn when she meets the Wolf Man and Wolfado General Manager, Yvan, and falls in love with him. He's the first man to accept her for what she is - a pig. Nevertheless, their luck does not last long, because on the hunt for Yvan and you Yvan is killed. After this experience, the protagonist fled to her mother, with whom she does not have a good relationship. At the latest when her own mother attacks her because of her external appearance, she realizes that she will not be able to lead a happy life with this one either. She resists and kills her mother.
She begins a new life in the forest in the form of a sow, together with a boar and other pigs. It feeds on acorns and chestnuts. As Yvan had taught her, she is now stretching her head towards the moon, whenever she wants to take on human form. Since Yvan is no longer with her, however, she spends most of her life as a pig.
Style and shape
The socially critical satire is written in the first person singular. Therefore, much of the background information remains unknown. Some motives of third parties cannot be understood. The language Darrieussecq uses is vulgar, slang-spoken and yet written in a simple and understandable way for the reader. The protagonist addresses the reader directly:
“Je ne vous parle pas de la difficulté pour trouver ce cahier, ni de la boue, qui salit tout, qui dilue l'encre à peine sèche. »
"Mais avec les vieux habitués, tout en ayant à réfréner mes ardeurs et à accepter leurs lubies contre nature, vous savez de quoi je parle, il m'arrivait d'y trouver quand même mon compte. »
«Imaginez un peu, deux robes neuves le même jour. Et jolies encore. Le monsieur a appelé quelqu'un sur son téléphone portable et j'ai vu arriver, vous ne me croirez pas, une de mes anciennes copines vendeuses. »
The writing style
At the beginning of the narration, the protagonist describes that writing is painful because, in the shape of a sow, she cannot hold the pen well. So at the beginning of the novel she already lives in the form of a sow. Through her introductory words that people could be locked in prison because of their story, it can already be seen that the actions and the metamorphosis of the protagonist have already happened. On almost two pages she reports on her current situation and her life and prepares the reader for her story by addressing him directly:
“… Et je prie toutes les personnes qui pourraient s'en trouver choquées de bien vouloir m'en excuser. »
"... and I would like to apologize to him in advance for any inconvenience."
The protagonist also addresses the reader directly:
“Je ne vous parle pas de la difficulté pour trouver ce cahier, ni de la boue, qui salit tout, qui dilue l'encre à peine sèche. »
"I don't want to talk about the difficulties of getting this booklet, or the mud that stains everything and smears the barely dried ink."
«Imaginez un peu, deux robes neuves le même jour. Et jolies encore. Le monsieur a appelé quelqu'un sur son téléphone portable et j'ai vu arriver, vous ne me croirez pas, une de mes anciennes copines vendeuses. »
“Imagine two new clothes in one day. And then so pretty. The gentleman called someone on his cell phone and then, you won't believe it, one of my former colleagues turned up. "
The protagonist seems naive and stupid in some places. Likewise, she is not averse to her work in the massage parlor, so she is open to many things in love. She cheats on her friend Honoré several times and is not bothered by the strange sexual desires of her customers.
The protagonist doesn't seem to be surprised at anything, neither is she indignant. It seems natural and normal to grunt and be disgusted with pork in your sleep. This indifference on the part of the main character reveals the evil irony that Marie Darrieussecq writes down in her work.
interpretation
The behavior of the protagonist
Through her work in the massage parlor, the protagonist continues to decline on a social level - she sells her body to her customers. Marie Darrieussecq wants to make this descent clear by transforming into a pig. However, she does not even describe her exact duties in the massage parlor. The protagonist breaks off her narrative and leaves it to the reader to think the scene through to the end, or she only describes casually:
«Le directeur de la parfumerie m'avait fait mettre à genoux devant lui et pendant que je m'acquittais de ma besogne je songeais à ces produits de beauté, à comme j'allais sentir bon, à comme j'aurais le teint reposé. »
«Mes massages avaient le plus grand succès, je crois même que le directeur de la chaîne soupçonnait que je m'étais mise de ma propre initiative from massages spéciaux, alors que normalement on laisse un peu de temps à la vendeuse avant de l'y inciter. »
«Ils ne se rendaient compte de rien, trop occupés d'eux-mêmes et de leur plaisir, mais le lit de massage devenait, sous leurs nouvelles envies, une sorte de meule de foin dans un champ, certains commençait à braire, d ' otherwise à renifler comme des porcs, et de fil en aiguille ils se mettaient tous, plus ou moins, à quatre pattes. »
Third person
Since it remains unclear what they really think in the case of many parties that seem to harm it and want to exploit it for experimental purposes, it is very difficult to assess their honest intentions.
For example, the African marabout can be found in the work. He tries different ointments and medicines on her, believing that he can change her thick pig skin in this way. He also has sex with her a few times and she is allowed to live in his big house for a weekend.
Another character is Edgar. He's a very important man in politics and he's forced to have her celebrate his New Year's Eve party in 2000. He later introduces her to Wolfado's general manager - her future boyfriend, Yvan.
Her first friend, whom she meets in Aqualand , a swimming pool, is called Honoré. At the beginning, the two seem to have a very harmonious relationship. But with the start of their work and the associated transformation, the two argue more and more often and Honoré no longer finds the protagonist particularly attractive. After a big argument, the two split up and the protagonist moves out of his house.
Another man in her life is an Arab whose name she does not mention. The two cannot speak to each other as he can only speak Arabic. Nevertheless, they meet for a long time in her hotel room, in which she lives for several weeks after the relationship with Honoré has ended. They have intercourse and one day he becomes pregnant. However, the Arab disappears and she never sees him again. She gives birth to six little piglets alone in the sewer system, but they die quickly after birth.
Quotes
"J'espère que l'éditeur qui aura la patience de déchiffrer cette écriture de cochon voudra bien prendre en considération les efforts terribles que je fais pour écrire le plus lisiblement possible.Marie Darrieussecq. »
"I hope the publisher who takes the trouble to decipher this lousy handwriting will give me credit for my exertion to write as legibly as possible."
"Encore un mois ou deux, et je ne pourrais plus du tout entrer dans ma blouse, mon ventre déborderait, et déjà ce n'était plus si excitant que ça aux bretelles et from décolleté, la chair ressortait trop."
"Another month or two and I would not have fit in my smock anymore, my stomach would have bulged out, the suspenders and cleavage were no longer intoxicating anyway, the meat was way too bulky."
«Ces nouveaux clients avaient l'air de rechercher une vendeuse comme moi, qui ait vraiment envie, qui se trémousse et tout ça, je vous épargne les details. »
"These new customers seemed to be looking for a saleswoman like me who really wanted to, who fidgeted and so, well, I'll spare you the details."
"Un ouvrier m'a donné un bout de son sandwich en disant: 'Si c'est pas malheureux.' Moi, j'ai voulu lui dire merci, mais impossible d'articuler. »
“A worker gave me a piece of his sandwich and said, 'Is that a misery.' I would have liked to thank him, but nothing to be done, I couldn't get a word out. "
“Quand j'en avais assez d'être truie, si ça avait duré trop longtemps ou si ça tombait mal pour une raison ou pour une autre, je m'isolais dans notre chambre et je faisais des exercices de respiration, je me concentrais au maximum. C'est encore ce que j'essais de faire aujourd'hui pour écrire mieux, pour mieux tenir mon stylo, mais depuis qu'Yvan est mort j'y arrive de moins en moins bien. De toute façon, maintenant qu'est-ce que ça peut bien me faire d'être un cochon? »
“When I was fed up with being a pig, when it had been taking too long, or when it was inconvenient for one reason or another, I would retire to our bedroom alone and do breathing exercises with the greatest possible concentration. And today I am trying to do the same thing in order to be able to write better, to be able to hold the pen better, but since Yvan died I am less and less successful. I don't care if I'm a pig or not. "
Reviews
The reviews of Truismes are ambivalent. While some critics admire their work and dub it one of the literary works of the 90s, other critics find this view completely exaggerated and do not enjoy satire:
“The hasty word-of-mouth propaganda that it was a veritable mess, and the lascivious curiosity of a scandal-loving audience made the small debut work a sensational success that the French literary scene has not experienced since Françoise Sagan's debut 'Bonjour tristesse' would have."
«Le thème de la métamorphose n'est pas vraiment nouveau en littérature. Déjà Homère transformait les compagnons d'Ulysse en pourceaux, Ovide muait ses héros en hiboux ou en ânes, et le commis voyageur de Kafka se réveillait un matin d'affreux cauchemar en insecte géant. Mais sur ce thème, l'auteur varie avec audace, humor et crudité, et cultive dans sa fable gaillarde et freudienne un réalisme faussement innocent. Truismes sent l'humus et suinte d'humeurs. »
“The subject of metamorphosis is not really new in literature. Homer turned Odysseus' companions into pigs, Ovid turned his heroes into owls or donkeys, and Kafka's traveling salesman woke up one morning in a terrible nightmare as a monstrous vermin. However, the author treats this topic with audacity, courage, humor and bluntness and creates a deceptive, innocent reality in the Freudian, lively fable. Truismes smells of humus soil and sweats with humor. "
“ Schweinerei is a house-clean product from the colorful self-service shop for the cheerful reader. The expiry date of these Zeitgeistsottisen has passed. Marie Darrieussecq's satirical food bags are always cheap to buy, regardless of what's in them: lozenges against insatiable male greed, vitamins against the rampant unemployment, laxatives against the European bacillus, candy against racism ... But the novel is neither funny nor funny provocative, neither hell nor carnival. There is nothing to laugh about. Only the animal lovers among French and German literary critics have a lot of joy in the mess . "
literature
Text output
-
Truismes , POL, Paris 1996 ISBN 9782070403073
- Mess . Translated by Frank Heibert. Fischer, Frankfurt 1998 ISBN 9783596137183 ; again Wagenbach, Berlin 2017
Secondary literature
- Carla Bota: Marie Darrieussecq et ses truismes . Master thesis University of Illinois 2005
- BUZZ… littéraire : Roman succès "Truismes" de Marie Darrieussecq, Les "cochonneries" de la parfumeuse, 2006
Web links
- in Die Zeit , by Hajo Steinert , the French bestseller "Schweinerei" by Marie Darrieussecq , 1997
- in Focus , by Werner Fuld , Grunts in Sleep. The French Marie Darrieussecq conquers the literary business with a "mess" , No. 7. 1997
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ernst Stein: Satire - German and Viennese In: Die Zeit , 1968
- ^ Spike Magazine. Marie Darrieussecq: Pig Tales: Shelf Life
- ↑ Marie Darrieussecq. Truismes, p. 11
- ↑ Homepage ( Memento of the original from September 24, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. about the author at the University of Arizona , use the sitemap below the picture. 2017. The section on Truismes just reprints the POL laundry slip and then links to the publisher's pages.
- ↑ Hajo Steinert. The French bestseller "Schweinerei" by Marie Darrieussecq . The time, 1997
