{"id":3609,"date":"2020-05-17T15:50:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-17T13:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.villagillet.net\/entrez-dans-la-villa\/?p=3609"},"modified":"2020-11-09T10:44:37","modified_gmt":"2020-11-09T09:44:37","slug":"conversation-avec-andrew-ridker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.villagillet.net\/entrez-dans-la-villa\/conversation-avec-andrew-ridker\/","title":{"rendered":"Conversation avec Andrew Ridker"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Chaque ann\u00e9e, des \u00e9tudiants sont form\u00e9s \u00e0 la mod\u00e9ration de rencontres litt\u00e9raires et animent des discussions avec les auteurs invit\u00e9s des AIR dans des m\u00e9diath\u00e8ques, librairies et autres lieux partenaires du festival. Nous vous proposons de lire l’entretien qu’Andrew Ridker, auteur de Les Altruistes<\/em> (Rivages, 2019) a accord\u00e9 \u00e0 Anita Devat, \u00e9tudiante \u00e0 l’Universit\u00e9 Lumi\u00e8re Lyon 2.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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\/ version fran\u00e7aise<\/div><\/div>
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\/ version originale<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n
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Qu’est ce qu’un altruiste pour vous ? Pouvez vous nous en donner une d\u00e9finition ?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pour le dire simplement, un altruiste est une personne qui mets les besoins des autres avant les siens. Ce roman \u00e9tait ma fa\u00e7on de m’interroger sur cet \u00e9lan qui pousse \u00e0 prendre soin des autres, et comment cet \u00e9lan est souvent compromis, pas seulement par nos propres instincts \u00e9go\u00efstes, mais \u00e9galement par les syst\u00e8mes qui nous r\u00e9gissent chaque jour. Je r\u00e9pond \u00e0 votre question en tapant sur un ordinateur fabriqu\u00e9 dans une usine chinoise o\u00f9 les conditions de travail sont tr\u00e8s certainement \u00e9pouvantables, ce qui en dit sur cette tension qui m’int\u00e9resse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pensez vous que les \u00c9tats-Unis soient un pays altruiste, si l’on observe l’\u00e9tat actuel du monde : cette pand\u00e9mie semble r\u00e9v\u00e9ler des comportements altruistes, mais \u00e9galement tr\u00e8s \u00e9go\u00efstes?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Les \u00c9tats-Unis – le gouvernement, j’entends – a totalement \u00e9chou\u00e9 \u00e0 prot\u00e9ger ses propres citoyens de cette pand\u00e9mie. Cela \u00e9tant dit, les actions altruistes de certains citoyens, plus particuli\u00e8rement les professionnels de sant\u00e9 et autres travailleurs indispensables, ont \u00e9t\u00e9 tr\u00e8s inspirantes. Je vois beaucoup plus de r\u00e9el altruisme chez des infirmi\u00e8res ou des professeurs, que chez des gouvernement ou de grandes entreprises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Au d\u00e9but du livre, vous citez Mary Jo Bang qui dit que “le manque nous asservit”. Pourquoi lier le manque et l’altruisme ?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Il y a ici une question de traduction vers le fran\u00e7ais. Dans la version originale en anglais du po\u00e8me, la phrase est \u201cwant appropriates us\u201d. Le mot appropriates (s’approprier) est important dans ce cas, car il t\u00e9moigne de la fa\u00e7on dont nous sommes soumis \u00e0 nos d\u00e9sirs. Le conflit entre l’id\u00e9alisme et nos propres d\u00e9sirs \u00e9tait profond pour moi comme pour mes personnages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apr\u00e8s sa mort, Francine (la m\u00e8re) devient la pi\u00e8ce manquante de la famille Alter, mais elle est partout dans le livre, vous racontez son histoire, son pass\u00e9 aux lecteurs. Pourquoi avoir chanci d’en faire le personnage central du livre ?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

J’ai imagin\u00e9 Francine comme une sorte de Addie Bundren, personnage de Tandis que j’agonise de William Faulkner. Dans ce roman, la famille transporte sa d\u00e9pouille sur des kilom\u00e8tres. D’une certaine fa\u00e7on, mes personnages transportent la m\u00e9moire de Francine partout o\u00f9 ils vont. Pendant un temps, elle \u00e9tait une sorte de guide absent au long des pages, mais \u00e0 la fin, j’ai d\u00e9cid\u00e9 que le lecteur devait en apprendre plus sur elle afin de comprendre tout ce qu’elle signifie pour les membres de sa famille qu’elle a laiss\u00e9 derri\u00e8re elle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dans le livre, vous parlez d’une application de rencontre cr\u00e9\u00e9e par l’ex petit ami de Maggie. Cette application met en relations des personnes ayant fait l’exp\u00e9rience du m\u00eame trauma, son cr\u00e9ateur \u00e9voquant le “pouvoir unificateur des traumatismes partag\u00e9”. Comment vous est venue cette id\u00e9e ? Pensez vous que l’on puisse aimer quelqu’un parce qu’on a v\u00e9cu les m\u00eames souffrances ?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cette application de rencontre \u00e9tait une fa\u00e7on pour moi d’ironiser sur la mise en sc\u00e8ne et la marchandisation du trauma que j’observe sur les r\u00e9seaux sociaux. Les gens d\u00e9voilent ais\u00e9ment leurs pens\u00e9es les plus profondes, leurs sentiments, leurs secrets sur internet; il parait \u00e9vident que t\u00f4t ou tard quelqu’un essaierait de r\u00e9cup\u00e9rer cette tendance pour en faire profit. L’application est un succ\u00e8s, car cela fonctionne \u00e9videmment, un traumatisme partag\u00e9 lie les gens bien plus que d’aimer le m\u00eame films ou les m\u00eames restaurants. Je devrait probablement d\u00e9poser un brevet sur cette id\u00e9e.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maintenant, parlons de traumatisme non partag\u00e9s. J’aimerai que nous abordions Arthur Alter qui est parti en Afrique dans sa jeunesse pour essayer d’am\u00e9liorer le quotidien des populations locales. Ce la fait \u00e9cho \u00e0 une probl\u00e9matique actuelle : certaines ONG dont les actions au final font plus de mal que de bien. Est ce que cela veut dire que parfois, l’altruisme n’est pas la bonne solution ? Y-a-t-il des limites \u00e0 l’altruisme ?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

L’erreur d’Arthur est de ne pas s’\u00eatre inform\u00e9 sur les lieux ou les gens qu’il a tent\u00e9 d’aider, faisant ainsi du mal au final. Ce n’est pas son altruisme qui cause sa ruine – ses raison d’aller au Zimbabwe \u00e9taient charitables au d\u00e9part – mais bien son ignorance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pour terminer, quel est le personnage de votre livre auquel vous vous identifier le plus, et pour quelle raison ?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Je me reconnais dans chacun d’entre eux de diff\u00e9rentes fa\u00e7ons. Je dirais qu’Arthus \u00e9tait le plus amusant \u00e0 \u00e9crire, mais j’ai commenc\u00e9 en \u00e9crivant \u00e0 propos de Maggie, et par certains aspects, c’est pour elle que je ressent le plus d’empathie.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>

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Could you give us your definition of an altruist\u00a0? What does it mean to you\u00a0?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Put simply, an altruist is someone who puts the needs of others ahead of her own. The novel was my way of asking questions about that impulse to care for others, and how that impulse is often compromised, not only by our own selfish instincts but by the systems we are all subject to every day. I\u2019m typing my answer to your question on a computer built in a Chinese factory whose working conditions are almost certainly appalling, which speaks to the tension that I\u2019m interested in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that the USA are an altruist country, considering the current state of the world\u00a0: the wolrd pandemic and the lockdown that seem to bring out selflessness as much as selfishness\u00a0?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The United States\u2014the government, I mean\u2014has done a terrible job protecting its own citizens during this pandemic. With that said, the selfless actions of individual citizens, especially medical professionals and other essential workers, has been inspiring. I see more genuine altruism in people like nurses and teachers than I do in governments or corporations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The opening quote of the book says that \u00ab\u00a0lack enslaves us\u00a0\u00bb, why linking ‘lack’ and ‘altruism’\u00a0? Could you answer this question by taking Arthur, Ethan and Maggie as an example for even if they seem to try and be selfless, they always end up doing things for their own self. Did the lack enslaves them\u00a0?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is partially a question of translation. In the original English version of the poem, the phrase is \u201cwant appropriates us.\u201d The word appropriates <\/em>is important, in this instance, as it speaks to the way that we are subject to our desires. The clash of idealism and personal desire was a rich one for me and for all of my characters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Francine, after her death, is like the missing piece in the Alter family, but she is everywhere in the book for you telling the reader her story, her past. Why did you choose to make her the centerpiece of the book\u00a0?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I thought of Francine almost like Addie Bundren in Faulkner\u2019s As I Lay Dying. <\/em>In that novel, the family carries her dead body for miles. In a way, my characters carry Francine\u2019s memory everywhere they go. For a while, she was a guiding absence on the page, but in the end, I decided the reader needed to learn more about her in order to understand what she meant to the surviving members of the family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the book, you are talking about a dating app created by Maggie ex’s boyfriend. This app is making people who went throught the same pain, the same traumatisms meet each other, the designer spaeking about ‘the unifying power of shared trauma’. How did you come up with this idea\u00a0? And, do you believe that sharing the same kind of pain can make people love each other\u00a0?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dating app was a way for me to satirize the performance and commodification of trauma that I see across social media. People are very quick to disclose their deepest thoughts, feelings, and secrets online; it seemed to me that sooner or later, someone would come along and try to profit off that trend. The app is a success, however, because, of course, it works: shared trauma would<\/em> bind people together better than a shared taste in movies or restaurants. I should probably copyright that idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, to talk about unshared trauma, I would like to talk about Arthur Alter who went to Africa during his youth to try and make african’s people life better. It echoes another current issue\u00a0: some NGOs that really want to help but end up making people’s life harder anyway. Does it mean that sometimes, altruism is not the good answer\u00a0? Are there boundaries to altruism\u00a0?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arthur\u2019s mistake is that he doesn\u2019t educate himself about the people or place he attempts to help, and winds up causing harm as a result. It isn\u2019t altruism that undoes him\u2014his reasons for going to Zimbabwe in the first place were motivated by selfishness\u2014it\u2019s ignorance.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, for the last question, I wanted to ask you with which character of your book can you relate the most, and why\u00a0?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I relate to them all in different ways. I can say that Arthur was the most fun to write, but I started the novel by writing about Maggie, and in some ways sympathize with her the most.<\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Entretien entre Andrew Ridker et Anita Devat, \u00e9tudiante \u00e0 l’Universit\u00e9 Lumi\u00e8re Lyon 2.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":3333,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":""},"categories":[200,26,15],"tags":[31],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.villagillet.net\/entrez-dans-la-villa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Andrew-RIDKER-c.-George-Baier-IV-4-2-scaled-1.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Andrew Ridker","author_link":"https:\/\/www.villagillet.net\/entrez-dans-la-villa\/author\/andrew-ridker\/"},"yoast_head":"\nConversation avec Andrew Ridker - Villa Gillet - Litt\u00e9rature Live Festival<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.villagillet.net\/entrez-dans-la-villa\/conversation-avec-andrew-ridker\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"fr_FR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Conversation avec Andrew Ridker - Villa Gillet - Litt\u00e9rature Live Festival\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Entretien entre Andrew Ridker et Anita Devat, \u00e9tudiante \u00e0 l'Universit\u00e9 Lumi\u00e8re Lyon 2.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.villagillet.net\/entrez-dans-la-villa\/conversation-avec-andrew-ridker\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Villa Gillet - Litt\u00e9rature Live Festival\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"Ridker\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-05-17T13:50:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-11-09T09:44:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.villagillet.net\/entrez-dans-la-villa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Andrew-RIDKER-c.-George-Baier-IV-4-2-scaled-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"\u00c9crit par\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Andrew Ridker\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Dur\u00e9e de lecture est.\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\">\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.villagillet.net\/entrez-dans-la-villa\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.villagillet.net\/entrez-dans-la-villa\/\",\"name\":\"Villa Gillet - Litt\\u00e9rature Live Festival\",\"description\":\"Litt\\u00e9rature Live Festival\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"https:\/\/www.villagillet.net\/entrez-dans-la-villa\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"fr-FR\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.villagillet.net\/entrez-dans-la-villa\/conversation-avec-andrew-ridker\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"fr-FR\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.villagillet.net\/entrez-dans-la-villa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Andrew-RIDKER-c.-George-Baier-IV-4-2-scaled-1.jpg\",\"width\":1707,\"height\":2560},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.villagillet.net\/entrez-dans-la-villa\/conversation-avec-andrew-ridker\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.villagillet.net\/entrez-dans-la-villa\/conversation-avec-andrew-ridker\/\",\"name\":\"Conversation avec Andrew Ridker - Villa Gillet - Litt\\u00e9rature Live Festival\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.villagillet.net\/entrez-dans-la-villa\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.villagillet.net\/entrez-dans-la-villa\/conversation-avec-andrew-ridker\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-05-17T13:50:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-11-09T09:44:37+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.villagillet.net\/entrez-dans-la-villa\/#\/schema\/person\/cf0bbe5bb3563c784e292a5542598e63\"},\"inLanguage\":\"fr-FR\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.villagillet.net\/entrez-dans-la-villa\/conversation-avec-andrew-ridker\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.villagillet.net\/entrez-dans-la-villa\/#\/schema\/person\/cf0bbe5bb3563c784e292a5542598e63\",\"name\":\"Andrew Ridker\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.villagillet.net\/entrez-dans-la-villa\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"fr-FR\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.villagillet.net\/entrez-dans-la-villa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Andrew-RIDKER-c.-George-Baier-IV-4-2-scaled.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Andrew Ridker\"},\"description\":\"Andrew Ridker (\\u00c9tats-Unis), est romancier. 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