In his new book, a scathing satire of the age of fads and exaggeration, the author dismantles the mechanics of success at all costs.
Back Undeniable success essayLydi Salveire signs the text in the space between the treatise and the pamphlet, which shows the mirror, grimacing, an era’s rewarding exposure, even self-exposure; where success, which has become the standard of everything, asserts itself as a universal religion. Before the portraits of millions of subscribers, “influencers” or even the various samples of writers that can be seen today, he borrows from both moralists and personal development textbooks when communicating with millions of subscribers; ironic mode, the keys to literary, artistic and social success in the 20th century. Interview:
In the video, Taubira gets emotional reading an excerpt from her book on November 13
Lady Figaro. – Would you say that your essay lives in the form of rage?
Lydia Salveir. – I was angry, and anger is driving me. He is the source of many of my books, “Sing, O Muse, the wrath of Achilles…” as it goes. Iliad. I was angry to see talented people being overlooked at the expense of others whose success was attributed to market building. I am angry to see people being duped by mediocre badges that are glorified by advertising and the cult of appearance. Then I went online to see if there were any advice sites for success in life. They were innumerable, and I saw in them a symptom of a time when success had become the value of values, with all that implied violence, lies, mean maneuvers, because success was valued above all else, and that the means used did not matter. . And in the background, I was asking myself what it was like to be successful in life. Is it really “show and brag” to use Robert Walser’s words? A walkwho regretted that they had become the values of his time?
Did the moralists inspire you?
I was referring to the satirical tradition that began among the Greeks with Theophrastus and continued through Horace, Juvenal, Petronius, Rabelais, Swift, from whom I stole the title because he himself wrote: An irrefutable essay on the abilities of the soul – and La Bruyère, which I adore. These authors are moralists and not moralists; it’s not about pointing out or glossing over the word watchful, but about taking a step back and questioning what success hides, what it’s based on. Taking a cue from these writers, I thought I’d compile an inventory of the best ways to achieve this. I had fun messing around with links to personal development manuals that became popular How to make friendsBy Dale Carnegie, there are plenty today, unless they are devoted to entire shelves: How to Become an Infectious Optimist, How to Conquer Your Fears, How to Achieve Your Goals…
I thought that our beautiful sensitivity, which today we would call sentimentality, was disappearing in favor of performance, mastery, self-aggrandizement.
Lady Salveir
This Undeniable success essaydoesn’t it have certain kinship ties with your previous book on Cervantes? Standing in a dream ?
I hadn’t made the connection, but we are sometimes blind to what we write. In these two books there is indeed a paradoxical eulogy, a practice of antiphrasism, and a message to Cervantes; Standing in a dreamand candidates to succeed in this endeavor Undeniable success essay. As well as a celebration of the same ideals. I am glad to end this book with a sentence from Proust. “Real books should not be children of day and conversation, but of obscurity and silence.” I thought that our delicate sensibility, which today we would call sentimentality, was disappearing in favor of performance, mastery, self-aggrandizement. And I was afraid that this would harm literature as well. When I see the books of talent show singers or reality TV stars advertised on TV, when everything seems to be reduced to the visible, the shiny, when it seems to me that it is the calling of literature rather than seeing, it is true, behind the appearance. ..
What has changed since, say, days? Balzac’s Lost Illusions ?
Alas, we read La Bruyère, Balzac, or Jelinek, and everywhere we see the same taste of success, the same appetite for low-priced glory, the same infinite vanity and little virtue. And then, above all, to me, the most intolerable are those false virtuous people who give themselves the right to give moral lessons to increase their compassionate capital, speaking for all the victims, all those who are in punishment, for the better. profit from a righteous cause. In Balzac’s time, at least, we were not so aware of all the suffering minorities. And, of course, we didn’t have social networks, which increase the possibility of exposure. “Show up, show up, show up!” Such seems to be the slogan of our time, accompanied by an incredible passion for such, that is, immediate and thoughtless approval.
In this book we find the mixture of tones and registers of language that you also like in your novels…
I appreciate his lapidary, collected, spicy character in the manifesto, which is not moved by distortions. The longer it goes by, the more I like to bite into books.
Lady Salveir
My birth in a Spanish family, where slovenly French gave me a taste for the baroque and mixed registers, such as can be found in Cervantes, Shakespeare or Quedeau, the great 17th century writer who could use the most sublime language while interweaving the roughest strokes. He thus wrote a text, the title of which has been translated. “Heurs et Malheurs du trou du cul”… What used to be a source of shame for me, speaking against myself in a language punctuated with incomprehensible, incomplete phrases has become honey and a way to claim my origin. There is in Spain – we see it today with Rodrigo García and Angelica Liddell – a taste for vulgarity that Picasso noticed and which seems to be restrained by classicism in France. Rabelais admirably mingles the most varied registers, followed by the classics, which in their heart must be at the height of royal authority, and necessarily evacuate anything that touches popular filth. And thus was born the French cannon, which, fortunately, Celine or Keno diverts…
In the video, Super-8 years By Annie Erno and David Erno, excerpt
Have you had the idea of writing a literary manifesto through this false praise of literature without offense or stomach?
Rabelais said that there were writers with frozen words and writers with jokes. We don’t really know what that means, but we see right away that it’s primarily a matter of not conforming to norms and rules, to break taboos and received ideas, and have a little laugh under the hood as well. I appreciate. in the manifest his lapidary, compact, spicy character, which does not bother with distortions. The more time passes, the more I like to bite into books.
Does this parody manual also have a political dimension?
I would say that my journey as an outcast or trans has made me more sensitive to the ill-gotten gains of being born into a prestigious family, having money, power, networks or influence. While others have neither the codes, nor the culture, nor the knowledge of the rules to follow in order to achieve… And I was led to wonder what virtue really means, which is perhaps not a mask of virtue placed over an unencumbered Darwinism. .
Source: Le Figaro
