Auto-da-fé Or Cartophagie ? The Destruction Of Books And Physical Texts In The Works Of Amélie Nothomb

Auto-da-f or Cartophagie ? The Destruction of Books and Physical Texts in the Works of Am lie Nothomb. For those acquainted with the Nothombian world, which is always trop tarte la cr me[1] an expression she often uses in her writing for regurgitated clich s, the ingredients - paper and paper substitutes - are worth identifying as meaningful matter. Nothomb s writing is too much like cupcakes and it is no surprise she likes Japanese food, which is colourful and toy-like, an anorexic paradise. In les nipponeries [2] there is an aspect ludique, like in her writing: it is not real grown up food. Her sucreries and g teries are consumed in pleasurable secret& her engagement with the object is narcissistic and destructive. A Narcissist is said to lack external objects - Nothomb has too many! I want to look at the ingredients - before the grand descri ptions such as the construction or destruction of paper and paper substitutes are identified.

I would like to explore the link between consumption and eating as destructors of the body, including cartophagie (eating paper, part of a spectrum of non-eating materials that those suffering from the medical condition pica indulge in) while retaining as opposing extremes the two diables of Nothomb and her characters, anorexia and obesity. Pica (Latin for magpie) is a dysfunctional craving for inedible objects (e.g.substances such as chalk or coal or strange food)[3]. Pica is more common in pregnant women and children. As we shall see, the fondue the author describes as made up of polystyrene and antifreeze in Nothomb s Ni d Eve ni d Adam qualifies to be included in the pica spectrum The physical book, paper or manuscri pt is either condemned to the flames, or digested. Am lie defines herself as made of paper, her psychological make-up offering no resistance to external destruction: Je me compare souvent certaines maisons japonaises construites en papier. Comme il y a beaucoup de tremblements de terre au Japon, les gens ne se donnent plus la peine de construire des maisons en b ton [ ] C`est un principe oriental simple : ne pas opposer de r sistance la destruction .[4] For Nothomb, paper is both shelter and tool: maison de papier mon outil de travail .[5] Japanese houses built out of paper and their lack of opposition to destruction have their counterpart in the crumbing of her anorexic characters bones. Nothomb s existence is being questioned (name, date, place of birth)[6] and we may well wonder if she is indeed all paper. Je suis comme je ne suis pas , tel pourrait tre le credo de la romanci re. [7]

We are therefore going to work from the object to the person, the tail wagging the dog so to speak. In the manner of the BBC s A History of the World in 100 Objects[8], we can trace the history of Nothomb in less than 10. Or perhaps we can follow the author in her ironic despair regarding the material use of books in Une forme de vie[9], when her ami pistolaire (the putative Iraq-based American soldier) says: Merci pour vos romans. Vous voulez que j en fasse quoi ? [10], she responds: Je ne sais pas. Peut- tre r quilibrer un meuble ou sur lever une chaise. Ou les offrir un ami qui a appris lire .[11]

Literature in its corporeal form crops up in Mercure[12], where book selection represents salvation: which to read and which to use as a staircase to reach the skylight: La tour livresque atteignit alors la hauteur requise. Et maintenant si la pile s croule, c est qu il n y a rien esp rer de la litt rature se dit-elle .[13] She adds sagely, pour affronter le monde des livres rien de tel que d avoir le pied s r .[14]

Book burning: Les Combustibles and P plum Les Combustibles[15], book burning and book selection revisits the Quijote s vexed question (not by him, who would not have dared to burn his own books, but by his so-called well meaning captors) of which books to keep, and which to burn[16]. Without the book, there is no fire what keeps the Barbarians at the gates in Les Combustibles is the refusal to destroy the Professor s personal library. The corporeal text guards the characters in Les Combustibles from becoming entirely animal and it concludes, to paraphrase, when the books are gone, suicide s all the rage Adore ce que tu as br l , br le ce que tu as ador . The auto-da-f [18] Professor recalls the c l bres paroles uttered by bishop Remi to the converted heathen Clovis while baptising him, as the Professor himself first dissected the books and then proceeded to idolise them, only to burn the objects he adored because of the physical need for warmth just like the heathens did, without regard for their symbolic value: LE PROFESSEUR. [ ] Br ler ces bouquins que j ai d cortiqu s pendant dix ans puis encens s pendant vingt ans, a me fait rigoler ! L v que Remi baptisait Clovis en disant : Br le ce que tu as ador , adore ce que tu as brul . Cette phrase m a toujours fascin . Elle est devenue mon emploie du temps .[19] Clovis was to show his adherence to the Christian faith by burning heathen effigies and learn to adore the churches he pillaged when fighting against the Sicambrian hoards (the Barbarians at the gate of Les Combustibles. Alas, even the finalist Marina (the bimbo du jour) is described as having a limited shelf life [20] in the English translation of the play - perhaps a shorter life expectancy than books? Visits to the faculty library are not driven by a passion for its contents, but because the scalding pipes of the faculty library are now the only sources of heat. The Professor s personal library might be expediently depleted to save them from freezing yet the characters are conscious of the fact that the aim of literature is not to keep you warm and neither is the faculty library there for that purpose. The interest in books, while totally mercenary, does compel the characters to make stark choices as to which book will be burnt last not a single one survives the selection. As Brecht wrote in The Three Penny Opera, Erst kommt das Fressen, dann kommt die Moral [21]: First food, then morals. The Professor regards the preciosity of not burning books for fuel as a luxury that only someone who has not starved or been cold can afford: Fuel is food - paper is fuel - hence paper is food: LE PROFESSEUR. [ ] Je vais vous dire : L Honneur de l horreur a t crit par quelqu un qui n avait pas faim, et mon article d il y a huit ans sur L Honneur de l horreur, a t crit par quelqu un qui n avait pas froid. Alors au feu ! [22] Words themselves end up being like fuel that has to be economised: [Le Professeur] parle lentement comme s`il conomisait ses paroles autant que le combustible .[23]The grand destruction of fine libraries, the destruction of Pompeii, is the result of selective fire: intelligent design (in this case futuristic archaeologists), not Fate, in P plum[24], as hinted by Celsius, the futuristic savant Vous voquiez il y a deux minutes l`incendie de la biblioth que d`Alexandrie : nous savons peine quels chefs-d` uvre y furent d truits. Imaginez - je dis bien imaginez - que le feu ait d cid d` pargner les uvres d`un seul crivain et qu`il ait choisi, comme par hasard, le meilleur. Imaginez donc que tous les livres aient t br l s, sauf ceux du plus sublime penseur de l` poque. Que diriez-vous de cela?

(Nothomb, P plum, p.7)>A proposition that young AN (this is all we know about her the reluctant time-traveller in P plum) rejects as mere science-fiction.

However, the destruction of the library of Alexandria seems civilised in comparison to the squabbling provoked by the desperate book fuel frenzy in Les combustibles, as remarked by the Professor s assistant, Daniel Il me semble que l incendie de la biblioth que d Alexandrie devait tre un spectacle de bon go t, compar celui-ci. [25]

With the destruction of the books, the characters in the play risk losing their humanity and becoming just like animals in search of heat. As the Professor had admonished Marina, who immediately sized up the books as a source of fuel upon her arrival in his freezing flat, si nous nous mettions br ler les livres, alors, vraiment, nous aurions perdu la guerre. [26]

And, when books are not consumed by fire, all that is left for the characters to do is to eat words: Puisqu il n y avait plus de nourriture, je d cidais de manger tous les mots : je lus le dictionnaire entier. [27] Am lie starts to devour books, her sister even: [je] pouvais d vorer des yeux ma s ur sans que lui manque ensuite le moindre morceau. [28Cardboard pops up as the dish of choice: Epiphane describes his inflight meal thus in Attentat: L h tesse a distribu des plateaux-repas: au menu, pour ne pas t tonner, il y avait du carton la sauce au carton. Je n y ai pas touch ... Autour de moi, les gens avalent a avec gloutonnerie. Ils sont l air de trouver a infect et pour cause: ce l est. [29]In Ni d`Eve, ni d`Adam,[30] pica is in evidence in the ingredients that make up the Japanese take on the fondue, many resembling cardboard, glue and expanded polystyrene (plastic), mirroring the process of paper-making: Devant mes yeux fascin s, le jeune homme ouvrit la valise sp cifique et je vis appara tre, dispos s d inamovible fa on, un r chaud propulsion intergalactique, un caquelon anti-adh sif, un sachet de fromage en polystyr ne expans , une bouteille de vin blanc antigel et des cro tons de pain imputrescible.

(Nothomb, Ni d`Eve, p.56) Am lie plunges her hands in the glue, to have it scrapped off by her boyfriend with his teeth: [il] saisit l une de mes mains qu il commen a racler avec ses dents. [31] The imagery that comes to mind is the appareil raclette de Savoie with its beartrap jaws. The Tyrolean experience (via Japan) alienates not only the questionable cultural import but the food itself, if we can call it that as all the elements that make up the fondue have been transubstantiated into inedible components of a Nothombian chemistry setIl versa le polystyr ne et l antigel dans le caquelon, alluma le r chaud qui, curieusement, ne d colla pas vers le ciel, et, pendant que ces substances provoquaient ensemble diverses r action chimiques, sortit de la valise des assiettes se voulant tyroliennes, de longues fourchettes et des verres pied pour le reste du vin . [ ]

(Nothomb, Ni d`Eve, p.56) et je risquai un bout de pain imputrescible au bout de la fourchette que je trempai dans le m lange. Je le retirai et m merveillai du nombre fantastique de fils qui se form rent aussit t.

- Oui, dit Rinri avec fiert , ce proc d a tr s bien r ussi les fils.
Les fils, qui comme chacun sait, sont le but v ritable de la fondue suisse. Je mis l objet en bouche et m chai: cela n avait absolument aucun go t. Je compris que les Nippons adoraient manger de la fondue suisse pour le c t ludique de l affaire et qu ils en avaient cr une qui liminait le seul d tail f cheux de ce plat traditionnel: sa saveur.
- C est excellent, affirmai-je, en cachant mon hilarit .

(Nothomb, Ni d`Eve, p.57 Food is described as l objet that, once chewed, has no taste& the Japanese, according to Am lie , are enticed by the playful side of the Swiss fondue. Once its taste has been eliminated (and those not keen on pungent cheeses might agree) its prandial participants are free to enjoy the cheesy spectacle of its string This is tr s Nothomb: in Hygiene de l Assassin, Pr textat Tach, the disgusting obese Nobel Prize winner declares: J avais continuellement faim de nourritures inf mes ce go t m est rest . [32] Son chemin de croix digestif (as the journalist-victim describes it)[33] includes, among other things, des tripes froides la graisse d oie au petit d jeuner [34], du lard cru, l huile d une bo te de sardines [35]. Tach throws away the sardines to drink the juice , the same way he prefers the unctuous fat that forms on top of bouillons tr s gras which he leaves to cool on purpose before ingesting. lt;/o:p>

There is a blurred division between le cru et le cuit la -:

lt;/o:p>

There is a real cross-cultural blurring of the limits between edible or the non-edible (at least for Occidental gourmets) live octopus:

lt;/o:p>

lt;/o:p>

She describes herself as mauvaise manger in her mental remonstration against mythical Yamamba, the mountain witch, after having cheated death by hypothermia (and avoiding turning into a books are like frozen paper babies: Nothomb allegedly keeps her unpublished books in a closet [...] .

lt;/o:p>

(which allegedly she drinks while writing). Greed is not always good: she chides herself in

lt;/o:p>

, would provide a very Nothombian frame of reference for pica substances ingested in her books, for its bizarre taxonomy: (Emile, the put-upon pensioner, tries to engage his surly neighbour, Palam de Bernardin):

lt;/o:p>

lt;/o:p>

lt;/o:p>

Some ingested materials would nevertheless defy classification even in a Borgean taxonomy, such as sucking and chewing sheets and handkerchiefs in order to liberate their go t de lessive (fresh laundry taste): en salivant pour avoir en bouche ce bon go t de lessive.

lt;/o:p>

All these impure objects were enjoyed in

lt;/o:p>

We are left with a dual classification: purity is not eating, food is evil. In Her body was breaking down, and could not digest anymore:

Yet in , sex is the great split: . This is replicated in the division of good and evil felt by This Writing for him is a tattoo, calligraphy on skin, and so he will eat the skin of the young girl, having been skin and hide once the ancestors of paper:

lt;/o:p>

If the text is to be destroyed, it has to be eaten: His own destruction is linked to the destruction of the diary:

lt;/o:p>

lt;/o:p>

How to render the text illegible? - neither scratching it or rubbing out the contents is feasible. The text will stop with his death, of c Apr s l arroseur arros : le tueur tu . J accepte de mourir pour prot ger un myst re qui m chappe. Je n aurai pas l explication : c est un acte de foi. Hirondelle s journal becomes for him his sacrificial meal:

lt;/o:p>

Une forme de vie literally carried his crime on his body. He calls his extra fat Sch h razade and for him, to lose weight is the equivalent of killing her .

lt;/o:p>

Une forme de vie.

lt;/o:p>

Amanieux refers to the peau orduri re which coats Am lie in - as she lies under a pile of rubbish on the floor after being driven mad by her boss s requirements. Immonde comes to mind: not from the world , unclean and unhygienic (in 1922, another character, Pr textat Tach recreated a new ideology, ) Am lie s co-workers seem to be used to employees having public nervous breakdowns in the Japanese office but perhaps lack of physical hygiene is more shocking. The physical act of writing, as described in both enveloping and a carapace which separates her from the world. The evil cocooning role of the text is also in evidence in He fancies himself as something more elevated : : .

lt;/o:p>

Obeying the mechanics of digestive tubes, after consumption and ingurgitation comes faecal matter. The absence of paper (albeit of the toilet variety) can stir the internal Godzilla of enraged Japanese managers, and lead to lavatorial humour and verbal violence: Mr (his name means rice cake , also a dry substance ) bursts into the corporate restrooms :

lt;/o:p>

lt;/o:p>

A possible chain of materials follows: LIVRE >& COMBUSTIBLE >& GRAS. Books are fuel: like fat, to be burnt or eaten an author s production can be assimilated to fat, a slightly repulsive thought for Nothomb s pen pal when this parallel is drawn by the obese soldier. Or paper can be put to other uses: in Cartophagie should therefore give way to ospithograpie, for the love of forests. If only Nothomb and her constellation of characters were also constrained by the substances ingested.

lt;/o:p>

lt;/o:p>

lt;/o:p>

A version of this paper was presented at lt;/o:p>

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. Accessed April 2011.

Amanieux, Laureline, Accessed April 2011. (Author of the blog requests: AVERTISSEMENT : Veuillez ne pas citer mon patronyme dans vos critiques).

Amanieux, A History of the World in 100 Objects:. Accessed April 2011.

(Paris: Albin Michel, 2010).

Nothomb, p.13.

Nothomb,

Am lie Nothomb, Nothomb, Nothomb, Am lie Nothomb, Am lie Nothomb, ] (London: Oberon Books, 2005), p.59. Natalie Abrahami (Translator). English translation rings better than the original: She always said that when the books were gone she would go for a walk. Suicide s all the rage it seems

a burning of material considered offensive, subversive, or heretical .

Nothomb,

Nothomb, Bertolt Brecht, ] [1928] (Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2001).

Nothomb,

Nothomb,

Am lie Nothomb, (Paris: Albin Michel, 1996). Nothomb,

Nothomb,

Am lie Nothomb,

Nothomb, Am lie Nothomb,

Am lie Nothomb,

Nothomb, Nothomb, Nothomb, Ibid.

Rencontre avec Am lie Nothomb (Dossiers) http://www.murmures.info/index.php?kro=643action=view Accessed April 2011.

Nothomb, Nothomb,

Nothomb, Ibid.

Am lie Nothomb, Nothomb,

Nothomb, 15.

Nothomb,

Nothomb, Nothomb,

Nothomb,

Ibid.

Nothomb,

Nothomb,

Nothomb,

Nothomb, Ibid.

Nothomb, Nothomb, Nothomb,

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