Interview
A simple message
ANUPAMA R.
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While the French writer Franck Pavloff's novel talks about the dangers of fascism, it is more than a political manifesto.
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Stressing the need to be on guard: Franck Pavloff.
FRANCK PAVLOFF is simple and down to earth. And so is his little book. But, as the cliché goes, appearances can be deceptive. Under the layers of this simplicity lies a powerful message: "Fascist ideas are like fire; you have to put it out or it will consume you."
And since its publication in 2003, this French writer's Brown Morning, a 12-page, anti-fascist novella, has been propagating this simple yet powerful message. The book, which came in the wake of the last French Presidential election, is considered an attack on Jean Marie Le Pen's extreme Right party, the National Front.
Dangers of conformism
Written first for an anti-fascist festival in France and later published by Cheyne, Matin Brun is set in an unnamed country and looks at how conforming to extremist "brown" ideas marks the beginning of destruction. Anything not brown is destroyed — books, newspapers, dogs, cats, people. Brown is the only accepted colour and gradually seeps into everything, including the morning. So, why brown?
Pavloff's childhood was full of accounts of fascist regimes narrated by his parents and grand parents. His father was a soldier who fought in the Spanish War. Brown was the colour of military uniforms. Explains Pavloff, "In Europe, for my generation, brown was (also) symbolic of illness and pestilence."
But Pavloff's brown fable goes beyond regional symbolism and reaches out to audiences worldwide. No wonder that Brown Morning has been translated into 25 languages, including Indian languages like Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi, Kannada and Marathi. Touring India on a French Embassy-Alliance Francaise-sponsored initiative, Pavloff believes the book's success lies in its universal theme that is relevant in any political regime, including a democracy.
"France is the cradle of democracy," he says. Picking up a glass vase from the table in the hotel lobby in Thiruvananthapuram, Pavloff quickly adds: "Democracy is fragile... It is beautiful like this glass vase, but if we ignore one crack today, there would be more tomorrow."
The book that highlights the dangers of inaction has an immediate relevance in India, the largest democracy. In Paul Zachariah's words, the story points out the need to be careful and observe the roots of totalitarianism, especially in a country where we take things for granted.
A story first
However, Brown Morning is not just about political tyranny and individual rights. "If it was a political manifesto, perhaps it wouldn't have been this successful," clarifies Pavloff. It is primarily a book: A good book.
From the title to the language, Pavloff's techniques delight the reader as she enters his brown realities. The underlying paradox in the title combines the optimism of dawn and the pessimism of everything brown. "There is a confrontation. And it must be for this reason that all translations have retained the title," he says.
This confrontation recurs consistently and the biting irony makes it more powerful, as in the following lines from the book: "... I was getting all worked up about becoming a reader of the Brown News. And all around me the other people in the café were carrying on as if nothing had happened. I was obviously just worrying about nothing." Black humour and irony — a national pastime in France — keep the tension alive till the narrator tragically crouches in fear under the all-pervasive brown.
Skilful use of language
What makes Brown Morning frightfully close to reality is the language. Pavloff''s characters speak slang, the common man's language, that immediately strikes a chord. And the translations have tried to retain this quality as far as possible, without merely copying the original.
The English translation ends with the line, "I'm afraid", while the original allows "fear" to dominate the concluding paragraph. "A translation is not a photograph, it is a retransmission of emotions," says Pavloff, pointing to how a translation carries a book across borders.
And "borders" is certainly an important word to this writer who, as part of his work as a psychologist and specialist in children's rights, has worked in several African and Asian countries.
Influenced by writers like William Faulkner who were capable of feeling the pulse of a nation, Pavloff is rooted in external realities rather than the mind. "I'm not too psychological. I'm not very good at that. I must put my characters in the world that moves that is out there," he says.
Children are important individuals in this world and so Brown Morning has a message for young minds too: "It is the same as for adults, there is the message of respect for friends, and the importance of saying no," explains Pavloff. So when he hopes for a world where children would never be forced to accept just one colour, we hope with him.
Two worlds
Nevertheless, this novelist and poet doesn't let his profession interfere with his books. Moving away from being labelled as a writer-activist, he strives to put a distance between his work and writing. "I'm first a novelist. I should be able to tell a story," he emphasises.
And that is exactly what Brown Morning does: Tell a story that reminds us of our rights in a world that is increasingly being dominated by extremist forces — brown or otherwise.
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