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Raymond Federman biography
CAINE: Aside from Samuel Beckett, who is your greatest literary influence, and why?
FEDERMAN: Rabelais -- when I read the chapter in Gargantua that describes all the things one can use to wipe one's ass after taking a crap I told myself if I ever write a novel that's how I want to write it -- scatologically - I finally did it -- the novel that will be coming out this fall from the Fiction Collective 2 is called -- Return to Manure --
I should also mention Proust and Celine.
CAINE: Do you think that blogging, and the Internet in general, could lead to the further development of writing as an art?
FEDERMAN: I don't know as an art but the internet and all that goes on in it will certainly transform our language - making it more telegraphic - more supple too - and finally getting rid of the guardian of language - grammar -- yes grammar and all its rules and regulations -- the internet will finally liberate language - unless some asshole president and his clique decide to pass a law to censure what goes on in the internet
CAINE: Do you see a correlation between writing and other arts, such as painting?
FEDERMAN: Yes of course - my writing has often been compared to a long tenor saxophone solo -- and it is true that jazz has had a grat deal of impact on the way I write - the way I improvise as I write -- as I am doing right now
as for painting or even sculpture all writers - I mean writers who write for something else than money -are artists who paint or sculpt with words - just read the novels of Samuel Beckett if you don't believe me -- the greatest artist of words of the 20th century --
CAINE: Who, other than yourself, is the best French writer working today?
FEDERMAN: I am only a half french writer - I am really an franco-american writer - the one writer that everyone should read is CHRISTIAN PRIGENT -- but Prigent is such a great writer [fiction -- poetry -- essays - and more] his writing is considered too elitist for the masses - none of his books have ever been translated into English -- I translated a couple of his poems and a chapter of one of his novels - but no one paid attention - Believe me Christian Prigent will be recognized 80 years from now as the greatest writer of the 21st century -- just as Stendhal declared that he would be recognized as a great writer 80 years after his death -- and he hit it right on the nose - he was recognized n 1952 - you can calculate when he died from that
as for me -- I also often wonder when I will be famous
in fact the other day I wrote a little poem about that after consulting my Tarot cards
Here I'll attach it to this -- you can do whatever you want with it
CAINE: Well, what I want to do with it is publish it here.
* * *
THE SUN'S PROPHECY
by Raymond Federman
Impatient to know
when he will finally
become famous
he decides to consult
his trusted tarot cards
he wants to know now
when he will be famous
otherwise what's the point
of going on with futility
he shuffles the cards
a splendid tarot deck
of the upper arcanes
replicas of old medieval
figures in colorful costumes
before letting his hand
select the revealing card
he closes his eyes
even though the deck
reveals only the back
of the slender yellow cards
he opts for a blind choice
slowly he pulls out a card
opens his eyes it's The Sun
he reads in his tarot book
what The Sun says about
his character and his past
he knows all that already
it's The Sun's prophecy
that he wants to hear
and there it is
he will be recognized
only after he dies
he smiles and says to Erica
the Sun says that I will be
recognized after my death
therefore the sooner I die
the sooner I'll be famous
does The Sun specify
how soon after you die
will fame happen
Erica asks calmly
it could be centuries
before they discover you
he looks sadly troubled
I never thought of that
No need to rush then
I guess Erica says
to console him
* * *
CAINE: So, who is Moinous, and who does he think he is, anyway?
FEDERMAN: Moinous is not only my screen name - it is also the name on my wife's license plate - and when people ask her who is Moinous she says - it's the guy who bought this car for me --
Moinous, as a good friend of mine one explained to me, it's the child in me who refused to grow up
Moinous is Ominous
Moinous wants to be everywhere at the same time - and somehow manages to do it
CAINE: Lorsque vous êtes arrivé aux Etats-Unis, vous a-t'il été difficile d'acquérir une bonne maîtrise de l'anglais?
FEDERMAN: C'etait vachement dure -- une vrai torture -- I was 19 years old when I arrived in America - without a word of English - -no that's wrong - I learned one word on the slow boat that took me from France to America -- the first morning when the boat sailed out to sea I came up on deck -- oh I should mention that on this boat there were mostly young American students who had spend the summer in Europe - you know muscular overfed young men flexing their muscles - and gorgeous young american girls with georgous boobs and succulent asses - I tell you when I came up on deck and saw that - I thought I was in Paradise - anyway - I wanted to say goodmorning to all these lovely Americans but I didn't know how it in English - so I asked one of the muscular young men to tell me how to say bonjour -- that guy knew a bit of french so he understand what I wanted - and he told me -- vous dites sonofabitch -- sonovobeach I repeated slowly - and he said oui oui - like that - and so I want around saying sonovobeach to all the georgous girls on the deck who were suntanning their beautiful bodies on this beautiful day - the day I left France -- that's the first word I learned -- and everybody on the upper deck of the boat were bursting into tears of laughter as I kept going form one person to the next saying joyfully sonovobeach!
Le resultat c'est que apres plus de 50 dans ce pays je speak English avec un accent francais tres prononce - but which women find very sexy -- an accent which was therefore carefully cultivated for social and sentimental reasons
does that answer your question?
CAINE: Oui. And what, to you, are the biggest differences between French and American culture?
FEDERMAN: Ketchup -- though lately the French have adopted ketchup - it's tragique
CAINE: In a Hollywood movie about your life, who would you most like to play you?
FEDERMAN: Woody Allen -- but if Marlo Brando had not died I would have taken up - I wanted him the way he played in The Young Lions --
CAINE: Have you read any good Surfiction lately?
FEDERMAN: If you could define Surfiction for me then I could answer this question - but if you ask me which book I read recently which threw me over - and which everybody should read -- I read it three times already - twice in French and once in English
EVERYBODY OUT THERE READ
EUROPEANA : A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE 20TH CENTURY
you won't beleive the stupidities - the atrocities - the dumb things -- the cruel things - the idiotic things our fellowmen did in the 20th century
CAINE: Which of your books would you most recommend to someone who's new to your work?
FEDERMAN: Whenever someone ask me which of my book is my favorite I always answer - the one I have not yet written.
but if you insist I will say
Double or Nothing
Take It or Leave It
The Voice in the Closet
The Twofold Vibration
Smiles on Washington Square
To Whom it May Concern
Aunt Rachel's Fur
The Twilight of the Bums
Loose Shoes
My Body in Nine Parts
Return to Manure
More Loose Shoes & Smelly Socks
not necessarily in that order -- let the potential reader choose at random --
and I am not mentioning the other books I wrote in French
or the poetry
or the plays
or the essays
maybe the potential reader should start with my blog to get an idea of the kind of writing I do - and which I call LAUGHTERATURE
CAINE: Aside from this interview, what is the strangest project you've ever been involved in?
FEDERMAN: when I was with the 82nd Airborne Division I jumped 47 times out of an airplane
oh also I once tried to write a best-seller and failed miserably
You can read Raymond Federman's blog here.