I would have liked to tell you about the new edition of Lautréamont in
La Pléiade, but I have been bedridden with the flu, not even able to
fly back to the States, once more stuck in Paris... The only thing I
could do these past few days was to listen to the radio or to the TV.
Between June 1990 and April 1991, Hervé Guibert filmed his life with a small camera, the last fights against the disease that will take his life in December 1991. He had learned in 1988 that he had AIDS. In 1990 he published À l'ami qui ne m'a pas sauvé la vie (To the Friend Who Did Not Save My Life, translation by Linda Coverdale, Macmillan, 1991) in which he told his story in a vivid style. In the book he also described the disease and the death of his friend Michel Foucault. À l'ami was an instant success and made Hervé Guibert famous.
The film, La Pudeur ou l'Impudeur, was first shown on the French TV on January 30, 1992, after Guibert's death, and has recently been released in DVD (BQHL éditions). It's a poignant document. The DVD also includes two interviews with Hervé Guibert: at Apostrophe in 1990 after the publication of À l'ami, which I mentioned two weeks ago, and at Ex Libris a year later after the publication of his next book, Le protocole compassionnel (The Compassion Protocol, translated by James Kirkup).
Between June 1990 and April 1991, Hervé Guibert filmed his life with a small camera, the last fights against the disease that will take his life in December 1991. He had learned in 1988 that he had AIDS. In 1990 he published À l'ami qui ne m'a pas sauvé la vie (To the Friend Who Did Not Save My Life, translation by Linda Coverdale, Macmillan, 1991) in which he told his story in a vivid style. In the book he also described the disease and the death of his friend Michel Foucault. À l'ami was an instant success and made Hervé Guibert famous.
The film, La Pudeur ou l'Impudeur, was first shown on the French TV on January 30, 1992, after Guibert's death, and has recently been released in DVD (BQHL éditions). It's a poignant document. The DVD also includes two interviews with Hervé Guibert: at Apostrophe in 1990 after the publication of À l'ami, which I mentioned two weeks ago, and at Ex Libris a year later after the publication of his next book, Le protocole compassionnel (The Compassion Protocol, translated by James Kirkup).
Guibert is a true writer. After listening to him you want to read his books, again.
2009.11.01
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