“These are still strange twists of fate”: expert Brice Matthieussent analyzes Trump's assassination attempts

L'analyse d'un expert de l'Amérique. MAXPPP – JIM LO SCALZO

Écrivain et traducteur de Bukowski, Kerouac, Jim Harrison ou Bret Easton Ellis), Brice Matthieussent publie un Petit éloge de l’Amérique, chez Gallimard.

A second attack potentially targeted Donald Trump this Sunday. What does that inspire in you??

I have the feeling that Trump's madness is answered by madness. Trump's madness, which mixes truth and fiction, which thinks, in his megalomania, that all the lies he tells are the truth, that is what we call madness, indeed attracts people who are unbalanced.

It fascinates them, and they can vote for him because they like his attitudes, his lies, because they stick to his anti-immigration policy for example. And the person who allegedly tried to kill him on his golf course seemed to be a rather curious person. And then, there is this paradox of a Trump who has always defended firearms who has just been shot twice in two months. These are still strange twists of fate…

Do you fear even more violence in the future, in the American political debate ?

When we think back to the attempted invasion of the Capitol, we see on which side the violence is, the Trumpists, the militias, heated to white heat. "Stand by",That is, armed, he said four years ago. Many analysts consider that the United States is on the brink of civil war. With Trump's allies ready to intervene outside the framework of the law. And in the event of a victory by Kamala Harris, which I hope, they are perhaps also ready to obey the orders of their leader. We must hope for a revival of the Republican Party if Trump is defeated. Because for the moment, it is completely submissive to him, tied hand and foot to this toxic and nefarious man. But the Republican Party moved right with Bush Jr., when he brought in the Christian fundamentalists by giving them obvious support.

Despite everything, you love this country that you know so well, whose greatest authors you have translated ?

Yes, this book is a declaration of love to a certain America. It is a book with two voices. Either I am passionate about certain aspects of the culture, the landscapes, the American history, or I am repulsed by other elements, from the proliferation of weapons to latent racism. But for me it is an absolutely extraordinary country, of unequaled richness.

You never tire of this country, as of its literature…

American literature is incredibly rich, but you have to understand the size of the United States, it's the equivalent of a continent that would go from Madrid to Moscow, it's about the same distance between the East and West coasts. With also a gigantic diversity of cultures, traditions, past and history, even if this whole is united under the banner of the United States of America. But what do, for example, someone who lives in Alaska and someone who lives in Florida have in common? ? And that makes for a great diversity in literature and the way in which people have taken hold of language to leave a written trace and talk about their relationship to the world and to the community. That we don't think of it the same way in California as in the Midwest.

For you, who remains the greatest American writer ?

Jim Harrison, with whom I have worked the most. I am preparing a Quarto at Gallimard, which will be called Metamorphoses, around the female characters in his work. It should come out at the end of the year. There are new translations of his texts, and also unpublished works that I found at a university in Michigan that manages its literary collection. He was a great friend and I am still sad about his passing in 2016. I miss his voice, his presence and his generosity.

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