Frictions

Michel Tournier

pp. 329-330

in: Nordal Åkerman (ed), The necessity of friction, Heidelberg, Physica, 1993

Abstract

I will reveal to you the secret of the surprising and admirable literary inventions which have made my international reputation. It all began one fine morning in April when, at daybreak, I was writing — or attempting to write — on the love life of a young man whom I named Hector for want of a better name. Yes, for want of a better name, for the names I choose for my characters hold great importance for me and this "Hector" clothed the boy with whose emotional life I was preoccupied rather badly. I saw him flitting between a number of demoiselles without being able to decide on any one of them. Besides, they were not so gullible, the demoiselles, something in him told them that they could not expect anything seriously of him and they treated him without involvement. I had got to that point in my story and I was scratching my head to come up with a means, a way, a feint which would allow me to deepen him, give him a superior dimension, make him superhuman, universal. Instinctively, I bent my researches in the direction of mythology. Mythology is a resource which rarely disappoints.