Alain Fleischer on Writing, Dictation, and the Ghost of Sándor F.

In a 2009 interview with artpress, Alain Fleischer discusses his recent publications, including the novel Courts-circuits (Le Cherche Midi), the autobiographical fiction Moi, Sándor F. (Fayard), and the essay collection Les Laboratoires du temps. L'empreinte et le tremblement (Le Cherche Midi). Fleischer reveals his unique method of dictating all his books to his partner Danielle, working without notes or plans, and only seeing the text at the end of each day. He explains that he rewrote Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice to expose its antisemitic content, adding a new character, Shylock's nephew. In Moi, Sándor F., he reconstructs the life of his uncle Sándor F., who died in 1944 on a train to Auschwitz, blending memory and imagination. Fleischer also addresses recurring themes in his work: the fundamentally pornographic nature of photography, the centrality of female sexuality, and the defense of prostitution. He describes how characters in Courts-circuits appear at moments of life change, and how the novel's sexual scenes are unplanned but necessary for his writing. He also recounts his experience filming Jean-Luc Godard, remaining silent while Godard spoke, and plans to respond to Godard's controversial remarks about Palestinian suicide bombers and Jewish victims of the Holocaust in a future text titled Réponse du muet au parlant.