Who is Roland Michel Tremblay Roland Michel Tremblay Bienvenue! • Who is Roland Michel Tremblay? French-Canadian born in 1972 in Québec city now living in London UK since 1995 – Masters Degree in French Literature from the University of London (Birkbeck College) – I have also studied for one year at la Sorbonne in Paris and I have finished a BA Language and Philosophy at the University of Ottawa in Canada. I also have a college diploma in Sciences from the College of Jonquière in Québec. Author of many books, 4 are published in French in Paris by iDLivre publisher – In the past few years I have been leading two professional lives in parallel. The first one is in the world of Conferences in Telecoms and IT where I have been writing and managing major European events. My second life has been and still is the one of an author and technical adviser writing novels, essays, poetry, television scripts and now big American films. The books are: Eclecticism (Philosophical Essay), Waiting for Paris (Novel), Denfert-Rochereau (Novel) and The Anarchist (Poetry). They are distributed in France, apparently they are the most popular of the publishing company and are also distributed in Belgium, Switzerland, Canada, Africa and Middle-East. Science Consultant/Technical Adviser/Writer for films and TV – The television series Black Hole High that I worked on is now being broadcast on the NBC network all over America and on ITV all over the United Kingdom. www.crownedanarchist.com www.themarginal.com 1 French Canadian author published in Paris Roland Michel Tremblay Roland Michel Tremblay French Canadian author published in Paris I have to say that Québec is not known for having produced many intellectual authors and that might explain why its literature stays very local. Philosophy is virtually non-existent and metaphysic is lost on the readers. I am that sort of author who loves metaphysic and complicated books, that do not give all the answers to the reader and ask from the readers a certain investment. My first books were so difficult to understand that it was hard for me to find anyone around willing to read them. “The Revolution” is still a mystery to most and my guess is that if it were to be studied in a University, it would become a very interesting book as there are a lot of different interpretations at many levels and is not necessarily taking a point of view. Even referents are not present, the reader never really know what is talked about in the book. For this reason it has been very difficult for me to find a publisher in Québec, they simply did not have the market for this sort of books. Only a French publisher could publish me, and even “The Revolution” did not find a publisher in France. I was lucky the “Eclecticism” was published but I have to say that it is my least popular book, even though I feel it is my best work. In time I started to write simpler books like “Denfert-Rochereau” and “The Anarchist”. The scandalous value of “The Anarchist” was enough to get me published and it is the book that opened me the doors of my publisher in Paris. It has also been the most popular book that my publisher printed. “Waiting for Paris” has only one level of comprehension as it is my diary turned into a novel (as many authors do without admitting it). I have to say that the uncut original version that contains 650 more pages than the published version is the most popular page on my website. The diary is more interesting than the novel. Now let’s talk about these books individually. www.crownedanarchist.com www.themarginal.com 2 Early work – Short Stories Roland Michel Tremblay Early work – Short Stories • • • Since I was 10 years old I have been writing books, science reports and articles. Over the years I have written 16 books that I feel could be published. In order to present this huge amount of work - accomplished in parallel to work and studies - I have built from scratch four very popular websites. You will notice that the French websites are much more developed than the English ones. Note: despite the title I am not an Anarchist nor I have any link with any anarchist organization. This is about writing a different literature. The Crowned Anarchist is a book about a Roman king from the late French writer Antonin Artaud. Vortex • La Chanson de Roland Michel (The Song of Roland Michel) • Vortex was my first book ever written when I was 14-15 years old. It was science fiction, a book that you are the hero and need to follow the numbers of the paragraphs and choose the story you prefer as a reader. At one point you went into a vortex or wormhole and found yourself on the other side of the galaxy. Funny enough, today I have been working on that very topic a lot for TV and Films. The book is now lost. My literary adventure started with a pastiche of the Song of Roland, the first ever French book known to exist with a medieval flavor, and was called the Song of Roland Michel. This first book was about my own existential crisis (recurring topic in all my work) and the construction of a phantasmagoric and marvelous universe characteristic of the problems connected to childhood. I thought I lost every copies of this book but I recently found one remaining copy in Ottawa. Verts et Vers les Champs (Green and Towards the Fields) The Voice of the Truth is composed of three parts. The first, Through The Green Fields, is characterized by short stories concerning truth and liberty. It was inspired by the style of Tristan and Iseut, the modern translation by Joseph Bédier. The second part is named Letters of R.M. and discusses the difficulty in accepting learned values. Finally, the third part, The Voice of the Truth, is the Four Pillars that symbolize the voice of the authority, a truth that listeners will hear, interpret, then will forget. Nevertheless, this divided truth will become the essence of all society. General comments: I was very close to my first books. They meant the world to me, they were my own new universe I created for myself. I kept reading them over and over again and could recite them by heart. I thought they were the best things ever written and I was also convinced that they were going to be published within a month of being finished. Of course, they are still unpublished. I was 17 years old and would have certainly committed suicide if I had known at the time that they would never be published and that I would never become a respected author. www.crownedanarchist.com www.themarginal.com 3 Theater - Plays Roland Michel Tremblay Theater • Antoine/Antonia Through its poetry and its musical parts, this play exists in two versions: Antoine and Antonia. The first version redefines the traditional family in a religious way in an incarnate drama by a cast that seems dead in appearance while they ask only to live. This represents the way some marginal people live. Antonia is a rather light and comic adaptation of Antoine. The play is very atmospheric and uses lightning, music resembling the CD Songs of Faith and Devotion of Depeche Mode and also a film of the ghost village of Val-Jalbert in the background showing mysterious images of death and desperation. • La Légende de Val-Jalbert (The Legend of Val-Jalbert) My plays are inspired by an abandoned village around St. John's Lake in Quebec. The Legend of Val-Jalbert is an historical reconstitution of a ghost village. A true haunted village legend is then posed, a young couple dies in a cavern and comes back to haunt the village. This legend actualizes the closing down of one factory of the past to the closing down of all the industries based in the region of Saguenay-St. John's Lake of today. The play was going to be done at the village and the cast were going to be the people working in the restaurant, on which the personalities of the characters were based on. Unfortunately the company running the restaurant lost its contract and the play was never made. www.crownedanarchist.com www.themarginal.com 4 Philosophical Essays – Revolution-Eclecticism Roland Michel Tremblay The Philosophical Essays La Révolution • The Revolution, by its poetical prose, shows the progress of René in his love and social success that will take him to a larger finality: the discovery of the end of the ocean. He abandons therefore his fellows to embark on the ocean to the discovery of his finality. He emits hypotheses on the Universe, but ignores even the circularity of the Earth. Nevertheless he will discover the end of the ocean by his own alienation. He is then capable of creating his own insular universe, to make the revolution, to become a God and establish his new humanity. The Revolution shows how, as humans, we try to develop a huge philosophy without being able to see what the Universe is really about. L’Éclectisme • • (The Revolution) Essay (Eclecticism) Essay The Eclecticism is a philosophical essay that follows no program or precise plan. One learns there to reconsider the universe in its entirety until the points of reference exist no more. It is an absolute questioning of everything, where time, space and thought interact to create a world of ideas more real than the daily life. With for creation our own imagination, each of us is the God of his/her own universe. We can control it as long as we learn to become more aware of it. The Eclecticism was born out of a saturation of everything. It was written in London and partly in Dublin. The London life is described, the life in the sales of whisky from Scotland to Ireland. The book is also about the madness of this world. The subject is that of a voyage in the universe and in one’s brain. An absolute assessment of all philosophies and currents of thoughts which the planet carried since the last millennia. An assessment to celebrate the new philosophy of the next millennium: The Eclecticism. The Eclecticism is the death of ideas, concepts, philosophies, science, religions, policies, the death of all and nothing. www.crownedanarchist.com www.themarginal.com 5 Denfert-Rochereau (Novel) Roland Michel Tremblay Denfert-Rochereau • • • • • (Novel) Denfert-Rochereau is a novel that tells the story of a Paris in destruction by the war in parallel of the end of three villages of the Saguenay-St. John Lake in Québec. A young man enclosed in the catacombs of Paris attempt to reach the plenitude by the discovery of God. While he knows that he is going to die soon, he lives nevertheless a rebirth that coincides with the birth of some villages very far from him. But some people will make him believe that above Paris is on fire, thus its visions will relate to the destruction of villages of ValJalbert (desertion), St. Jean Vianney (unstable land) and St. Cyriac (flood). It is through the history of his ancestors that the young man will understand the multiple segregations that form in collectivities, small secret societies of knowledge that no one can easily penetrate. Like for example universities, professional associations, religious movements, philosophy, politics, justice and even cooking. The novel shows that the initiation is never happening without losing some liberties and a loss of identity. It is a Novel of initiation, at the limit of the esoteric plane that describes the universe of a religious sect by demonstrating that the society in general is functioning on the same principles. The religious sects. How are we attracted to them? Why do we remain there even in the most gregarious conditions? Why do we put our life into question even when we have heard all the horror stories? A mystical philosophy, a hidden knowledge attracts us and keeps us there. René is locked up underground at DenfertRochereau. What is he doing there? He tries to reach inner peace by the discovery of God. He hears the words of the Master, he will be initiated to the hidden world, a mystical philosophy that only the initiates know about. His doubts, his misery, his hopes, are just the beginning of his training. Novel of initiation in the style of Virgile’s Eneide and Homer’s Odyssey. Denfert-Rochereau was written while I was studying in Paris and exploring the tunnels leading to the catacombs under Montsouris Park. This is where I got the idea for the novel. It was my first real novel or normal type of book. It was painful to write near the end as it did not come from the heart, I was forcing myself to write it. It did work and I am very proud of the book, but it was not something poetic that I could read 100 times and recite by heart. I was born to write, but to write what I really feel is right. Writing for me is a need and it is only great when it comes naturally. All my previous books until Denfert-Rochereau came to me naturally and writing them was no effort. I did discover new things though with the novel: I could still pass along philosophies and ideas via my characters and the situations. Moreover, I did not need to endorse these opinions even though I could defend and attack at the same time many important themes and points of view. www.crownedanarchist.com www.themarginal.com 6 The Anarchist (Black Poetry) Roland Michel Tremblay L’Anarchiste • • • (The Anarchist) Black Poetry Black poetry, if we can define The Anarchist like that. Scandalous book, comic in certain parts, that resumes the traditional speech of the No Future without sinking nevertheless in the dullness. Can we still move masses? Can we again motivate a generation to accomplish some concrete things? Can we still scandalize people and create a legend? If it is necessary to describe a generation, we should not go there through several different paths, it is necessary to aim at the target. What is anarchic in fact is perhaps only the common reality to all. Otherwise, it is where the anarchy begins. I tried to be scandalous with that book, probably in order to be published and it worked. It still came from the heart though, I really felt the need to write it. In all it is a big denunciation of many things, mostly of a way of life even if it is not necessarily about capitalism. The thing is, it is very difficult to be scandalous today because everything has already been done and it takes a lot to scandalize people. I guess an old grand-ma could still be offended by everything, but even the grand-mothers who read the Anarchist deeply appreciated it. I did get a lot of insults via emails though, more about The Eclecticism than the Anarchist because it was said it was inspiring people to commit suicide. It is true that death and existential crisis are very central to my work. Some people were disgusted by the Anarchist and have thrown it in the bin. So it is still possible to command a reaction from the reader. To get them out of their mind to act out of rage and spontaneity. Most truly appreciated The Anarchist and saw in it something new, something that has never been done before. The question is: is it poetry? I called it black poetry with a question mark at the end. The Anarchist is my only book that has been translated in English. My friend Sheila MacLeod just finished the translation and I have put it online on my website less than two weeks ago. I am supposed to send it to an agent in London but I did not have the chance to read it one last time yet. Something positive can be said about translations, sometimes it can be better than the original. Sheila MacLeod is a well known Scottish author who won many awards especially the New York Times Book of the Year award for her book The Art of Starvation. Her British English is impeccable and gave to The Anarchist a credibility that I could not find in the French version. It now sounds like a great British work of art. www.crownedanarchist.com www.themarginal.com 7 Waiting for Paris/Underground (Novel) Roland Michel Tremblay Diary turned into a novel • L’Attente de Paris Waiting for Paris is the fictionalized traditional version of the Underground. The novel is to the third person singular and presents a young man fond of two women. Between Ottawa, Paris and New York, he has to make choices and to attempt to realize his dreams. Our hero lives only for Paris and will finally be parachuted directly between the walls of the Sorbonne in Paris. However the cultural shock is very big. The dreams are so simple, an ideal which did not suspect the obstacles and the bureaucracy of the governments and the universities. But that builds beautiful stories, especially when emotion, irony and the sarcastic remarks are on the menu. Waiting for Paris was written in an honest and direct style, it is the most accessible book of the author. Only one level of interpretation (almost) and sometimes surprisingly funny. An instantaneous book written before and after the departure of the author for Paris. • Underground • (Waiting for Paris, Novel) (Diary) Underground is mostly the life of the author, but very amplified. It concerns a young student who finishes his studies at the University of Ottawa and who dreams of Paris and New York. He will attempt to benefit from the social security services after a summer job that proved disastrous, finally he will find himself in Paris continuing his studies. The interest of the book is in the style in which it is written. General Comments Underground created quite a sensation in Paris when I was writing this 1000 pages book instead of working on my Masters degree at la Sorbonne. I would go in Le Jardin du Luxembourg every day, panicking because I was not in class or studying, then I would write for hours all my suffering and existential crisis. The whole House of Canadian Students where I was living was reading bits and pieces of it on certain nights. My fellow students also took a great interest in it, they even presented me to great publishers like Gallimard and Le Seuil which of course did not publish me. For the first time I felt admired, I was considered like a real author and it was an incredible feeling. In Paris everyone wants to write a book before they are 30 and soon realizes that it is quite difficult if not impossible. So they truly admire someone who can write so many books. It was a dream come true even though I was far from being published. It is also the time that I met the great author Anne Hébert, so Paris was magical. www.crownedanarchist.com www.themarginal.com 8 Diaries that will become novels Roland Michel Tremblay Other diaries that will become novels • Mind the Gap and No Way Out Second and Third parts of the trilogy of autobiographical fictionalized novel. This time it is the universe of Toronto, New York, London and Brussels that is depicted. Adventures of a youth in the bars, pubs, clubs, within different relationships and the alcohol. The idea is to create the myth of the miserable and poor author in a handwriting that grips. Emotions, sensitivity, philosophy of life, everything is there, the author can die at the end of his work. • Les Éléments Urbains Londoniens (London Urban Elements) & Old Street The meaning of London urban life considered in parallel of the life in the countryside in France, especially along the Canal du Midi. The book also tells the adventures of the author while travelling throughout Europe because of his conferences: Barcelona, Paris, Amsterdam, Cannes, Rome and Geneva. Is there a meaning to this existence and the life we have built as for ourselves as a society? • General comments Diaries are always refused by publishers who never read them anyway unless you are a political figure or a celebrity. Too many people writes a diary and feels it is good enough to be published, of course it is not and would never sell. So the trick for me was to live a life so interesting that the diary would become as good as a novel. I also needed to write it with a style sufficiently interesting and funny that publishers would want to publish it. It was not easy and many sacrifices had to be done in order for this to come true. I abandoned my studies in Ottawa (Law) and Paris (Literature), I moved to Europe, I made huge life decisions like moving to New York in split seconds and never regretted it. You are either someone who will reach its goals and will sacrifice everything for them, or you are not and might succeed at being a good lawyer without ever making your dreams come true. I want to die and be proud of my achievements, not sad that I have not fulfill my dreams. So I am continuing my life as a crazy man and I am writing it all down for posterity. Of course, writing a diary is also therapeutic, it is a way to understand myself and to help me to make decisions about my future. www.crownedanarchist.com www.themarginal.com 9 Science Fiction Novels and Theories Roland Michel Tremblay Sci-Fi • General comments Now I only live for science fiction and Theoretical Physics, as if these were the answer to my existential crisis. I need to find out what is the universe and to understand the purpose of human kind in this universe. I believe that philosophy leads to theoretical physics and the opposite is also true. I have been working hard on understanding the universe we live in and why we exist, I am not certain if I am any close to the truth. • The Box (Novel in French) Novel with an anti-hero who accomplishes himself in the universe of drugs, sex and clubs of London. The complete story of the immorality is passing by. Back rooms of bars, sexual abuse, exploitation, the grip without mercy of a rich owner of a café called The Box located on the Seven Dials at Covent Garden. A sad demonstration of human limits, but equally the creation of a modern boiling London. A generation without future that lives without God, without pity, drugged to full capacity for days without seeing their own existence. The day of the awakening is death. Until, at least, Raymond becomes schizophrenic and alienated. That makes it possible for him to transpose his mind to another corresponding life in a parallel universe (so he thinks anyway). Therefore Raymond is finding himself in a situation where he can change his universe, but he will have to learn to change his own personality if he wants to maintain together the different elements of his existence. • The Relative Universe (Novel in English) A group of scientists sends a ship with its crew into the very small, reaching the very large on the other side of the galaxy. This is the implications and the applications of the Shrinking Theory and Universal Relativity. What will it change? What can be invented considering the theory? Travel in time and very far from here. I am thinking about changing it into a film script instead of finishing the novel. • Aux Infinis de l’Univers (Essay in French) An essay about the infinities of the Universe, also considering the implications of the theories I have developed. Déjà vu, time paradoxes, timelines, free will, etc. • Universal Relativity/Shrinking Theory (Essay in English) New theory of the Universe. How Einstein's Theory of General Relativity, Quantum Mechanics and the Superstring Theory can change the Universe conceptualized by Einstein and Newton. Going faster than the speed of light, shrinking instead of covering a distance, the configuration of the universe being relative to the point of view. www.crownedanarchist.com www.themarginal.com 10 Sci-Fi TV Series and Films Roland Michel Tremblay Sci-Fi TV Series and Films • Black Hole High (Strange Days at Blake Holsey High) (Series on NBC, Discovery Network, Fireworks Entertainment) Finally the breakthrough. My theories attracted the attention of a famous Executive Producer in Hollywood and I started to work on a big series. As a Science Consultant and Technical Adviser, I almost became a Story Editor and many of my ideas made it to the scripts, sometimes whole episodes are my own suggestions. I worked very hard and presented many scripts ideas that might be made and written by me if a second season is confirmed. Reports can be read online: www.crownedanarchist.com/scifi.htm Other related URLs: http://familyscreenscene.allinfoabout.com/tv/blackhole.html www.nbc.com/nbc/Discovery_Kids_on_NBC http://kids.discovery.com/fansites/bhhigh/bhhigh.html • Prometheus Rising (Hollywood Film) (Nov 2002 to Jan 2003) Then it happened again, giving me hope for the future. A science fiction author working on a big script contacted me and together we developed the whole science underlying the story and a lot of the story itself. I was the technical adviser to a big budget sci-fi film called Prometheus Rising. It will come out next year in LA. My report online: www.crownedanarchist.com/paralleluniverses.htm • First Planet (April 2002 to October 2002) (TV series in progress) The Executive Producers asked me to pitch ideas for new series and films so now I am working at developing ideas that could make it to the big screen. The story behind my first idea: "Our existence is due to a temporal paradox and the destruction of an entire galaxy, and our future depends on the survival of many side scales universes.” www.crownedanarchist.com/firstplanet.htm www.crownedanarchist.com www.themarginal.com 11 How to contact me Roland Michel Tremblay Fin • Where to find me on the Internet? www.crownedanarchist.com (French and English) www.themarginal.com (French and English) www.idlivre.com/rolandmichel.tremblay (in French only) • How to contact me? 44E The Grove, Isleworth, Middlesex, London, TW7 4JF, United Kingdom rm@crownedanarchist.com Tel/Fax: +44 (0)20 8847 5586 www.crownedanarchist.com www.themarginal.com 12